Two Way Doors

May marked two years since I left the corporate world to become a coach. It’s hard to capture the journey, but I tried. In my post, I hinted at a big transition and I’m finally ready to share.

An old manager once taught me about one-way vs. two-way doors. One-way doors are irreversible; two-way doors let you try something, then pivot back if needed. One way doors are limiting, two-way doors preserve optionality. And IMO they’re strategic.

Leaving corporate never felt like a one-way door. It was a leap into a new chapter1, one that’s been expansive, grounding and necessary.

In this past chapter, I’ve built a steady coaching practice, launched communities, and designed gathering spaces that light me up. In the process, I’ve realized I’m most energized by crafting human experiences: the kind that require thoughtful curation, intentional facilitation and a deep understanding of how people connect. I’ve been talking about it for awhile. And, it’s become my passion.

So when an opportunity at Hampton came my way, it felt serendipitous. Hampton is a private community for high-growth founders. I’ll be leading Core — their flagship product: small, facilitated groups that support growth and connection. It’s the kind of work I’ve grown to love. Now, I’ll have more scale and support behind me to do it.

This means I’m taking my “soloprenuer” hat off. I’ll continue running Product Leader Breakfasts, Coaching Corner, and working with a small number of clients.

As for this space? My beloved Product Therapy lives on. Expect a broader lens: grounded in product, but expanding into leadership, startup life - baby’s first start-up - and the human work I’m diving deeper on.

Careers (if you’re lucky) have many chapters.

I’m ready to start my next one.

I couldn’t be more excited.

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Events

I don’t have any Product Breakfasts on the calendar but I’m featuring a Chicago Product Event in June and an event I’m cohosting with CPO Track in July on our Product Breakfast calendar here.

Product Reads

This month I reflect on two years as a coach, how to keep up with the AI of it all and investing in your people over your technology.

I loved this piece by Joe Hudson. I read it right after I published that piece I wrote on people over technology and it really drove home everything I was trying to say.

Culture Clicks

This month I plowed through 📘 Unreasonable Hospitality and 📺 Overcompensating. I caught 🎭 All Nighter before it finished its run, but, I’m devastated that 🎭 The Culture Awards are in LA this year.

I hit up 🥗 Shukette (incredible food, speedy service), Mam (it’s giving Bourdain and Obama), (both on NYT’s Best Restaurants List) and had a particularly incredible pasta on my 500th trip to Rucola (the Campanelle). Elevated entertaining is putting this jar of cheese on the table with a spoon. And if you find yourself out east this summer, Springs Pizza slaps.

Amy Poehler’s 🎙️Good Hang is bringing me an unreasonable amount of joy (the Rachel Dratch bit had me crying). I also loved Miley’s guest appearance on 🎙️ The Interview.

Shoutout to 🛒 cord organizers. They make the world go round.

Hi - I’m Jori and I’m a Product Coach. If you’re Product Leader or on a Product team looking for support - drop me a note.

Oh hello! After a year of straddling two different email platforms, I decided to go all in on Substack for both newsletters1 I write. If you’re curious why you can read more about it here.

Active Choices

I historically identify as an indecisive person. When I was younger, hell for me was the Cheesecake Factory menu, dining with a family that didn’t split food2. With a hovering waiter and one of my parents muttering, It’s just a meal, I hastily chose a dish3 hoping I wouldn’t regret it. What a glass half empty way to move through life, right?

Recently, I was faced with a big decision where I was deciding between some really good options, similar to an experience at The Cheesecake Factory 😜 4

For a few days, I asked anyone who would listen to me, What is the universe trying to tell me? Why is this happening now? and I couldn’t make meaning of any of it.

So I sat in it, and with the help of my therapist, I recognized that these circumstances were forcing me to make an active choice.

If I were deciding between something good and bad, it’s less of a choice. But, if I know the thai lettuce wraps always hit the spot and the pastas do the trick, then I have to actively choose between two great options. That reframe was empowering.

In that actively choosing, I wasn’t running away from a bad thing, I was running towards the best thing for me, right now.

This act of choosing out of excitement rather than fear is a wonderful shift for me. And it’s something I’m bringing with me into this new season.

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Events

1) I hosted a Product Breakfast in Chicago and it was incredible!! Sadly we didn’t get any cute photos. But I’m here to report, the Chicago Product scene is really blossoming! Recap here.

2) I hosted my first cross-functional coaching hour with Sarah Ing and it was really fun. If you’re a PM or an Engineer, it’s worth peeping some of the takeaways from the session below. We may host another in the future.

3) I hosted and facilitated my first Unconference for Coaching Corner and it was huge. Thirty coaches descended on Dumbo for in-person connection, learning and lunch. My Coaching Corner co-founder, , and I tag teamed for an inspiring morning and we left in awe of what everyone brought to the group. It feels inevitable that we’ll do this again, likely in the Bay Area.

Product Reads

This month I collab’ed with on From first day to first win: How to nail your first 90 days talked about how you don’t need frameworks and then reversed course and offered a framework. Hypocritical or adaptable?

I also hit a nerve on LinkedIn and wrote about AI and Product Management.

Client Corner

This week I had two back to back sessions where clients asked me how much information to share with their executive team.

My advice? Ask them.

Ask executives what information they need to feel in the loop, how they’ll use it and how often they want to check in.

Culture Clicks

This month I plowed through The Tell 📗 and Adolescence 📺 , dark, traumatic content, my specialty. I also loved NYMag’s new cover story: It Must Be Nice To Be a West Village Girl5. I’m dying to see All Nighter but it’s only running for two more weeks in NYC. Titanique just went global so if you haven’t seen it, get tickets, stat.

I recently dined at Yellow Rose and have been putting these peppers on everything I eat at home. Trader Joe’s always delivers.

Andddd, next week, I’m DJ’ing Happy Hour at Fabrik 🎵. Come through!

Hi - I’m Jori and I’m a Product Coach. If you’re Product Leader or on a Product team looking for support - drop me a note.

In the sea of end of year content, one final update from yours truly.

I’ve been at this solopreneurship thing for six months now and I can’t believe how the time has flown. Though I’m still working through to-do list items (no rest for the wicked), I’m incredibly proud of the journey I’ve been on and what I’ve achieved in six month’s time since coaching full time.

Since I started down this path I’ve…

• Ran 1 group coaching circle

• Coached 15+ clients

• Networked with 40+ builders 

• Mock interviewed 50+ product people

• Taught 140+ students at Cornell Tech

• Felt 1000% better than last December

I am so grateful for everything that has happened over the past year to get me to this point in my career and in life. And, I’m more energized and hopeful going into 2024 than any year in recent memory. 💫

If you’ve followed along, offered support, let me support you - THANK YOU. The people I’ve reconnected with and met this year have absolutely powered this adventure. I could not have done any of this alone. While there’s so much reminiscing I could do, I’ll finish this month’s update off with lots of click bait to dig into. 

I hope you have a restful end of year. 

I can’t wait to drop into your inboxes again in January. 🎇

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• I wrote a lot of new content this past month…

  • a checklist for career development season

  • my experience with literal and metaphorical cliff jumping 

  • Reflections from my time at Cornell Tech this semester and 

  • lots of LinkedIn soundbites – yes, i’m one of those people that writes on LinkedIn now 

    • my favorite things on LinkedIn despite it being a weird place

    • About staying customer focused

    • Using your professional development budget

    • a brief reflection about my group coaching facilitator experience

    • 2 product job drops part 1 and part 2 

• A mini year in review

  • This continues to be one my top viewed posts 

  • this was one of my favorite pieces to write

  • I did my first podcast year and it was so fun

• I loved reading about…

  • Slowing down from Couples Coach Cristina Celis who writes great pieces about romantic relationships

  • How to land at a fast paced startup by Deb Liu, just one of many memorable pieces from her this year

  • Why i quit full time roles by Elena Verna, some true solopreneurship inspo

  • Company culture for 1 by fellow coach and new friend Sarah Ing, really speaking to my soul

  • Internet Math by my bff Nicole Garelick who has a knack for comedic writing

• Coaching Boosts

  • My cousin Kristin Demafeliz is breaking into coaching and consulting. She’s looking to learn more about leadership. Help her out and get some free leadership coaching from her here. 

  • One of my first networking calls this year was with Fractional PM/Coach Kayla Doan. Kayla was so generous with her time and is now offering sessions for other product people to learn about fractional work. I loved this idea, so I wanted to share it here. 

  • With so many PMs looking for roles, I’ve been posting product job drops on LinkedIn (part 1 and part 2 ). New friend and fellow coach Bosky Mukherjee knocks it out of the park surfacing hot new jobs. If you’re looking for a new product role in 2024, you’re going to want to follow her on LinkedIn!

Last but not least, here are some of the non-product things that fueled me this year -

• 🌋 Jungle’s latest album Volcano played on repeat since the day of its release. 

• 🧳 Suits on Netflix, a more simple time for everyone involved (actors included) 

• ☕️ Devotion Coffee from Cafe Volkan, my home away from home

• 🏨 The Ace Hotel Lobby in Boerum Hill was my pseudo co working space

• 💡 A happy light to keep the sun shining all year round

Cheers

There’s a good chance you’ve been getting emails from me already. If so, welcome to Substack! If you haven’t, welcome to the party. I promise it’ll be fun. And if it isn’t, smash that unsubscribe button. No hard feelings.

A note on the title “Product Therapy” - I’ve hesitated to use the word “therapy” because… well, I’m not a therapist. But, I keep coming back to this word because it best encapsulates the mix of work I do in coaching, consulting and teaching. While many folks I coach look to strengthen their hard product skills - such as roadmapping or product discovery - they quickly find that these hard skills don’t operate in a vacuum. And, in fact, my value add, with dozens of clients thus far, has been in the marrying of the hard skills with the soft skills. We might start with how to build a “go-to-market” plan but we inevitably work through an internal communications strategy to get stakeholder buy-in. I can help you plan towards a promotion, but it’s in turning your manager into an advocate to push that promotion through where the magic happens. I take a holistic approach because I don’t believe the professional and interpersonal are mutually exclusive.

But with all that being said, it’s worth explicitly stating:"Product Therapy" offers guidance and support for product managers but is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice. I am not a licensed therapist or healthcare professional. 

Now, let’s get into it.

Life IRL

• Last week, I returned to life IRL at Cornell Tech. Aside from the professional opportunity the job presented, the chance to be in person with students was one of the most appealing features of the job after nearly 3 years working remote.

  • Here’s what I’m doing:

    • I’m a Studio Coach at Cornell Tech for the Fall Semester teaching Product Studio. Product Studio is a required course for graduate students - organizing them into teams and pairing them with companies to solve a “how might we” statement. Heading back into academia it’s lectures, group projects, presentations, grades, etc. More than anything, its a way to get my brain thinking in new ways. What a breath of fresh air!

  • Here are some early observations:

    • The “teacher” title: As I was setting up my classroom last week, I remembered how often I played “pretend classroom” growing up. My most cherished childhood gift was a whiteboard. The irony of doing lots of inner child work myself these days and this new found job is not lost on me. There’s a deeper connection to what I’m doing here as I call up the natural teacher/leader in me to facilitate creation and exploration in others. I’m new to this manifestation thing but it seems like this might be it.

    • Group dynamics: I loved observing the team dynamics during class last week. How people show up (or don’t) for one another, who speaks the most, who takes notes. My wheels were turning watching teams find their footing amongst themselves. You either love or hate group projects, amirite?

    • Doing the work: As the world around us adjusts to more automation, I’ve been curious to see how it impacts the world of education. Cornell Tech has a “use it but cite it” ChatGPT policy. Between watching students use it in the classroom and grading papers, I’m fascinated to see how students lean on tech to work through complex and unique business problems that I don’t believe robots are capable of solving (yet).

Life on the Internet

• Back on the internet, I’m still networking strong and loving some of the new friends I’ve met and opportunities I’ve plugged into:

  • The Old Girl’s Club - This has easily become one of my favorite communities on the internet. I’ve been hyping it for a few months but what’s one more plug here too. Shout if you want a referral invite!

  • Women in Product Peer Coaching Committee - I was selected to participate in designing a peer coaching program for mid level Product Managers. Their peer coaching group was one of the catalysts for my journey into coaching, so I’m stoked to give back and make this program even better.

  • Positive Intelligence Coaching Program - I’m at Week 5 of Shirzad Chamine’s Coaching Program. I am loving the Saboteur/Sage framework, the daily mindfulness exercises and connecting with my peer coach pod (hey Connie & Mandy) on a weekly basis. The program is closed but check out more about his work including his book, Positive Intelligence, here.

• ✍️ This month I wrote about

  • How I used experimentation to launch a career pivot

  • My happiest place on the internet - Coaching Corner

  • A reminder that job searching is fking hard

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And finally - A few non product recs (because work isn’t everything even though sometimes it feels like)

1. 📺 A show: Chimp Empire - I am still struggling to accept that this footage is real.

2. ✍️ A Poem: I Have Been A Thousand Different Women - I cry every time I read this. And I’m not a poem person. But maybe I am now?

3. 🎧 A podcast: Las Culturistas: The Top 10 Pop Girlie Debut Singles - This is pure cotton candy deliciousness.

4. 🍅 A bite: It’s heirloom tomato SZN. That is all.