Individual reflection

As a startup founder, I was very familiar with the challenges of coordinating the roles of design, engineering and business to keep things moving forward. I had always believed that the hardships that an early stage entrepreneur encounters are similar to those of a product manager, and this class has proven me right. Both roles seem to blend more than what one could expect – even if, as the team grows, I can feel that the job of a CEO and a PM start diverging, and they better do.

Regarding the pace, I understand that the hectic pace is necessary in order to cover the basics in a 10 week quarter. On the practical perspective, I reach the end with a sense that I would prefer to have more time to solidify the understanding of the problem-space and develop further iterations of the prototypes. On the other hand, on the theoretical perspective, I have found some useful frameworks that I would like to explore further and put in practice. To start with, I have already applied some changes on weekly progress meeting and OKRs in Normo.

Other interesting thought is that I naturally tend to act as a PM (or entrepreneur, again), instead of narrowing my role to an specific job, be designer, marketer or engineer. Where I most can contribute (and where I am most comfortable at) is in the exploration of the problem-space and leading the journey to address the opportunities through product creation. Coming beach to the timings of the class, I am sure that more time would lead us to a better understanding of the space and consequently to a more robust product in terms of product market fit.

As per the team, there have been some situation that even if temporary have been extended across the quarter and we should have been resolved beforehand, using sratighttalk and relying on the feedback frameworks shared in class. A “Keep/Stop/Start doint…” exercise will suffice to be honest.

On last thought that remains in my is the time where Christina said “I have seen many teams with great OKRs sucks; wheres some teams succeed despite awful OKRs”. And I cannot agree more with that statement. Cadence is what keeps startups alive. Cadence understood as exploring and testing, sharing and applying, moving forward. Being an entrepreneur, and also a product manager, is a constant battle against the odds, against complexity. It is mentally draining and can generate a lot of self-doubt. In this context is it very easy to ask oneself “Am I doing things correctly? Am I missing some critical framework that may lead to our team’s success?”. And Christina has shown that there is no such a thing. No magical recipes – just basic frameworks, common sense, lots of work and cadence.