SFB #20-03: Leave Your Options Open
The Startup Foundations Builder Newsletter
Note: this was originally a paid subscriber-only post that has now been made available to paying and free subscribers in order to provide as much useful information to all in light of COVID-19. đ
Hi there, I hope youâre all healthy in body and mind as we continue to navigate our way through Coronavirus. If like me, youâre at home with school-aged children and a working spouse, youâve probably made great friends with the cashier at the local wine and beer shop. Where I live, the government even had to put a limit on how much beer we could buy becauseâŚwellâŚweâre Australian. So, now weâre limited to one carton of beer (thatâs 24 cans or bottles) a day.
Guess thatâll do. đ
In this edition:
My rules to avoid sh*&ty 1:1 meetings + a template
Optionality: The superpower you need right now
Customer Success: Program manager and project manager...whatâs the diff?
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(My current â#stayathomeâ setup. WellâŚI tend to move aroundâŚthis is on my front porch!)
Avoiding sh*t 1 on 1s
My pet hate is ineffective 1:1s. Theyâre cringeworthyâŚlike Ricky Gervaisâ monologues at the Golden Globes. Actually, I find Ricky quite funny. But thereâs nothing funny about crap 1 on 1âs.
Admittedly, Iâve been on both sides â Iâve had managers who were terrible at 1:1s and Iâve been responsible for serving up rubbish ones in my past!
Itâs so easy for 1 on 1s to become a waste of time, and deep down you and your manager/direct report know it. You prepare last minuteâŚyou dread doing themâŚand you walk away wondering what even happened. Actually, sounds a lot like my experience with exams at high school.
Often 1 on 1s become more of a tactical update meeting, mostly rehashing stuff youâve already covered in numerous other meetings/messages/emails. Youâre repeating something you almost definitely already typed in Slack.
Here are two rules I have for 1:1s:
Most of the discussion should be about things you donât talk about in other meetings and wouldnât talk about around other people (i.e. itâs personal type stuff). If you catch yourself talking often about typical business as usual stuff (status update, what are you working on, hereâs what we need to fix for this reportâŚetc) then still have these types of meetings, but donât call them 1:1s. Just call them what they are: âstatus updatesâ or âexecution alignmentâ or âwork-in-progress standupsâ. And change the cadence of your 1:1s (if they were weekly, make them fortnightly, or try something weird like every 11 working days).
Have an âawkwardâ conversation in every 1:1. Talk about something a little uncomfortable. This means weâre pushing out of our comfort zone, and is often where real growth comes from. It also helps to build genuine relationships.
Practical steps to take:
Check out this 1:1 template. The most important part of this is to get your direct to add talking points in advance. Have them take some ownership of the meeting, so it becomes two-way.
Focus on talking points which fall into categories including: Building trust/relationship; staying informed/aligned on big picture stuff (not day to day execution stuff); providing/asking for feedback; professional/personal development of your direct.
Help coach your direct to add talking points in these categories, too. Help them understand the difference between a 1:1 and a âstatus updateâ meeting. Discuss the âawkwardâ conversation goal with them. Let them know itâs OK to ask an awkward question/topic, and that youâll do it too. Of course, by awkward, I donât mean things considered inappropriate, like discussing a private health issue, a colleaguesâ marriage problems, or how the Seahawks lost the 2014 season Superbowl. I mean awkward as in things people often deliberately avoid at work because they fear the truth - both hearing it and giving it - or retribution for speaking the truth.
Examples of some conversations to have (some of which may have the awkward element if you drill in and are vulnerable with each other.)
Discuss feelings and emotions. Either discuss how youâre feeling, what youâre sensing from your direct, or simply ask them how theyâre feeling. Drill in. Ask why.
Discuss fears. What are you afraid of? What are they afraid of (try keep it to career, project, work-related, mostly). Why? How can you help each other overcome these fears? And why are you afraid of clowns, anyway?
Tell them about a growth area youâre working on (e.g. âIâve been working on my communication skillsâ). Tell them why. Ask how they feel youâre going. Flip the conversation to them. What are they working on for personal/professional growth? What would you suggest to them?
Ask for feedback. Ignore the first answer. Itâs probably not the whole truth. Ask again and go deeper.
Admit mistakes or things you could have done better. Ask for their input/insight/advice. Flip the conversation on to them.
Itâs a bird, itâs a plane, itâsâŚ.optionality
I was ghostwriting a piece for a company CEO recently. When writing these articles, my job is to find a unique angle. The article needs to float atop the sea of content - most of which, at the moment, has the word âzoomâ, âremoteâ, âunprecedentedâ or âTrumpâ in the title.
When interviewing the CEO, he spoke about how his company provided its clients with options. It reminded me of optionality, a concept explored by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book "Antifragile." So I wrote the piece with this focus.
Optionality basically means having lots of options which have a limited downside but a potentially huge upsideâŚshould you recognise circumstances that would lead to following an option to give you the best outcome. In Talebâs words:
Options, any options, by allowing you more upside than downside, are vectors of antifragility.
If you âhave optionality,â you donât have much need for what is commonly called intelligence, knowledge, insight, skills, and these complicated things that take place in our brain cells. For you donât have to be right that often. All you need is the wisdom to not do unintelligent things to hurt yourself (some acts of omission) and recognize favorable outcomes when they occur.Â
Taleb views the world as becoming increasingly complex, with the future becoming harder to predict than a Quentin Tarantino movie plot twist. So, instead of trying to predict it, give yourself multiple options. Then, no matter what happens in time, you can assess your options and follow the most favourable one. Or just watch âFrom Dusk till Dawnâ and be done with it all.
You can imagine why this was a hot angle to go for at this time.
Optionality is a superpower right now for those who have it. Being able to quickly pivot and even accelerate in a world thatâs largely standing still is priceless.
I hope the experience weâre all having in this pandemic encourages us to develop more optionality. Many simple things can create optionality, including:
Travel
Relationships and meeting people
Starting a hobby or side business
Saying yes more often
Running with Talebâs concept - optionality is the only way to outperform the average over time, particularly as uncertainty increases. This can apply to your personal life and your business.
Go read âAntifragileâ to learn more.
Should I project manage or program manage in Customer Success?
I was building a Customer Success team when my boss said, âitâs time you hired a PM on your team.â
Great! Except âPMâ means a few different things. For one, itâs the common acronym we use for the Prime Minister of Australia. I probably wouldnât have hired the then PM of Australia anywayâŚwouldnât have been a great culture fit.
PM can also mean Product Manager, Program Manager and Project Manager.
âWhich variety of PM exactly?â I asked. âA Program Managerâ came the reply.
It got me thinking at the timeâŚwhat IS the difference between a Program Manager and a Project Manager anyway? And when do I need either on my Customer Success team?
Hereâs what I came up with - in the context of Customer Success. Hopefully, it helps you think about when these might be the right resources to add to your team.
Project Manager: Manages projects. Yep, ok, you knew that. A Project Manager in the customer success sense is someone who needs to pull many resources together across an organization to achieve a time-bound thing your team is responsible for. E.g. a project might be âbeta opt-in abilityâ - you want to deliver the ability for high-value customers to be able to opt-in to using beta features. By Tuesday. A Project Manager would identify the key stakeholders in engineering, product and customer success, form a project team, project plan and deadline. Then theyâd manage the co-ordination, communication and execution of this - with an ultimate goal of completing on time and within budget.
Program Manager: A Program Manager works to deliver and operate programs which are often ongoing, with no specific deadline. Rather than a goal of on time and within budget, the Program Managerâs goal is to adapt and evolve the program. They own key metrics like the number of people recruited to the program, the number of active users in the program, revenue generated, activities completed and so on. Programs are often made up of a number of projects running both concurrently and sequentially. Therefore, program managers might manage a team of project managers. Following on from the previous exampleâŚa Program Manager would own the overall Customer Beta program, of which the beta-opt-in ability is a project within it. A Program Manager has a more strategic and long term view over the programs they own.
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âtill next time -
Clayton đ
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