This really resonates. Staying flexible without constantly drifting off course is such a real tension, especially when life keeps changing the conditions.
How do you personally tell the difference between a necessary adjustment and a distraction pulling you away from your north star?
Thank you! Great question! It’s not always easy but I think having a good North Star helps, something that is important to you both professionally and personally (more than just a goal). Then staying on course is a more intuitive than cognitive. But sometimes the line is definitely blurry! Treating things like experiments definitely helps too, testing a new direction before committing :)
That’s a great way to put it. Having a true North Star makes decisions feel more natural instead of forced, even when things get blurry, and treating new directions like experiments takes a lot of pressure off while you’re finding your footing.
Really like the boat metaphor for thinking through switching costs. The point about setting metrics before commiting to change is spot-on, I've seen teams waste months on projects they should've cut earlier just because nobody defined success upfront. The incremental experiments idea is somethng we tried at my last job and it honestly saved us from a couple expensive mistakes.
Thank you! Absolutely, having success criteria and treating things as experiments can take the pressure of the team too, everyone can feel safe to kill something if it’s not working and it’s not personal. So glad this resonated!
This really resonates. Staying flexible without constantly drifting off course is such a real tension, especially when life keeps changing the conditions.
How do you personally tell the difference between a necessary adjustment and a distraction pulling you away from your north star?
Thank you! Great question! It’s not always easy but I think having a good North Star helps, something that is important to you both professionally and personally (more than just a goal). Then staying on course is a more intuitive than cognitive. But sometimes the line is definitely blurry! Treating things like experiments definitely helps too, testing a new direction before committing :)
That’s a great way to put it. Having a true North Star makes decisions feel more natural instead of forced, even when things get blurry, and treating new directions like experiments takes a lot of pressure off while you’re finding your footing.
Really like the boat metaphor for thinking through switching costs. The point about setting metrics before commiting to change is spot-on, I've seen teams waste months on projects they should've cut earlier just because nobody defined success upfront. The incremental experiments idea is somethng we tried at my last job and it honestly saved us from a couple expensive mistakes.
Thank you! Absolutely, having success criteria and treating things as experiments can take the pressure of the team too, everyone can feel safe to kill something if it’s not working and it’s not personal. So glad this resonated!