Levels of Complexity

Posted on by Brendan

Progressing in your career to higher level roles often means the levels of complexity that you are dealing with increase. I’ve found the best product and marketing leaders are the most effective because they’re handling their levels of complexity in ways that produce value to their organization. You will know someone handles levels of complexity well from working directly with them and seeing it yourself or hearing from others how good that person is at breaking down a complex problem or opportunity in a compelling way and influencing people to solve it. 

Individual Contributors Remit:

  • Weekly Tasks 
  • Manager Communication
  • 1-3 Stakeholders 

Leader’s Remit:  

  • Direct Team & Cross-Functional Team 
  • Stakeholders and Peers 
  • Multi Year Strategy & Quarterly Execution 

The contrast in these two remits shows the added complexity a leader takes on. Each bullet requires leading & managing more people. The strategy is critical to nail down and get support on, then the execution needs to be done by others and you need to find effective ways to check in and add feedback. You will also need to pick the places where you get your hands dirty which has to be chosen wisely. 

When my remit started to get broader, I was pretty bad at managing layers of complexity. I was able to lean on my expertise in my domain which helped but I had to learn a lot of important lessons and still am regarding management, relationships, and strategy. Here’s a few:

  • You can’t do all the execution anymore. Practice delegating and specifically asking for things. It’s okay to be really prescriptive and let people give you feedback to pull back. 
  • Ask really thoughtful questions to get better answers.  
  • Set up a mechanism for weekly project updates that are used in weekly discussions to highlight progress and blockers. Makes convos more fluid. 
  • Set up 1:1s with key people and have 1:1 docs to riff on ideas during the call…it is good to put the notes in a place both people can read them. 
  • Have a robust weekly/daily planning process for yourself. Allow room for flexibility but stick to getting the high leverage stuff done each week. 
  • Prioritize high leverage tasks in a week such as strategy document, project document or test spec. 
  • Don’t be all business all the time. At the end of the day, it’s about the relationships and skills you’re developing that is important.
  • Make time to innovate and think.

I remember early in my career working on a client project that was going off the rails a bit in terms of many deliverables on deck and there was a bit of chaos brewing. The client lead came into the room where myself and a team member were trying to talk out what’s going on. The leader diffused the problem and simplified the actions with command. That’s a micro moment but great example of a leader handling levels of complexity well (multiple team members, multiple deliverables, and the clients success and happiness). 

What have you found to be helpful in managing levels of complexity in effective ways that add value?

Today’s Priority

Posted on by Brendan

My son is 3 years old today. I remembered last year feeling very happy and excited to celebrate his 2nd birthday. I love the prep that goes into it. Wrapping gifts, picking up food, making dessert, setting up, etc. Then the day is pure presence and fun. I realized last year it was the similar feelings of anticipation and excitement I had when my birthday rolled around as a kid. This is a perfect example of seeing and feeling the world through your kids as a parent which happens daily.

Knowing this was something I enjoyed a lot last year, I made it a priority today even though it’s Tuesday. I worked till about 11AM and stopped. It will be there tomorrow. I went to surprise Jake at his school as a mystery reader and then helped set up our yard to have a few friends over later. We will have sushi at night because it’s Jake’s favorite.

Hoping I can take my kids’ birthdays mostly off from work until they’re off doing something they don’t want me at.

Finding Sparks

Posted on by Brendan

Where and how do we find sparks? Sparks are interests, activities, passions, and people that you find in life where when you find them you truly love doing them or spending time with them. Time goes away and you are in pure flow and joy. Sometimes sparks fade or stay going a long time.

I have 2 kids that are one and three, so I think about finding sparks for them a lot. At this age, it’s pretty easy. A truck, a doll, a playground have all acted as sparks for them. My oldest is now loving swim class but it took a few months and wasn’t a spark from the beginning.

This passed week, I donated to the high school I spent two years at to support a fundraiser. I was happy to do this because I was reminded of the sparks that school gave me at a crucial time in my life from seventeen to nineteen years old. Some small and big sparks I found there.

  • Got to pursue hockey at a high level and connected me to new friends and the college I went to.
  • Got to develop tighter relationships with teachers since they lived on campus.
  • One teacher gave me some of my favorite books today.
  • Took a current events class on the 2008 presidential election and got to write about it.
  • Developed my writing skills in classes that were challenging for me.
  • Got to be part of a tight community that I wasn’t feeling in my first high school.

This is a quick list of things that gave me a spark during my time at Lawrence Academy. I think the main gist is know your current sparks and make time for them. Find new sparks too. For parents, be patient and observe so you don’t miss when your kids have found a spark or when you can nudge them to things that might become sparks.

Web3’s Impact on Web2

Posted on by Brendan

I’m reading Read Write Own by Chris Dixon which is about blockchain technology and a good refresher on the history of the internet. 

It is getting me thinking about the impact Web3 could have on the industry I work in(search), the skills I’ve built, and the companies I help.  

Similar to what GenAI did in 2023, if it gains steam and becomes reality it’s going to create a bunch of threats and opportunities for the Web2 companies I’ve helped over the last decade. In tandem with the threats and opportunities will also be distractions. 

The more I read the book, the more interesting and powerful Web3 sounds since the power will be in the user’s hands. At the same time, I am curious to see the businesses that emerge in a potentially more popular Web3 world, what Web2 companies do if this trend happens, and if and how it impacts internet search. 

If you don’t want to splurge on the book just yet, this is a podcast episode where Chris covers it some. Another good high level post on Web3 here.

Strategic Framing in SEO

Posted on by Brendan

I find SEO both fun to do and powerful for a business. In order to have the freedom to do it inside organizations, SEO leaders need to understand how to strategically communicate to executives and how to mobilize a team to action on the strategy. Executives are important because they’re deciding on what to fund and put resources to. The team is insanely important because they’ll execute the action agenda that drives the results. I’ve seen leaders be really good at one and not the other in either direction which isn’t the end of the world but I find diminishes the fun and power of SEO. I am on a journey myself to get effective at both.

The thing on my mind lately is the strategic aspect. People can ask for more strategy when you drill into an action. The key thing I’ve learned is they aren’t trying to 100% stay clear of actions as they’ll ask about actions right after saying they want more strategy. They want the actions too but they need to be oriented to the actions with a framing of the strategy and the opportunities.

When you go into updates about your roadmap, lead with opportunity buckets and guiding policies of your strategy. Have a visual that will bring people along quickly. Show that every time. I’m sure questions about the actions will come after that.

You don’t need to be in a leadership position to practice this. Try it with your manager.

I’ll be over here working at this myself too.