~Every day I learn something new. I share it (almost) weekly, just so I don't forget.~
The existing "Everything I learned about everything"post format is too unorganized for my taste, so I am dividing the content in a few sections as an experiment. Feedback is always welcome!
Life
On client work, side projects, friend, family and other personal stuff.
- I wasn't good on the button lift (see bullet #6 here). After several falls and hikes up the slope, the last time I 🏂-ed, I did pretty much a full day without any falls and I was getting very confident on the button. Read this as, I wasn't focused 100% on the lift ride itself, balancing my legs and maintaining my posture so that I don't fall. Instead, I would look around, try to play with my phone while on the lift and generally distract myself. Then I fell bad. Oh well, no matter how confident you are at the button lift, remain on focus. I guess that's also quite valid for pretty much anything else you do and especially in business. It's easy to get distracted and it's easy to forget where you started from. Stay focused. Stay humble.
- As part of a field research for one still unannounced side project, me, Svetla and Kiro are visiting various gyms and group workout activities. Last week we visited one particular gym and we unanimously had the worst experience ever. The experience itself is a subject of a totally separate post, so I won't go into details, but to imagine how bad it was, I'll just mention this: The coach of the group told Kiro to take off his buff as it was disrespectful to the group to exercise with a buff on your head. All this while she was sitting on a chair in the far end of the hall, arms crossed, clicking and double clicking on her computer, while she was supposedly leading the workout. I was very pissed off, and pretty close to just leaving the workout in the midst of it all. Somehow I managed to pull myself together, suck in my ego and stay till the end. And then, while I was pushing myself not to punch her in the face, I had an idea. The routine itself gave me a pretty nice business idea on management training while exercising. It turns out even the most frustrating experience can give you ideas! 💡 So embrace them.
Business
On product design, innovation, people management, branding, marketing, and more.
- I’ve been doing a lot of user research lately and this comprehensive guide has been super helpful.
- 100 trend predictions for 2018 according to Pinterest users search and save patterns. I found this article pretty good for idea generation!
- Lessons learned from running a remote design sprint. I might need to run a remote design sprint for a client, so this came quite useful.
- Topic maps for user interviews, instead of a structured questionnaire. I haven't done topic maps, but I do agree that questionnaires can be too rigid and hard to navigate. I'll definitely try them out with my next interviews.
- Best books for new, first-time managers. I'm glad to see some of my personal favorite books on the list. Also, still a lot to read.
- Some great ideas on onboarding new team members in a fast-growing team from MailChimp.
- A very insightful article on the Net Promoter Score, and why is might not really help businesses grow or learn how loyal their customers are.
Mind
On productivity, creativity, meaning, and more.
Everything Else
Well that's pretty straightforward, isn't it?
- The latest & most popular color palettes trending on Dribbble right now. I'll definitely refer to it when I need color palettes inspiration.
- I want to snowboard in this much powder.
- And wear these gloves.