3 Days, 3 Events
In the last week, I have spoken at 3 different industry events, across 3 different disciplines, covering 3 distinct topics. This is a summary of those events and how it felt to be involved in them.
I want to kick this article off by admitting that, as an introvert, I generally don’t find public speaking all that easy. I’m sure many of you have also read Chris Anderson’s TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, and are comfortable with the theory but rather less comfortable with the practice!
In these larger settings, I’ve often received positive feedback about my presentations, which I’m grateful for, but I think it’s important to note that this is mostly down to preparation rather than any natural inclination. It’s not as natural or easy as it might seem to be. In fact, here’s a screen grab of Apple telling me just how uncomfortable it was standing up for the events I’m going to speak about below. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to dismiss this notification when I step onto a stage. I may well seem calm and collected on the outside, but I’m usually anything but on the inside!
CTO Craft Con — London 2024
Some of you might remember that I sat on a panel at CTO Craft Con — London 2023 on the topic of Instilling Harmony Between Product & Engineering Strategy. Having had such a great experience I agreed to sit on another panel this year.
It was a privilege to be back up on stage again with CTO Craft Con, this year discussing the topic of ‘Successful OKR Strategies to drive alignment and performance’ — alongside the fantastic fellow panellists: Julieta Suarez Ruiz de Huidobro, Aditi Agarkar & Aaron Rice. Having come up through more of a Product track, I don’t take it for granted when Technology professionals welcome me with open arms. It was a great community event, and once I was over the nerves the discussion itself was free-flowing. Though I’m fairly certain it will be made available online at CTO Craft in the coming weeks… so you can judge for yourself, if you weren’t in the room.
Here are some top tips on working with Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) from the discussion:
- OKRs are not a substitute for strategy, start with strategy and use OKRs as milestones that indicate direction
- Make OKRs a cross-organisational thing, not a Product/Tech thing if you want to drive real alignment and impact
- Differentiate between Stretch Key Results and High Integrity Commitments (the things that simply need to get done to enable something else); so many companies trip up on this one
- Include balancing metrics; don’t accidentally tank the core business in pursuit of new growth!
Here is a quick link to my other articles on OKRs if you’re interested in going deeper.
Collab UK: Product & Design with 3Search
I went directly from CTO Craft Con over to 3Search’s offices to moderate a panel discussion between Product Leaders and Design Leaders. This event was a great opportunity to come together as a focused community of senior Leaders to discuss how the two disciplines of Product Management & Design can successfully work together, learn from each other and maintain healthy tension rather than unhealthy conflict.
With hosts, Chess Jackson & Yasmin Vachet from 3Search, I moderated the panellists Michelle De Mott (ex-CPO of Bother & inbound Head of Product & Design at Not On The High Street), Louise Robertson (Associate Director of Product Design at The Financial Times) and Rich Linstead (Chief Product & Operating Officer at BCIS).
Together we discussed topics such as:
- The ideal versus the pragmatic reality when it comes to Product & Design collaboration within organisations of different sizes and at different stages of growth or maturity
- The Design career path and how it has evolved; it feels like it’s ebbed-and-flowed a little more than some other disciplines — going from singular roles, to several distinct disciplines, back to one role
- As leaders, how we balance the honest commercial reality while still inspiring teams, and how as Leaders we often have to bring the energy to keep teams moving forward
- Job security, some of the fear in the market at the moment, and how this has a knock-on on impact to risk appetite, broader organisational strategy and whether companies really realise or acknowledge this
React Advanced London Meet-Up
I confess, this one was much easier on me, all I had to do was provide an introduction and do a little networking. That said, it was also the one that I took the screengrab at the top of this article from… so let this serve as a reminder that appearances can be deceiving.
It was awesome to support the London Software Engineering community by hosting the React Advanced London 2024 meet-up. Which?’s had its very own speaker Moishi Netzer who provided an engaging talk that involved a bunch of (very brave) live coding — if only we could bottle this man’s enthusiasm and passion!
Thanks also to the other great speakers Ajinkya Chanshetty & David Kezi alongside Robert Haritonov from React Advanced London 2024 and the event sponsor Craig Mullen from Ncounter Technology Recruitment. Huge thanks to Which?’s Engineering team for hosting (Amit Vij, Sparky VanDyke, Christopher Williams, Ali Housley, and Alex Buzea), our event volunteers and everyone who joined this evening.
So, after 3 events in 3 days, I’m exhausted 😅. I’ve met some great people and stretched myself in terms of public speaking. Now it’s time to reflect, take inspiration from the others that I’ve heard from and put some of the great advice and guidance into action.
Check out more from my series of Product Management articles, Leadership articles or my practical guides on building and operating effective Product Engineering Squads.
All thoughts are my own.
