I PUBLISH, THEREFORE I AM

The headache we get after travelling is not because of travelling

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:42:00 +0000

...it is because of what happens before travelling that causes headache; things like:

Checking our flight tickets around 4 million times to see the departure time and having to answer the questions from stupid-people who want to know "At what time will the flight *actually* take-off?"
Last minute office work that did not make you cancel your trip but spoiled your relaxed mind-set by making you think "After coming back, there is going to be so much to do...damn! I am fucked"
Getting so many trip advises from people that you start thinking "I already know every goddamn detail about the place I am going to, it's feels like I've already been there....why am I even going?"
Calling the cab guy and getting tensed about him not picking-up his cell phone (all you know, he simply did not pick-up because he was driving to your location)
Calling up the guys whose place your are going to and finding them super-busy just that day (all you know, they are just finishing their office-work so that when you reach their place, they won't have to work long hours and can spend time with you)
The suitcase is too full, you gotta choose and remove 3 of the most amazing shirts you have and you don't wanna remove any of those (repeat after me...seriously, repeat after me "I can wash my cloths and wear them again, I don't have to take 20 shirts because I am going there for 20 days")

You and I can just go on and on about this (can't we?). Now, what happens to your brain because of all these activities? it gets used-up or stressed-out; and by the time you reach your destination, it aches. I don't see a business model that can solve this problem, a trip-planner can plan your trip and execute the plan but it can't do shit about the office calls and your suitcase problem. Actually, you know what...fuck business models! we don't need any of that crap...we simply need peace of mind and we need to understand that if we are going on a long vacation, we need some 1 or 2 days of vacation before the long vacation, so that we are already in the vacation before going to the actual vacation (what a solution...what a solution..wow!).

My head is aching so bad (already!) that all I can do to relax myself is write a blog post...I am lying, I'd rather take a Saradon headache relief pill. By the way, one last thing, if you deal with software product management, you'll know that what I just brilliantly did is called root cause analysis :-P. Also, I think this post would have been a little more credible had I written this after travelling and not now.

Why would I leave you and what makes me unhappy

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:03:00 +0000

You made me THIS happy in the beginning, but now you only make me THIS happy...I kinda feel bad now and eventually I'll be unhappy with you.

What I am saying is, if you would have made me THIS happy in the beginning and you continued to make me THIS happy...I would have been really happy with you, all the way; and wait, I think you are the best.

Now you know why people become unhappy. Not-being-happy-enough is what makes a lot of us unhappy. By the way, whenever I get a little depressed or I feel lonely, I call up people and try to hang-out with them till I am good to go, or else I watch National Geography to see zebras and buffaloes getting killed by Lions and Tigers...and then I feel, wow!, what a life I have. I am simply relived (that's called reverse engineering, if you know what I mean).

We are hurting ourselves by buying products out of impulse

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:51:00 +0000

It seems like, sellers want you to buy a product right now because it is on discount right now. Although, you need that product in the future; is it really wise to buy the product now and store it till you need it? I don't think so, coz earlier, discounts used to be once in a while, now-a-days discounts are on every freaking day of the year...and not just that, with the kind of rapidity in the product development space, I am sure that the product you bought now is going to be outdated in a few months (you know that, don't you?). What goes on in our mind is that, we are getting amazing discounts now and we should intelligently purchase the product and use it later...but the point is, the product that is on discount now, will always be on discount (does that strike you?). For instance, when was the last time you bought a shoe and it was not on discount (unless you purchase premium designer shoes, you will always find discounts of shoes).

Discounts are here to stay. And, discounts are good for us coz nobody wants to pay the retail price. So, the discounted value is actually like the market value of a product and that's what is value-for-money. Also, a lot of us need to understand that we shouldn't buy out of impulse, instead we should buy out of need. The problem is that we buy out of impulse and when others actually need the product, the product prices are higher than usual (remember! you raised the demand for no reason). We are hurting ourselves; so don't buy a product because you can and because you might need it in the future. Period.

Short case study: An online portal for improving employees health

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:56:00 +0000

There is this new craze in a company; all of a sudden, employees are trying to improve their health by going on a walk, climbing stairs, reading and taking quizzes on why our teeth go yellow...like you guessed, everything is online! In general, the thought of a Facebook-like-website improving someone's health is ridiculous. But still, it's too early to say that the online portal is not able to make the employees healthy; only time will tell if it really helped the employees improve their health. As far as I know, the results that would really make a difference in the employees health are something like this:

5 employees quit smoking
20 employees started going to the gym regularly (and they have been very religious about it for the last 3 months)
Over 20% of the employees have taken up a sport and they play the sport at least 3 times a week
There is 40% decrease in the soft-drink consumption in the office
There is a 30% increase in the number of drinking water cans consumed by the employees

That's what the results of a heath challenge should look like. By the way, this health challenge is a super-duper-hit with the employees. It isn't totally because there are amazing features in this online health portal...it is considerably because the winner gets an iPad. Lets say, there are a 1500 employees in the company taking up the health challenge; the probability of winning the iPad is really good and it is definitely worth a shot. But we are missing the boat, what about employee's health, is the online portal actually planning to do anything about it? It surely doesn't seem to. In general, an online health portal can't push any employee to a workout session nor can it help employees understand why it is important to eat fruits...coz most of the guys in the office know about the health related problems, how to improve one's health etc.

Bottom line: to improve employees health, we need real trackers and helpers. For instance, a better investment to improve an employee's health is to have an office health inspector who can actually get personal with the employees and help them improve their health by physically being present at the office and at the office gym. I am guessing that the investment on the online portal is way more than the pay of a health inspector, so, even investment-wise, a health inspector is a better option.

Don't just make an investment, run with it on a regular basis

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:17:00 +0000

Individuals invest in their own ideas the way companies do. Each one of us have our own ideas to implement and because we don't have to report to anyone and because there is no framework in place, we are not organized about how we go about implementing the ideas and tracking the return on investment of those ideas. For those who know the power of compounding know that overtime everything compounds and the investment today is going to be 10 times more, 10 years from now (when I say investment, I mean money or work).

With that, the best foot forward at this point would be to invest in 3-4 ideas for the long-term. The article at McKinsey Quaterly on Just-in-time strategy is very apt for companies as well as individuals. Fact: We know what we like, we know what we'd like to see us doing 10 years from now; the investment that is required for us to realize what we want to do later in life is the implementation (right now) of a portfolio of ideas and habits. We also know that the way companies are run are not really optimal because a sense of ownership of work can never be enforced, it is only to be realized by the employees of a company. Now, when we invest in oneself, we really own the investment and take care of it...therefore, there is no way we are going to find sense-of-ownership problems with our work/investments (don't worry, we will have a lot of other problems to fix).

Some of my ideas and way-of-life have already been implemented for over 2-3 years and I can see that pursuing anything for a few years makes you really good at it. Most of us (below 50 years old) have a long long way to go and it's time to heavily invest on oneself, and not just that, we need to track/monitor/improve our investments religiously. That is, don't just make an investment, run with it on a regular basis.

Go big or go home

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:11:00 +0000

There are so many decisions to make and many a times we try to minimize risks in our decisions. You know, I know, everybody knows that minimizing risks also means minimizing incentives. At times, for a major change in our lives, we have got to take decisions that are like “Go big or Go home”; we either take it all or go naked and start over again. The very adrenaline of going big makes people trust their instincts and gamble away some of their most precious things. Sounds insane, and it sure is.

I’ve never had to make a decisions that was like go big or go home, but I sure have learnt that minimizing risks isn’t always the best decision…it’s not really the best decision that you can make. I am envious of a lot of guys who got big just because they did not think about minimizing risk, instead, they thought only and only about going big…although they knew that it can get worse and they might return home with nothing in hand.

Still helping my cousin find a job

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:12:00 +0000

I am helping my cousin find the right job and I don’t really know if the way I am guiding him is correct, coz there isn’t a place where I can go and check what exact skills are required in a particular job market and what should a person do to get that kind of a job. It was because I was inquisitive and had lots of people to talk to that I was able to understand what I like and who needs my skills…this doesn’t really happen to everyone. So, what we really need is:

· Realistic ways of identifying and informing skill set – there are amazing job portals that help us find a job but they sometimes place or engage you with someone who isn’t worthy of you (or may be, you aren’t worthy). Resume is flashy and there is no dearth of marketing words that a resume can’t fit. It becomes really difficult for people to map their skills to what the employer is looking for.

· Skill set and training – so many people are looking for jobs, and so many employers are looking for candidates. Doesn’t it make sense to hire the guys who looking for jobs…but the unfortunate thing is that people want to give jobs to only those who already have a steady job…why? Because they are doers and they are really confident about the skills required for the job.

· College doesn’t help – there are so many professors in the colleges teaching kids engineering/commerce/arts…how about they tell their kids – how to use LinkedIn? How to join the communities and find the right people in the community (those who can help you get the right job)? Why not and why to apply for jobs at different offices?...people expect you to enter a job and then understand what it’s all about; as a matter of fact, job roles are pretty clear to the many who were on the job, we just need to connect with these guys to understand what the job is all about.

· Unrealistic job requirements – I saw a job with a ridiculous list of job requirements from a fresher; even guys with 5+ years in that role will find it hard to fulfill those requirements. A lot of employers are losing employees because they do not have well formed job descriptions.

The questions that need to be answered: What kinds of jobs are there in the market? What exact skills do I need to get the job? How to get hands-on experience on the skills the employer is looking for?

I am going to do my bit, I will prepare a required skill set for Technical writers. Actually, I am writing a book for technical writers…so, I’ll just give the required sections for free.

Routine builds momentum to getting things done

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:38:00 +0000

Sometimes you lose your momentum due to the many things happening around you; what used to take you 15 minutes to get done, is taking almost 2-3 hours now. You lose your momentum because some big thing comes and changes your routine…the routine was what was helping you keep/gain the momentum of doing-things, but because you messed with the routine, you lost the momentum. The only way you can get your momentum to get things done is by forming another or the same-old routine. Routine builds momentum. Period.

Now, I know why I am not able do my work as quick as I used to. Now I know why am I not really psyched about coming to office in the morning..Now I know why I get irritated by seeing a problem at workplace. The way I look at things has totally changed because I was down with VIRAL fever for 3-4 days and because of other negative thoughts in my mind…Anyways, I did get a lot of rest, I gotta feel good about it and start building my momentum once again.

When down with viral - handicapped only if the infection is settled

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:18:00 +0000

Of interest to guys who don’t want to or who can’t be dependent when they are down with cold or viral or any infections of this kind.

You are old enough to understand when you are catching cold or when your body is weakening. Once you know about it, all you gotta do it is rush to the doctor and get it diagnosed, or go home and lie down for one whole night after having the prescribed drug from the medical store guy (guys in the medical store know a lot, you don’t always need a doctor). The point is, you are handicapped only if the infection is settled in your system.

I had never been so helpless before; I did not brush my teeth for 2 days, did not want to eat with my own hands for two days (I wanted someone to feed me), I did not know which medicine to take when (not in a mood to read the prescription). All in all, I could have avoided all this if I had gone to the doctor right after I felt weak or when I had terrible throat infection.

PS: Nothing new, sounds easy. Let me see if I can do this myself.

Doing things untimely saves us a lot of time...this is how

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:32:00 +0000

Being untimely doesn’t just save you time, it makes your time more valuable. It is precisely because people do their stuff on time and their timing is so much in sync with everyone else that it makes it difficult for guys-in-sync to not end-up wasting time.

The best example is: untimely going to and coming back from office. The point is, you start before 8:30 am or after 11:30 am and find traffic free streets, come to office and get 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time when most of your colleagues aren’t in the office (the best time to get your work done). Then finish your work and go home at 5:00pm (before the peak hours) or go late at 11:00pm (after the peak hours). You don’t just save time by not catching the traffic, but you get uninterrupted/peaceful 2-3 hours time to optimally concentrate and get your job done (thereby making your time more valuable).

Be untimely, get things done with ease and let other go on-time (if you know what I mean J). Time of the day is a very important parameter to consider when doing your work.

What to do when someone is not able to make you understand something

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:21:00 +0000

If you understand that the presenter is not able to make you understand whatever is that you are asking him…don’t push the presenter further, coz it is not a game that you are going to win (applies to both the presenter and the questioner), instead it’s an argument that you are firing. As a questioner, you give the presenter some space to escape and get back to you later on what you want to understand, and you don’t make a point that goes like I-caught-you.

The point you make as a questioner: what I don’t understand and why is it important for the presenter to get back to you after the presentation. That’s it, don’t push it further. And, the point you make as a presenter: either the thing is out of scope or you don’t understand his question, or accept the fact that you don’t have an answer to his question and you will get back after you have one (if required, accept to the questioners point if he is damn sure about it).

The point is, if you understand that the other person is not able to make you understand something, give him the benefit of doubt and wait for the answer after the presentation (sometime later). And do not push anyone to a level that can make them feel jittery when giving a presentation or a talk.

Game the system, hackers are savers

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:13:00 +0000

It has become easy for us to find how to get a discount, how to get an entry in a restricted place, how to save taxes, how to earn extra, or how to delay making a payment. In the world of hackers, it is just impossible for people to have a good model/process in place and to run the model relentlessly with everyone following the rules and regulations.

Consider this case, whenever you want something done, you think about what-is-the-catch or what-is-the-problem-that-will-pop-up-after-I-get-it-done...by thinking in those lines, you end up thinking about how do I game the system.

How cool is that. I feel gaming the system is a never ending process and this will definitely make the system stronger (provided the makers re model their existing model). Don't think it's a wrong practice to find a loophole or a drawback in a system, and use it to your advantage. It is your intelligence that lead you to successfully game the system, and it is system's fault that it isn't hack proof. Hacking is very ethical, hackers are savers, they hack things just to make it better or inform the makers that their model isn't as good as it should be.

The 'come first in the class' jazz

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:46:00 +0000

You should come first in the class. Sounds pretty familiar, isn’t it!...parents, relatives and friends keep reminding kids that coming first in the class is what they gotta focus on. Stop! think again, look around…how many smart guys do you have in your office who were first in the class? The answer totally depends on your profession (if you are an astrophysicists, probably all your friends are smart and everyone was first in their class…but the reality is that most of us are not astrophysicists J)…so, if you have an answer to that, you’ll know that coming first in the class isn’t really the game. There is a dearth of smart people and some of the smarty pants know that they were not smart, it is just that they evolved quickly.

It is an evolution guys! if you quickly evolve, you will be labeled smart. By the way, the fact is that it is great to come first in the class and the guys who come first in the class are usually smart, but their coming first in the class wasn’t their reason for their smartness. That said, I am not sure what you should be telling your kids, but I am sure you shouldn’t be telling your kids to focus on coming first in the class. Do your kid a favor, don’t pester him with “come first in the class” jazz.

Old enough

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:39:00 +0000

You *do* something for a 2 year old because he can’t do it himself. You *help* a 5 year old with something because you want him to see and learn, and may be because you want him to do it himself from next time onwards. You *help* a 50 year old with something because you want the old man to not take much strain, and not because the old man can’t do it himself. You *do* something for a 65 year old because it is too hard or not-possible for them to do it themselves. Now, there is a difference between *helping someone with something* and *doing something for someone*...also, the age is just a number, it literally is.

If you make an 8 year old sit on your lap, he is not going to like it coz he is old enough and he doesn't need your lap/support coz that makes him feel uncomfortable. Similarly, if you do everything for a 50 year old, he might not like it and feel like you treat him as if he is not good to do anything himself, he might feel like he is too old, but in reality he isn't old enough for you to do everything for him.

Gauge the need: some people need your help, some want you to do something for them. You gotta watch out for that coz you might make them feel that they aren't old enough or they are too old already.

My run as a CEO of Bennett, Coleman and Co.

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:20:00 +0000

I was the CEO of Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. and I had the whole media enterprise to run. Because I was the newly appointed CEO and the youngest CEO in the history of this company, they expected me to be magical and do something really unique and show the investors that there choosing me as a CEO was their best move. So…

It’s my first day on the job and I got to meet everyone. I went out for fancy lunches and was talking about newspaper business with everyone. Soon I realized that my use of simple English isn’t really impressive, because usually CEOs are supposed to use terms like strategy, management, efficiency, motivation, performance, bandwidth, processes and all that…but I was doing simple-talk and not using any of those words. And even after I realized that I wasn’t talking the way every other CEO talks, I stuck to my way of speaking and was proud that (if not anything else) this is a unique thing I bring with me, that is, I am straight shooter. Then…

I setup a meeting to give a presentation and introduce my plans. So, I invited all the CXOs, Vice presidents and Investors to the meeting…(and I was feeling like Steve Jobs giving the iPhone keynote speech)…so, I started by saying that I have a 3 year road-map and I wish to start executing all the plans as per the road-map right from next month. Then I went on to tell them about:

1. How to change the online publishing and how to be a classier product online.

2. How not to concentrate only on the newspaper content but also on the customer’s experience reading the newspaper.

3. How to get area specific news accumulated and how to work in agile-fashioned teams to get things done quickly.

4. How to form a community of writers and encourage newspaper reading as a writer (all in all, read the paper like you wrote it).

5. A marketing campaign in the lines of where people read the newspaper and how to consume the news (we need to teach people how to consume news, they don’t know it yet)

But, for the first month, all I want from the top level management is to come up with a one-page write-up on the top 15 things they do in their divisions and that they cannot do without. I say this and I finish the meeting…in the end, I also say that I want to meet everyone exactly 1 month from now. Everyone agrees and there is some applause and nobody thinks there is anything magical about the new CEO (me, that is).

After one month of discussions, I tell everyone that what we are going to do with our product (newspaper and magazine, that is) is to not do a lot of things and not start doing new things. We have so many subscribers, lets finalize only 7 from the 15 things in the list. Let’s focus only on the most-important 7 things and bring the kind of excellence that isn’t there in any other product…and let’s just get rid of the other 8 things for the time being.

People understand my ideas and roll out totally amazing newspapers and magazines, and the company profits are mind-blowing. I am elated and humble…and then a mosquito bit me and I woke up. I was having an amazing dream, and these fucking mosquitoes spoilt it J. I am sure I would have done a lot more as a CEO if I had a few more hours of sleep; you see, I am just too psyched about leading media enterprises J.

PS: I’ll not forget this dream, it was good…I didn’t do anything ground breaking…but I got amazing results by telling my company to drop 50% of what they do on the daily basis and invest that time in doing the other crucial 50%.

Take an off, choose any 8 vacation days a month

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:57:00 +0000

If I say "Let's work 7 days a week and throw away the concept of weekends". People will tell me "go get a life :)". True!

I feel very strongly about pursuing what I like and I feel that I am not really waiting for a weekend. I am just waiting to go to my office and I don't really feel I am losing anything by not making use of a weekend because there is not much difference between how I spend my weekend and my weekday (every day is freakishly different and fun), that is, I mix work-time and play-time seamlessly (FYI: by no means am I trying to impress my boss! she doesn't read my blog...and my appraisals are over long long back :-P). But it is very true that everyone waits for the weekend, I think it's because our minds are clocked in such a way that it doesn't want to function on Saturdays and Sundays...it's hard-coded in our minds that those two days are meant for us to relax or go-out.

I mean, why do we wanna relax or go-out ONLY these two days a week...mathematically, we are spending 4*2 = 8 vacation days out of the 30 days in a month. I believe the vacations will be more valuable if we can have one chuck of a month for vacation and the rest of the chunk for work. For instance, I am trying to think what can happen if we work continuously 22 days and take 8 vacation days every month. This idea simply fascinates me, coz I can plan for an out-of-town trip every month and have an amazingly long and satisfying vacation.

I think companies should allow employees to choose any 8 vacation days in a month. Why do I think this is good for the employee and the company? It is because:

Taking a vacation is a conscious choice and the employees are sure of what to do in the vacation days. Vacation is put to use and it doesn't just pass-by.
Generally, Monday's and Friday's aren't really productive because one is just after the weekend and the other is just before the weekend. You see, everyone is in the weekend mood. (not me, definitely not me; but I know some of my friends who would agree to this)
You need chunks of time to do exceptional work. In terms of productivity, (22 days of continuous work) is greater than (22 days of work with weekly breaks). It's simple, if you apply breaks, you lose the momentum.
Two days is too less for an out-stationed candidate to visit his parents. Two day vacations are like rush-hour, people go to see their parents and come back really quick...it's more like a formality (I don't mean to hurt anyone, just saying).

PS: These are strictly my thoughts. And it may be ridiculous to implement, so don't break your head if you think this can't be implemented.
PS: A decision like this will need lots of thinking and coordination. May be, there are a million things to consider before you can implement this.

I am high...that's what Christmas is all about

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:32:00 +0000

I just have a feeling that why should anyone compromise their lifestyle, I just had an awesome chat with a friend in a bar for almost 1 hour...I pepped him on, why being himself is the best strategy going forward. That is, why should you compromise your lifestyle because someone else doesn't like it, the problem isn't with you, if someone doesn't like your lifestyle, so be it...if you eat weird, dress weird, have a slang or happen to be from a community that people hate...why does it have to be that you gotta change your way of doing things, you do it the way you think is right... after all, human's define what is right and what is wrong...and humans err almost on a regular basis!

Like Garfield says, "you are unique, just like everyone else"; keep that in mind, you don't really have to win others on how you are coz by the time people turn 50, people tend to be themselves irrespective of other's opinion...you don't want to be 50 to understand that, you can do it right away. The next time people hate your moves or if you hate something that other's like...let it be, you don't have to change your mind, even if you are simply being stupid. The point is, being crazy at will is one of the coolest things you'd ever experience, consciously being crazy is a virtue.I consider some people crazy coz they think they would appear bad if they did something they like...if that is what is holding you back, c'mon, take a chill pill and do it anyways.

The problem with having to face facts, truth, reality is that you are not ready for it and that you just don't want to make it a part of you. If so, don't make it part of you, enjoy the moment and when everything gets screwed up, go fix it...and if you can't fix it, try something else. Don't waste your time thinking about what else could have been done, coz on the first place, you were the one who showed maximum dedication and passion towards whatever is that you did (a person/a company/an object). If it backfires, so be it, it doesn't tell you what wen't wrong, it just tell's you want other's think went wrong.

If you reject the lifestyle you love, you are doing the worst mistake of your life...this time, I mean every word of it...it's not just some wise line, it is THE wisest line. If you don't like something- ignore it, don't worry about why people think you are wrong...a terrorist isn't really a terrorist in his community, he is actually doing good to his community by being a terrorist (I am not saying that is right, being terrorist is the worst thing that you can possibly do), all I say is that being who you are is all that you gotta focus on...things change, people go away, companies move on, people ditch you, you ditch people, and you have a change of heart and all that...just remember, whatever makes you happy is the right thing to do as long as it doesn't fuck-up someone else's life.

Enjoy being yourself, merry Christmas. I am so freaking high that I can't even see my screen properly, I just feel enlightened and blessed.

It's shipped...not yet!

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:51:00 +0000

Your job should be end-to-end. If you are developing a manual or a book, you have got to know how it's being shipped and how it is used by the consumer (the user experience)...what I mean is that your job doesn't end with book production. I believe a lot of enterprises have their divisions working day-and-night to make sure their product is shipped well, but the point is, not a lot of us get to see how the user experiences it. It takes a lot of cross-functional talks to get to know what our output means to the users and how every division's output comes along to solve a problem.

Making the mistake of not understanding the whole process (and sticking to the work done in your department) will definitely make you think small. It is possible to think big only if you can see what all it takes to make a product, you cannot be interacting ONLY with your team members to come up with an earth shattering idea for the product. Just talk to the guys in other teams, it makes sense. Before you get to know your customers/users, get to know the makers of the product. It is almost around 4 years that I am developing manuals, and still I am not sure how is it being consumed...the point it, the content is static and there is no way to know what the user sees; as a writer, I see helluva opportunity here (Think analytics and online publishing).

Doing to done

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:11:00 +0000

The thing that needs to hit you every time you think about doing something is: If I don’t do it now, I am not gonna get a chance to do it in the near future.

This will help you decide if you really want do it or not…the buzz word here is FOCUS. If you have to do it now, do it now or else don’t do it. But, don’t postpone the little things that need to be done today…coz you either do them now or 20 years from now. Period.

To evaluate someone you need answers to these

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Have you seen his output? Do you understand his output?

If you understand his output, do you know what has gone into it?

If you have seen his output, do you know how good it is or how bad it is?

If you know the quality of his output, can you compare it with the quality of output from other guys doing the same kinda things he is doing?

If you know where he stands (relatively), do you know where he belongs?

If you know where he belongs and if it's not where he is, is there anything you can do about it?

Now! decide!

Positive stress and the two buckets

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:34:00 +0000

Bucket 1: difficult product learning, new way of working, colleagues in the team with totally different personality, change of role, or last-minute additions in the assignment.
Bucket 2: someone screwing up what you had saved yesterday, manually doing a job because someone forgot to automate it, miscommunication that led to wrong email response, a fuck-up micromanaging and rude boss, or working with a colleague with terrible mood swings.

Bucket 1 leads to positive stress; this stress is a part of your job and it actually makes you smarter, so it’s perfectly fine to get stressed-out by that. Bucket 2 leads to the real stress, this is going to make you feel terrible and that day can be a contender for one of the worst days of the month. So, now you know what kind of stress you are in.

I didn't misunderstand, you miscommunicated

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:17:00 +0000

We talk to different people and most of the times we don't know what they make of our sentences. The problem isn't that I misunderstood you, it's you who miscommunicated. Almost always you will find that people misunderstand only because of the other person miscommunicated his points.

So, make it amply clear about what you think when you say something that has high chances of being misunderstood. What contributes to misunderstanding: how you said it, when you said it, and why did you say it now. (you see everything is to do with your communication)

PS: By the way, "miscommunicated" is not a word in the standard dictionary. The first guy who tells me why the usage is incorrect wins an iPad.

Awfulness on a regular basis

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:40:00 +0000

Create an awful material on a daily basis...you'll be surprised that awfulness reduces overtime (sometimes, you even reach awesomeness). For instance, people complain that they don't get time to blog; actually, they have lots of free time, its just that they fear producing awful stuff. Years pass and they are still awful at blogging...I think, it would have been different if they had created awful material on a regular basis.

All that we must do is Keep-doing-it over and over.

You never know what's going on in the restrooms now

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:54:00 +0000

I was hanging out with a friend just outside my office; we have a big (actually, huge) mall facing our office. It was around 12:30 am and I saw this security guard outside the mall, and I told my friend “To protect this big property (mall, that is), they only have one security guard at this time”…I was thinking about how easy it will be for robbery, as in, it’s a paradise for people who plan and rob properties (think, Oceans 11).

To that, my friend says “You never know what’s going on in the restrooms now”. What does this answer tell you? Some guys (couples, that is) are in the restroom doing whatever-is-that-they-feel-like-doing. Now, what did I ask and what kind of solution I got…it’s freaky, isn’t it…but in a way, it may be true; we saw some vehicles come out of the parking-lot after a few minutes (certainly it’s not the workers from the stores in the mall coz they don’t have an Audi or a Mercedes; so, it has got to be someone else).

There is no business case I am trying to make here; it’s just that my friend had an out-of-the-box solution for my question. And I learnt that, only we know what we are thinking and to get an out-of-the-box solution, it’s best not to dilute other’s thinking with our thinking at the very beginning of asking a question.

"I got lucky" is what you wanna say

noreply@blogger.com (Girish Mahadevan) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:04:00 +0000

I feel that we all like the rat race and we can't help but be a part of the trap. For instance, if there is something that can make you exclusive, then that *something* attracts a lot of people, and there are so many guys who want to be exclusive that the *ones* who most-deserve the exclusivity don't end-up getting it.

It is like interviewing sales guys...all the sales guys (the good ones and the fake ones) talk brilliantly and can sell you their talent (even if they can't sell your product, they sure can sell themselves really well); but in your company there is only one opening for the sales position; now, who do you hire when all of them are just brilliant at selling their talent. You hire that guy who is genuinely (the most) talented, and the unfortunate thing is that there is no correct procedure to find out who-is-genuine and who-is-not...believe it or not; it is a rat race and all that you can do is rely on the evaluator's instincts and pray that you get the job.

You don't get the exclusivity because you deserve it (at least, not always). So, show some humility when you become exclusive, say "I got lucky".