?? #4 - Find out how to get better at leading discussions!

Hi! So you made it here. Again. 
The humour setting on this article is high. 
I sort of got carried away. 
There is a serious version of this on Substack. 
I'll link it below

Also, sorry for the clickbaity title. I'm A/B testing ??        

(Serious Version)

Hello Fellow Learners!

What a week! I'm on a mission to find out how much data do you really give from all the apps on your phone. If they can figure out you discussed about 'chocolate milk cookies' with your friends, I'm sure it's way more than you think.

Ahem! There is much to be discussed this week. We'll start with the core idea of this edition:

Better Questioning

This week, our focus will be to?get better at questioning to uncover underlying biases?and getting clarity on the overall solution. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you why we’re focusing on it this week:

As often as it happens in Corporations, my workplace is on the brink of a major change. To take that leap, consultants from all over the world have been summoned to give their take on this change. In a room full of experts, it’s interesting to see how the questioning and discussions progress - either in pursuit of clarity or in the pursuit of disproving a hypothesis or, as it happens all so often, to satisfy egos.

Here are my findings:

1. Experts dive into details (having established context early on). Consultants dive into context (details are hashed out internally - because how else will they bill you for the hours?)
2. A fruitful discussion is where the line of discussion goes: Exploration → Adjoining → Clarifications → Funneling (or a Z shape in the below diagram):

Goes without saying that any other path might alienate discussions.

3. A bad context creates more trouble than it solves. Meaning, if you’re trying to set the context using details, you might opening run-away lines of discussion that leave the group feeling helpless. Carefully choosing your details and adding caveats is a good way to ensure discussions remain to the point.

4. A Good discussion leader align everyone on the definitions to avoid confusions. Empathy plays a huge role in setting context.

You can find a?more detailed (and more preachy article) from me here.

Key takeaway there is to take a lead in the discussion, no matter your level. Ask if you can lead the discussion (which doesn’t mean you’re contributing everything. You’re just ensuring the discussion goes along some fruitful lines). Trust me, people will love it.

Learning Survey Results

Last week?I asked you, how many hours a week do you spend in learning (outside of work). Here are the results:

One of the best way to grow your perspective is to learn something new every day. And it doesn’t have to be technical or work related. Start small. Learn a new word (Wordsmith) or a finance term (Investopedia). I’m a subscriber to both and ensure I read both before I sleep. Before long you’ll be consuming large amount of information without straining your head.

Color Saga Continues…

Last week, I showed you the Pantone colors of the last decade. And said that someone smarter than me can potentially find the next color. Well, I found someone smarter than me (from a week ago): me (today):

Play Around on Codepen

The little black box is what I bet will be the color. I used?“AI and machine learning”?(kidding) to figure out the next color. It was achieved by simply using the Trend function in Excel to get to the next value.

Amazon shutting down their retail stores

If you didn’t know (it’s too late to know now), Amazon launched retail stores in the US & UK, selling books and top rated products (4 Star) back in 2015. They’ve decided to close down these stores in favor of grocery retail.

While Ben Thompson from Stratechery would, obviously, have a better take on this - I figure that the experiment itself was based on:

1. Amazon has geo-specific preferences data. They can use this to ensure that the right books are stored in the right location.
2. Stores as both warehouses and stores - they can use the stores to sell and supply last mile.
3. Upsell & Cross-sell possible if you can get users to the store. Plus better data.

The reasons for stopping, I reckon:

1. Losing faith in big tech in the US/UK market - Amazon is seen as a monster that took the jobs, which doesn't stop them from shopping directly with Amazon, but adds to their Instagram stories.
2. Specifically for book buying — and this is entirely anecdotal — a bookstore is popular in an area because they’re a curation of books (which may not be always popular) that reflect the owners taste. This sort of specialization and picking up of the rare book that might interest a person, is currently outside of the realm of machines.
3. AFAIK, Amazon throws money (and then some) at experiments. If your build up cost (i.e. cost to setup the store) is 3x that of a normal store, it’ll be a while before you breakeven.
4. Bigger Amazon goals (of global distribution and customer service) were not served via these stores OR other experiments required money to be fueled to those.

The lesson here is if you trust data to make money for you, without the intervention of human experience and foresight, you’re gonna have a bad time.

How much data are you sharing?

I recently posted on Linkedin?about the amount of data that apps are tracking. Thanks to DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking feature (in Beta), I surprised to see the number of apps that are phoning home, even without me opening the app.

As a result, I have decided to capture all outbound traffic from my phone - after I setup a few things to truly make it a average users device ( I have strict tracking policies which might not be something the average user sets up).

More on that soon… I’m sure I’ll have to crunch huge amount of data.?Do let me know if you’ve come across any studies that have done something similar?

The image shows in the last 24 hours, how many tracking attempts have been made.

Product Thought of the Week (Archive)

PTOTD#39

Never estimate on behalf of your team. It is simply not your place to do so. The art of estimation is for your team to master. Most PMs, including myself for while, think that giving accurate estimates will make them successful. In the long run, it makes them a terrible PM.

Work will take the same amount of time it is destined to take. Think of it like waiting for the ‘Walk’ light to light up at a crossing. No matter how many times you press it, it’ll only turn on when it is time.

Instead, get better at the art of prioritizing.?Being better at prioritization will make you a better PM.

Survey time! Do you give out development estimates to stakeholders (honestly)?

[Yes, I do!] [No, never!] [Sometimes - if I know it's a single story point]

Thank you for reading!