8 Days!!
Til first game :). I finally stopped being wishy-washy and got myself young alumni season tickets…Go Bears!
Til first game :). I finally stopped being wishy-washy and got myself young alumni season tickets…Go Bears!
As usual, I try to visit the farmer’s market at every city I visit. Sometimes this isn’t exactly possible, considering most place only open their markets during nice weather (meaning 25-50% of the year). Luckily enough, Boston at this time is no longer freezing cold and buried in snow. I did have to go a little further out to find this market, but I loved the variety of east coast goodies that you wouldn’t normally find in California.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I found bottled maple syrup (nor had I tasted anything that wasn’t Aunt Jemima’s) so this was a refreshing change of scenery.
Being in Boston, I of course had to try grab a bite of seafood for lunch.
This scallop taco came from this lovely food truck:
After feasting (with my eyes and stomach) through the fair, I figured a walk would be a good course of action. It was spring indeed, considering I had the good fortune of watching some geese build their nest.
This too, was a refreshing change of scenery. It’s good to know that they aren’t always just obnoxiously honking at people and pooping.
One thing that I really enjoyed were the large number of tulips around Boston.
You really don’t see these out on the west coast, but they are EVERYWHERE here. It’s quite lovely to see so much color everywhere you go. Have I mentioned yet how beautiful it is here in Boston?
I’m off to Boston! In a spur of dgaf-ery and since I need to get out of the West Coast (for more than just interviews), I decided to visit my MIT friends and Harvard momma because I have nothing better to do while everyone else studies for finals.
It’s supposed to thunderstorm on Saturday. I’m excited.
-UPDATE-
I think I’m in love with Boston. The architecture here is beautiful, the weather (currently) is beautiful, I can walk everywhere and it’s just simply (you guessed it) beautiful!
Some highlights from my trip:
As always, food comes first
And then epic clouds…
Everything is just so different on the East coast. The buildings, the layout, the people – it’s not your typical suburban SoCal bubble which I love. There is actually some character and history around here! Even the plants are different; I don’t think I’ve seen tulips in the longest time and in such abundance before.
Of course, I also ran around MIT a bit since I was, after all, visiting my friend.
And of course, the reason why I visited in the first place – date with my Seattle bestie at the MIT Senior Ball!
And that’s a wrap! I have one more day left to explore, but I will definitely try to come visit again :).
Pretty useful list by Prof Ken.
Extended Launch Team identified
Other Stakeholder communication planned (pre & post launch)
Marketing & Communications planned
Business & Sales Operations ready
Distribution Programs ready
Metrics & Monitoring
Technical Operations
Quality Assurance Tests Passed
A and I decided that it was finally time to schedule some office hours and chat with our Product Management professor. He’s an extremely interesting person and seems to have a treasure chest of stories and experiences, both professional and fun (mostly from traveling) and we wanted to hear them all!
We jumped around a lot of different topics, some of which was just really interesting conversation, and others solid life advice. One thing that we touched on was how to analyze risk. Sarah Rose from ModCloth brought up a good point at the Products Are Hard conference a little while back stating that the one secret no product manager wants to admit (but is always true) is that in the end, no matter how much research and testing and searching for validation that you do, the final step is always just taking that leap of faith and going for it. Which, in other words, means that every decision you make is always a risk.
So how do you analyze this risk exactly? Professor Ken said that some people tried to get nitty gritty into details, but that really wasn’t necessary. Especially in a startup environment, you point out the 5-6 main risks before product launch, and assess them properly in a table.
This table ends up being pretty straightforward, and you just guesstimate severity and probability. You want to watch out for the risks that have high/med severity and high/med probability, and prepare to deal with them off the bat (or perhaps even shift your product to avoid that risk completely).
We continued on to discuss a couple of case studies, main among them the rush of upcoming taxi-like services that have been disrupting the taxi (and taxi medallion) business. One of the biggest risks that we landed upon was regulatory restrictions.
As we brainstormed possible mitigations, Ken told us that the worst thing you can do is alert the authorities in any way. Because of the interesting nature of the taxi service, and the potential connection to powerful players (ex: In New York, one of the taxi companies is partnered to a bank) there’s a very slim chance of winning in that area. Instead, the most successful way is empathy.
If these companies can build a good enough user base who will fight to keep them alive, then the companies have a pretty good chance of not getting shut down by authorities. No one wants to look like an asshole, and authorities especially don’t want to anger the masses too much. And thanks to psychology and our naturally rebellious natures, the service will probably get a boost in popularity (and user base growth) because people will want to see what all the fuss is about!
In any case, the moral of the story is that every decision is going to be a leap with some risks, so be prepared to tackle any problem that arises if a risk occurs.
- Choreographing is just not happening right now with too much on my mind.
– SEP bid night. I’m really excited for our new pledge class. We picked up some phenomenal people this semester who have already done great things and are sure to grow into so much more in the next few weeks.
– Last night was quite possibly the most exhausting series of events I’ve been through. Meetings and late day at work, hit-and-run, too many real talks and opened doors to complications.
– Taking an offer for a second internship? I know deep down it’s probably a bad idea, but at the same time the company is so intriguing to me.
– I hate that I don’t know how to relax, that I always need to be busy with something. It’s satisfying and I love working on interesting projects and just doing stuff but it gets so draining, and sometimes not in a good way.
– I realized I honestly have no idea what I’m doing with myself at this point. Then again, maybe everyone feels this way at some point or another before graduation
Quick update so I can remind myself to write.
– Joined a sorority. Forgot how silly freshmen can be, but the upperclassmen are chill. This should be an interesting experience.
– Roasted sweet potato + beets. Food is the best companion to homework.
– It’s a little odd telling people who are definitely over twice my age what they should do at work.