©2025, Anjali Roy
©2025, Anjali Roy
Influence Compass
Academic
Context
MGTA 459 — Managerial Judgment and Decision Making — is a course offered at Rady School of Management, UCSD about how people make decisions and how those decisions can be shaped, improved, and influenced. The first half of the course focuses on how we think: how we handle uncertainty, risk, biases, and group dynamics. The second half shifts to how we act: persuasion, networks, coalitions, and the tools that help us create change inside teams and organizations.
The Final Deliverable
For the final project, we were asked to build something we’d actually use as a practical tool for our future selves. The idea was simple: take the influence concepts that matter most, personalize them, and turn them into a reference you can come back to when you need it. Essentially, a cheat-sheet for real life - something that helps us think clearly, make decisions intentionally, and apply influence deliberately.
My Project
Project Link: https://influence-compass.anjaliroy.com/
I decided to build Influence Compass, a small, interactive system I can rely on whenever I’m dealing with a difficult decision or a complicated person. Instead of listing theories, I built a structure that starts with diagnosing the situation and ends with specific actions I can take.
The tool asks three simple questions:
What is the emotional state of the other person?
What is blocking progress right now?
What type of decision or situation am I facing?
Based on these inputs, the site returns a tailored set of influence tactics — along with when to use them, how they work, and what to avoid. It also offers guidance on next steps, potential pitfalls, and how to adjust depending on the dynamics in play.
Context
MGTA 459 — Managerial Judgment and Decision Making — is a course offered at Rady School of Management, UCSD about how people make decisions and how those decisions can be shaped, improved, and influenced. The first half of the course focuses on how we think: how we handle uncertainty, risk, biases, and group dynamics. The second half shifts to how we act: persuasion, networks, coalitions, and the tools that help us create change inside teams and organizations.
The Final Deliverable
For the final project, we were asked to build something we’d actually use as a practical tool for our future selves. The idea was simple: take the influence concepts that matter most, personalize them, and turn them into a reference you can come back to when you need it. Essentially, a cheat-sheet for real life - something that helps us think clearly, make decisions intentionally, and apply influence deliberately.
My Project
Project Link: https://influence-compass.anjaliroy.com/
I decided to build Influence Compass, a small, interactive system I can rely on whenever I’m dealing with a difficult decision or a complicated person. Instead of listing theories, I built a structure that starts with diagnosing the situation and ends with specific actions I can take.
The tool asks three simple questions:
What is the emotional state of the other person?
What is blocking progress right now?
What type of decision or situation am I facing?
Based on these inputs, the site returns a tailored set of influence tactics — along with when to use them, how they work, and what to avoid. It also offers guidance on next steps, potential pitfalls, and how to adjust depending on the dynamics in play.