Reflections on a World Tour, Impact and OKRs with Christina Wodtke

Back in my professional musician days, the first week home from tour was always… interesting. Days on tour can be pretty slapdash and disorganized, but they always have a purpose, even if that purpose is just to find a decent place to crash en route to the next show. In the wake of touring’s relentless situational novelty, returning to domestic life can feel both strangely unfamiliar and deeply boring. You notice, for the first time since you moved in, that your apartment has a particular smell to it. You wander around with a vague sense that you’re supposed to be somewhere, but you aren’t sure where. And you slowly begin to tackle the mountain of tasks that you were sure would be “easy enough to do on tour” but did not get done.

And that, dear reader, is where you find me now. I am back at my desk in London, after traveling to New York, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, LA, SF, Singapore, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, and Rochester. I’m taking it as a chance to reset things a bit, hence the new format and platform for this newsletter, and a newly revamped website to go with it. (Enormous thanks to the ever-brilliant Casey Dienel for guidance!)

The main idea here is to make it easier for me to communicate with y’all directly and conversationally. I’ll be writing with answers to some questions that have come up frequently of late, news of upcoming events, and links to podcasts and articles and other relevant stuff.

My conversation with Christina Wodtke from Product Tank SF

Back in April, I had the absolute pleasure and honor of sitting down with personal hero Christina Wodtke for a conversation about impact and OKRs. The good people at Mind the Product were kind enough to publish a full video of that conversation here:

I have a lot of favorite moments in this conversation, but my very favorite comes at the very end, when Christina provides the following parting thoughts:

I know, “never meet your heroes” etc., but how great is it when one of your favorite writers and thinkers also turns out to be one of your favorite people?

I’d Love Your Help!

If you’ve found my work helpful (which I hope you have), here are some things you can do to spread the word and keep it going:

• Know anyone who could use consulting, training, and coaching services?
  As book-related travel winds down, I would love to talk with folks who are looking to better connect and align their teams with business-critical goals.

• Read and review my new book Impact-first Product Teams
  Reviews on platforms like Amazon and Goodreads go a LONG way, as do personal recommendations and posts on LinkedIn.

• Say hi!
  My biggest takeaway from tour? It’s great to connect with so many people who are out there doing good work in the world. Reach out! Say hi!

Upcoming Events

Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming conference talks and public events in Des Moines, Paris, Porto, and more!

Meanwhile—speaking of going on tour—I’m so excited to be joining my dear friend Will Sheff for some tour dates in Spain this September. You can find the complete tour dates and ticketing information here.

Thanks so much for taking an interest in my work. As always, you can reach me directly at [email protected].