Jun 20
Stardate S03E14
Mood: š. Facing my insecurities and trying to turn them into positive action.
š¹ What am I grateful for this week?
The week got off to a great start as I helped facilitate a process mapping session for our people team. Managed to get critical mass in the office and use the whiteboard again! š® As much as I like Miro, you still canāt beat the immediacy of sticky notes and markers on a wall, at least in 2022.
Tuesday wasnāt quite critical mass with the delivery leads, but I enjoyed our lunch party of 4 all the same. And I surprised myself at an evening mixer where I swallowed my introversion and managed to work the room, meet a couple new folks and enjoy some apps on a nice airy balcony in Farringdon with the setting sun. I guess you could say letting myself indulge in an oversized fish & chips on Friday was my reward. š¤
šµ What do I wish could have gone differently?
That write-up I wanted to circulate? Sharing is going a bit slower than Iād like. Probably itās a sign that I overinvested in the first draft, and shouldāve shipped it sooner and in rougher shape so I wouldnāt wince if it received loads of critical feedback. We also know that polished products tend to get less candid feedback from their users.
Allergies are a funny thing to add here, but I wouldāve loved to have been a bit more sociable with the leadership team on Wednesday after our all-hands. Just couldnāt handle all the pollen in the air!
š” What do I need to remember?
Lately Iāve been coming out of my shell with this issue I feel around product ācredibilityā ā whether Iāve been away from the discipline and an IC PM role too long to be viable for product leadership. The few folks Iāve been able to speak to about it have been really encouraging; I suspect if they were in my shoes, Iād be able to see their situation more objectively and give them similar guidance. But thatās easier said than done.
A couple years back I wrote a bit about confronting impostor syndrome, and re-reading it now, I see how my credibility issue is a manifestation of that same feeling. As if I need to be superhuman, and prove myself all over again, to be taken seriously by product practitioners. Better would be if I embraced the idea of always being a work in progress, and linking being an impostor with the growth mindset. I can still learn, improve, and practice the craft without a perfectly aligned title.
Feeling like an impostor could mean that youāre growing, stretching, and trying new things.
š What did I discover?
Must be from all the wayfaring Iām doing in product land right now that Iām reading so many articles around product career paths. But this one is the real deal, and Iām sure Iāll be back to re-read Gibsonās guidance many times over.
Another interesting set of career lessons here, and I can definitely relate to the ones around manager value, boundary negotiation, and not wanting to look stupid. š
This post includes probably the best deconstruction of PM āextrasā that Iāve come across in quite a while. A great case for why PMs need a strong team and support system around them, lest they try to spin all these plates solo!
I guess I donāt need to read The Mom Test anymore according to this article? The quick and dirty version is:
Frame your product in just a sentence or a few words, and connect it directly to āhow and why someone would use it.ā Itās an elevator pitch, but hyperfocused on the benefit to your customers.
Havenāt come across the idea of āburnout burnoutā before ā but itās easy to see why we need to acknowledge the hidden burden of genuine empathy, and consider what to do about it.
š AOB
Today (the 20th) marks my 6 year anniversary at Red Badger! š Itās been quite the ride since arriving in London: from our Originations program at the bank, through to the creation of cells ā and roaming between C, A, BC and D ā running the FutureNHS team, figuring out a repeatable process for product strategy, getting Mission Beyond off the ground, getting comfortable with the sales cycle. Iāve learned loads in the process, and experienced a lot of growth as a result.
Only wish I had more of these weeknotes to look further back on. How was I approaching my work and my career in 2016? What was I struggling with the most? Where would I have weighed in on product vs. delivery? I can take a few guessesā¦ perhaps I should set aside the time to write down my guesses before even more fog settles into my memory.
