I remember when I landed my first "tech" job. I thought to myself: This is crazy—I'm getting paid to work with interesting people and solve challenging problems. And we never run out of fun problems to solve, especially when things are working. How cool is this!?
I relate to this essay, a lot. I consider myself a career weirdo (design and women’s studies degrees, 10 years in pm) and I always loved the magic of building things with others. When I decided to leave my last job, it was because there was absolutely no magic anymore! It felt like a breakup to me because losing that spark felt more like a romantic loss than a professional one. It was confusing, but it just seemed like everything got so serious; people took themselves way too seriously, the stakes felt high for low impact work items (like a trello vs asana debate!) and it felt like effort just to exist.
What’s funny to me now, is I took a pivot and moved into a healthcare venture studio and while my coworkers are saving literal lives the vibe is more fun and the magic is back! People in healthcare have been *through it* and if they’re still there, they’re ready to blow up what didn’t work and make it better. I wonder if tech will feel the same way in a few years. I’d go back, but I needed a break from its self-importance and a go at something that could change someone’s life forever.
I would suggest that as managers we first need to remove the things that stop people from having fun. And some of those fun preventing things may be part of the "mandatory corporate fun" package.
Some kind of managerial hippocratic oath: "first do no harm" -> "first do not be a bummer"
Love this article. One sentence made me pause: "The joy of solving fun problems with interesting people." Here, the central word is not "fun" but "joy". Isn't joy the more helpful word to find out what we should aim for?
1) "I couldn't care less what the company is like as long as it believes designers have a right to exist and get a reasonable paycheck" -> you can't have fun if you're literally worried about survival. Ergo, individuals need to find an organization, team, or career path that can increase their odds of meeting their financial needs; leaders, businesses, and society could do a better job of creating these conditions.
2) "It's all a self-reinforcing loop" -> there's an attitude and perspective part of it. If you're in tech, in America, in a professional career with a solid education, you probably aren't ACTUALLY worried about survival. Fun and fulfillment might be right in front of you, it might be INSIDE of you, if you shift your approach and mindset.
I had fun today at work. And yesterday. It helps that I'm getting paid. It also helps that I lean into the challenge of the work and I get to work with good humans who like to work together.
This post is on 🔥 , John! It's exactly what I'm feeling too — as I launched into writing a book & course about business skills in socialization and alignment from decades working in design & product management, I realized that it's when we can foster positive emotional states that we do great work as a team and have FUN. Life's way too damn short to be all torqued up about the tools and the this and the that — let's get ourselves back to the true joy of solving difficult problems with interesting people! Obligatory plug here for my brand-new class offering helping us to remember and do more of this: https://open.substack.com/pub/devise/p/register-now-for-inaugural-course !!
Few topics get me more excited than this. I wrote a bit about it as well (https://medium.com/p/3222ce23cfd6), and it's not letting me go. I've rarely seen joyful teams deliver bad work, or joyless teams deliver great work. It feels like the current 'meta' is switching to feature factories, which appears like a high level intuition trap or kneejerk reaction to changing conditions. It's something I want to actively make a stance against.
My plan right now is to create tooling that makes it more natural for teams to have fun. Encourage the preferred practices of joyful teams. I'd love to send you an invite once I've got a v0.1 ready.
In terms of fun, the team I'm on just launched a small new product, and met up with the team we're closely collaborating with in Budapest. Aftwerwards we went skiing. Great fun and I realize I'm blessed. As another commenter said, it sometimes feels like joy and fun in teams is getting less and less these days.
I notice this too. I’m quite certain this is because of our fixation on goals. Fun and enjoyment are the result of the process of playing. We don’t play anymore, we fight. To win. Winning gives shorter satisfaction period as in reality we don’t win completely, rather we win a short distance, and while getting closer to the designated checkpoint we already see a new goal looming in front of us, making the recent win empty and phony.
10 years ago there was much more discovery, exploration. Now playbooks are there. Goals overweigh creativity & delight of exploration.
Having Fun is extremely important. It not only boosts the employee wellbeing but also helps the company progress (by increase in productivity, creativity and belongingness). But depends on the demography of the company as well, since having a one-stop solution of having a birthday celebration in a month or an annual dinner party will not create this FUN. The definition of FUN changes based on age group you belong and also on the gender and social interests. Some gets fun with some social service (CSR) activities to the society, and some get by just having a fun time with colleagues at work.
It's very difficult to nail this, but creating a culture where we get to know people outside of work is a good start and encouraging them with building new conversations is key. I love when we used to go to office every day and meet new faces every day, now it's just an ID which we need to search and chat with.
An interesting stat from 'Great Place to Work' suggests that an employee's likeliness to stay in the company becomes double (2x) when he/she believes that this is fun place to work, hence company culture plays a vital role where there is space for people bonding rather than chasing targets.
Yeah. I've left those places that were a drag to work in. At least for the leaders, geeks, and nerds that work for me, we arrange the culture and work to be as much fun as possible and still deliver value that matters. We talk about the culture of our teams and individual stewardship of it during every monthly retro. Life's too short to not love your grind and the people you grind with.
Explore Jake Gyllenhaal's printed shirt from the 2024 film 'Road House.' Delve into its significance within the movie's narrative and its potential impact on contemporary fashionhttps://www.houstonjackets.com/product/road-house-2024-jake-gyllenhaal-printed-shirt/
Thankful to be at a company right now where we've recently switched to letting our PMs, Designers and engineers go out and solve tough problems for our customers and the business. It's been really fun (though sometimes overwhelming and scary) to be entrusted with that much trust and autonomy and being allowed to "figure it out". I've been here 5 years and there's definitely been periods where we've had to hunker down try to survive, but enjoying the moment now when we get to spread our wings a bit.
Could not agree more with the power of and my belief in "the magic (and yes, fun) of entrepreneurial, creative, cross-functional teams."
I was reflecting today with an old colleague on what pulled me in to product work! It was the potential and energy of teams who think differently from one another coming together to make things. I love being with teams that include art creative minded and science minded people + researchers and analysts...and then the business leaders.
I fell in love with being in this mix and felt like I'd found home because of the unique magic of it.
My colleague (Bart) and I were saying Friday last week that "John seems to observe our company and then write a post...it's like 'Spooky action at a distance' !!" ...and now you've done it again this week.
Quantum entangled PMs anyone? (or maybe you've just tapped into the security cameras?)
I relate to this essay, a lot. I consider myself a career weirdo (design and women’s studies degrees, 10 years in pm) and I always loved the magic of building things with others. When I decided to leave my last job, it was because there was absolutely no magic anymore! It felt like a breakup to me because losing that spark felt more like a romantic loss than a professional one. It was confusing, but it just seemed like everything got so serious; people took themselves way too seriously, the stakes felt high for low impact work items (like a trello vs asana debate!) and it felt like effort just to exist.
What’s funny to me now, is I took a pivot and moved into a healthcare venture studio and while my coworkers are saving literal lives the vibe is more fun and the magic is back! People in healthcare have been *through it* and if they’re still there, they’re ready to blow up what didn’t work and make it better. I wonder if tech will feel the same way in a few years. I’d go back, but I needed a break from its self-importance and a go at something that could change someone’s life forever.
I would suggest that as managers we first need to remove the things that stop people from having fun. And some of those fun preventing things may be part of the "mandatory corporate fun" package.
Some kind of managerial hippocratic oath: "first do no harm" -> "first do not be a bummer"
Love this article. One sentence made me pause: "The joy of solving fun problems with interesting people." Here, the central word is not "fun" but "joy". Isn't joy the more helpful word to find out what we should aim for?
Because why not. We get to choose how we work and how we tackle things. Why not have fun.
There are two take-aways from this post for me:
1) "I couldn't care less what the company is like as long as it believes designers have a right to exist and get a reasonable paycheck" -> you can't have fun if you're literally worried about survival. Ergo, individuals need to find an organization, team, or career path that can increase their odds of meeting their financial needs; leaders, businesses, and society could do a better job of creating these conditions.
2) "It's all a self-reinforcing loop" -> there's an attitude and perspective part of it. If you're in tech, in America, in a professional career with a solid education, you probably aren't ACTUALLY worried about survival. Fun and fulfillment might be right in front of you, it might be INSIDE of you, if you shift your approach and mindset.
I had fun today at work. And yesterday. It helps that I'm getting paid. It also helps that I lean into the challenge of the work and I get to work with good humans who like to work together.
This post is on 🔥 , John! It's exactly what I'm feeling too — as I launched into writing a book & course about business skills in socialization and alignment from decades working in design & product management, I realized that it's when we can foster positive emotional states that we do great work as a team and have FUN. Life's way too damn short to be all torqued up about the tools and the this and the that — let's get ourselves back to the true joy of solving difficult problems with interesting people! Obligatory plug here for my brand-new class offering helping us to remember and do more of this: https://open.substack.com/pub/devise/p/register-now-for-inaugural-course !!
Few topics get me more excited than this. I wrote a bit about it as well (https://medium.com/p/3222ce23cfd6), and it's not letting me go. I've rarely seen joyful teams deliver bad work, or joyless teams deliver great work. It feels like the current 'meta' is switching to feature factories, which appears like a high level intuition trap or kneejerk reaction to changing conditions. It's something I want to actively make a stance against.
My plan right now is to create tooling that makes it more natural for teams to have fun. Encourage the preferred practices of joyful teams. I'd love to send you an invite once I've got a v0.1 ready.
In terms of fun, the team I'm on just launched a small new product, and met up with the team we're closely collaborating with in Budapest. Aftwerwards we went skiing. Great fun and I realize I'm blessed. As another commenter said, it sometimes feels like joy and fun in teams is getting less and less these days.
I notice this too. I’m quite certain this is because of our fixation on goals. Fun and enjoyment are the result of the process of playing. We don’t play anymore, we fight. To win. Winning gives shorter satisfaction period as in reality we don’t win completely, rather we win a short distance, and while getting closer to the designated checkpoint we already see a new goal looming in front of us, making the recent win empty and phony.
10 years ago there was much more discovery, exploration. Now playbooks are there. Goals overweigh creativity & delight of exploration.
Having Fun is extremely important. It not only boosts the employee wellbeing but also helps the company progress (by increase in productivity, creativity and belongingness). But depends on the demography of the company as well, since having a one-stop solution of having a birthday celebration in a month or an annual dinner party will not create this FUN. The definition of FUN changes based on age group you belong and also on the gender and social interests. Some gets fun with some social service (CSR) activities to the society, and some get by just having a fun time with colleagues at work.
It's very difficult to nail this, but creating a culture where we get to know people outside of work is a good start and encouraging them with building new conversations is key. I love when we used to go to office every day and meet new faces every day, now it's just an ID which we need to search and chat with.
An interesting stat from 'Great Place to Work' suggests that an employee's likeliness to stay in the company becomes double (2x) when he/she believes that this is fun place to work, hence company culture plays a vital role where there is space for people bonding rather than chasing targets.
Yeah. I've left those places that were a drag to work in. At least for the leaders, geeks, and nerds that work for me, we arrange the culture and work to be as much fun as possible and still deliver value that matters. We talk about the culture of our teams and individual stewardship of it during every monthly retro. Life's too short to not love your grind and the people you grind with.
Explore Jake Gyllenhaal's printed shirt from the 2024 film 'Road House.' Delve into its significance within the movie's narrative and its potential impact on contemporary fashionhttps://www.houstonjackets.com/product/road-house-2024-jake-gyllenhaal-printed-shirt/
Hello
Problem solved: Make Fun part of the Definition of Done =)
https://isitdone.work/#beyond-done-iterative-process-improvement
Thankful to be at a company right now where we've recently switched to letting our PMs, Designers and engineers go out and solve tough problems for our customers and the business. It's been really fun (though sometimes overwhelming and scary) to be entrusted with that much trust and autonomy and being allowed to "figure it out". I've been here 5 years and there's definitely been periods where we've had to hunker down try to survive, but enjoying the moment now when we get to spread our wings a bit.
Could not agree more with the power of and my belief in "the magic (and yes, fun) of entrepreneurial, creative, cross-functional teams."
I was reflecting today with an old colleague on what pulled me in to product work! It was the potential and energy of teams who think differently from one another coming together to make things. I love being with teams that include art creative minded and science minded people + researchers and analysts...and then the business leaders.
I fell in love with being in this mix and felt like I'd found home because of the unique magic of it.
My colleague (Bart) and I were saying Friday last week that "John seems to observe our company and then write a post...it's like 'Spooky action at a distance' !!" ...and now you've done it again this week.
Quantum entangled PMs anyone? (or maybe you've just tapped into the security cameras?)