The Statements of Work

The UK has entered a pre-election period before an election on 4 July, which means that I have to follow election guidance for civil servants and not talk about work otherwise it might influence people’s voting.

So I’ll just talk about some personal things and reflect on product management, design and some of that stuff instead. Apologies in advance if it gets a bit LiveJournal and you’re here for Red Hot Digital-On-Government Action.

It’s a shame too because so much good happened this week and I can’t talk about it.

Some people are saying you can’t promote registering to vote too. Odd one, that.

The ‘You wouldn’t download a car’ meme but it says ‘You wouldn’t promote a democratic right’

I am tired

Yup. I’m tired. Being at the coal face on a product team, backfilling another product manager, while also spinning all the product lead plates is tiring. But it’s a blessing too, as I get to shape the way the team works. Easier to be hands-on with that than manage it from afar.

The tiredness comes from context-switching whiplash, which you get used to as a product person to some degree. Still tiring though.

Food and wine, sun and sea

Going on holiday on Monday for over a week, so I’ll get to have a proper rest. A few days in Avignon, France, followed by a week in Cartagena, Spain. That means food and wine, sun and sea. I’m getting prepped right now, sipping on a mix of Albariño, Godello, and Loureiro from Pontevedra, where I spent a few days several years ago. I bought the last few bottles of Cruceiro de Ferreiro from Ultracomida but you might find more elsewhere.

Frameworks: what are they good for?

I wrote about product management frameworks as training wheels for strategy, and explainability for decisions. It got some traction on the metaverse of thought leadership, LinkedIn, and Tom and Trilly both had excellent things to say. I’ll copy what they said here for those who don’t have ThoughtDome accounts.

Tom:

Brilliant articulation of something I’ve sometimes struggled to explain. For more senior PMs who’ve internalised these various frameworks and use them intuitively it can be difficult to answer the ‘how do you do what you do’ question. As the years have gone on I have begun to think PMing is more like playing jazz in as much as there are ‘standards’ or songs everyone knows (the frameworks or prescribed approaches in the case of PMs) but they only exist as a starting place for the musicians to play over and as an enabler for that personal improvisational expression.

Trilly:

Absolutely agreed. This is part of the reason I obsess so much about my own particular hobby horse (PMs as ‘keepers of the collective conversation’) – at its heart Product is fundamentally about facilitating better functioning conversations about product design and development, wherever these are happening.

The point of the many and varied frameworks is to help us structure information for common classes of design & development conversation – to have these in a more efficient, effective and informed way.

A framework that isn’t helping to achieve this is either unnecessary or chosen/employed poor. Also, frameworks alone won’t make this happen, because functional conversations also depend on other factors.

However, if you don’t understand the type of conversation you’re supporting and its wider context, the aims and ends of that particular conversation, the needs of the participants in that conversation – then a framework won’t necessarily help you.

That’s a part of the ‘art’ that you gain with experience (of product in general, with frameworks in particular).

The thing I’m trying to do right now, as a product leader, working with product managers who have bags of potential, is tell them how I think about things using frameworks. That way we start to speak the same language. And it’s not to dictate the way we do things, it’s more about getting them to see the variables of the decision space. So they tweak variables, remove some, add new ones that make more sense, and start to get a feel for a space.

Because that’s how a lot of us started out, right? You don’t wake up one day knowing kung-fu. You have to follow the rules, break the rules, and then you can transcend the rules.

Intermission

This afternoon has been made beautiful by two soundtracks.

  1. NTS Guide to: Baltimore Club
  2. In Focus: Russell Elevado, the pioneer of neo-soul – a sound I’ve loved since I was a teenager but never knew he was the master engineer and producer behind it all!

Also, special shout-out for Kevin Jz Prodigy, the ballroom vogue MC. UK heads will be familiar with their appearance on a Gage tune on Crazylegs, but I was reminded of their amazing track ‘Miss Thing’ this week. So fucking great. A great reminder that 2-step, grime, drill and other UK sounds have an ancestor in the gay house scene.

Blogroll

Finally added a blogroll.

Hip

Still sore, still can’t run. Can’t even jog. I’ve booked myself in for a running gait analysis. Going to get referred to a physiotherapist when I’m back from holiday too.

I’m more tired and less happy than usual. Only marginally so, but it’s noticeable. Running is part of my resilience routine, so losing that means I lose better physical health, better mental health, and all those endorphins. Too important to lose.

Talks

Trying to think about talks I might give. Talking about web standards at MozFest was fun, but other than that I’ve always just spoken about new products or strategies.

I’d like to do something about discipline: not telling people off, but how repetitive practice can bring mastery. And how throwing yourself into the unknown can build skills, perspective, and resilience. And maybe try and link it to The Matrix somehow, just because.

I’d also like to talk about empathy in teams and psychedelics but…well, that feels like a career-ending talk.

Singburi

Leytonstone is about 14 miles away from South Norwood, but yesterday I went to Singburi with Kelvin and others to see what all the fuss was about.

It’s ludicrously good. Like being on holiday in Thailand. No idea how all the ingredients are so fresh. It will rewire your expectations of good Thai food in the UK, for sure.

Working in the open

The next few weeks will give me a chance to plan how we work in the open properly over at Digital Land. psd showed me how I’d had some influence already, so I definitely wanna build on that! I’ve learned a lot over the years. And I’m hella passionate about it.

Wait, maybe that’s the talk…

Ciao for now

Checking out for a week and a bit. Be good to yourselves. Be better to your loved ones and everyone else. Don’t fret. Life’s a bitch and then you die, so take it one step at a time.

Bookmarks

· Weeknotes

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