Week 4: When Things Break
This week humbled me.
The systems I built—the ones I thought were working—ran into real problems. A data quality check revealed logic breaks and inconsistent rules that I hadn't caught earlier. Nothing collapsed, but it became clear that if I kept going without fixing these issues, the underlying database wouldn't hold up over time. The durability I've been aiming for? It wasn't there yet.
So I stopped. Stepped back. And started over.
What went well? Honestly, not much this week in terms of forward progress. But what went right was catching the problems now rather than later. The data quality check did its job. I identified where the logic was breaking: sourcing inconsistencies between local files, compatibility issues with Excel on a Mac (which matters more than I'd realized for how staff actually work), and the reality that Just Neighbors' county requirements don't just vary—they change. Frequently. My initial design hadn't accounted for that level of flux.
What could have been done differently? I should have anticipated future stages earlier. I was so focused on building for the present that I didn't pressure-test the system against the changes I know are coming. The county reporting criteria will shift. The data sources will never be perfectly clean. A Mac will always handle Excel differently. I designed for an ideal version of reality, not the actual one. Next time, I'll build for the mess from day one.
What did I learn about myself when working with others? I learned that I don't love admitting when something isn't working. My instinct is to fix it quietly, alone, and present a solution only when it's clean again. But that's not how collaboration works. This week forced me to be transparent about the setback while keeping the tone steady—no panic, just "here's what we found and here's how we're addressing it." It was uncomfortable, but it felt like the right way to build trust.
What did I learn about leadership? Leadership is resilience. Not the inspirational kind—the mundane kind. The ability to face the downs as they're happening, communicate clearly without causing anxiety, and keep showing up to do the tedious work of fixing what broke. This week didn't look like leadership from the outside. It looked like debugging. But staying steady through that, for the team's sake as much as the project's, mattered.
Next week, I want to resume the documentation and insight reporting that got paused. The infrastructure is being redesigned with clearer lessons in place: source locally, accommodate real-world software constraints, and build flexibility into how county requirements are structured. The goal is still the same—systems that last—but now I have a better sense of what "lasting" actually demands.