Category / design thinking

by Nathan Coumbe

Leaders must let workers work

The most beneficial thing a leader can do in 21st-century knowledge work is to allow employees to spend most of their working hours applying the high-value, high-return skills for which they were hired.

They should be allowed to do this without being encumbered or distracted by the “busy work” of modern knowledge work, such as email, Slack messages, and administrative overhead.

Imagine if it had been necessary for Charles Darwin to respond to 40 letters a day. How long would it have taken him to publish On the Origin of Species?

Or what if Mozart had to deal with five unplanned visits from other musicians every hour? Would he have become the musical genius we now know him to be?

Yet, between instant messaging software, email, and open-office pop-ins (for those not working remotely), these hypothetical scenarios are everyday occurrences for most of us.

It’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed, overworked, and chronically unproductive, even with all the stuff we’re doing.

The solution, then, is to build workflows and processes so that your teams can spend less time discussing tasks that need to be done and actually complete those tasks (while also having the slack necessary to think and rest).

by Nathan Coumbe

Don’t go to college (maybe)

As I look into graduate degree programs, a couple of voices are bouncing around in my head.

One belongs to Cal Newport, who regularly advises knowledge workers not to get graduate degrees with two exceptions:

  1. You want an academic career and are therefore required to have a doctorate
  2. The specific job you’re trying to obtain requires a certain degree or a graduate degree (e.g., engineering, law, medicine, other professional fields, etc.)

Then there’s the advice from my late mentor Dan Miller:

If you are going to get a degree so you can get a better job – you’re likely to be disappointed. If you are going for the personal development, the social connections, and the broadening of your options, you’ll always see yourself as more prepared and having more options.

What both of these thinkers agree on is that there must be clarity about your end goal.

If you’re going to school (or back to school, in my case) because you’re bored, miserable, burnt out, or feeling lost, it’s quite likely you’ll still be all those things after you get the degree. And if you aren’t careful, you’ll have a mountain of debt added to your list of problems.

Begin with the end in mind. Know what you’re trying to achieve and what’s required to get there. Have an idea for your life planned out before you make a major decision like this.

And if you aren’t sure what you need for the career you want or the lifestyle you have in mind, start asking people who are already doing it.

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by Nathan Coumbe

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

It’s a stupid interview question. The only true answer is: “I have no idea.” Because I don’t know what this job will look like until I start doing it. 

Will I want to keep doing it? Will I want a promotion (if one’s available)? Will the job be obsolete by that time? (That one is more and more likely.)

But it’s a great question to ask yourself. Not because you know the answer—it will most likely change as time passes. It’s because the outcome you envision for yourself can help dictate the behaviors you take now. 

If, in 5 years, you see yourself retiring early and spending your weeks on the beach, you know there are some things you need to do. Pay off debt. Invest aggressively. Save, save, save!

If, in 5 years, you want to compete at a high recreational level in tennis, you need to work on conditioning drills, mobility, tennis skills…and hire a coach. 

If, in 5 years, you want to send your first child off to kindergarten, you know now that you should work on your finances, improve your health, and have a conversation with your partner about starting a family.

It’s a stupid interview question. But it’s a great life question.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Police escorts & football

What does it say about us as a people that we assign police escorts to every college football coach in the nation? At every game!

It’s a football game… It isn’t a debate between future elected leaders. These are football coaches!

Are we really a nation of people ready to attack our football coaches at a moment’s notice if things don’t go our way?

Do we really want to be? It’s just a game.

And if we aren’t that kind of people, then what’s it for? 

To show status? “I’m important enough for a police escort, and you’re not.” Is that it?

At what level does one become important enough to warrant a police presence at all times?

Wouldn’t security guards be enough to protect these men (yes, they are almost all men)?

Surely the police and state troopers have better things to do than this…

It just goes to show how much importance we’ve put on certain trivial institutions in our society. 

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by Nathan Coumbe

Bad marketing & yogurt

I was at the grocery store buying yogurt for my wife made by a well-known brand. I called her on FaceTime to confirm which flavors she wanted.

She told me the flavors, and I found them – strawberry, mixed berry, and vanilla. 

Strawberry was red. Mixed berry was purple, red, and blue. Vanilla was a yellowy-cream color.

Later when I got home, my wife informed me I’d also bought lemon and black cherry (both of which were disgusting). 

The black cherry was a mixture of the same colors used for both strawberry and mixed berry. And the lemon was a lighter shade of the yellow that was on the vanilla yogurt.

Not only were the colors too similar to distinguish between them, but they were all stacked on top of each other in the refrigerator. Naturally I saw one flavor and grabbed all the ones in the same stack, assuming they were together for a reason.

Now this could easily be the fault of a merchandising person, but I don’t like to think that way. 

I’d like to argue that it’s the fault of bad marketing.

Marketers have a responsibility to distinguish between their products. 

Putting products in the same metaphorical “boat” as other products, then letting customers assume they’re the same, or solve the same problem, or have the same purpose? That’s terrible marketing. 

This is misleading to you, the customer. And when you bite into the lemon-flavored yogurt (thinking it’s vanilla), you’re in for a nasty, unpleasant surprise. 

That leads to anger, frustration, a bad experience, and a literal bad taste in your mouth. It’ll prevent you from doing business with them in the future.

Making product lines nearly indistinguishable from each other is a good way to confuse customers and prospects, frustrating them when it comes time to make a decision. 

My favorite case study for this issue (apart from yogurt) is Apple.

Most of their iPhones are indistinguishable from each other, with only the most minor differences between them. These are differences only an expert in photography, mobile device design, or someone with a lot of spare time on their hands would recognize. 

Their computers suffer fro the same issue—minor “improvements” that, to the average person, make no difference whatsoever in how they use it, what they get out of it, or why they should spend more (or less) money on it.

The solution is to make products that are remarkable, radically different from what’s come before. 

That way there’s a reason to buy one or the other. When customers have lots of options—and they can’t tell the difference between them—often the simplest solution is to buy the cheap one.

Or… Walk out the door.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Music in restaurants

Every single restaurant that you go to has music playing in it now.

Have you ever thought about that? 

And not just background music. Or elevator jazz. That would be subtle. 

No — I’m talking full-blown classic rock cranked up to 11. Or top 40 pop music blaring at dance club volumes. 

For thousands of years, humans used meals to bond with friends, connect with mates, and recover from the day. 

That’s not so easy to do when you have to shout at your husband from across the table. 

What’s the music for?

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