Our 2023 reflections and a powerful action plan for a better 2024
The start or end of the year is a good time to reflect, audit how the year went and to consider what you will change. We do this as a practice every year, and it is our first time publishing our own work reflections to everyone. These are not resolutions per se. Resolutions are a funny thing. To be successful in resolutions you need SMART goals and good systems. They generally have a low sustained success rate. There is even a quitting day on January 12.
In this article, we will talk about our work last year and how we will do things differently in 2024. Since we work in product development, our reflections will be from that area. Regardless of your role, you can apply some of these beyond the product development area.
Photo by Михаил Секацкий on Unsplash
Test/question assumptions
It is always good to see if something is actually true or get down to the bottom of reasoning for things. An example might be understanding why we are doing something. I had a team member work on a project that was a high priority for a senior stakeholder. However, we never went back to that stakeholder to understand their original intention for the project. What was this project for? We heard it via someone else. It was a good lesson in always understanding the context and primary driver by going back to the source.
Another assumption was the one I had made about people’s capabilities and comprehension. While sharing information, I thought it was clear, but it was not. As a result, there was a lot of avoidable back and forth. We wasted a lot of extra energy and time. I could have prevented it if I had spent a moment to assess if the recipient understood what I had briefed them on.
What we will do, and what you can do moving forward:
Always ask questions, and go directly to the primary stakeholder if possible. Even making sure who is the primary stakeholder.
Before jumping into action, give some room for thought. Sometimes, jumping into a solution or action is not the right action without understanding the main reason or driver.
Asking the right questions helps people come up with their own solutions. Use questions to measure comprehension and sometimes, ability.
Diversify Feedback Strategies: Explore Both Asynchronous and Synchronous Approaches
We often work across time zones with team members we rarely see. They are often not online at the same time. As a result we have to use live meetings and asynchronous methods to collaborate. We also use these avenues to give feedback. In addition to this, we also receive requests to provide feedback.
I had been using the same approach to share feedback for the longest time and it feels like a missed opportunity to do better. The most important aspect of sharing feedback is making it personalised - do they want or prefer you to leave it on a separate document or on the work itself?
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Specifically ask people how they would like to receive feedback. Focus on what, how and when they want it.
Try out different formats if it is not resonating with someone. That could include setting up a meeting or a document with notes. You could leave comments on the original document or on a copy. You could send direct messages on Slack. Another option is to have a group discussion on Slack. Or you can record a walkthrough with an explanation.
If trying a new method, get feedback on the method. This exercise itself is a bit meta. If you are trying out something, you should understand if it is worthwhile to keep pursuing. If not, try another way.
Make sure that the feedback given is understood - by asking for comprehension of what was shared.
Improve work visibility
Getting visibility for your work is not a selfish or a vain pursuit. Creating awareness of work means the team behind it gets more opportunities for you and your team. It also welcomes more collaboration and resource investments. It is often good to get people excited about projects you are working on. It also helps with other aspects such as compensation and promotions. Having said that, there has to be substance behind the visibility. Last year, sharing our work often became an afterthought. Now, we are planning to be mindful about how and where to share work.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Try different methods and channels. Take note of what works and replicate it. Consider both long and short forms and see what actually gets read.
Specifically ask senior stakeholders what interests them, and how do they keep up to date. Go where they are.
Embrace openness and continuous experimentation in work practices
We can improve the way we work in many ways. With any experiment it is better to try one thing at a time so that you know what is working and what is not. We are taking inspiration from podcasts like Career Contessa and HBR. We are also finding inspiration from books like Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones and The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
We must purposefully review what we are trying. We should know why we are doing it and what success looks like. As soon as it consistently does not work with that criteria, review and adjust. Potentially stop altogether or try something else.
Read more broadly to get ideas and incorporate ideas from other industries.
Set a date for reviews in your calendar so when it is a busy period we are not relying on memory alone. Spend now doing that set up before it gets busy.
Utilisation of AI for mundane tasks or as a sounding board
ChatGPT, Bard and other AI tools have definitely made our work easier. However, we have also realised that the output has to be contextualised. I used ChatGPT to help me construct some puzzles for a team activity. However, it created puzzles with no actual answer. I did not check it because I wanted to participate with the team without knowing the answers. In the end we were working on an unsolvable pursuit.
AI can help refine or reword documents. We have used it for documentation, announcements, customer or external facing communication. Prompts can be used to make it more succinct, catchy, or memorable.. We would caution against using it for creating documents and simply submitting that. It can be very obvious and degrade your credibility over time. Either use it as a starting point, or use it as a final check for tone, readability and succinctness.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Use it for spell check and summarising large documents or topics.
Learn better Chat GPT prompts. We recently learned about giving the role type as an audience or a creator. E.g. As a Product Manager help me rewrite this product update announcement.
Continue to check the outputs carefully. Do not just take them at face value. This will help you avoid mistakes like the unsolvable team puzzles.
Spend more time on strategy
Strategy is an important aspect of a role, especially as a senior member of the team. Last year, we did not carve out sufficient time to focus on strategy. Spending time on strategy means making an effort to have thinking time. It involves putting together different sources of input. It needs both thought and preparation. By working quickly on strategy and compressing the effort, it can affect the quality. It may also risk not being as well thought through.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Tactical, short term work will always grab your attention - it provides quick wins and instant gratification. Focusing on strategic initiatives is a deliberate choice. Consider adding research areas to your annual planning. To determine the strategy, use a wider source of information. Use user research and customer insights. Meet with customers and have more unstructured discussions to understand problems.
Spend time consistently. Allocate time per month to think about Strategy. One week a month is divided like this: three days are for tactical work, and two days for strategic thinking. This includes meeting with customers.
Delegate more often / empowering others as manager and Individual Contributors (ICs)
Organizations are shrinking their workforce and hiring less. So, there is a lot of "making do" with what and who you have. Even if you are not a people manager, it is always good to think about scaling and growing your team's capability. By thinking like this, you are creating opportunities for others to grow with limited manpower. It creates more learning experiences. Others have a better chance for more impact if they are empowered to do so.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Think about what is important and urgent, and must be done by you. The Eisenhower matrix is a helpful framework to use. Compare this to what is urgent and not important which could be handled by a less experienced peer.
Scaling knowledge and effort to reduce repeated tasks
This is similar to the intention of empowering people. The focus here is sharing knowledge better and reducing repeated questions. Teams outside of Product Development would benefit from this, such as Go-to-market (GTM). In 2023, we learned this lesson by spending a lot of time with customers. We aimed to help come up with solutions to their problems. Sometimes this is unavoidable, especially if it is an escalation. However, many of these conversations could have been prevented with adequate documentation. This would help customer facing teams stay up to date with the latest product information.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Better documentation by ensuring there is adequate, up to date information.
Using the right media to make sure the messaging is clear.
Making sure it is accessible by the intended audience, and they know of the information. It may require an announcement or socialising.
Nurturing stakeholder connections through consistent and more effective communication
It goes without saying how important stakeholder relationships are. Some people need a lot more face time than others, and it is a good idea to really assess who needs what. Last year got hectic. Some relationships and updates got neglected. As a result, it had ripple effects.
What we will do, and you can do moving forward:
Use a calendar and scheduling for better consistent contact. Schedule in regular check-ins or reminders for async messages.
Better to do list management by using an appropriate tool or method.
Have regular check-ins. Also, ask regularly if we need to change the frequency, method, or topics.
We would be keen to hear what practices you are letting go of this year and what you will do differently. We might take inspiration or copy what you are doing. These are our positive intentions. We hope to instil them this year to improve our skills and be better in our roles.