Product Therapy: November Updates 🍪

Fall is Falling.

And just like that, it’s November. Last month, I was in a flow state creating content and energized by the Fall momentum. But, just a few days after sending my last monthly update, my flow state came to an abrupt halt. I felt completely destroyed by the news in the Middle East, enveloped by overwhelming sadness and hopelessness in a way I had never experienced about a geopolitical event. It rendered everything I set out to do in early October utterly unimportant. On one hand, what a privilege to be able to pause work and grieve. But on the other hand, what happens when the show has to go on because you're the only one running the show?

In some ways, I gave myself permission to pause and in other ways I went into autopilot mode. I wrote about this but decided not to send it because I don’t want to conflate my working challenges with the devastation, death and loss that’s happening in the Middle East. Our world, and social media in particular, encourage us to make declarations. But not everyone needs to. These were my favorite pieces about that topic this past month from NYT Opinion and NYMag. 

It’s made for a low content, low update kind of month. But perhaps that’s important to share too. 

School days

• I’m in the throws of what can only be described as an intense midterm season. This dive into academia has been exhilarating and challenging in ways I couldn’t have imagined. My day to day questions range from: 

  • Is this assignment written by a human or is it written by ChatGPT?

  • How do I motivate a team that doesn’t care about this class one bit?

  • What grade do I give to a team that puts in a ton of effort without quality?

  • How do I create space for mentorship when I have 140 students and I’m scared of burning out?

• I’m learning so much about myself and what’s important to me in a totally different setting. Maybe most importantly, I really enjoy the team I’m working with. It’s a helpful reminder that the people are 90% of a job :) 

Mock Interviewing

• I haven’t spoken much (or at all?) about a group I’m working with, Intentional Product, to provide mock interviewing services for product managers. Over the course of a few months, I’ve started to have repeat customers and watched them get better and better at their elevator pitches and behavioral questions. It’s been such a joy to meet so many people so quickly and make a small mark on their career journey. 

Coaching

• I’ve got a full load of eager product people I’m coaching 1:1 which is an incredible accomplishment. This path has been rewarding and then some. Right now, many of my clients are going through transitions and riding the ups and downs of those changes. Never did I think that I’d be riding the ups and downs with them too. A job offer for a client feels like a job offer for me. A rejection call feels like a punch to my gut. A pivot in strategy means I’m rolling up my sleeves too. This work remains the most rewarding and impactful work I’ve done all year. 

  • While I’m trying to stay present and enjoy the rest of Q4, I’m also eager to hunker down with my whiteboard to plan for next year. This year of experimentation is coming to an end and I can’t wait to introduce new things next year. To move out of beta into something even bigger and better. 

Some product recs

• If you’re not already following Ha Nguyen and Shreyas Doshi, click on over for great job searching posts. 

This email felt more like a status update because of the loss of momentum in October. But the truth is, I love staying in touch and letting you all know what I’m up to. 

Some non-product recs

🎥 A movie: Promises - an old documentary that helped educate me, as a teen, what the conflict in the Middle East was all about. It was an Oscar winning documentary. Highly recommend. 

✍️ A poem: A James Baldwin passage my Uncle Alan shared with us on the eve of his 70th birthday

🍪A bite: The best buy to ensure a warm cookie every night.