September 28, 2021
The fall Council meetings are next week and one of the biggest questions members have is how to address the so-called Great Resignation. More people, especially younger high-potential employees, are leaving for new jobs at a higher rate than ever before.
The theme for the meeting I’m suggesting is “hearts and minds.” Before I explain the connection between that and the Great Resignation let me tell you about Amy.
Amy is a talented young designer who has done groundbreaking work in the gaming industry (and as an Asian-American woman she’s breaking barriers).
Two years ago, she built an innovative game that generated some of the best press her company has ever received – television around the globe, Instagram, leading newspapers and magazines, Tik Tok, etc. Literally *hundreds of thousands* of impressions. It was an “earned media” bonanza.
The game, however, turned out not to be a commercial hit.
So, what did her managers and her company do?
Did they thank Amy? Did they celebrate her gutsiness, the impact of the press she generated, or her willingness to fail?
No.
They quietly killed the game.
Further, they did not include her in the decision.
They simply pulled the plug and transferred her to their flagship game.
Game over.
And Amy has been depressed ever since.
In fact, this last weekend she was ready to quit.
I spent an hour Saturday talking her down from the ledge – not because I didn’t think she could go find a good job somewhere else, but because she had more work to do internally with this company to see if she could get the support she needs and deserves (I was teaching her some more “positive politics”).
My question to many readers of this newsletter, especially those who are mid- or senior-level, is why are they making it so hard for some of the best talent to stay?
Since we launched a program last year for young product, and UX leaders (more on that in a future newsletter), I have been busy helping these young folks not react to some of the dumbsh*t things they run into.
There’s *no* reason Amy’s bosses could not have recognized her success.
It literally costs nothing to acknowledge, to thank, to connect emotionally to Amy and make her feel appreciated, listened to, understood, and, at the same time, to teach her why and how the game failed.
So, why do so many of them not do this?
It’s NOT because they don’t care. I know because I also talk to many such leaders every day.
And it’s not because they don’t have a heart. They definitely do. Many of them are also burnt out, sad, dealing with challenges personally and professionally.
We are human beings after all.
No, I believe there’s a different reason.
And having said that I can now address the fall 2021 meeting’s theme.
I’m using the theme “hearts and minds” mostly because I want members to get better at being open and vulnerable, to connect to their own hearts.
If you are not empathetic towards yourself, you will *never* be empathetic towards others.
If you bottle up your own emotions, then you’ll find it hard to connect to your Amys.
I have a lot of compassion for the mid- and senior-level leaders who avoid emotions. The business world of the 1990s and 2000s (and much of the 2010s) taught us all to repress, ignore, or otherwise not “indulge” our feelings.
But we are all like Amy. We all experience disappointments and sadness. We all crave recognition and appreciation. And many of us are burnt out.
So with these fall meetings, I hope to help you connect a little more to your own heart (and to the hearts of your fellow members). Simply knowing you should be empathetic is nowhere near enough. You need to practice empathy and that starts with opening your own hearts (and minds).
Game on!
Phyl
P.S. Today, Tue 9/28 at 4pm ET is the first fall keynote featuring the wonderful Teresa Torres. You can open your minds to continuous discovery and still signup and join us (and we are opening this one up to everyone). To register: Click here to email Britany Chism (and you can register your teams too!)
Fall Keynote
- The What & Why of Continuous Discovery – Tue, Sep 28 @4pm ET
Teresa Torres, Author, Speaker, and Product Discovery Coach
Talk Type: Product
Audience/Roles: All Roles
To register: Click here to email Britany Chism (register your teams to join too!)
Most product teams are starting to adopt discovery best practices (e.g. interviewing customers, usability testing, experimenting). However, many of us are still stuck in a project world. We do research to kick off a project, we usability test right before we hand off to engineers, and our primary means for experimenting is a/b testing. These methods are better than nothing, but the best product teams are shifting from a project mindset to a continuous mindset. In this talk, we’ll explore the key differences between project-based discovery and continuous discovery and give your team a clear benchmark to aspire to.
Bio: Teresa Torres is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, coach, and longtime friend of the Councils (she was a moderator of one of our Product Councils at one point). She’s coached hundreds of teams at companies of all sizes, from early-stage start-ups to global enterprises, in a variety of industries and has taught more than 7,000 through her Product Talk Academy. She’s the author of the recently published book, Continuous Discovery Habits, and blogs at ProductTalk.org.
Recent Talks and Activity Recordings
- Clubhouse and the Audio Revolution (not recorded)
Jonathan Ehrlich, Partner, Foundation Capital
Talk Type: In the Moment
Audience/Roles: All Roles
Two things to know about Jonathan Ehrlich:
1) he co-led the seed round in Clubhouse and was thus the first venture capitalist to spot its potential;
2) he’s a Councils alum with an interesting career arc.We held an informal conversation with Jonathan about Clubhouse, the future of audio, and Jonathan’s career journey from a mostly offline retailer in Canada to relocating to Silicon Valley and reinventing himself.—
Bio
—Jonathan Ehrlich is a Partner at Foundation Capital who invests in early early-stage consumer, marketplace, commerce, and SaaS startups and technologies. He joined Foundation Capital in 2013 as a partner after spending nine months with the firm as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Before joining Foundation Capital, Jonathan spent 17 years as an operator during which he founded three companies, built a $100M+ revenue business, and ran marketing for Facebook. He is the first institutional investor in Clubhouse and currently sits on the board of Bulletin and Chord. His Foundation and personal investments include Shelf Engine, Mainstreet, Truepill, Hooked, WayUp, League, Front, and Flexport. When not working, he can be found on his bike or chasing his four kids around.
- No Ego, Part 2 (not recorded)
Cy Wakeman, Best-selling Author and CEO
Talk Type: Leadership Development, Culture
Audience/Roles: All Roles
We had a follow-up session with Cy last Friday that was amazing. We did NOT record it due to confidentiality. We will be planning more.
In the meantime, you can watch the spring keynote with Cy, which was a GREAT session. Members loved it. I collected live case studies from members, which I anonymously shared with Cy to get her reaction on what was to be done. You gotta watch to see her great answers.
Cy Wakeman is a drama researcher, global thought-leader, and New York Times best-selling author who is recognized for cultivating a counter-intuitive, reality-based approach to leadership. Backed by over 20 years of unparalleled experience, Wakeman’s philosophy offers a new lens through which employees and executives alike, can shift their attention inward, sharpen their focus on personal accountability, and uncover their natural state of innovation simply by ditching the drama.
Deemed “the secret weapon to restoring sanity to the workplace,” Wakeman has helped companies such as Google, Facebook, Viacom, Uber, NBC Universal, NASA, Pfizer, Johns Hopkins, Stanford Health Care, Keurig Dr. Pepper, AMC Theatres, White Castle, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and countless others learn to navigate our rapidly changing world using good mental processes to harness energy wasted in workplace drama and reinvest that effort into achieving profound business results.
- Battle Buddies – A Way to Support Your Teams
Craig Hopkins, CIO, City of San Antonio
Talk Type: Leadership Development; Skill Builder/Practitioner
Audience/Roles: All Roles
We ran a short QnA-focused webinar with Craig to introduce an idea that has taken off in his org, the City of San Antonio, where he is the CIO.It’s called Battle Buddies. So, what is a Battle Buddy?Adapted from the US Army, a battle buddy is a partner assigned to an employee in an organization who is expected to assist his or her partner.Even though we are not in military combat, Craig says our corporate responsibilities can feel just as stressful and overwhelming at times.A battle buddy is not only intended for comradery and support, but also to help reduce stress, provide professional and leadership guidance, and at times, get into the trenches together to get things done. Since we will each be watching each other’s actions, we are all battle buddies to each other, as partners and as a leadership team, driven by our mission while adhering to our Core Values.Craig talked about how this has worked in his organization and how to set it up in yours.
- JTBD in Large Distributed Environments
Jay Haynes, Founder & CEO, thrv.com
Talk Type: Product; Skill Builder/Practitioner
Audience/Roles: All Roles
Jobs To Be Done has proven to be an effective methodology for building much better holistic end-to-end products and customer experiences.
*But* CG Council member companies with large distributed environments are finding it difficult to apply JTBD in effective ways.
Jay Haynes, CEO of thrv, and a global expert on JTBD will come and speak to the Councils community on this specific challenge of using the methodology in large, complex technology environments.
- Groundwork: Get Better at Making Better Products
Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin, co-Authors of Groundwork
Talk Type: Product
Audience/Roles: All Roles
Product leaders are all too familiar with the one to two-year period it typically takes to train and coach PMs. Product leaders hire smart people and then work with them individually, guiding them through how to think about product management, and watching them develop. Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin wanted a much faster way to help cultivate efficient and effective product managers that consistently create products that delight customers, regardless of the industry, the environment, and the development methodology that the team employed. They took years of experience as product executives and working with hundreds of teams as product coaches to create a framework to Get Better at Making Better Products.
The design philosophy and methodology behind Groundwork was created to help product leaders be confident that their teams were committed to solving the right customer problems, minimizing costly rework by using individualized needs, and leveraging actionable personas in big and small product decisions. Vidya and Heather want Groundwork to help product teams have a much higher chance of success in the market—and help every product manager shine.
Join Vidya and Heather as they share the background, principles, and methodology behind the Groundwork to help you, and your team, get better at making better products.
- Making the Case for Empowering Your People
Marty Cagan, Partner, Silicon Valley Product Group
Talk Type: Product, Leadership Development, Culture
Audience/Roles: All Roles
From Marty: “I have long been interested in the difference between how the best companies work, and the rest. Working with both types of organizations for so many years, there are many differences ranging from culture to process to staffing to roles to techniques. But at its core, strong product companies empower their people, and most of the rest do not. My focus over the past few years has been tackling this issue head-on, which means the product leadership. In this talk, we’ll discuss why this model consistently yields better results, and what’s necessary to transform to work like the best.”
Marty’s Bio: Marty Cagan is the founding partner of the Silicon Valley Product Group, which he created to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising and coaching. Before starting SVPG, Marty served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, and eBay.As part of his work with SVPG, Marty advises tech companies of all sizes and stages, stretching far beyond Silicon Valley. Marty is the author of the industry-leading book for product teams, INSPIRED: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love, and the upcoming book EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products. Marty is an invited speaker at major conferences and top companies across the globe.
- See talks from the last month and beyond here.
