Work Values
8 Ingredients for Work Success
Whenever I need a little grounding in my work life, I look up at these guiding principles on the cork board, and let them inspire me. This mix is my secret sauce, in no particular order.
1. Regular Reporting
Creating personal reports, and/or lists, helps to stay organized, focused, and aware. Aware of what I have already done, what I should be doing right now, and what I need to focus on next. Daily TODOs and quarterly reports are in the rotation but Monday reports are by far my favorite. Monday reports are just for me- they are super colorful, fun, and help me prepare for the week in the a calm caring bubble. The ritual is just lovely.
2. Communication Templates
I try to template as much recurring communication as possible. Meeting notes all have a particular template that is quick and easy. Regular status updates? Template. Jira ticket updates, or project software updates? Template. Similar to how people have a work uniform, even when its not specifically sanctioned, it's just one less decision that needs to be made.
3. Persona Job Coverage Visualization
Bringing my problem-solving back to the actual person this solution is for - its reflecting on what they are actually going through. Matching this with what the solution is supposed to do at the end of the day. The problem that if it does not solve, we are no longer in business.
Doing one thing really well, even if it is a niche thing, will be more lucrative than doing a few things in an alright way. Starting at the beginning at the flow and going towards the end, are the assumptions still valid? Do we have more evidence that could lead down a different path? What are their alternatives?
Like with the rest of this list, lots of ways to go about this, and honestly I think of some new chart or other way to map this out often.
4. Latest News in the Space
Wandering through the digital mall or makeup of an industry I care about. Are there any new reports, notable authors, event calendar for the space I'm looking at now. Perhaps a quick scan of the newsletter folder in my inbox. Have any of the teams come across anything really cool or new in their field work.
What are the big players up to, the small players, what would someone new think as they navigate this arena.
5. Change Log - Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, Security, Unreleased
The gold standard of change logs includes each of these categories. Leaving any of this out doesn't give the full context, the map of what was done is incomplete. If I need to personally make an audit of a project, of a solution, of a decision, these categories will be on it.
Each high impact, high visibility project gets a change log. Each project where there are a lot of 'cooks in the kitchen' gets a change log. I am happy to do this work, it makes it so much easier to review the project at the end and/or if other stakeholders have questions throughout, its easier to go back and see what happened on which day.
6. Opportunity Solution Tree
Starting with an outcome and working my way down into indicators that make up that outcome, and then defining success of those indicators, and ideas of other forms that success could take. A wonderful brainstorming exercise and a huge help for tangible future planning.
In practice this looks like reviewing and touching up an existing opportunity tree that's already been made, rather than making a new one each time.
7. Ongoing testing
Prevents backsliding; making sure it's still doing what it is supposed to do. This can also look like anticipating user flows, identifying critical actions, figuring out where the weak links lay.
Unstructured testing is just as important a road to go down every once in awhile. Sometimes it's helpful to just click around to get a feel for what users could do to see if anything feels restricted or inconsistent.
8. Clean deliverables
Crisp, clean, wrapped-up-with-a-bow deliverables are the most fulfilling of this entire list. Knowing that a task is checked off, done well, communicated properly, tracked accordingly, and stamped with personal quality approval. This is a success. Put it in the books, savor the feeling of a job well done and move on to the next.