Context is Queen
or How to be Significant
This morning I passed a man halfway between an open moving van and an open front door with a replica of Van Gogh’s Starry Night wedged under his arm.
I spent a brief moment wondering if that was really the best way to transport that poor piece of stretched canvas, and then a thought crossed my mind–who’s to say that wasn’t the real Van Gogh? On this very busy intersection, I could be witnessing the perfect crime in broad daylight. Dozens of drivers were zipping past without so much as a second glance.
No one is looking for a Van Gogh in someone’s armpit.
As much as we love to appreciate a good masterpiece, we want to be told it’s a masterpiece first. Hanging up in a major museum is a good indicator that it is; hanging out around a major intersection is a pretty good indication it’s not. So we simply don’t bother to notice it.
Missing the Meaningful
In 2007 the Washington Post did a beautiful stunt piece with Joshua Bell, the concert violinist, masquerading as a street musician at the DC Metro. Without the hushed reverie and plush velvet seats of a concert hall, over 1,000 commuters passed by without stopping to notice and appreciate “..one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.”
Here in the San Francisco tech scene, that reverie is the name of your company and the plush seats are your title. Your university is the expensive ticket that lets people know that you are valuable and your major is the esteemed instrument that people know to respect. Everyone from strangers at meetups to recruiters at tech giants, they’re all looking for contextual clues that you matter, that you are worth their time.
But there’s always a hack.
If you didn’t go to a coveted university, or get the right kind of degree, or spend time wearing the right corporate badge, but still don’t want to be dismissed out of hand, follow these three steps:
1. Create your own context
Get yourself on the other side of the fence. Have a meetup that you really enjoy? Find a way to get involved. Heck, organize your own meetup! Take leadership roles wherever you can. Get to events early and see if you can help set up chairs. Do what you can to be helpful and get involved wherever you are.
2. Don’t introduce yourself
If people write you off once they learn what your background is, then don’t tell them! At least not at first. Start conversations with questions and move quickly into a value-add position before you give them them any information about yourself. Get to know what they’re working on and try to provide some valuable insight, resource or suggestion before you say anything about who you are or what you do. This jars the “context filters” of most people and you can break through to meaningful conversations.
3. Be confident
And don’t fake it! One of the best ways to develop confidence in a field is to learn everything you can. Read voraciously about your industry and think critically about what you read. When you see or hear something that is unfamiliar, look it up and learn to speak eloquently about it. The more comfortable you are with the subject matter, the more confident you will be.
Trust me, it works
Follow that template to find your way into meaningful conversations and become an active contributor. Before you know it, people won’t look right through you. Take it from a super blonde, vivacious woman with an art history degree.
Interested in joining some meaningful conversations around product management? Come to a PM Breakfast in San Francisco. Join the mailing list to find out about the next one (only requirement is that you are a product manager, not open to recruiters).
