Tag: 2018

Categories
Blog Post

Lessons Learned – July 2018

Reread and Proceed

Every month is a month to experiment, aligned with a theme. With each theme, I want to turn those experiments into action, so at the end of the month, I write, publicly, some of the successes and failures I have, and lessons I want to take moving forward.

The goal – something actionable that we can take home and use today.

  • Reread
    • Successes: Three books reread, themes, story, redone posts helped my critique.
    • Failures: Goal of one per week missed
    • Lesson: With things in flux, reorganize goals so that you don’t overshoot them, context matters.
    • Moving forward: Add “risk tolerance” to month spreadsheet so I can contextualize outside factors. Add “reread time” to each month.
  • Proceed
    • Successes: Video production, reading out, team dynamics, LinkedIn Videos
    • Failures: Writing (nothing came out)
    • Lesson: I need to dedicate time to embrace the suck of writing
    • Moving forward: Trying a writing day to get that “shitty first draft” done and proceeding from there.
Categories
Blog Post

Lessons Learned – May 2018

Things Learned in May

This was a month that was designed to experiment. I wanted to take apart certain aspects of my life and try different things. Here are some of the things I did, as well as the results.

  • Blog
    • Successes: Link posts, Stray Thoughts,
    • Failures: Video and audio
    • Lesson: I don’t share enough point of view on this blog. Making room for it during the week could help me exercise my writing skills.
    • Moving forward: One or two of those posts per week, let them evolve.
  • LinkedIn
    • Successes: Videos!
    • Failures: Pictures, blog posts.
    • Lesson: Videos are fantastic. People seem to like them.
    • Moving forward: More video content, even haphazard video content to test.
  • Life
    • Successes: Books (Look ma I’m reading again!)
    • Failures: Job search (yikes!), Writing (double yikes!!)
    • Lesson:  I need a process for a few things, and I need to time them:
    • Moving forward: Books in the morning, on commutes, meditation as soon as I wake up, double down on asking for jobs (hmmm).

This was a fun and scary month. I learned a lot.

Thanks for reading.

Categories
Blog Post

Lessons of April 2018: Take a Break!

Have a break, make sure others do too

This month started with a crippling depression.  The start of the month involved me not taking more than 1,000 steps in two weeks.

Trust me, I had free time.

Here is how I spent it:

  • Instead of getting stuff done, I stayed in my apartment away from the world
  • Instead of going to the gym, I focused on the pain in my body and used it as an excuse to do nothing.
  • Instead of talking to people, I. hid, crushed with anxiety for what could happen.

And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The end of this month has been one of the most productive of my life. It is as if I made up for lost time not just in work, but in attitude. I was better, both in mind and spirit.

A break was what I needed.

This month was about not being dragged down, and part of that is what you can do at the moment (which is some of what I wrote about daily). Another part of that is learning that sometimes you need to shut it down*.

This lesson was the most significant one for me. One I often forget and usually (unlike this month) learn the hard way.

We aren’t robots. We don’t follow to-do lists. Our emotions and spirit come into play and affect everything we do. If I came to work in a dark place, that opens to door to vindictive, messy work that serves no one and as a destructive bonus takes other people down as well.

That is why listening to your fatigue and finding breaks is often the healthiest/most productive thing you do.

Recovery is part of strength.

You take you everywhere. Your team takes themselves anywhere. Physical fatigue isn’t the only thing we need to listen to, we have spiritual and mental fatigue, too.

Because when we drag ourselves down, we can drag other people with us, and we don’t want to do that.

*My privilege in life allows m to do this. I am a mental health advocate, and this only strengthens it. The ability to take a break shouldn’t just go to the classed. Personal days is a right; we’d all be better for it.

Categories
Blog Post

Minimum Effective Dose – What I Learned Feb. 2018

Minimum to understand, keep testing

I started a new job this month.

As the senior product manager, my job description focuses on the externalities of the product a team creates.

Except, it isn’t that.

What I do is create alignment for the product, the consumer, and the team building the damn thing.

And as the defacto head of marketing, understand the process so that those who end up working for (content, production, design, social)  and around (recruiting, product, sales) can work from that alignment without having to consult me.

So, this month and theme have been pretty fortuitous for me.

Why?

Everything I do in this position requires a minimum effective dose to be effective, quickly.Writing about the work of testing, understanding risk, and falsifiability has helped me communicate it through action.

This work has helped me resist the temptation to “go all in” to feel effective, because I know I can’t “afford” it. I can’t afford to go all in on anything because, as a startup, everything (including me) is new.  Resources are tight, time is tighter, and in this environment, you cannot afford to move without trust.

Every movement is a test, not to be liked, but to be effective.

Think of it as a “pen test” instead of a business plan.

Small is significant, and thrashing is a must.

Move forward.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started