Doing things I have no business doing: A lesson from Mike D
I’m interested in trying to do things that I feel like I have no business doing. Because that was part of what we did as a band. We weren’t afraid to try shit.
Mike D
I’m not thinking about these couple of sentences because I happen to be listening to Check Your Head this morning or because I’ll listen to anything Mike D of the Beastie Boys might have to say. But ever since I lost the good portion of an afternoon to Mike’s interview in Vulture a few months back, these words have stuck with me.
Mike was mostly talking about his recent, post-Beasties work, but also looking back on their work as a band over all those years. Sadly, I’m not in a rap band, but when I look back at my own career in progress, I connect to the energy in his words. The sentiment is familiar.
In fact, moments when I have been overcome with the feeling I have no business doing this have been the most enjoyable in my career.
Sometimes it has come on a big scale, like switching careers entirely from education to a software startup, or the first time I became responsible for customer support, then scaling that support team from two people to thirty. The first time I wrote in-app copy, rolled out a new process, negotiated a contract, or — these days, having shifted my role again — anytime I’m doing anything in Figma feels that way. Owning a product? Don’t get me started.
I’m obscenely fortunate to work for a founder who has put his trust in my ability to succeed in new challenges — or to fail as gracefully as possible. Of course, part of startup work for anyone, especially in early stages, is stepping into work you haven’t mastered, whether because there are only five of you, or because you need to grow faster than you imagined.
This experience and habit, though, isn’t just for early stages or fortunate relationships. And it isn’t something to pursue just for yourself.
Scaling a support team faster than I thought possible was like that—not only did I have this feeling every day, but I was forced to put other people in positions they felt they had no business being in. And I worried about it. A lot. Until I saw the magic of it, the excitement and the growth. And it got me thinking…
Where else can we do this?
One answer I’ve uncovered is that every development project, if you’re willing to take a leap, is a chance to put someone in this spot.
Perhaps you’ve read or heard about the concept of a Directly Responsible Individual, or DRI, that came from Steve Jobs and Apple. The idea behind the DRI is every critical project, outcome, or action requires someone who has ownership and accountability. It’s about knowing where the buck stops and avoiding all sorts of confusion that comes when you don’t. By itself, that’s a huge win.
Take that concept and think about every development project you’ve been a part of. Individual pieces may benefit from having a DRI, but the project as a whole — and I’m talking about shipping features here — needs someone in that role, too.
That’s nothing revolutionary, and it’s easy to imagine this person being someone like a project manager, or a lead designer or engineer. In other words, someone who — at the opposite end of the spectrum from Mike D — expects the work and feels like they have every business doing it.
Great. Done and done, right?
Not so fast. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with someone specializing in that role. But why shouldn’t the DRI, the person responsible for shipping a new feature, sometimes be the support manager on your project team? You know the person who is insanely good at juggling streams of new information, organizing lots of variables, and adjusting on the fly? (Wait, you don’t have your support teammates on your product teams?). Or it could be the designer on the project. Or an educator, or digital marketer.
Why on earth would you do that?
For me, the feeling of I have no business doing this can send me off balance — and doing things I have no business doing probably means I’m making more mistakes than when I’m doing something I dialed in a long time ago.
But those are both signals that I’m doing the right work — and that I’m learning. That’s when I’m in the right place.
If that’s what it does for me, why not put others in that spot? Why not put a whole team in that spot?
If it’s the right person, you’ll probably have to get out of their way, because along with feeling off-balance, they probably feel like they’re on a mission. I’ve found that putting people who feel like Mike D is describing, and supporting them with a common set of expectations and ways of doing our work, brings perspective and energy to the entire team that we otherwise might have missed.
If that sounds crazy, remember: it’s not that the person actually has no business doing the work. (And it’s not, to be clear, about asking that marketer or support specialist to write the code.) Check Mike’s words again. It’s about giving people work they feel like they can’t do. It’s about not waiting for someone to be or feel like a finished product.
If you’re responsible for people’s assignments or growth, keep Mike D’s words in mind, and don’t be afraid to try shit — give someone an assignment she’s never done before, work she’s not at all sure she can do. Then watch her, your team, and your company reap the rewards.
