KISS: Keep it short, stupid
Navigating the challenges of a new team, I find myself caught in the crossfires of conflicting work styles, tackling issues of execution, culture, and politics.
🌤️ Weather Report ☀️ My last two weeks were intense at work. My tenant has moved into my rental apartment, and I've been spending my weekends cleaning and repairing it to be move-in ready.
🍹 Two summer drinks I'm loving: Moshi's sparkling white peach yuzu, and Suntory premium draft.
As I hit the 3rd month on the new team, I'm facing a number of challenges: 1) cross-fires in a design war and 2) finding the middle ground between different ways of working.
There are three main problem types: Execution, Culture, and Politics.
- Execution is about how you solve problems.
- Culture is how this team has solved problems in the past.
- Politics is about ownership and credit for solving the problem.
Whenever two parties can't play nice in the same sandbox and there's no resolution, someone has to step in to be a diplomat.
Luckily, that's me.
As a diplomat, my whole purpose is to not get caught in the cross-fire. Facilitating negotiation between two sides requires patience and listening to understand their pain points.
To describe these complicated issues and feelings, it requires having concise and clarity of thought. I strive to explain the problem in 1 sentence, but always fall into analysis paralysis on how to say it.
Complicated problems can be articulated in 2–3 sentences. This forces you to crystallize on what's the most important, and what steps to take next.
When I'm not prepared, which is all the time... I speak 10+ sentences, and it snowballs into a monologue and I need to stop.
Developing the muscle for speaking not too little and not too long requires years of training. Recently, a UX manager told me it took them 5-7 years to reach the right equilibrium.
Wish me luck.
Check out these 2 feet hot dogs we ate on Friday.
Have a lovely week ahead,
What are you guys up to?
