War Room + Surprise, Taken Idea, Search

What, you ask, is a war room?

👍 What went well: Closed War Room + Surprise!

LinkedIn taught me the concept of the “war room.” When a mysterious problem pops up (metrics are unexpected, big bug) and we need a team to urgently work on the matter, someone opens up a war room to close out the mystery.

I opened up a war room last Monday as we weren’t seeing the engagement metrics we expected at the early launch of our BIG feature.

It was stressful, and I drove more stress onto others, I’m sure. But, at the end of the week, we figured out a couple mysteries, discovered and fixed a couple new ones along the way & are now back on track with our launch. (Funny thing is we have a new, open war room that just started today, but may save that for another update!)

Lessons from the war room:

1. Overcommunicate - share updates w/ stakeholders & document, document, document!

2. Act Urgently - don’t be afraid to message, schedule meetings, getting everyone to feel the sense of urgency; after all, that’s the point of the war room!

3. Be Grateful & Call Wins - I’m so proud of the team for getting several mysteries solved fast!

Another fun thing: Nick SURPRISED me! I say this when ALL CAPS because the “gifting” love language (incl. surprises) isn’t the highest in his list so I have to subtly remind him that I love surprises. He pulled through.✌️

We bought food at our fave pasta place, went to the Marin Headlands to eat (check out our view below) & then went to my first ever drive-in! We watched Tenet - movie was complicated so just OK but the experience was cool! (Thanks Nick!)

Expectation:

Reality:

You’re not allowed to get out of the car in a drive-in so I got a few angry honks after this. Ooops.

👎 What could be better: My Idea’s Already Out There

I found a platform that’s doing really well and is somewhat already solving the problem I set out to solve, at scale. For a moment, I was in a dump - flipped the proverbial table & called it a day. But realized that, OF COURSE my idea is out there - who has purely original ideas? Now the challenge is figuring out what stronger niche to fill or competitive advantage my version of the solution tacks on.

Not giving up.

(Also, clearly this send is later than my usual. I’ll be punctual next time!)

👉 What’s up next: The Search for the Co-Founder

Still on the prowl. This stuff is hard!

👌 Nudges of the Week

• Unbundling Work from Employment - I constantly talk about the Passion Economy, but best to read from the lady who coined the term herself.

Will attempt punctuality,
Mika