A Whiteboard in the Shower

My husband and I have an ongoing game where we talk about all the home improvements we will make someday when we’ve hit the lottery. The last few weeks we’ve been focused on our master bathroom, which is a textbook example of all that was wrong with 1980’s décor. Most of my suggestions are usually pretty mundane - better lighting, move the linen closet - but there’s one requirement that always gets a weird look: a whiteboard in the shower.

You see, both my husband and I have jobs requiring a lot of creativity. He spends his days dreaming up new products, and I spend mine looking at new approaches to business processes. In both cases, there’s a lot of opportunity to think and dream, and a lot of need to capture ideas.

Years ago when I took a personality types course, our leader recommended that certain types of people keep a journal by their bed. She said that these types were known for processing the day’s events long after they were supposed to be asleep, and often would wake up in the middle of the night still thinking about what had gone on during the day. If they had the opportunity to write down their thoughts, she reasoned, these types would be able to sleep better. This works well for my husband, and he has a nice orderly journal where he writes most of his design ideas.

Unfortunately, my creative processes are a little less predictable. I can’t say I’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night with a brand new strategy. However, I can say that I have created multiple marketing campaigns and solved world hunger while on my elliptical trainer. I’ve written character studies, and planned out presentations while driving to and from work. And I’ve rewritten requirements, dreamed up product names and solved design problems in the shower. There’s something about these times when I’m focused elsewhere that my subconscious takes over and delivers a solution that is exactly perfect.

Of course, in most of these situations, it’s a little hard to document my brilliant ideas. I’m enough of a klutz to know that writing while on the elliptical trainer is a recipe for a broken ankle, and the CHP doesn’t really like people to write and drive at the same time. But HGTV shows bathroom remodels to add TVs, shower radios and telephones, so why not a whiteboard?

How about you – where are you when the creative idea hits? How do you capture it?

[Whiteboard courtesy of Mark.Pilgrim. Used under Creative Commons]

Taking a Career Left Turn

The dot-com bubble had just burst, and we were planning layoffs. As the afternoon wound to a close, our new CEO turned, looked me directly in the eye and said “Why don’t you take on product management?”

….What?? I was only attending the meeting because I was the head of HR. I had to make sure we weren’t doing anything illegal, and give guidance on options around the layoff process. This wasn’t about me. “Think about it” the CEO said. “We need product management, and you’ve got the domain knowledge. Let me know by Friday.” This was different from past job changes, in that I wasn’t being recruited to the new role. I was being asked to take it. It was a big change, and I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in product management - that wasn’t on my 5 year career plan!

Right now, people across the country are being asked to do something new. Maybe you are looking for a new role because you’ve been laid-off. Or you are picking up new responsibilities since others around you have been let go. Or you are being asked to transfer to a new team with new assignments. It’s a time of uncertainty and causes a lot of stress. My advice is to not over-think this transition. There are 3 main questions you need to ask yourself:
1. Can you do the job for 3-6 months?
2. How well do your skills match the job you are being asked to do?
3. Who will support you in making this move?

Note that I didn’t say anything about your history or your career trajectory. In times of major change, you can’t plan for your 5-10 year career path. What you can do is identify what you can bring to the new role, which would make you successful. You can assess if this job would be a good landing place while you look for the “ideal role”. And you can identify champions within the organization who will help you be successful in the role.

I ended up taking the transfer. My new manager and I set very specific goals focused on my existing skills so I could find successes early in the transition. My old manager agreed that if the new role didn’t work out, she would support me in receiving a decent severance package and recommend me for other HR positions. Most importantly, my dev lead, the UX lead and my HR partner-in-crime all went out of their way to give me time in the first 90 days to ask questions, to vent, and to find a comfort level with the new role.

It’s been more than 7 years since I changed jobs. What I thought was a short term experiment to weather the dot-com bust turned into a career that I hadn’t planned for, but have found to be a great ride. Times of change can be times of great opportunity. Prepare yourself, and be open to taking a leap.




[img source: Bruno Peck]

Virtual Trade Show - the Recap

Last month I participated in Oracle’s Virtual Trade Show. This was a first for me. Although I’ve done plenty of trade shows in person, I haven’t done one on-line, and wasn’t sure how it would work. We had very positive feedback on the event, which was great. I’d like to add a few additional thoughts.

The pluses:
Immediacy. Since I had a scheduled chat, there were several people in the session firing questions. I enjoyed the focus on our topic, and the chance to interact real-time with these people.
No travel! There is value in meeting people face to face, but not having to go to Orlando or Las Vegas for what was essentially a one-day event was a nice change.
Access to experts. Since this was done online, I was able to keep my instant messaging open. That way if a question came up that I wasn’t able to answer, I had the whole team available to ask.
Sharing. With an online discussion, everyone participating could see everyone else’s questions. That way I could answer once and everyone could benefit. Similarly, participants could see other content that maybe they weren’t going to ask and may have sparked some other ideas.

The minuses:
No feedback loop. I couldn’t see if my responses were meeting people’s needs unless they asked follow up questions. It was hard to gauge if I was giving good answers to questions.
System issues. We had a system outage midway through my chat session. Fortunately Danielle from our team was in the same room and online so she was able to relay the rest of my answer for me.
I can’t spell! I wanted to respond quickly in the chat, but that meant that my thoughts went faster than my fingers, and resulted in atrocious spelling errors.

On balance, I think the virtual trade shows was a creative idea, and something we should continue to explore. Although there were system issues, the opportunity to reach customers without requiring travel either for our staff or for our customers was a great experience. Big thanks to the Oracle marketing team for trying out this new approach and letting me participate.