Regular Blog Posts
Closing Shop – Whenever you open shop(start working), you should think about closing shop. Closing shop allows you to reflect on what happened when the shop was open. Closing shop allows you to take a break. Closing shop allows you to go home.
All of these things are important. All of them can’t happen when the shop is open.
Goin Fishin -Can’t go fishing without closing shop. Vacations are necessary. Take one when you can.
Energy – Emotional and physical energy needs to be considered. Sometimes when you are tired, it isn’t about how much you’ve read or worked out, it may just be something on your mind. I think silence and an honest moment can help. Take a pen and paper and write things that are top of mind or try 750 words.
Write it out.
Sometimes it passes – just passes. You are not going to get it all the first go. If it’s important, it will come around again. Don’t sweat it.
Product Brief – I love design briefs. It is a great tool to give someone that is a lay person an understanding of what needs to happen to make a project successful. I wonder what a product management brief looks like, and how can it lay out a problem in a way that people understand the constraints better? Also, how does it play with more of the “solutioning” briefs that design briefs are.
Worth exploring.
Solo – I am about to depart on a trip to a city i’ve never been for a few days alone. I have no plans, other than the reflection exercises I’ve written for myself, have great food, and see some art. I don’t know what to expect, but I am excited.
Silence -> Analyze – Silence allows you to analyze the world around you. Stop worrying about what you are missing and look back to what you may have missed. My bet is you’ll find something far more interesting.
Work – Is hard, and required. If you don’t want the pressure, don’t ask for the right to make decisions. You need to earn it.
The Big Job – that is the hard job, the one with the most responsibility, and the one that isn’t going to come with a lot love. When you ask for it, be ready for it. When you have it, make sure you show up.
Art In The Big Job – Find moments of joy and lean in to them. Just because the eyes are on you doesn’t mean you can’t be a wizard, in fact, you should take advantage of it. Take risks.
Trouble – Tension, emotions, and all sorts of uncomfortable things come with pushing boundaries. I don’t think you can do meaningful work without it. You care, they care, and that’s just how things go. The important part isn’t that it happens, but how you handle it.
Uh oh – the wrong answers here mean trouble
QB2 – There is a saying that the backup quarterback is the most popular person in the city, and unless you’ve got a hall of famer, that is usually true. Being an experienced backup means you know that that love is contingent on perfection, and as a QB2, you aren’t just by where you are in the depth chart. So better to not listen. And if you are QB1, don’t let outside forces shake your confidence. You still have a job to do.
Finishing the work – We don’t get things done unless they are done. Being done means stop. So, when it’s time to be done, just stop. It’s time to finish.
Excitement -What does it look like if you bring your best to the work? How does an exciting day look? Where are the “bonus points,” the extra energy that you get from your excitement going?
It pays to be proactive here. This doesn’t happen everyday.
I’ve been in New York 9 years – Today marks the day I moved to the city I love 9 years ago. New York has been great to me – it’s provided me an outlet to be creative, push my skills, and meet incredible people.
To another nine years.
Add fuel – Once you’ve done the work to identify things that work, your best bet is to stand back and just add fuel. Look for ways to remove roadblocks, and get out of the way. Your team is most likely ready to be all-stars, help them get there.
Push – On that note above, make sure your teams are being nudged in the right direction to get there. Entropy is real, and you are dealing with everyone’s past in order to build a better future. Keep nudging, keep critiquing, keep supporting – and you’ll be adding fuel soon enough.
Innovation Input Part 2 – Yield. We’re looking for yield on our cash. Innovation is a path to the long shot. As a long shot, we can make the assumption that things won’t work. If all of our ideas were perfect we’d be whisked away and studied by some government. Since things won’t work, if you want innovation to happen, you’ll need to make sure people know they are playing with house money.
This means A) ensuring the people with the money (the C-Suite, your boss, your investor) understand that this is money we’re spending on experimentation and B) the people who will use this resource know it’s time to take chances.
If you are missing either part you’re in for a long day.
Learn to Stop – Yep. One more page is not going to make that report better. Sometimes you have to go with what you have, and move from there.
nII
From the desk of Adam Thomas 