Tag: team work

Simplify

FabrizioLeave a comment

This is a very well crafted video that tells of how ahrefs went about redesigning their home page.

It is about the company, but it is not about the product. It is something the target audience wants to know about (web page redesign). It has a twist right at the beginning (the 3 copywriters) that makes sticking around until the end more likely.

And by the way, if you plan to redesign your website, three questions worth asking.

1. When do we show the product? It is a fairly common practice in B2B to feature loads of videos and screenshots on the website, but as the guys at ahrefs realised, perhaps opening the home page with a hero screenshot of a dashboard might put off many visitors who are just problem-aware.

2. How much information is enough? Getting lost in details is easy, and getting lost trying to expres details is even easier. A waste of space and attention, so just stick to what is needed to catch the interest of your target audience.

3. How long should a A/B test be? For many things, measuring the real impact on business metrics takes time. A/B testing in 1-2 week-long sprints is probably focusing on the wrong metrics. Marketing is a long A/B test.

Things done right

FabrizioLeave a comment

The moment we think: “if you want things done right, do it yourself”. That is the moment things actually stop being done.

No matter the level we reach in our career, we are not responsible for everything and we are not capable of doing everything. The illusion that telling others what needs to be done would take simply too much time, or that what lands on our desk is something we need to take care of in person, is just an excuse to postpone that difficult conversation, that report that requires your full attention, that speaking engagement you always wanted to take.

It is resistance.

By being unwilling to delegate tasks that others could reasonably help with, we fail to make progress on the important or tricky things that only we can do.

How to have a good day, Caroline Webb

P.S.: This is as true as it gets even for managers who still cling to completing tasks instead of taking responsibility for the development of their team.

Overwhelmed

FabrizioLeave a comment

What is your tactic when you fell overwhelmed?

Those moments when you cannot think clear, you have tens of forces from different places pushing on your skulls, and the amygdala is about to take control with your favourite version of fight, flight or freeze?

Moments like that happen many times throughout the days, and it is often enough to take a few deep breaths to get back on track. Ideally, you might take a full 5-minutes break to unplug. But that is not always possible, and so just breathing in and out for 4-5 consecutive times, focusing on the breath itself or on your belly going up and down, can do magic.

Give it a try.

Gap

FabrizioLeave a comment

And of course, this is a direct consequence of the fact that concepts are susceptible to different interpretations.

As long as organizations will continue approaching culture as a list of evocative words, the gap between culture (what management wants) and climate (what employees experience) will remain wide. And values statement will be abstract, generic and aimless.

Merely

FabrizioLeave a comment

Acceptance is not about understanding and appreciating that the world (your friends, acquaintances, family, colleagues, your context, your work, your environment, your company) is wrong, and then spending your life complaining, regretting, plotting.

Acceptance is about understanding and appreciating that the world merely is.

What is around you does not change, it is the degree to which you attempt to cling to it that makes all the difference.