Simply put, the smallest publishable part of knowledge work.
Think outline versus email, notes versus blog post. By breaking up work into its parts and saving those, we can become much more effective.
Long version here:
https://t.co/PtKv38gbYK
Become a learning worker by creating intermediate packets.
By narrowing the scope of my work and shipping more often, my knowledge work is more effective and valuable.
🧵 A thread with 7 reasons to create intermediate deliverables.
🔗 Link to my 2,300-word piece on the topic 👇
Simply put, the smallest publishable part of knowledge work.
Think outline versus email, notes versus blog post. By breaking up work into its parts and saving those, we can become much more effective.
Long version here:
https://t.co/PtKv38gbYK
• Provide value more often
• Become interruption-proof
• Create in any circumstance
• Stay motivated
• Help my future self
• Get more and better feedback
• Avoid heavy lifts
As a knowledge worker, I only create value when my output is used by someone else. I'm in the business of ideas, but if nobody uses them, my work is useless.
Shorter bursts of output give me more opportunities to help.
Working with knowledge means using your fragile working memory. The fuller that memory, the more impactful distractions.
Narrowing the work scope and externalizing it, it's easier to return to your work after an interruption.
Small, clearly scoped pieces of work enable me to match tasks to my current environment and energy level. The only condition for a working session is that I produce something I can ship, no matter how small.
Finishing up work more often and shipping it out for feedback is scary but also a powerful motivator. I have something to show, and the feedback makes it better.
My future self is just as much a reality for me as other people are. Whatever I produce is not only useful for others but also for myself.
Sending valuable packages through time, I make my own life easier.
People are more willing to provide feedback when it's a draft and requires just a few minutes of their time.
Bonus points if I can make people feel heard and show that they influenced the final deliverable.
When delivering a project, I don't need to do a big final push. Projects are a series of short loops where I produce or repurpose knowledge, share it, and integrate the feedback. I simply assemble pieces at the end.
This idea of creating smaller deliverables was taught to me by @fortelabs. His article on bending your productivity curves is worth reading if you want to get deeper into the why of this all.
https://t.co/VIXAkQ4QZR
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"I really want to break into Product Management"
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
"I really want to break into comics"
— Ed Brisson (@edbrisson) December 4, 2018
make comics.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get an editor to notice me."
Make Comics.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE COMICS.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
If everyone was holding bitcoin on the old x86 in their parents basement, we would be finding a price bottom. The problem is the risk is all pooled at a few brokerages and a network of rotten exchanges with counter party risk that makes AIG circa 2008 look like a good credit.
— Greg Wester (@gwestr) November 25, 2018
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
Krugman is, of course, right about this. BUT, note that universities can do a lot to revitalize declining and rural regions.
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote:
One thing I've been noticing about responses to today's column is that many people still don't get how strong the forces behind regional divergence are, and how hard to reverse 1/ https://t.co/Ft2aH1NcQt
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 20, 2018
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote: