Stardate S01E26

Mood: 😅. Mostly healed from last week’s stumble, but only just treading water with everything else on my plate.

Goose mafia at St. James’s Park, giving me the evil eye 👀

🌹 What am I grateful for this week?

I think this may have been the most 1:1 chats I’ve had in a single working week — ten by my count — and I think I really needed them, too. Staying connected during these times reminds me how fortunate I am to work with so many different folks across the business. Getting and sharing advice, yes, but also getting book recommendations, podcasts to listen to, showing something funny within arm’s reach, saying hi to people’s family and pets. All the good stuff.

Gutted that this was Joe’s last week with us, but I’m equally happy for him to be getting a much-deserved break and grateful for all the time we did get to work together, and all I was able to learn from him.

🌵 Where did I get stuck this week?

It might be the shorter days and lack of sunlight getting to me, or that I’ve had to break my exercise routine recently. But I definitely feel a bit of a funk alongside the kink in my neck. The signal: I generally like being the colleague who doesn’t need to be chased repeatedly for their feedback or deliverables, but unfortunately I was that guy a few times this past week.

Treading water can be a dangerous game, when you’re always a day or so behind but can’t seem to get to break even. It saps your energy the longer you let it play out. Need to do something different next week to break the cycle.

💡 What stuck with me this week?

I had an opportunity to explain the classic PM triangle to a colleague with its usual dimensions: time, scope, resources. We touched on how quality lurks inbetween the three as you try to solve for two, and found that, like many a PM before us has found themselves in, their situation would require time or quality to flex.

What was particularly useful about our conversation was finding it applicable outside of my usual domain of agile project management — indeed, any sort of teamwork requiring demand management can use this framing to help respond to an ask to “do more with less.” (Why is that always the ask?! 😅)

Time, scope, resources. You can generally have two out of three as you wish. But pick all three and you’re bound to cut on quality.

📚 What did I discover this week?

Throwback to a classic Andy Raskin essay that I found myself recommending this week. When I first went looking for it, I also came across this follow-up* that delves further into the first part of the pitch — the undeniable change. Love how this setup still feels on point years later.

The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen

Great piece that Mara spotted from Mariana Mazzucato — a bit of a fanfic for 2023, but one that leaves you feeling hopeful for what could be. Imagine in a few years’ time if “the concept of ‘social infrastructure’ became as important as physical infrastructure,” what might that look like for our daily lives and all the interactions that make it up?

It's 2023. Here's How We Fixed the Global Economy

One more throwback, this one to AOL’s heyday and their signature growth hack, long before the term growth hacking had been coined. It’s only easy to see in hindsight how latching on to the wave of new technology created that opportunity for an “unboxing” moment that they could seize. Me, I remember collecting AOL CDs as coasters for use around the house… 😆

She Gave The World A Billion AOL CDs - An Interview With Marketing Legend Jan Brandt

🌱 What am I looking forward to next week?

Trying not to get swamped by the details, and instead looking at the big picture; that should be my mantra for next week. I’m equally tempted to stay up on Tuesday night to watch the election results back home.

🏠 AOB

If a tougher lockdown is indeed on its way this Thursday, I’d say we managed to make this weekend a productive one by getting lots of shopping and walking in. Even made it to the Whole Foods in Soho (first time since living in London!) — there’s some small comfort knowing that if worse comes to worst, finally we’ve found a place that will sell us the canned pumpkin we struggled to find previously. Nowadays, you have to enjoy the small things, you know?

*Ah, CRM systems. Tell me, friend, what’s the reason you lost that deal? “I wasn’t in the zone!”