Putting Amazon’s PR/FAQ to Practice
Amazon has a fairly famous practice of writing press releases before launching new products. The name they have for this is the ‘Working Backwards process’ and the primary artefact to come out of that process is something called a ‘PR/FAQ’ — so named because the one-page Press Release is usually accompanied by a long FAQ section, covering most, if not all, the commonly asked questions about the proposed product, feature, or initiative.
^ADJ: I have read a few books now on Amazon, and this management technique that they have ingrained into the culture is always discussed. I think it has a lot of merit, it helps focus teams on what is important and significant. Potentially deals with issues upfront that need to be addressed, and could help with that one week later “what exactly did we agree to” issue.
re:Work - Guide: Give feedback to managers
Google gathers feedback from employees on their managers through a semi-annual Manager Feedback Survey. Googlers answer confidentially and managers receive a report of anonymized, aggregated feedback if they get at least three survey responses, to preserve anonymity. Reports used to require more responses to ensure anonymity and avoid manager retaliation but the People Operations team didn't see much of this behavior. By reducing the threshold for reporting to three, far more managers of smaller teams could benefit from the feedback
^ADJ: Great questions to be asked of all manager - how would you rate?
Sheila Heen: How to Navigate Hard Conversations
Sheila and Auren discuss how to approach your toughest conversations, including best practices for opening a negotiation, defusing conversations that feel adversarial and giving and receiving better feedback. They also talk about the surprising similarities in tough conversations at work and at home, and how you can use negotiation strategies to throw a better dinner party.
^ADJ: hard conversations are the worst, we avoid them naturally, but ultimately they don’t go away, so some good tips on having these conversations.
Don’t Let Them Underestimate You
We all hope our resume and experiences will speak for themselves. But a friend of mine — a 40 year-old former special agent and combat veteran — recently emailed me about a persistent problem. “When I contact leaders in my industry, they almost always agree to talk,” he told me. “But some have been treating me as if I were an undergrad.”
^ADJ: we are all time short, so sometimes an email introducing yourself, demonstrating capability goes along way
The Habits of Sustainable Excellence
Here are nineteen interrelated habits for the journey to Excellence.
Most People Won't
A good reminder that Execution is Everything, a quote that I came across the other day from a VC: “ideas are worth 5%, execution of ideas are worth the remaining 95%”