Sprint, rest, repeat

When I was younger, I felt guilty if I wasted time away from my desk and tasks at work. It felt like I took the foot off the gas pedal.

Now that I'm older, and (somewhat) wiser, I have a different view. Now I believe we should work more in line with the lifestyle that is natural for our species.

There's a price to pay if we don't. It stresses us. We push ourselves to the edge of exhaustion. And I'm not as productive as I thought I was.

Humans have spent 99-ish % of our evolutionary history in the hunter-gatherer environment. Hunters and gatherers are good at resting after the effort of securing food.

Watch a nature video of any animal escaping from a predator. The prey sprints away at top speed. If it gets away, it just stops. It's body shakes to let go of stress hormones, and then it resets itself back to baseline.

My resistance training has taught me that the recovery days are just as important as the training days, as that is when the body and muscles adapts and becomes stronger. Failing to schedule in enough recovery leads to overtraining, and eventually illness or injury.

There's a pattern here. Sprint, rest, repeat.

I now believe what matters for my performance (and well-being) is not the number of hours in front of my computer; it's how focused my work is, and how quickly I get back to my baseline.

On an ideal day, I work as a lion. Sprint, rest, repeat.

Work focused and intensely for short hours, rest, and repeat, rather than low-intensity office hours somewhat stressed or somewhat relaxed all day long. It's the idea of a combination of extremes kept separate, with avoidance of the middle.

Easier said than done. Our attention is being fought for by every new meeting, e-mail, request, and initiative. Our focus muscle must be built and improved little by little.

I get back to my normal by resting and taking better breaks. Even micro-breaks of five to ten minutes are enough to reduce fatigue and raise energy.

Take outdoor walks. Sit next to a tree, garden or the sea. Get up and refill your water. Take three deep breaths. Lie down on the floor, and close your eyes. Be completely still. Imagine yourself back in time to a peaceful place you've been and be there for a while. Do some push-ups or air squats to burn your adrenaline.

When you rest properly, then you are not “doing nothing." You get a chance to reflect on and form your own beliefs, judgements and values.

Throughout the ages people have found that outdoor walking offers an additional benefit - time and space for better work.

Breaks are not a distraction. Your passion keeps the problem or task active in the back of your mind, and you are more likely to incubate fresh ideas and unexpected solutions.

It may sound controversial, but in the times we live in now, "doing nothing" has probably never been more important.

In my opinion.

Escaping the Build Trap

John Deere, the farming technology company, encourage product managers and software engineers from urban areas to actively go out and see farmers in action.

They send their people to a fully-functioning farm set up a few miles from the office to learn more about farming.

This is what it means to be customer centric. Knowing that the most important thing you can do to create great products is to deeply understand your customers.

When you do not understand your users' problems well, you cannot possible define value for them.

In product-led companies, this is baked into the culture.

It's about avoid ending up in the build trap where we measure value by the number of things we produce instead of associating value with the outcomes we want to achieve for our business and users.

Products and services are not inherently valuable. It's what they do for your customer or user that has the value - solving a problem, or fulfilling a need or desire.
  • A great product manager understands the market, how the business works as well as the company vision and goals.
  • A great product manager has deep empathy for the users of the product.
  • A great product manager needs to be strategic enough to help craft the vision of the product and a strategy to get there, but tactical enough to ensure a smooth execution.
  • A great product manager works with the team in developing and validating ideas and in marrying business goals with the user goals to achieve value.
  • A great product manager says things like "I think the most costly thing we can do is build this product without knowing it's the right product to build. How do I test it and ensure that this is actually what we want? How do I become more confident that we are on the right path before I invest money in this?"
Easy? No. This is a discipline that must be mastered as a career. You need to develop the skill set through experience and practice.

Transparency

Be transparent. The more leaders can understand where teams are, the more they will step back and let the teams execute.

When leaders don't see progress toward goals, they quickly resort to their old ways: Providing and demanding more detailed information, providing more detailed instructions, and putting more controls in place.

Tell them where you are, what you plan to achieve next and how much money you need to get to those next goals.

How do you avoid the build trap?

"Escaping the Build Trap" by Melissa Perri

What's value?

What's the value of water? It depends on how thirsty you are.

Something that is worthless to one person or organization can be of immense value to someone else. Value is in the eye of the beholder.

Value can be the importance, monetary worth or usefulness of something.

The value of your work

I produce stuff at work. Is my work valuable by just existing? No.

It's what it does for the ones consuming my work that has the value.

My work creates value by solving problems worth solving. Fulfilling someone's needs and desires while helping my organization achieve their strategic goals and priorities.

Communicate value through numbers

What's the value of natural gas? $3.5/MMBtu, ish. That's every possible characteristic of natural gas combined into a single dimension. However, it tells me nothing about its potential, history and other qualities.

We describe and communicate value like a map, an abstraction, to simplify complexity and decisions.

Maps are useful, but with a specific purpose in mind. They cannot be everything to everyone. If we don't understand what the map does and doesn't tell us, it can be useless or even dangerous.

Concrete numbers can be useful, but you better have a story for the receivers of the value you intend to provide. You need to understand what they value, what they are interested in, and be able to translate your work and offering into their language.

Don't assume that what we value is what everyone values or should value.

Business value and user value

Business value is what the business values, often framed as economic benefits to the company, but could also be safety, security and sustainability.

User value is what the users value. The ones directly using the technology products to achieve and address their own desires, needs or problems.

Why is this distinction important? Products that people don't use or know how to use will not create any business value.

A team delivering a product can rarely control or influence the business value directly. But you can change the behavior of the ones using your product and make them take certain actions that can lead to and be measured as a predictor of business value.

That's the gap you need to close. That's the story you need to tell. Find the signals of business value.

Business cases

A business case tries to describe the potential value, cost, and risk at some point down the road. When there is a lot of uncertainty, this is difficult. We must make assumptions.

According to Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg's data from 16 000 projects from 20-plus field in 136 countries, only 0.5 % delivered on promised cost, time and benefits.

Avoid the illusion of certainty, "If we do X, then Y value will be result".

Don't set and forget. Treat it as a hypothesis that needs to be tested. What's the absolute smallest action that you can take to test out the riskiest assumption you have about your business case?

"We believe that ... To verify that, we will ... And measure ... We are right if ..."

What's value to you, and how do you evaluate it?

How to talk to anyone

You have been there. You are introduced to someone. You shake hands, your eyes meet, and then ...

What do I say after I say Hello?

Don't worry. 

Melody

80 percent of your listener's impression has nothing to do with your words. Small talk is about melody. You must first match your listener's mood and voice of tone.

It's not what you say that matters, it's how you say it. A passionate delivery makes you sound exciting.

An old friend

Here's a mental trick you can play on yourself. In your mind's eye, see him or her as an old friend.

Suddenly, WOW! What a surprise! After all those years, the two of you are reunited. You are so happy.

The secret to making people like you is showing how much you like them.

Throw out some facts 

When asked "What do you do?", flesh it out. Throw out some delicious facts about your job for them to munch on. You can also prepare different variations of this answer, depending on who's asking.

Also, learn some engaging facts about your hometown that they can comment on. Never provide a one-word answer on the question "And where are you from?".

Lingo of the crowd

Learn some opening questions and the lingo of the crowd you will be with. Find out what the hot issues are in their fields. Listen to a newscast just before you leave. Anything that happened today is good material.

Be a detective ... and a parrot

When talking with anyone, like a good detective, listen for clues. Be on the lookout for any unusual references: any anomaly, deviation, digression. Then ask about it.

Like a parrot, simply repeat the last few words your conversation partner says. Echo their nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives back.

Hearing their words come out of your mouth makes them feel you share their values, their attitudes and their interests.

Say their name

People perk up when they hear their own name. Use it more often on the phone than you would in person to keep their attention and to replace eye contact.

Indirect compliments

Instead of telling someone directly of your admiration, tell someone who is close to the person you wish to compliment.

A compliment one hears is never as exciting as the one he/she overhears. Keep your ears open for good things people say about each other.

Pass it on.

"How to talk to anyone" by Leil Lowndes

Career advice

I've been pondering about career advice lately. What would an older and wiser me say to this young student 19 years ago?

Work with the right people

Yes, the company, their vision, values and your tasks are important, but don't forget your future colleagues.

Work with people you can learn and grow from. You adopt the thoughts, attitudes and standards of the people around you.

Working with the right people is one of the best educations you can get.

The team you choose to join, and your boss, are huge factors in the value of a professional experience early in your career.

Simply do the basics well

Take initiative. Take ownership. Do what you say you will do. Be the one that people can count on to show up and figure things out. Ask questions. Get along with people. Do more than you are asked.

Care about your colleagues. Be humble. Listen to understand. Be on time. Be proactive in seeking new information, knowledge, and skills. Being willing to change things.

These basic things stand out. It's character. It's the result of your little choices and little actions, and they are completely under your control.

And I believe they will help unlock your potential.

Add communication and non-sales selling into your mixture

In addition to whatever your professional skill is, add communication, either written or verbal, into your mixture.

Learn how to formulate and tell clear, concise narratives. Good stories beat good spreadsheets.

Also learn yourself non-sales selling. You sell ideas, a vision, a strategy, a solution, even yourself.

These are skills for life that will be valuable in any role.

Find something to hold on to

You will face uncertainty, changes, and chaos. For me, having a set of personal values to hold onto has been a savior. A compass.

What's most important to you?

When you face situations where you have no idea what to do, hold on to your values and use them to guide your next steps.

Don't stress. It took me years to figure this out.

Take care of yourself

Breathe. Take care of yourself today, mentally and physically. Take rest seriously. It plants the seeds for a healthier, happier life decades later.

Follow your energy. When you have energy for something, go for it.

Find a balance between things that give you energy and things that drain you of energy.

Reflect and write down the things that stress you out and the things that make you happy.

Use your colleagues, they are here for you.

What's your career advice?