Designing Varied and Meaningful Intern Work

How do I design meaningful work for my intern?

A motivated intern is one who understands how their daily tasks contribute to the big picture. Balancing routine work with skill-building projects doesn't just help the intern. It also ensures you get a higher quality of output and more consistent contribution to your team goals.

Diagnosing the Issue

Start by clarifying what the intern is experiencing:

• Do they feel they don’t have enough work, or that tasks feel too repetitive?
• Were there onboarding delays or resource gaps that reduced task flow?
• Is the original Internship Project Plan still relevant and up to date?

Understanding the root cause helps you adjust the workload effectively.

Why It Happens

Task limitations often stem from:

• Narrow role scopes or repetitive operational needs
• Uncertainty about what interns can handle remotely
• Limited time to design new tasks
• Reliance on observation instead of hands-on contributions

These are common challenges and can be addressed with simple structuring.

How can I add variety without adding to my own workload?

• Create a small task bank: Keep 10–20 ready-to-assign tasks labeled by skill, time, and complexity.
• Share a simple roadmap: Outline what the intern will work on over the next 4–16 weeks.
• Blend task types: Combine routine tasks with one small weekly project or experiment.
• Use micro-projects: Assign 1–2 week projects with clear deliverables and a midpoint check-in.
• Introduce skill tracks: Map tasks to 2–3 skill areas and let interns choose a focus.
• Encourage active shadowing: Ask interns to produce notes, summaries, or improvement ideas during observations.
• Offer stretch tasks: Assign one slightly challenging task with clear checkpoints.
• Rotate exposure: Provide short experiences with different team members or functions.

Simple Frameworks for Assigning Work

To reduce back-and-forth questions, try using these two simple structures when assigning new work:

The Task Card (For Daily Work)

Title: [Task Name]

Objective: Why are we doing this?

Steps: 1, 2, 3...

Success Criteria: What does "done" look like? (e.g., "A 5-slide deck in our brand colours").

The Micro-Project (For Weekly Growth)

The Goal: A specific problem to solve over 1–2 weeks.

Check-ins: A quick 5-minute sync on Wednesday to unblock them.

The Output: A final deliverable they can be proud of.

What habits keep the momentum going?

• The Show & Tell: Once a week, ask your intern to spend 5 minutes showing you what they’ve been working on. It sparks new ideas and makes them feel seen.
• Iterate the Bank: Every two weeks, take 10 minutes to refresh your Task Bank. If a task has been sitting there for a month, it might not be necessary.
• Align with Interests: Ask your intern, "Which part of the business are you most curious about?" and try to find one small task in that area.