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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Scaling up
Fascinating conversation with an industry colleague, this morning.
Key take away
Companies don’t need to scale up in numbers, to scale up
They need to scale up in mindset!
What heals
Time heals
Love heals
Money heals
Music heals
Travel heals
Meditation heals
There is nothing that can be bigger than your will to heal.
Everyday when you wake up, it will the first thing you think about. Until one day it will be the second.
Teach me something
A fascinating interview question, especially for product managers, is
Assume you are a teacher. Teach me something I dont know of
In one stroke this exhibits several important traits of a successful product manager
Ability to structure thoughts
Communicate clearly
Ask for feedback
In the past 2 days alone I have learnt
Why acute mountain sickness happens
How to make kulfi faluda
How do you control directions when paragliding
Why do cars need gears
2 interviews a day
25 days a month
That’s 600 new concepts in a year!
I love what I do!
Note to self
What you eat in private
You wear in public
And I am not talking just food…
Pick one
Here are my favorite interviews questions
1. Speed or perfection?
2. Spontaneous or calculative?
3. Money or power?
4. Starting things or finishing things?
5. Institute or course?
Neither of them have a right or wrong answer. But here is the worst response – “both”
Life doesn’t always give you both. Most of life is about picking one option, one path. Even if you don’t want to.
Only on 3 occasions have people come back and said – neither. I have a third one for me.
All 3 of them are top performers at Groupon today.
They didn’t accept the choices life gave. Chose to create their own path in some way!
Pick one
Better still, create one!
Are you solving the problem, or so you think?
Admit, rectify and never repeat mistakes
Commandment 8 of the Groupon India Bible
If I had to make one for managers, the same would read
Identify the cause and solve, to ensure no repeat problems.
The biggest mistake that managers make which they are unaware of, is that they don’t solve problems. They only address them tactically – at a individual level, circumstantial level, momentary level. They don’t solve the problem. They solve the situation.
Ask yourself – will this problem occur again within the same set of individuals? If yes, you haven’t solved the problem.
It takes a lot more will. A lot more time. Definitely a lot more attention. Imagine the returns, though.
A course on people management?
A conversation with Ankur Singla this weekend set me thinking.
The hardest part about running a company are not the technical issues. Most of those are binary. Capability and perseverance will get you there. If something doesn’t work, you find the solution and fix it. And it mostly works the way you expect.
People don’t work like that.
We are unpredictable. We have varying emotions based on what we had in the morning. We have varying reactions to the same situations. And we expect different things at different times.
Handling people should then be the hardest role of a manager. And it is.
But nothing is codified. There is no Bible. No course. When Singla asked me a few questions, I couldn’t articulate the response despite living those problems everyday (and successfully handling most of them).
And it’s obvious why. Because I am a person myself. The way I handle the same situation is also not standard. It varies.
Crazy!
I wouldn’t pay as much to hear how founders came up with their idea and made it successful
As much as I will pay to hear how they handle people
Excuses
One task – One goal
Imagine designing a customer survey.
You want to know what your customers think of your product.
And while you are at it, you might as well ask them their age, gender, email.
Perhaps get them to even upload a selfie, so that the best one gets a prize. Gamification, as they say it.
Imagine inviting applications for an open role.
You want people to submit their resume.
And while you are at it, you might as well ask for their current compensation, expected compensation, references.
Perhaps get them to upload their marksheets, so that your database can be complete.
As I look back, I see most of my unsuccessful endeavors lying in the bracket of “One Task – Multiple Goals”
Rarely works
Instead – optimize your task for one and one goal alone. Recognize that everything else you add is most likely adding friction to the process. Lowering your chances of getting to the objective.
The survey is only to gather responses
The application is only to gather resumes
The campaign is only to gather traffic
The product is listed only to drive sales
The merchant is acquired only to generate trust
The task is meant to accomplish only one goal!
I have to defeat defeat!
Brilliant!
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