Thankful

Following the American tradition, this week has been one of reflection and gratitude. After last week's frenzy of sprints on 5 different topics with 7 people, I decided to carve out some room this week for sanity, reflection and a bit more time to research one of the topics that has been fascinating me.

This reflection included a chance for my family and me to treat ourselves to mutual, undivided attention catching up on our week over an indulgent Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, three types of dessert and abundant wine at the iconic American restaurant in London, Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Inc. ? And best of all, no clean up required by me!

I’ve managed to stretch out the celebration to include a weekend in the New Forest, where good friends are hosting Friendsgiving. ?No family, otherwise it is very much like the OG version, including a roast turkey, stuffing, mash, cranberry, a variety of veg, a pumpkin pie with cinnamon whipped cream, and for the Brits (who normally decline pumpkin pie) a ginger cake smothered in custard sauce.

Would two heavy, boozy dinners within 3 days also be considered a valid primary research method on the workings of the human gut?? I vote ‘yes’…all in the name of empathizing with prospective customers, of course.

I’ve always dreaded the tradition to insist each person ‘round the table in turn shares with the others for what or whom they are grateful this year.? Why?? It’s almost always the same (hint: family and friends), so there’s pressure either to embellish this stock answer with originality or the introduction of a new entry that stacks up believably alongside ‘friends & family’.

However, this year, luck was in my favor; we did not force sharing.? Yet here I am publicly stating what I feel most grateful about.? Minus the pressure to be pithy.

1)???? I’ve found a deepened appreciation for my health.? In reading about and talking to those who are in pain, who have gone through life-altering health experiences or are frustrated by the environmental changes over which they have little control but which impact their daily wellbeing, I have been reminded how fortunate I am to be in good health.? On the days I feel a bit stiff getting up after sitting for too long, rather than bemoaning my ageing frame, I’ll instead appreciate the fact that it’s only an occasional niggle.? Long may the resilience last!

2)???? Caring friends and family.? I hope I had never stopped being appreciative of their support over the years. ?I know they have my back and vice versa. However, being a new founder (or in my case a founder anew) requires an increased level of understanding, patience, guidance and support.? It’s early days in the journey, yet they’ve already been called upon to hear me drone on about how the Zinc program has reset my default power setting to ‘High’ (Note: ‘Maximum Power’ still in reserve for the summits to come), to exercise patience when I share snippets of data that have impressed me about random subjects such as the role of our home dryers in emitting microplastics, the learnings we can take from wastewater and the shockingly steep rise in diabetes and obesity beyond just the US.? I’ve even foisted an exploratory consumer survey on a select few.? This wouldn’t happen when I’m in a paid role, where I would have the ability to invest company funds for research.? But here we are, friends, being asked about your reaction to testing your gut health.

3)???? A chance to be a freshman again.? This was wholly unexpected. ?I was probably too busy preparing myself for the transition that the penny hadn’t dropped that we’d all be new to the situation.? Most of us have probably been ‘the new guy’ at work when we change jobs or when we join a club, but when was the last time we were amongst a large group of people who were also starting something new?? Something that required not only a change in what they did 8 hours a day but rather the structure of all their time, headspace and sometimes even home and country?? Probably university!? And in my case, it’s been a long time since I’ve had this experience… and I love it!? Exposure to interesting people with diverse backgrounds, new opportunities (bouldering, anyone?), new points of view.

With all this reflection and appreciation, I still managed to get in more sprints this week, including one on a new topic involving hormones, their role throughout our lifespan and our desire to get ahead of the changes they herald. Thanks Victoria Reade, MBA, BSN, FRSA and Ruslan Serebriakov for your expertise and hashing out how we might improve the current experience for women and men.

Another highlight was a session led by Zinc's own Ed Halliday on using AI to speed up and empower research and launch of a new product or service.? I was especially in awe of a tool called Synthetic Users.? After I’d spent a number of hours developing a cohesively-worded consumer concept test, issued it to 6 real people (see above) and synthesized results, I tried out the above tool.? In a matter of three (3) minutes, by inputting a total of 12 words in 3 question categories, the platform was able to spit back pages of feedback on the idea from 3 ‘consumers’ who had been synthesized by AI.? The results were uncannily similar to my real interview results.? Three minutes.? Now I’m thankful for all the time I’ll be saving and the supercharge power I have at my fingertips and continued hunger to learn new tricks.

This week's:

Lowlight: Realizing I’d gone to the wrong train station to get to the New Forest and missing my original train, all because of a brain fart set off by two conversations about Kings Cross. I may need more patience with myself.

Highlight: Uninterrupted time with friends and family. Genuinely.

You’ll get a holistic perspective on being a Founder in Residence at Zinc by heading over to the following newsletters by my talented colleagues:

Pavandeep Rai

Lisa Rickers

Guy Naor

Marjo Palanee

Natalia Baltazar

Josh Piddock

Veronika Bridgman