I picked blueberries

I went out for the 2nd weekend in a row. :)

Last week was jamming my left hand into the zip lines at Tree to Tree Adventure.

Note: I didn't make it up this wall...this year.

This week was picking blueberries at Bonny Slope Blueberries.

The blueberry farm is basically a house with extra land where the owners planted blueberry bushes. The payment uses a complete honor system where customers weigh and pay on their own, and put the money in a drawer. Might be one of those developed, rich country or even "American" ideals as I think this would be much abused in China or Taiwan. The owner told me "Look in. Look up." which I learned is pretty good advice as every berry at the top has been picked clean. But if you crouch down and look up, you see all the berries hidden from view by the leaves.

This past work week was pretty bad as I caused a problem in OM by using every available inventory for 1 Softitel order, and now there's no product to fulfill another order we got on the same day. People are pissed. But, I'll take a deep breath, eat some blueberries, learn my lesson, "look in, look up", and move on.

Note to self: don't talk to Sales about order fulfillment anymore.

Is it too late to go back to school and study engineering?

Every product I've worked on has had the product quality called into question by the customer. It's the worst question to get asked as the product manager. And sitting on the other side of the world from R&D, without know every quirk and twist of touching and using the product, all I can go on is the knowledge and history of the process (which has holes that I have to ignore), aided by the encouragement/hypnosis/打氣 from the boss which can sometimes veer into BS territory. He takes the time to get to know more of the details than most bosses, but still he sees things easier as they are because he is a boss.

The customer interaction is the most challenging part of the job because I have to talk about things I don't know for sure, but pretend I do know. And when I read customer reports issues with seemingly basic functions, I really struggle. I really do. The boss has set things up so that I should not have to answer technical queries, but sometimes like today, I have to respond to the customer directly because it affects sales or business, and I don't want to take the easy way out and let it go till night time for my HK colleagues to respond.

Every time this issue comes up, I wish I had the technical expertise to say, this product is wrong. Actually, I can probably figure out how to set up the product, if I decide it is priority enough. When would that be?

Trying to be under the radar

For the most part, I think I am getting along with the bosses. One way I know is I keep getting more work, which I believe for at least one of them is an acknowledgment that I'm not screwing up what I've been doing. The other way I know is one boss crashed a weekly conference call I have with my coworkers and told them I'm doing a good job. Which - thanks and all, but dude, now I might have to deal with the "teacher's pet" syndrome. And I'm just fumbling through everything like my coworkers are, I'm just the one making the requests so it's easier to measure when my coworkers fail vs. when I fail. And I'm the loser with no family or social life to speak of, so I can spend every waking moment working or thinking of work. Don't keep enabling my bad behavior, boss!

I was also a loser when I was a kid, reading books when my siblings were watching TV or having fun, and I also got pointed out and praised which made me 莫名其妙. I'm just reading cause I don't have enough dexterity to play whatever games the older kids were playing! or cause they didn't invite me! Then the praise made them doubly sure to never invite me. So there's some personal overreaction here but I'm really wishing I could ditch the spotlight part of the job cause everything else is pretty fun. I am getting that sinking feeling again of not getting enough done, and the boss told me "don't send me any more emails complaining about job priorities" as he fixed things last time and I think I only get to play that card once a fiscal quarter... or fiscal year... T_T

Source: Discover Education 

PM reporting to Sales

I found out this week that my company posted a job for director of product marketing for another business unit. The thing is, it reports to Sales, not product management! This company direction worries me. I (mostly) like the sales team and they're critical to success. But Sales and PM often have a conflict of interest, and that check and balance is really needed to keep ourselves honest that we're building a product to address a market problem, instead of always chasing that elusive "killer product" that Sales is always pushing for.

I guess I have a slight case of fear of abandonment from some personal and previous work experience, and as I am just getting to enjoy my job, I hope this is not a sign that my boss is going to throw me over the fence to Sales boss!

From the 2010 Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey:
Reporting to Department

• 29% directly to CEO or COO
• 31% in Product Management
• 20% in Marketing
• 14% in Development or Engineering
• 7% in Sales

And here's why PM should not report to Sales:
"Very few product managers find themselves in a Sales (or Sales & Marketing) department. It seems clear product managers in Sales will spend all of their time supporting sales people with demos and presentations. The product managers become the sales engineers. In effect, subordinating product management relegates it to a support role for the primary goal of the department." (Source: Where does PM belong?)

And I think actually I wouldn't mind trying that, it's just I like to continue in my current role a bit longer as there is still a lot to learn here.

Working for a boss that challenges you and trying to live up to it

My last meeting with the Boss at HITEC (big Hospitality tradeshow), he asked me what I learned. I couldn't give him a succinct answer and blurted out something like "it's all about relationships and it's stupid." OMG...can I use the excuse that english is not my first language? He does this frequently and I'm always unprepared and need to come back to him later with my answer. Work faster, brain!

Coming up with snappy, high level observations and insights is definitely something I need to work on. I need to process information faster and I'm better at writing than talking. In a group environment, I like listening much more than talking because most people have good stories and I don't have or don't want to share them. The only thing I like to talk about is work. I worry that makes me a boring person but work means interesting and SOLVABLE problems. It makes me happy to think about instead of how much I miss my grandma and whether I should try to pursue a romantic relationship again.

I like that the Boss gives me an seemingly endless variety of things to do. Things that I never thought about doing or thought I'm not qualified to do... he just tells me to do it. Now I see myself as a leader of the project team and whatever I feel is beneficial and necessary for the project, from social marketing to educating how this market works, I am not going to beat myself up about "should or should not", I'm just going to do it and do it well so people believe in what I say.

The answer to another direct question from the Boss is: I am happy at my job.

Source: Mad Men S4E8 - The Suitcase

Don Draper, another challenging boss. 

My boss isn't as scary as Don in this scene, thankfully.

Diving back into Order Managment (OM)

I've been thinking a lot about how to approach the problem of the different in service level expectation from East Sales and West Sales director. I'm pretty confident that this is part of the reason OM rep left.

First, they are the ones that are actually bringing in PO's. So the Ops team recognize that their importance. However, it's also natural to compare their style.

East - has nothing but complaints of the Ops SLA. Announces sales with a tagline "may need Jun onsite". This means it's a rush. This means Ops need more info from you to process this request.
West - Says that it's always been good service. When she submits rush orders, she practically has the config form filled out already. And she actually checks with Ops to get a good confidence level and sets expectations with the customer.

Note that the same team is servicing both directors.

I think I'll email East and explicitly outline the differences in her interaction with Ops vs West, and tell her that it's not helping the team.

Order Management lady left

I've invested a lot of time trying to help the unsustainable situation but in the end, I'm not the one that has to do the dull data entry and check part numbers, meaning I can't actually help. Maybe I even hurt things, enabled some of the emotions to go from bad to worse. 

I'm really re-evaluating what I'm trying to do in OM and what my improvements should be. Maybe I should take a step back and ask myself, what value have I added?

I'm gonna miss her. T_T

"I've been fighting so many fires that it feels like Friday... and it's only Monday!"

Quote from VP of Ops. It's been one of those Mondays.

He told me that he was asked to process a business card order for the Canadian Sales Director and even all of the follow up such as the proofing (when the proof clearly did not match the request) and shipping. What a waste of a VP's time, particularly the VP I need for Hotel stuff!

I offered to take on stuff like that from him, but his point was no one from HR to the Sales guy took ownership and expected him to do all the work, when anyone with an education should have been able to look at the proof, see that it didn't match the order, and taken it up with the print vendor from there instead of running back to the VP. It shouldn't take that long or take a team of people.

We had to move on to something else, but next time I have opportunity I will make my point that taking ownership is exactly what I'm offering, because I would rather get his resource to help me with something I cannot do myself, then see him wasting time on a freaking business card order. What the hell, people, why is your boss paying you if not to take care of stuff so they can do the more important stuff, the stuff YOU can't do? I think Chinese people understand this very well, but in the politically-correct environment in US, you often hear "I'm not trying to say I'm more important than you", but the fact is, a VP's time is monetarily and hierarchically more important than mine! I'm ok with that, in fact as Don Draper says, I thank him or her for being in that position every day.

My working relationship contract is "I'll work on the shit from below, so you can deal with the shit from above."Such as reviewing Canadian tax laws with Legal to decide on how to handle CAN orders. You can't pay me to run away fast enough from that.

Source: Mad Men S4E07 "The Suitcase"

Don Draper: It’s your job. I give you money, you give me ideas.
Peggy Olson: And you never say thank you.
Don: That’s what the money is for!...You should be thanking me every day when you wake up, along with Jesus, for giving you another day.

Disclaimer: Unlike Peggy, I don't need thank you's from my bosses. Chinese people are uncomfortable with that... just keep reading my emails and making time to meet with me. And remember me when annual reviews come around and put in a good word for me for a raise. :)

On a pleasant note, had happy hour last Friday with the usual HF gang and also some additions. There was some major gossiping done, to my nosy delight.

I love Glee songs

Glee makes good songs great and great songs... AWESOME. It's almost enough to motivate me to buy an ipod and go on itunes.

You can listen to the song then search for the hot video of the performance. The videos are a bit hit and miss, I still have not found the full performance of the Britney video, while there are dozens of copies of other songs. Maybe the most popular songs are the most monitored and banned by Fox?

My entry songs were "Umbrella/Singing in the Rain" (I like Gwyneth Paltrow and Umbrella ever since I heard the Marie Digby cover), "Thriller/Off with Your Head", and lately I am listening/watching "Blame it on the Alcohol"

Zombie brides featuring my fave Britney as played by Heather Morris!

Source: EOnline

I'm so tired

Worked from 6:30AM to 1AM today (2 days). Is this really worthwhile in the scheme of things?

Bulls in Chicago

Watching Bulls games in Chicago made my business trip there one of my funnest trips ever. This pushed my Atlanta trip where I watched the Braves to #2.

The Bulls lost both nights but the sales director promised they'll win next year! It is tiring to be a sports fan, when Bulls spontaneously combusted in the 4th quarter of their do-or-die game, it was like a horror movie... I could barely watch through my fingers. It'll probably take me a year to recover from that.

Source: ESPN

In other news
- VC interop guy was fired and now we're scrambling to find a replacement... sigh
- The boss went back to HK for a while so I am left to wander the halls again looking for someone who actually cares about my product. Not to mention the random free food he would provide. Come back soon boss!

The funniest thing this week

One of the best things about work is sharing a laugh with cool coworkers. Since I'm relatively new, most often I'm a spectator not a player of a joke which is the way I want it.

So the Boss, PM Director, former-PM-turned-Sales were playing a game of "where are they now" with the people they used to work with, and I'm eavesdropping, when suddenly the conversation turned to HK trips.

Now the PM and Sales had an unspoken agreement before that they would work together to minimize the number of HK trips they need to make. They're both family men and foreigners and not a big fan of chinese food, so they don't enjoy HK much.

However, now the Sales guy doesn't really have just cause to go to HK anymore, so he looks right at Boss and asks how long it's been since PM went to HK. Cue uproar and frantic damage control from PM, and more fuel-tossing from Sales.

Quotes
PM: "That was complete and utter bullshit. I'm getting him back and you'll know when it happens."
Sales: "He was giving me the finger while trying to claim he just went."
Boss: "Hasn't it been 6 years since your last trip?"

I really had to smother my laughs so I won't draw any attention and have it go on for as long as possible.

Source: Mad Men S2E10 - The Inheritance

Time to aim for better

Source: This is Indexed

It's been a year since I felt this way, and what a difference a year makes.

"Don't be afraid to make mistakes"

Or, expanded, don't use the fear of making a mistake as the reason for inaction. As long as the action is supported by a logical business case, the boss will support me and I believe that even if I get fired for it, I can still leave with dignity and the connections I made intact. Note-to-self #4.

This direction from the boss has pushed me beyond the boundaries I assumed were there. Support from the boss for a job you like and want to excel at really is a precious thing. I work with people who suffer from "analysis paralysis" - because there is no clearly defined process for a new market, they try to chart the best course of action from every side, and since there is no pleasing everybody, end up solving every problem themselves until they go crazy! I think this is partly because they don't have a boss telling them "don't be afraid to make mistakes".

Source: Narek.me

I still suffer from this paralysis - habits are hard to break. I know this because sometimes when I ask the boss about whether to do something, he looks at me like I asked a dumb question and says "Just do it!" And then I laugh and write it down with a * next to it so I can look back and remember I was happy that day.

What I worry about when I shout over people on conference calls

 1. I'm interrupting them.
2. It's rude.
3. They may think I'm disrespectful.
4. They may think I'm stupid because I interrupted them trying to make the same point.
5. I'm wasting their time.

I have a habit of raising my hand when I have something to say in group discussions, especially if the discussion is moving rapidly without natural pauses. People give me funny looks and I'll stop doing it as soon as I figure out how to overcome my mental barriers of talking over people due to #1-5 above. And the more senior level they are, the stronger my barrier. I just feel all the starts & stops in conversation when people talk over each other, resulting in wasted time, outweighs any satisfaction you get over shouting people down.

My hand-raising tactic works on face-to-face meetings and videoconference, but it doesn't work in a audio conference call sadly. (Although the Ops VP does help me out when we're in the same room and on a call with Sales. I'll raise my hand and he'll cut into the conversation for me. Thanks boss!) And despite #1-5 above, I find myself doing this several times on recent HK/VC calls... because sometimes people are misunderstanding each other and the discussion gets off track or goes on for longer than it should.

I still feel bad about it though... sorry guys.

 

Source: Telephone Conference Calls

How a misunderstanding is born

Here is an email VC sent to HK on Apr 26.

"HK,

Mitel is ready to take a Wireshark trace on their side. They are opened between 9AM-5PM Eastern time so that means 9PM-5AM Hong Kong time.
How do you want to do this?

Cheers,
VC"

The same week, I was planning a trip for VC to Pinnacle in Maryland, US to test with their equipment. We discussed whether VC would need realtime support from HK for a few hours when he is onsite. However, this got confused with the Mitel work hours and HK thought VC is asking for 9PM-5AM support HKT for the Pinnacle visit. No!

The result: No one ever answered VC's email. VC thought HK fails at communication. HK thought VC is crazy.

Note to Self #1-3

And realize you just locked the door behind you.

Source: Meme Generator

1. Don't forget your keys
2. Don't lock the door behind you when you haven't checked if you have your keys.
3. Stash a spare set of house keys in a good location. Define good location. Is it car, garage, backpack?

Helpful conversations this week May 8 - May 14

1. OM meeting with SCM, OM, and Boss 2 on Wed. Got to know how manual processes and treating everything as exception create (wait for it) UNSUSTAINABLE PRACTICES. 
2. Learned about meditation from new HK Sales Director and her ideas of synergy and connections.
3. Talked with exiting Director of SCM about how to drive process definition and find areas that can be automated to increase reliability and efficiency.
4. Talked with VP of Retail Ops how to build a business case for starting new projects.

This was a long week but another week full of learnings. I wonder if MBA is like this? then I really want to take a program.

Source: 40K for the New Professional

Concept of target schedule, or "You give us the info by X date, and you'll get the product on Y date"

Here's an email about delivery schedules that HK sent to VC:

"You expect R&D give you the date for software release then let you have plan can start communication to NEC. But if we do not clearly know the bug how to plan the software release plan? is that my rough guess, and let you tell NEC later on change schedule after clarify need more time to debugging?

I cannot agree that without communication or understanding from NEC, then give a plan to you without solid support.

Or only start the communication with NEC after all on-hand bug finish debugging."

Here is an example of language barrier. Prior to this email, VC had discussed with HK on conference call about a rough delivery schedule contingent on getting debugging information in a timely manner from NEC. Then VC emailed: "Please do not ask me for a daily report or conf call when you have other bugs you can fix and there is no bottlenecks. When you have no more bugs, no more tests and you are waiting for me then we have a problem. Either I am not doing my job or the Software team is super fast and experienced in fixing SIP bugs."

For me, VC is clearly saying whatever firmware delivery schedule he gives to NEC, will depend on NEC providing the debugging information. Meaning he's setting expected deadline for NEC. While 3rd parties cannot be controlled easily, at least we can set their expectations and also CYA when Super VP cracks the whip. Meanwhile, there are other bugs HK can work on so they are not sitting around making no progress. They should work on finishing the bugs they can fix, and when the NEC information comes in, they should only have to address the NEC-dependant bugs before releasing the software

This concept of target schedule and dependencies seems to be as old as project management, and there are all sorts of tools like Gantt charts to map this dependency, yet I keep hearing the question over and over again. What's the disconnect here?

Source: Gantt Chart Biz

The players

Source: Arthritis Foundation. This is not a comment on the condition on the condition of the team. They just had a graphic I liked.

1. Me. I am the product manager = PM. I define new products and their market positioning. I support Sales & Ops on product questions and training. I have 2.5 bosses in Product Management, Program Management, and Operations, and I try to make all of them happy and keep the project moving, so I get assigned special projects. Right now (May 9, 2011) part of my task list includes leading weekly order management reviews and testing/shipping customer samples. The work is quite interesting and my colleagues lifesavers, which keeps me motivated.

My goal is to stop VC and HK from killing each other and work harmoniously to develop a great product! I feel with the lure of salaries and the fact that everyone is an adult, this will happen soon. I am in the US office.

2. Vancouver, BC office = VC = SIP interop engineer responsible for interfacing with the PBX manufacturers

3. Hong Kong office = HK. They're the mothership so there are different resources residing here but most relevant to interop is R&D. Others include:
- The Super VP - Boss man!
- Program Managers = PMGT. My counterparts in HK just trying to keep it together and staggering towards a finish line.
- HK IT. They don't not work well with R&D to troubleshoot networking issues which is a problem when you're developing a network product.
- HK IS (Information Services). Develops applications to manage data. They've been waiting for a spec from someone for a long time. Often gets the short end of the stick but takes it in good humor.
- Technical product manager = TPM. Works out all the user specifications so I don't have to. 


4. US - the organization here is largely Sales and Operations. I deal with the following lovely people:
- The VP of Ops - 2nd boss! I was a bit uncertain about how he can advise me on product development as his passion is operations, but it turns out I am interested in operations too, and his logic serves as a great sanity check for my half-assed product ideas. Plus I have...
- The VP of Product - 3rd boss! I still meet with him every month or so and bitch about all the problems Ops VP can't help with and he helps me with them. I think it's working out guys!
- Supply Chain = SCM. These people work with massive blinding spreadsheets to make sure all our orders are shipped on time.
- Order Management = OM. Also known as inside sales or sales support. 1 person to support 4 salespeople seems to be a unfortunate ratio, especially for new business, but times are tough.
- Marketing Communications = Marcomm. They present my products and messaging is attractive ways. Lately their style has been cramped due to all unbudgeted expenses need to get CEO approval. That's right, the CEO. Doesn't matter if it's a $60 fee to print some postcards. Disproportionate punishment for their previous VP who is no longer here.
- Sales. Needs no explanation. I do vastly prefer the current crop over my last exposure to Sales 3 years ago.

Goals

This blog name is inspired by this index card:

Source: http://thisisindexed.com/2007/11/when-are-you/

I've spent quite a few hours this weekend reading the blog equivalent of a self-help book at Penelope Trunk's blog . And I have a lot of thoughts on work, life, and working with different time zones and cultures recently. The crux is my love-despair relationship with my 12 hour workdays. Since the work zone is from Montreal, to Vancouver, BC, to Portland, OR, to Hong Kong, it's more like a 15 hour work day.

If I can post twice a week for the next 4 weeks, then I'll tell my circle about this blog and ask for their feedback.