My Professional Operating System
How I Thrive and What Drives My Best Work
What I Love
- Collaborative Teams: Small, aligned teams with camaraderie and shared purpose, connecting on culture (books, shows, games).
- Creative Exploration: High-concept brainstorming, diving into "what-ifs," and the discovery process of product work.
- Consistent Shipping: Fast-paced (but not frantic) environments that deliver value to users in predictable iterations.
- Lean Environments: Just enough people to make meaningful change without the slowdown of bureaucracy or "death by committee."
- Facilitating Discussion: Running workshops to uncover problems and learn what needs to be done.
What I Dislike
- Engineering-led Mandates: Prioritizing tech-debt over validated product priorities.
- Instability & Lack of Focus: Frequent re-orgs, layoffs, and unclear direction from leadership.
- Toxic Behavior: Inflexible individuals who undermine authority or reputation through back-channels.
- Meeting Overload: More than 6 meetings a day, leaving no time for deep, meaningful work.
- Remote Isolation: Working solely remote with no budget or opportunity for in-person collaboration.
- Invisible Decision Making: Key choices made without transparency or clear rationale.
Must Haves
- Meaningful impact on revenue and customers.
- Learning, growth, and mentorship opportunities.
- Fast, iterative team culture that ships.
- Cohesive team dynamics with mutual respect.
- Leadership that respects product as a discipline.
- Lean, empowered teams without bureaucracy.
- Quarterly in-person collaboration with a travel budget.
Must Not Haves
- Toxic back-channeling or undermining behavior.
- Engineering-only agendas killing product priorities.
- Chronic instability (re-orgs, unclear direction).
- Work without impact on OKRs, revenue, or users.
- Overloaded schedules with endless meetings.
- Total isolation (fully remote with no collaboration).
- Purely internal tooling with no customer impact.