Actually this post has little to do with Closely specifically, but more to do with what I have learned during my last year in a new endeavor. We "officially" started the company at the beginning of December 2009, so I've had ample time to pick up a few "aha" moments. And I'm happy to say, I've had quite a few more of those moments than I've had in the past 10 years or so. I will attribute that to my advancing age and a mind that becomes increasingly open as the years rapidly past. So, in no order whatsoever, here are some things I have learned:
- I really, really love product management. I always have and I had forgotten how passionate I am about the daily details and the profession as a whole. NewsGator was the first company in a long while that I did not oversee or participate actively in the product management side of the company. I'm certainly glad to be back.
- But, I also really, really love managing clients and overseeing the customer services side of the house. So, for the time being, I have the best of both worlds in that I manage this aspect of Closely as well. And, by manage, I mean that I do 95% of the hands-on work for both functions.
- Speaking of hands-on work...damn, it's fun and rewarding. Over the last 15 years, I have held a number of management roles from Director to VP and I do enjoy leadership and organizational process. But, doing real work everyday, all day is something from which I found myself removed. I realize that with success and growth, I will have to return to the ranks of management. But, I sure am enjoying the trenches while I can.
- I think I have become better at managing a roadmap to focus on a healthy mix of innovation and real-world feedback. It is a challenge to let features you are convinced are indispensable fall to the bottom of the priority list until they are market validated. Likewise, it can be nerve-wracking to let a feature move to the top of the list that is highly speculative but heavy on innovation. You have to do both and you have to just learn to let go when necessary.
- Execution is a creative art in itself. I have never considered myself to be the creative one. Oh, I can come up with a feature idea here and there, but it is usually motivated by what customers tell me or what the competition is doing. But if everyone is rattling off ideas and no one is focused on execution, you will end up with a lovely list of ideas that never get done. My forte is in execution and I've grown to accept and be proud of that.
- This is the first time in many years, that I am not running engineering. And guess what? It is profoundly liberating. As a former engineer with a graduate degree in computer science, running engineering was a huge part of my identity. But, having a natural and healthy tension between engineering and product is critical and I am thrilled to be on the other side of the fence for a change.
- Speaking of engineers....I love 'em. And, I've come to appreciate more than ever all of the great engineers and engineering managers I've worked with all these years who are true geeks. They will do anything to get back to writing code and solving challenging technical problems. The best of the best don't want to sit in meetings. They don't want to sit around and read articles all day. They don't want to write product requirements. And, they sure as hell don't want to do PPT presentations. If I've never expressed it to my network of rockstar engineers, you have my profound respect and appreciation.
- Finally, I haven't missed an office for a single second. Working in an open space with the entire team has been a blast and I love coming to work everyday because of it.
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