Sometimes things are just tough. All you must do at that time is be tougher.
I’ve learnt a lot by watching. But I’ve learned the most by doing.
We must always try to move fast. But even if things are going slow, the most important thing is to keep moving.
You will eventually get there. JUST DO NOT STOP.
IF YOU BELIEVE IT. KEEP GOING.
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“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
It’s a Markov Model that breaks down topline metrics into smaller user segments.
This was the model that solved a near-fatal problem for Duolingo:
→ Their DAU metric was stagnating.
They needed to find out how they could refine their focus by optimizing metrics that drive DAU indirectly.
Their first step was to classify users into 7 mutually-exclusive user states:
Duolingo monitored the % of users moving between states.
Then, they began to run growth simulations to identify new metrics that – when optimized – were likely to increase DAU.
The results: Increasing the Current User Retention Rate (CURR) 2% month-over-month had the largest impact on DAU.
Optimizing CURR as a movable metric resulted in DAU kicking off again as well as consistent, yearly growth for Duolingo.
Eventually, they used the exact growth model below to:
✔ Build a statistical forecast of individual drivers of DAUs
✔ Set quarterly and annual goals for teams
✔ Add new dimensions for analysis
So founders, when growth slows, remember to ask…
• What are the metrics that really matter?
• What metrics can impact your north star metric?
• How can you use these to find the biggest growth opportunities?
Credit: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wagnermarkus_tech-startups-founders-activity-7090794591678824448-4GXI?utm_source=share
“Your mindset is about what you see, think, and believe. … It is the internal lens through which you see and navigate life. Mindset influences everything you see, as well as everything you do.”
Mindset is who you really are at your core. It’s your habitual way of thinking. While it’s not easy to change, the purpose of life is to evolve and become better a human being. So you should think about these human qualities from time to time and always endeavor to do better. Your mindset is what really differentiates you from your peers. If you work hard at developing what Jo Wong likes to call your human qualities, you’ll set yourself up for success in work and in life.
Having the right mindset can be a competitive advantage when you’re seeking employment or advancement. According to Reed and Stoltz:
“Given the choice between someone with the desired mindset who lacks the complete skillset for the job and someone with the complete skillset who lacks the desired mindset, a total of 96 percent of the employers surveyed picked mindset over skillset as the key element in those that they seek and retain.”
These employers also believe that it’s much more likely that a person with the right mindset will be able to develop the required skillset than that a person with all the hard skills would develop the right mindset. Plus, the tactical skills that jobs require change over time, while the desired mindset is a constant.
Credit: Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love, by James Reed and Paul G. Stoltz
These are the most important words that ever human being should know and realize.
We think we know. Before we are sure, look inwards. “Do we really know?”
This is true for me, judge yourself for yourself. Do you know something or you believe you know? Beliefs are dangerous and they are the source of all things that are evil around us.
Now don’t get me wrong, beliefs aren’t evil. Believing blindly in your beliefs. Not inquiring into your beliefs. Not letting your beliefs be challenged is where the problem lies with me, with you, with our entire society.
As I look back to all the things I’ve learned and realized, I feel that might be the most important one. Let me start with “I don’t know”. It opens me up to what others think they know, it opens me up to challenging my beliefs and discovering new horizons every day.
While this may sound simple to read (that’s by careful intention), it’s one of the most profound things. If practiced by more of us, we can gradually shift the trajectory of humanity.
I don’t know can lead us to new knowledge, consciousness, mutual respect, tolerance and above all closer to knowing the truth about what we might want to believe in.
Religion, faith and beliefs are just that – a common belief. Each of us needs something to believe in but don’t hold on to it blindly.
Blind faith in different belief systems leads to conflicts between individuals. Instead, let’s inquire into our beliefs and learn from each other.
As a human race we’ve come so so far. And there is still so much we humans can say “I don’t know!”
In the competitive world of business, understanding and meeting customer expectations is paramount to success. To truly excel, entrepreneurs must prioritize measuring customer experience, as it can be a game-changer for their business.
Think of your business as if you are chef creating a signature dish. You meticulously combine ingredients, adjusting the proportions to achieve the perfect balance of flavors. However, without tasting the dish along the way, you’re clueless how its going to taste to your customers’.
Measuring customer experience is like regularly tasting the dish throughout the cooking process. It allows you to gather direct feedback from those who matter most—your customers. Just as a chef fine-tunes a recipe based on taste tests, measuring customer experience empowers you to refine and enhance your offerings to meet YOUR customers preferences.
Measuring customer experience is a powerful practice that can transform your business. Its the magic pill your business needs to succeed. I’m sure you’ve heard what Peter Drucker once said, You can improve anything that you can measure.
I say this often … count not the hours you put in, count the outcomes you produce. Showing up is IMPORTANT, but not enough. Even slackers show up to work for a paycheck. Hours don’t matter, the work you produce speaks.
On that same note, respect the guy / gal who can get more done in less time. Don’t count how many hours they worked. Compensate them for the value they add. Everyone works hard in their own way, but those whose work makes a difference are making the real difference.
The debate on remote work continues. There are merits to being at the office and working from home.
There are two forms of work –
I firmly believe in the the goodness of people. We are all generally responsible. We all have personal lives and WORK is a part of it.
worklife balance???. Honestly, I don’t know what it really is. To me, work and the other things in life make up for my life. I give my 110% when I’m working and my 110% when I’m not working. As long as I know what needs to get done, I make it my responsibility to get it done. Any persons workday and personal day are part of the same day. And a good day = one where I’m been honest to my responsibilities at work and outside of work.
If you’re working with me, I respect your personal situation. Your family, personal life and work life make up your life. Whatever you are responsible for, those things need to co-exist in harmony. Some weeks we work really hard and it takes more than its fair share. At other times we have priorities outside of work.
A workplace that doesn’t respect this fact has got it wrong! And will ultimately lose its good people. An employee that abuses the responsibility placed with them is not a right fit for their workplace. They will ultimately find themselves out of a place to work. We all naturally gravitate towards places where we’re a fit.
Clear responsibility. Clear communication of expectations. and we can have happy people working at top notch workplaces.
We all work for different reasons. But, whatever those reasons are, for the most of us work enables the things we want from life.
Life & work go together. They cannot compete. They must coexist. If your life and work are different things to you – either you, your people or your workplace has misaligned priorities & expectations from life.
We’re all adults and if trusted to do the right thing, most of us know and do what is right. The balance tilts towards work and non work activities at various points of the day. The balance is different for different people. Be clear within and with others on what that is and you will find harmony in work and in life That harmony makes us happy people at home and at work. Happy people = happy workplaces too!
Self care takes effort. It doesn’t just happen.
The body and mind need to be maintained. Similar to a garden, without effort, weeds will pop up and overtake everything.Idea taken from James Clear‘s emails
With a bit of consistent pruning, the results can be beautiful.
Focus starts with elimination, improves with concentration, and compounds with continuation.
…And many countries across the world. There’s a lesson in there somewhere if one is to look closer.
They exploited one common human flaw. “Failing to see the longer term view in awe of the short term gain”. Each person who saw to his personal / selfish / short term benefit gave away India to the British little by little.
They used this flaw to turn one Indian against another. Indians split themselves up by dwelling on their differences. Whether it was religion, casteism, language, descent – we found ways to see other Indians as different from ourselves. This allowed a small group of opportunists (the east india company) to colonize a massive country like India for over 175 years.
Unfortunately some of us still fail to bond together with our fellow countrymen and women as brethren. I hope there’s a lesson here for anyone who reads this and I implied you, reader to think about thisva little. If I can spark a sense of belonging and unity in you for you and your tribe wherever you hail from. And if i can get you to do the same for others you come across, then we as citizens of this world (our primary tribe) can do so much more for the human race.
We humans are a tribal creature. Back in the day our tribe was limited to country or religion or family lineage. Today, any one of us can identify with more than one tribe. So as long as you can identify with one or more tribe, please try to truly belong and be loyal to your tribe(s).
There’s power in tribes because tribes lend us a common ground where we can see eye to eye and find together in unity.
Try not to sub divide, because if you do your tribal power might feel like it may have intensified but your tribe has shrunk. You much rather be in a tribe that grows and put your entire energy in fanning its unifying forces.
The debate about Remote work stems from the different perspectives that employers and employees have.
Remote, hybrid and in-office each have pros and cons
In-office is great for synchronous time. Collaboration, meetings and social engagement all happen well in the office. However, working out of the office isn’t great for asynchronous deep work. A lot of time is spent in commuting to and from the office.
Employees account for the time they do not lose in commuting etc when talk of the merits of remote work. On the other hand, managers completely discount that commute.
For employers productivity = work done in the time spent working at the office.
Whereas for employees productivity = work done in the hours allocated to work related activity. That includes traveling to/from work and the other inconveniences involved in actually making it to work.
Many of my teams work from home. They have free reign to define when they work during the day as long as the work to be done gets done. In terms of synchronous time, it’s important to be disciplined about having a common time across all team members that depend on each other.
We plan our in-office or in-person time periodically for the entire team to be together as needed. In-office time works great for planning, coordinating and setting the wheel in motion. Once the wheel is in motion, the touch points are more focused (sometimes between select team members) and fewer. Planned team wide syncs once each day and individual to individual syncs as needed work great for us. The rest of the time, it’s the individuals responsibility to be available to others when needed and to get work done on their own schedule. As long as you meet the goals in the agreed upon time, we’re all good. If you are struggling to meet your goal then it’s again the individuals responsibility to seek help from coworkers or their manager. It’s the individuals responsibility to ensure they meet their goal in the agreed upon timeline.
It’s ok to work alone as long as you deliver. The moment you realize you are likely to miss your goal it’s time to seek help and ensure you get to the goal line. Someone I know once said “Never lose alone. Use help from everyone you can to keep yourself from losing”
In my opinion, this form hybrid work is optimal for knowledge workers. As you will note, remote work is the ultimate in flexibility for employees.
Each role lends itself to varying levels of flexibility to work remotely. Some roles are in-office only, others can be completely remote and most can be managed at varying degrees of hybridization. As long as the role or function permits it, the remote model works for all who can take ownership and accountability of their contributions to the organization.
In general, Remote or hybrid works for employees that take accountability for their output and for those whose work output requires little interdependence with others.
Most importantly all forms of remote work is inherently goals driven. A managers role is to be a guide or advisor who collaborates to set the goal and the employee can channel themselves to get to the goal post.
Hybrid or remote work is great but only for organizations and employees who can jointly appreciate “flexibility comes with great responsibility”.
Another year has gone by and a new one is about to begin. Each year, each of us makes 10s of resolutions. I’m going to do the same but little different…
I’m here to make more friends, be at peace with myself, spread goodness, help where I can and learn as much as possible from the people I meet.
I’m not perfect, albeit my ego often will get me thinking otherwise.
If I have hurt you or your feelings in 2022, I first seek your forgiveness ?
If you see an opportunity for me to do better, I honestly seek your inputs.
School is one thing. Education is completely another.
Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.
This is post 1 of 1 in the series “US Healthcare”
I’ve been learning about the US Healthcare market lately from a few friends & mentors. Its such a massive market and one that has immense opportunities to take advantage of tech.
What complicates building a solution, any solution for Healthcare is the need to be careful with privacy. There are hard requirements on how to respect the privacy of the patients involved. Now I am no HIPAA expert but based on what I know so far, this is what makes problem solving in Healthcare very complicated.
We’ve been discusssing staffing in particular and seems like as a country we’re short around 50K physicians and 3.5M nurses. Rural America is most severely hit by this staffing shortage. Most qualified HCPs (Healthcare professionals) prefer living in the big cities. And the ones that are open to working in the small towns & cities don’t have a clear way of finding where the opportunities are.
Since COVID, the staffing situation has exacerbated. We already had fewer HCPs and a large geriatric population. Nursing was already short staffed. Since COVID, more HCPs have decided to quit or retire due to either burnout, to avoid the risk of contracting COVID or simply because they feel they can make more money and travel and control their schedule while working as a temporary staff.
As a result, temporary staffing is on the rise. There are projections stating that in the next 10 years or so a higher percent of the staff at most hospitals is going to be temporary staff.
These demands will need to be met with supply faster. Much faster than we’ve done so far.
When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home.
Rumi
Answer the 3 questions — real quick. Each participant needs to succintly speak to the following questions: (keep it to no more than 90seconds. Succinct, To the point, no wandering off)
(1) What did you do yesterday?
(2) What will you do today?
(3) What blockers stand in your way?
End — Close out the daily meeting with a team clap, cheer, or reminder of the mission.
“Pain is neither unbearable nor unending, as long as you keep in mind its limits and don’t magnify them in your imagination.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“The FEYNMAN method of learning: Choose a concept and study it quickly. Teach it to someone, like a child, who is unfamiliar with the topic. Revise to fill in the gaps. Review and simplify (repeat 2 and 4 until you can explain the concept in your own words)” – Richard Feynman
credit: https://twitter.com/GetWiser/status/1526531582445731841
