May 2
Stardate S03E09
Mood: ✌️. Putting in the work, and trusting in where it’ll lead us.
🌹 What am I grateful for this week?
Made great progress last week on a framework to answer the tough questions: “what else do I have to do?” and “how long will it take?”
You see, those questions have been stewing for ages without a conclusion, and rightly so, we’re getting called out for not having nailed the path to principal in our discipline. Facing those tough questions head on, rather than deferring to today’s capability matrix, meant we needed to make some choices. And a bit of courage — to move faster than other workstreams, to potentially get it wrong. But in this instance, I think it’s the right call.
So we’re moving ahead with an assumption* that leading a program of work should not be a blocker; rather, it’s about depth and breadth of impact. Now we’re starting to gather feedback, work through the kinks, and build on what came before rather than try to displace it. I feel like we’re getting ever closer.
🌵 What do I wish could have gone differently?
Some days, I get a little down when it feels like we’re shouting into the void. No follow-ups, no meeting reschedules, canned responses that ignore what you previously sent. Why don’t they seem to take it seriously? Is this just how businesses work in the modern era?
Other days, I try to have good humor about it. Everyone’s busy. Everyone’s context switching. I don’t always reply to thoughtless LinkedIn requests either. We could all stand to do a bit better, or be a bit more charitable in our interpretations. Even if it’s not the easy thing to do — it’s the kind thing.
💡 What do I need to remember?
What do all high performers have in common? Despite differences in pace, methodology, etc. they’re effective at getting what needs to be done, done. Key word here is effective — and I love Seth’s take on this — always ship, yes, but only your best work, when it’s ready (not after).
I was thinking about this in light of my continued interest in product management, and the distance I sometimes feel in my role as a delivery discipline leader. It hasn’t stopped me from rolling up my sleeves in product work at Red Badger, and doing my best to be effective there. But I think I’ve got a limiting belief somewhere in my subconscious that I’ve not earned the right.** Or that in doing so, I’m treading on toes, and what people aren’t telling me is I should stay in my lane.
The thing is, whether or not that’s even true, I’ve only sense checked it within the (virtual) walls of my own organization. I don’t know if that’s at all representative of other organizations. If it were a product question we were grappling with, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions without doing the customer research. We had this sort of tunnel vision back when I was at Microsoft, and there was a Microsoft Way of getting things done.*** But there’s so many more high performers out there, so many more success stories. The world is a big place.
Don’t let your current company’s lens blind you to the wider world. If it doubt, do the research.
📚 What did I discover?
Do you ever try to sit with too many complementary frameworks at once, have it all turn into goo in your head, and then want to rewind back to basics? Here’s a great one on cross-team planning — and to boot, it’s a double diamond sliced in half! Likely pairs best with a clear strategy framework.
Found this great article off of Jo’s weeknotes about how to re-energize a slowing community. In short: don’t try to inject energy from the top, congregate the community and have individual members bring fresh ideas to the table, with a remit to own the implementation of the proposed solutions.
🏠 AOB
Haters gonna hate, but I think leaving good voice notes is a bit of a lost art. Do we not bemoan the lack of human connection in modern society? Sometimes it’s nice to hear someone’s actual voice, rather than being relentlessly focused on message searchability and productivity.
Had a couple of those to enjoy on my Wednesday evening flight returning from Geneva. On my way back to the flat, I felt a warm nostalgia riding across London Bridge at night. The city skyline is so lovely on a clear evening.
Seems London missed me too — it ended up being a social Friday and Saturday, with plenty of sunshine to enjoy. But I also enjoyed having an introspective bank holiday today, taking care of some overdue life admin and having more time and headspace to write. Our next delivery away day is also nearly here, on Wednesday! It’s shaping up to be a great week ahead.
*Learned a nice tidbit about mapping these in context from Simon last week:
**I recently re-read my 2013 PM interview and it’s quite dated in many ways. Sure, I started out in PM in a pre-agile, spec-writing world — but does that make me unqualified to do it now? Engineers encounter this all the time with changes in platforms, languages, or architecture and they just keep current and keep delivering results. I feel I can say the same, so why do I still feel I’ve not earned the right just because I’m in management now?
***Or worse, that your calibration during stack ranking was a reflection of your worth on the open market. Dangerous equivalency for a young PM to make. But they didn’t try and stop you from making it (relevant: this bit about terrible managers).
