What I learned at McKinsey

After nearly 2 years of total time at McKinsey, I joined Lattice Engines as a senior product manager. And I love my new job! But in the midst of this new job, I have often reflected on what I learned from my time at McKinsey. Was working there after business school really valuable?

Not even counting the network and brand, and the friendships I developed while at McKinsey, I completely believe it was. Just like Business School, I answer this question by the following statement - if the experience significantly changes (and improves) the way I think and act, I believe it is valuable. In particular, there are some elements of the McKinsey culture that have become part of the way I work. I will classify them under two categories: Work style and Communication and Interpersonal skills

Work Style

1. Efficiency and Urgency: I have a sense of urgency to do things faster, more efficiently, that I did not before. At McKinsey, there was a constant emphasis on using the 80-20 rule to have maximum impact with less effort; this was the only way you could actually complete the work assigned to you. That has completely rubbed off on me, though I do sometimes push for getting things done in an unrealistic timeframe.
2. Scheduled PS sessions: We had 2 problem solving sessions scheduled weekly, to proactively think through problems we might face. Having these on the calendar forced us to come up with answers with artifical deadlines, and kep the project moving forward. Also, these sessions gave us a way of stepping back and reviewing the progress as a group, look at the big picture, get input from multiple stakeholders and make better decisions about the future of the project
3. First day answer: There was always a urgency of getting to an early answer. On a first day, it was just a hypothesis; you will spend several weeks proving or disproving the answer. But having to come up with an  early answer makes you focus on what are the things you need to do to come up with a refined answer, and use facts to back it up. In addition, this helps bring around a focus on Iterative problem solving and end-product focus: We began every study with a storyboard; an outline of what the final product (i.e., the final presentation) will look like. This helped us understand and prioritize our analysis, and also help drive prioritization of work
4. Put something on paper: There was also an emphasis on coming in with a perspective, and in particular putting something down on paper which forces people to react. This is a powerful technique because most people are overwhelmed with too many things to handle, and if you ask them something, they might not put too much thought into their answers. Putting an opinion in front of them forces them to react, and either agree or disagree, and produces better results

Communication and Interpersonal skills

1. Bucketing or 'chunking': Give someone a set of six points, and they will not likely remember anything. Give them three points, with two sub-points each, and they will likely remember what you said. This is probably the most useful habits I developed; rolling up points into themes, and communicating in sets of 2-4 themes at a time. This has made my presentations and communications so much more effective, that this alone is worth the time spent at McKinsey.
2. Respect for different personality types: McKinsey lives on MBTI types; people use MBTI as a way of communicating how they work, and to understand how they can work better with others. For me, it helped in two major ways. First, even though I don't use MBTI types anymore, when I start working with someone, I try to get a sense of how they like to work. I also respect people's preferences more, and try to understand what they say based on their personality. Second, MBTI has helped me understand myself better. I know that since I am INTJ, I need time on my own to think through things before meetings, I love to organize things and build plan before I proceed, and that I love to think big picture, but need to watch out for the details when I work. 
3. Team Learning: A unique thing we did close to the beginning of each project was to hold a team learning session, where everyone mentioned their MBTI type, their learning goals, and how they like to work. This session was very valuable, both as a team-building exercise, but as a way to surface information that can help the team tremendously in the future, to avoid misunderstandings, and to support each other in achieveing individual goals
4. Dialogues and handling different points of opinion - At the end of my one year learning workshop, I learned two very valuable frameworks for conversations. One was treating dialogues as a balance between listening and asserting, and techniques to make sure that you do each of these more effectively. Second, I learned a way of handling different points of opinion by getting to an understanding of the facts and assumptions behind each persons arguments, and understanding what assumptions you need to test for everyone to get on the same page

The 'Easy to Use' myth

One of the most important requirements for any new product is that it should be 'Usable' or 'Easy to Use.' But in my role as Product Manager at Lattice Engines, I have always been puzzled about what this means to the product. There are really three different flavors for a product being easy to use; in this blog post, I discuss each of them.

Easy to get started

The most common meaning of easy to use, is easy to get started with. The most important criterion are:
1. The various controls you want to user to use more frequently, are easily available
2. The feature works as the user expects

For example, if you are creating a new feature that enables a user to search a e-commerce website. The expectations for this feature would be:

1. The search box is in the normal place - top and center, or top and right
2. The user can enter a text and just click enter, and expect the search to give you results
3. There is potential auto-fill and/or auto-correct functionality available
4. This feature works in a similar manner across all platforms and devices used to access your site.

In other words, the control and behavior mirror the mental model of how users expect your feature to behave.

Easy to learn/master

Let's say you are designing a product with lots of advanced features. Your users need to often achieve a certain level of mastery to start using those features. These require a different set of consideration; you need to provide everything to the user to learn and master these features. This includes

1. Training/tutorials to walk through the advanced features
2. Clear separation of advanced features from the most common features
3. A non-threatening learning environment; by this, I mean that the consequences of using the features should be clearly visible to the user, and he/she must have enough information to decide whether to take an unfamiliar action, and ideally know that they can always reverse any change they make

High productivity after Mastery

A last important aspect of ease of use is what sort of productivity can the user achieve after he/she has learned the advanced features. A prime example is excel; there are tons of shortcuts which require lot of effort on part of the user to learn. But for the advanced users of excel (e.g., consultants, investment bankers) the shortcuts increase their productivity tremendously.

There is a trade-off

These three objectives are not mutually exclusive; given limited resources, and design considerations, you have to decide which is most important, and design for that case. For example, I was recently designing an advanced module at Lattice. My initial instinct was to design a very simple, intuitive interface, and I got pretty good feedback from most potential users. What I did not realize that a very small percentage of our users would use this module; those that would, use excel for such tasks. Designing an excel-like interface increases the effort required to learn the interface upfront, but helps them be much more productive when they have gained mastery.

Why I don't normally listen to the news - but am thankful for journalism

I don't listen to the news. I don't watch CNN, Fox, or any news channel. Occasionally I will glance at the NY times or CNN. Why do you ask? In one word - negativity.

The news media excels in making us aware of all the negative things going in the world. From terrorism, to the obesity epidemic, to the attention deficit order, to floods etc. Hardly ever does one see a positive piece of news. And why so? Negative news sells. Negative news makes people angry, and turn back into the channel. Negative news can be sensationalized.

Now I don't want to pretend that  burying my head in the sand is the answer. But I do think that most people pay too much attention to the news. I find a balance by occasionally glancing at the news, and knowing enough to make important decisions e.g., who to vote for. But that is what I want to limit it to. I would rather spend time with family, read tech blogs, work hard at my job, and generally remain happy, than remain 'informed.'

One exception - the recent Boston acts of terrorism. That is the one time I was thankful for journalists, and news sources such as NPR. Not Twitter, NPR. Why? NPR, and other news outlets check their sources. Twitter was already abuzz with rumours 30 minutes after the incident  12 dead, while only 2 people were confirmed dead. And so on and so forth.

So thanks for journalism and the news media for keeping us informed when it counts. In most other days though, I shall continue to ignore 90% of what you say.

Insecurity Work

Re-Posted from my blog Business CoFounder

Insecurity work

I read a very interesting post the other day by Tony Schwartz, founder of the Energy Project, called ‘Take back your life in seven Simple Steps.’ First of all, let me say that the steps look simple, but implementing them is anything but simple.
The part that stood out to me was the description of what he called ‘Insecurity Work.’ Insecurity work is the ‘check in’ work we do everything every day - work that gives us an instant sense of progress, but does not contribute to the achievement of our goals. Examples:

 - Check email - wow, 7 new messages. I must be important!

 - Check Klout score - man, I am super influential

 - Check Google Analytics - wow, 30% increase in day over day hits on my blog

This work needs to get done. But it need not interrupt us all the time. The video below has some excellent tips by Scott Belsky, the creator of the term, and author of ‘Making Ideas Happen.’ Simply be aware of when you are doing it, compartmentalize it, and batch it so that you are doing all this work together, in a 30-minute time when your energy is too low to do other, more productive work.
Sounds simple - but isn’t. It is much easier to do work that provides instant gratification, and much harder to put it off. But being aware of when it happens, and working slowly in the direction of changing things is a start.

I am personally working on this with the use of tools such as StayFocusd and LeechBlock that automatically block, or limit activities such as Facebook, personal email checks etc. So wish me luck!

It’s time to Gamify the To-do list

Reposted from my new Blog 'The Business Cofounder.'

I am a strong J. That means that my fourth MBTI type is Judging - leading to me preferring a structured approach to life. One of the most important ways I keep my life organized? With my To-do list, using my favorite tool, Toodledo.

My To-do list is not just a To-do list, it is organized by Context (where I am/what I can do - e.g., Work, Home, On the Phone), Priority, Start Date, Due date, Goal/Project etc. So at any point in time, I can easily pull up things I can/want to do. And I try to clump things together, to maintain a rythm - e.g., if I am feeling focused, I will pull up specifically tasks for which I need a certain level of concentration. If I am sending emails, I will batch the effort and send 5 emails instead of 1.

The conflict

But as I ponder over my To-do list, I realize that it is also a big reason for my unhappiness. And not
just my unhappiness, but the unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Let me explain.
I - along with most people I know- maintain a to-do list that shows them what remains to be done. And rightfully so - who would I waste precious screen space that shows me what I don’t need to worry about? Also, most people have way more to do than what they could possibly do. Every time a task is completed, it disappears from the list; all that is left is what’s remaining to be done.
Boy, what a miserable existence! What if a video game, rather than showing you how many points you have earned, shows you - 10 levels left. How long do you think would you play the game?

That’s where Gamification comes in

If you have never heard of Gamification - it is the application of game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts. Or in layman’s terms - what if we approached every problem to be solved with the lens of converting it into something more like a game?

What might happen if I gamified a To-do list? Here are some ideas:

1. A score - A score, or an achievement is the physical representation of having accomplished something. It keeps you focused on not just what you have left to do, but how much you have accomplished!
In this case, I would not do a linear score, but a more complex one - rewarding you much more for important tasks than simple ones (so writing a blog post might get a few more points than emptying the trash)

2. Levels - Levels are a system, or “ramp”, by which players are rewarded an increasing value for a cumulation of points. If you have already been pretty productive today, you level up - and hence get more points than on an ordinary day

3. Progression - or how much of the work that I set out to do have I done? This is just like the LinkedIn progress bar that shows you what %age of your profile you have completed, motivating you to finish it

4. Social - Yes, I will make it social - in a way that helps your friends provide support and encouragement for finishing things - especially important tasks that require concentration, taking risks and persistence.

5. Analytics - a very important side effect of this type of gamification will be analytics. For example, when are you most productive? When are you able to do tasks that require a high degree of concentration? Consequentially, how should you change behavior e.g., focus on important tasks in the morning than checking email?

6. Last, but not least, battling the monsters - We all battle with a big monster while completing work - the procrastination monster. It is not that we are inherently lazy - it is that our Lizard Brain is telling us not to take risks, to stay in our comfort zone.
I would love to hear from anyone who has seen such an app/working on one. Or I might just work on one myself…

Being a dad

The other day, I was talking to my dad. He had just looked at some of Simran's (my daughter) pictures and videos on Facebook. He told me how much he loves watching her videos and pictures, and she had totally overshadowed all the children he had seen - including me. In fact, after watching her, the memories of me had been replaced by her (he said it in jest, of course).

Now that I think about me, I imaging that at that point I might have felt jealous, angry - how could the memories of my childhood have been replaced by anyone? But all I felt was - happiness. Intense Pride. Joy.

I guess that's what being a dad is like. Your children might overshadow you, excel in life more than you had ever done - and you hope that happens. And if that happens, you feel just intense pride and joy. But above all, you hope and pray that they are happy - always. And there is no joy like seeing them happy.

Improve your emotional resilience

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The Network

Reposted from by new Blog, the Business CoFounder

Networking gets a bad rap unnecessarily. Think of what picture comes to mind, when you say ‘networker?’ Is it a slick haired, smooth talking fellow, nicely dressed, extroverted, skillfully finding the most important people at a cocktail party, ready to impress them and hand them his business card?

For me, my network is just a group of friends and acquaintances, who help me, and who I help. My approach to networking is simple - in any opportunity to meet and network with people, I am always thinking - who can I help here? Yes, some of it is because of the goodness of my heart! But some of it is that I strongly believe in the principle of reciprocity - if you help someone, they must help you. In words of Dr. Cialdini (world famous Professor of Psychology, and arguably the world’s most well known expert on Influence) “Society works because of the principle of reciprocity - people can freely exchange resources, because they know that they are not giving them away. When they need them, they will receive them back in return.” And it’s not that I keep a count who I asked for favors from, and who I gave favors to. There are people who have helped me immeasurably, and I have hardly ever done anything for them. And there are some people who I have helped more. It all adds up in the end in a giant pool of reciprocity.

But the more your network grows, the harder it is to keep in touch with everyone. I try to keep in touch with some means:
1. Email Reconnect - every year, I try to send an update to whoever I think might be interested in hearing from me. It works great, and people update me with what’s going on in their lives, call me etc.
2. Commenting on posts on LinkedIn, Facebook
3. Sharing articles - whenever I come across something useful for someone, I share it with them
4. Making introductions is a great way, as in my mind, you are doing something good for the person who wants to be introduced to someone, and the someone who he/she wants to be introduced to (as long as the match is appropriate). Always do check with both people before you actually send out an introduction emails
5. What I am terrible at is actually calling people - definitely need to get better at this

Enter Technology
Technology related to networking has been there for a while, from address book utilities like Plaxo, to email software like Xobni.
Recently though I have come across other technology that could take building and maintaining a network one step forward. Let’s look at some of them.

• Cloze is a promising ‘interaction organizer’ that adds a context for every conversation. I have not been able to try the software yet, but based on their video, it does sounds promising. The idea is simple - aggregate all contact info, conversations, and present them when it matters (e.g., when you are email a person, talking to them etc.). The MA based company has raised $1.2M, and is in private beta.
• Another interesting company is NetworksIgnite, started by my friend from Kellogg, Rajus Korde. The company attempts to answer the question - when should you follow up?
• There have been several apps to meet people/network at conferences such as Plug from Mobinett, Pathable etc.
• Apps that try to eliminate business cards, like Bump and a variety of others. None of these appears to have succeeded though, as there hasn’t been a single platform that everyone has moved to.

So what’s next? Well, I continue to watch for new technology in this space - still seems like a lot of potential to innovate. And networking - that continues too, with friends and acquaintances, old and new. Till then? Stay thirsty, my friend.

The Human Predicament

We all suffer from the great human predicament. In search of happiness, we work hard to achieve more and acquire more things - wealth, status, power. But our mind is incredibly at adjusting to the 'new normal..'. Research shows that someone having suffered from a catastrophic event - like having lost a leg - is about as happy as someone who won the lottery, six months after the event. 

People who are happy, are not happy because of success. They are happy because they are either naturally inclined to be happy, or choose to be happy (or both). In fact, happiness is more tried to effort than to outcomes. 

I am no master of human happiness - but I am a student of human happiness. Hopefully you too are, and want to be, a student of human happiness. Want to know where to begin? Just ask me. 

Forming a Peer Group in Boston

Earlier this year, I was reading a book called the Accidental Creative. The author said that his greatest piece of advice for creatives is to start a small group that keeps you focused and engaged on your work. This compelled me to re-read Who's Got Your Back. Apparently Core Groups have been in existence longer than most people think; Benjamin Franklin belong to a Core Group called Junto. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone belonged to a Mastermind Group.

Now One of my big, short term goals? To form a Peer Group in Boston.

What is a Peer Group?

The idea is simple - a Peer Group (aka Core Group, Mastermind Groups, Personal Board of Directors) is a small, professional group that meets regularly, and in which members offer each other advice and encouragement. The advantages are many:

1. Accountability: If people hold you accountable, you are more likely to achieve your goals; especially if you need to answer publicly to a group of six of your peers
2. Encouragement:  Peer Groups are designed to encourage its members to strive towards their goals, to explore things they are passionate about, to stay motivated.
3. An outside perspective
4. Motivation: For me, this is the biggest factor. Whenever I have had career discussions with peers or mentors, I have always come out feeling energized

My quest for a Peer Group

I am largely looking at People I already know and respect, though I would be open to others, especially people who are known and respected by people I know and respect. They need to be interested in Technology and Entrepreneurship for us to have at least some common goals. I plan to hold monthly meetings, and more informal get-togethers. Will keep y'all posted on how it goes!