Weeknotes 21 June, 2024

Summer is finally peeking its welcome self out. It’s amazing what a bit of vitamin D can do for the soul. That and a good week – and this one’s been exactly that.

Rustling up more coachmark tours. With couple of iterations complete, these are now wrapped up. For now…

Completing a self review. These can be hard, but they don’t have to be. Easier said than done, right? I’ve found having a strategy ahead of review time helps. What I did was to plan out the quarter, iterating on each of my goals with every sprint. Oh, you need to set goals! That’s the first step. Then plan the sprints. This made it so much easier to write my self review. It held me accountable and I enjoyed the process too. My big learn was try not to over commit yourself.

Skip meeting prep. Jen Shaefer’s Lead with Tempo talk on managing up and across helped me on this one. There were some tips on what to do and what not to do when meeting with senior leadership so I embraced these in my prep. The skip meeting go moved, but at least I’m ready for it next week.

Untangling a knotty copy testing request. This one turned out to be more of a user journey test, one that we can weave in some terminology questions. This highlighted that managing expectations of the limitations of copy testing is important. We conveyed that well (I hope) with the team involved.

Reflecting over the last 6 months and finding things I’m proud of. I had my mid-year review and it was so positive. I’ve achieved so SO much. I knew I was wrangling all the projects. Not only is it great that’s acknowledged. And even better that my manager prompted me to take a step back and look at all the great things I’ve achieved. I encourage you to do the same – step back, look at where you were 6 months ago, and think of what you’re proud of.