Reminder: impact > action

This post is your regular reminder to not get sucked into what’s right in front of you, and to give yourself the space to ask “why” and “what for”.

There’s always so much to do, and it’s tempting to reach for the work that would be a quick win, that would keep the engineers busy, or that would at least relieve some of the pressure you feel as you look around.

You know the feeling:

1. Things are broken that you know how to fix.¹

2. Customers and prospects are demanding features that you can easily see how to build.²

3. Internal stakeholders are turning up the volume on their feature requests, and it wouldn’t be that hard to build.³

In these moments, take a deep breath and center yourself. Go for a walk. Touch grass. Sleep on it.

Remember: our job performance is not measured by activity, it’s measured by impact. The decisions we make have consequences for people on other teams that last weeks or months, so it’s right to take a couple hours or couple days to make sure we’re making the best choice.

Start with: What are the hypotheses we’re trying to prove or execute? How would we know if we’re making progress?

If you’re jumping to “we should do what drives revenue”, I would ask — are all dollars worth the same? Or would some kinds of revenue be more strategic than others?

If you’re jumping to “we should respond to what users are saying”, I would say — yes, it’s great to listen to users, but also keep in mind that users don’t have the context you do, the experience that you do, or even the same goals as you do.

Find the work that would really make a difference. If you’re not sure, try making the case for it: “We’re focused on this because…. “ How does your argument feel in your body when you read it? Do you believe it?

The Workshop

This is a newsletter-only section where I share a half-baked idea in hopes that y’all who are smarter than me can work it out with me.

I just want to say, the way Peacock has executed these Olympics has really impressed me. The app is good and handles scale really well. It nails the major Jobs To Be Done: sometimes I just want to turn it on and have something playing, sometimes there is a specific event I want to see, sometimes I just want to catch up on what I missed but only have a few minutes, I want all the playback controls of pause, rewind, replay even while the stream is still live.

It’s a little iffy on a few of the mid-tier JTBD (looking at you, Gold Zone with four to six screens that are each so small I can’t actually see what’s happening). And they integrated a number of interactive features (e.g. something gets mentioned in the content and a CTA pops up to add it to my watch list) that finally makes it feel like an app and not just a content portal.

(I’m focusing on Peacock the app product but holy hell, the operational complexity of producing this much content per day is mind blowing.)

If I could make a feature request for next time, I’d love some personalization and some feeling of social media. Think TikTok - based on my viewing patterns, start showing me content that I’m more likely to watch. What’s trending right now? There have been so many moments that have turned into memes - Pommel Horse Guy, the Turkish pistol guy - it’d be fun to have that content pushed to me. Or, if my viewing patterns show I’m super into a particular sport, take me down that rabbit hole. Start showing me content that are deeper cuts than what others would see.

In moments where there is an over-abundance of supply (in this case content, but also works for marketplaces or information), there is opportunity for algorithms (based on ML, user behavior, LLMs, etc) to help us sort through and find our own personalized set of “the good stuff”.

1  OK, one exception — if you’re a new employee and need to earn some credibility, a handful of quick wins can go a long way.

2  This is the trap that many mid-level ICs fall into. You’re far enough into your career that you can now quickly see solutions to problems, and you’re giddy to prove it. So you do a quick scan, spot some problems, and jump straight to “oh, it’d be so easy to build that”. I’m proud of you, too. And, what’s next is, “should we build that?”

3  Again, similar to footnote 1 — sometimes it is right to inflate the priority of some stakeholder requests, if you’re new and building social capital. As the gatekeeper to engineering resources, we always have to balance the relational aspects of working within a team with the responsibilities of deciding what priorities would turn the efforts of the company’s highest paid resources (engineers) into business and customer value.