Weeknote, June 21: Cross-project monitoring, a mobility workout, and my favourite career inspo blog post

Work tings

This week was about reviewing how I handled multiple ongoing projects before. I don't know if it's mom-brain or aging, but I can't seem to access memories of how I could keep track of up to 12 web development projects at once, or orchestrate work across four build squads. 😅

Based on my analysis, though, some current factors:

• Remote work relies on pure documentation, unlike in-person work that has "ambient" or passive knowledge transfer
• High-velocity/ Growth-stage start-ups function differently from conglomerates and legacy corporations.
  • Some stark differences (I'll just contrast these two types, first, and I'm not saying that these are the only two types of organizations)

What did my review bring up for me?

Documentation styles

The high-level Gantt chart: My earliest form

• Heavily inspired by working with product managers
• Also the most basic
• Info architecture: Clustered by Product category; and split into the development components
• Team type/ style: Assigned project managers to individual build projects

Experiment roadmap: Mandate/Team with a discovery bent

• Challenge here was to somehow convey decision opportunities, and emphasize that direction is for validation (experimental)
• Other considerations: Also needed to be simple enough to communicate to a team that was trying to absorb a more experimental mindset, and lightweight enough to maintain
• Info architecture: Goals and assumptions, experiment -> timeline
  • with "experiment cards": What are we trying to learn; what are we watching out for + eventual result

Product-stage tracker: Likely the least effective - from a corporate comprehension standpoint, though one I personally liked (Which is a lesson in "You are not your user.")

• The point I was trying to make here was that there were 7+ workstreams, where I wanted to emphasize -- not the timeline -- but the stage-goal we were working on
• Data points: Product/Functional component, Stage, Latest activity/ Highlight
• This was definitely more qualitative. Theoretically, I wanted people to know the "real state" of the product on one page, and not just a date, or signal. But, umm. I don't think that worked for a team that was familiar with/ was probably subliminally expecting a Gantt chart or traffic light chart
• Lesson learned: Meaningful is fine; but don't make the goal a blocker to comprehension.

Comprehensive but high-level status tracker: An attempt to have holistic information

• At this point, I was dealing with less workstreams, but in a faster-paced environment with quicker "status" changes throughout
• We made this more time- and stage-based.
• The best version being one that showed "stages" rather than weeks, and each stage could "light up" or be checked off, once it was hit, per product line
• For a few quarters, I attempted to add metrics and scale/ coverage

Do I have a conclusion?

If I were to draw one now, it would be to just use the most straightforward one, and use it as a tool for discussion or further documentation.

My impression from reviewing everything I had tried was that I was attempting to convey many points at once – which can be nice for "info visualization", but not for actionability.

Life tings

My life

I was able to do a front tuck from an air track mat! It's been a 10-month journey to get myself into a level of strength that I can propel 150 pounds of myself over myself, and I will keep working on it.

• In relation to this, my favorite "find" for the week is this Julia Reppel 20-minute full-body stretch video.

World life

The genocide continues. I don't know what else to say. I did fall into some form of despair over this, this week. Aside from weird fear about how...human rights to free speech and peaceful protest are being increasingly snuffed out in a certain world power. Specific news I had in mind:

• A mayoral candidate and sitting New York City comptroller was apprehended (with a weird amount of physical force) while accompanying one of his residents in an Immigration hearing.
• This is a week after two politicians were assassinated (one was killed, and the other, recovering) by a masked man, impersonating an officer.

It sounds like a CSI plot. But, it isn't.

Why is this part of this blog? Because it's part of what I think and worry about. It'll be a whole new rabbit-hole if I start talking about why. I'll leave that for another time.

Thing I'm trying to remind myself of this week:

Do the thing that you want to be doing.

• This is not my original thought. This comes from one of the most life-changing blog posts I'd read in my 20s: "You are what you eat", by Trent Walton.