Weeknotes 380
What I did this week:
Delivering value
Had some good conversations this week about the difference between delivering work and providing value. That means working in ways that create a system of work for others, and using test-and-learn approaches. I’m interested to see where we go with this as it’s a different way of thinking about our work. But one of the things about product thinking is moving away from finished to continuous so it’s an thing to figure out.
Productivity
I completed 70 tasks this week, an average of 14 a day. Down from last week but still above the all time average of 10.8.
I set myself three goals this week, and I scored myself 10% on one and 20% each on two. Very poor performance. My overall score is 43%, which means I don’t achieve over half the goals I set for myself.
What I read:
Business model generation
They say never meet your heroes, but they don’t tell you never to read books about things you’re already familiar with. I’m over half way through Business model generation and haven’t learned anything I didn’t already know about the business model canvas.
Maybe it was just a bad choice of book, but my attempts to read a book rather than lots of things on the internet went well. The only stuff I’ve been reading is other people’s weeknotes.
What I thought about:
Product suite
I spent a bit of time thinking about all our different products and how they might relate. So far, they all have different audiences, use different technologies, have very different strategies. The only thing that connects them is that we use them. Do they need to be connected? How? Are the product standards the way to connect them? Or is it just how we think about and manage them?
231108
Trying to answer the question, “What do we mean when we use the word ‘product’?”
It definitely isn’t about technology, but whatever it is, it uses technology.
It includes achieving organisational goals, but that isn’t enough to differentiate product from any other discipline.
It has to be about the users, but in what way?
Whatever the answer, it has to work for people with no contextual knowledge of product management. Lots more thinking to do.
231107
Clear goals make it possible to adjust how you achieve them without losing sight of why you’re achieving them. That applies whether the goal is empowering a team or helping someone gain independence.
Still trying to find the balance between being directive in a helpful way and letting people make mistakes to learn from.
Feel like I should try to formalise and write down some of the vision stuff I’ve got in my head about my four objectives.
231106
Start of a new week. Did 19 things, most of which were “guiding” actions towards more impact or more simplicity.
Had a “robust discussion” with a doctor but got most of what I wanted. It’s a shame that’s the only way to get things done sometimes.
Helped with making a good decision. Not really fast enough, but made nonetheless. If the key to reducing WIP is making good decisions quickly, then that’s half way there.