Weeknotes 417
This week I did:
Balance
Most product decisions are trade-offs, they’re about trying to get the balance right, and almost always failing. That was definitely a theme for this week. But lots of other stuff happened too:
- So many good chats about working collaboratively. Everyone wants it. No one knows what makes it so hard.
- Did some work on our objectives for the year and how our work relates to them. I think it’s finally starting to click, although still a bit too vague without a logic model and dashboard to show which metrics we’re affecting.
- Had an interesting conversation about continuous improvement and making it part of everyone’s role. It feels like a part of what it means to be an empowered team, you don’t just do the work, you make the way you do the work better.
- Added my roadmap to my dashboard so I can see how much work I have in progress and how much I’m thinking about the future. The answers are, too much and not enough.
- Started planning for a new team member joining us. It’ll be the fourth I’ve onboarded and I’m keen to do a better job than before.
- Reflected on a mistake I made a couple of months ago where I went against my better judgement and did things the way they were expected. And wondering how I fix it.
- Might set myself the goal of trying to go for a whole week without causing trouble. Nah, who am I kidding?
The numbers
Over four days I:
- Completed 33 tasks (although I’m sure I missed recording some).
- Wrote 10 pages of notes.
- Talked to 30 people 73 times.
Predictable vs. Emergent
I tried to get my thoughts in order about how modern tools and techniques just don’t work (or at least don’t work well) in organisation with a deterministic worldview. I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well, but worldviews are difficult things to grasp.
I read:
The small ‘a’
Started reading The agile manager by Rob England and Dr. Cherry Vu. Looks really good.
Cognitive Load Theory: Does it apply in software delivery?
Fantastic thoughtful post from Sorrell Harriet about cognitive load theory for software teams. She says, “the universal wisdom underlying Sweller’s CLT and Team Topologies which tells us that, to enable individuals and teams to do their best work, we must strive to remove unnecessary barriers to learning. This means giving our attention to the mechanisms by which people learn and the conditions in which they are operating.” The lesson here is, rather than arguing about whether a theory is correct or applicable, get to essence of what your were using the theory for in the first place.
Digital geography
I loved reading this. Mostly because my art is kind of about how physical and digital worlds interact, but also it reminded me of conversation I had a few years ago about abstraction and embodiment, and how we use familiar things to understand new things.
I thought about:
What it means to be a manager
There was a time when being a manager meant being a line-manager. Managing the (production) line meant telling people what to do and making sure they did it. The more people you line-managed, the more important you were. And there’s a lot of that left over, but nowadays being a manager means (or at least, I think should mean) something quite different.
It’s completely possible to be a manager without line-managing people. Managing work requires very different skills from doing work. It requires a very different mindset too, one that considers wider, deeper, longer-term impact.
So, to me, progression up the career ladder as a manager should be about increasing impact along those three dimensions.
Give blood
Booked an appointment to give blood, then had a phone call asking me to book an appointment. The app hasn’t improved since I wrote this. If I could product manage anything, it would be Give Blood.