What kind of year has it been?
Aaron Sorkin fans will get the reference, but as the year comes to an end, I find it both helpful and productive to reflect on the year that was and visualize the year to come. Over the last number of years, I’ve developed a few end-of-year rituals – the professional ones I recommend to all the Product Managers and Product Management Leaders that I coach; the personal ones I’m sharing in the event you find any of them interesting to adopt for yourself.
Professional Reflection
Professionally, I coach Product Managers to create a summary of what they or their team accomplished in the past year. This is not just a flat list of features or bug fixes or launches, rather it is those things categorized by objectives. What were the highest priority objectives you were focused on this past year? Increase revenue? Increase retention? Grow user base? Start with the 2 or 3 objectives that you and your team were focused on and then under each objective, list all of the work output you and your team completed to further that objective. The list shouldn’t be every single detail – the primary purpose of this document is to highlight the important contributions you and your team made to the business. Bonus points if you can include metrics such as how much revenue increased…or the increase in retention rate…etc. Create this as an easy-to-read and visually appealing one-page and then share it. Spread the message loud and far within your organization and be sure to thank all the others who contributed to bringing this work to life – engineering, design, marketing, sales, etc..
It's probably obvious, but there are several benefits doing this.
You get to see what was accomplished over the course of the year and you may be surprised; oftentimes when we are stuck in the day-to-day, it’s difficult to see that significant progress has been made.
You publicly show appreciation for everyone who helped make these accomplishments possible.
You do a little bit of self-promotion, which is always important and easy for Product Managers to forget to do.
Personal Reflection
I also personally reflect at the end of the year. For me, this is two things that I do:
I read through all my journal entries from the past year. Since I get asked this a fair bit, I journal electronically; I swear by Day One – a journaling app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and also web-based that I’ve been using for years. It’s fantastic.
I browse through all my photos from the year. For me, it’s wonderfully eye-opening to see all the amazing memories from the year that tend to get blurred out in the busy-ness of our daily lives. In fact, this year I was responding to a “What were some moments of joy I experienced this year?” journal prompt. My initial thought was 1 or 2 amazing memories from the year, but as I browsed through my photos, there were so many more. So many that I journaled about an amazing moment of joy from each month of the year – including Disneyland, a trip to NYC with my eldest daughter, and going to the Taylor Swift concert (I am a self-proclaimed DWLTS – Dad who loves Taylor Swift).
Then I transition to visualizing the year ahead…
Professional Visualization
Professionally, this is a typical business activity. What are the top objectives you and your team will be focusing on for the year – or at least for Q1? Objectives…not features. Outcomes…not output. All too often, I see Product Managers get stuck in feature discussions with senior management and other stakeholders. Elevate the conversation away from features and towards objetives! I’ve lost count of how many features I’ve developed that were “that one thing we need.” The Product Manager’s job is to identify potential solutions to meet objectives, not to be an order-taker for feature requests. Sometimes these potential solutions are features and sometimes they aren’t. And, whenever possible, the Product Manager’s job is also to figure out how to test the hypothesis that their proposed solution will work before committing significant resources. So, plan your objectives for Q1 (or for the year), document them, and share them with your stakeholders. Then, anytime a conversation gets in the weeds of a feature, elevate it to the objective it is intended to support. And if it doesn’t support any of your objectives, then note it down for future consideration and move on.
Personal Visualization
Personally, I do two things to visualize and plan for my year ahead:
New Year’s resolutions
Year-end prediction journal entry
For New Year’s resolutions, I create monthly resolutions. I don’t think I’ve ever made it past February with a New Year’s resolution, so by doing them as monthly resolutions, if when I fall short one month, it’s no big deal – there’s always next month to do better. I also always try to make these measurable in some way - # of books read, # of date nights with my wife, # of hikes, # of board games played, etc. And finally, I have a reminder set for the first of every month to write down my previous month’s numbers. I keep it all in a spreadsheet titled “2024 monthly resolutions”.
And finally, a year-end prediction journal entry. I write a journal entry trying to predict what things will be like at the end of the year. What will my work be like? How about my relationship with my kids? Will I go on any exciting vacations during the year? This isn’t about accuracy, but more about visualizing an endpoint thereby increasing the likelihood of it becoming your reality.
There you have it...my personal and professional end-of-the year rituals. If you've read this far, thanks...and hopefully there’s a nugget or two of insight for you to take and make it your own. Happy New Year.
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