15 Working Principles for a Successful Career
#20 01/17/2023
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
#1 Customer Impact
Prioritize customer needs
Build enough context to know if you are doing the right thing for the customer
Ask yourself if you are solving the right problem for the customer
Are you creating enough value for the customer?
Is the customer thrilled with our product experience?
#2 Product Excellence
You should be proud of your work. It should be of high quality, fully functional, reliable and scalable.
You should be consistent in your delivery and continually drive innovation
You should create a generic, resilient and scalable product architecture that can not solve today’s problem but can address future needs
You should continually maintain and improve systems so that they are resilient and provide high performance and availability.
#3 Commitment
You should follow through on commitments made to customers and your team mates. You should follow through with your words.
Be bold to say “No” if you can’t commit to something.
Maintain consistency in speaking and action. This builds trust with the team.
You should do what you say. You should say what you do.
When you commit, you don’t need reminders from anyone. You will communicate often to update status
#4 Ownership
Take complete ownership of your work.
Own the project milestones, track your work, estimate your work, and create goals
Be proactive in bringing up issues and roadblocks
Take lead in setting up meetings/conversations and drive resolution to problems/issues.
#5 Feedback
Be open and share what you see. Share your observations, the impact on you and the team. Help them see how they can be more effective
Give your team/peers feedback on where they are doing better and where they need to improve.
#6 Respectful
Seek and understand others point of view
Relationships are more important than projects and career
Show care for others when they need it.
#7 Team Work
Help others on the team wherever possible.
Be a trusted partner that the team can depend on you and seek out help.
Seek out gaps in team operation and processes and make them better.
#8 Inclusion
Hear perspectives and opinions of everyone.
Make the environment safe for people to speak up and challenge the status quo.
When making decision make the decision criteria clear and consult/get opinions from as many people as possible.
Once a decision is made, share the rationale on how you arrived at your decision.
#9 Gratitude
Be thankful of the people around you who are helping and being respectful to you
Notice the small things that people do and recognize them for those things
#10 Optimism
Focus on what you can control
Always believe in yourself and in your ability to do things
Be optimistic that things will work out for the better.
#11 Growth Mindset
You should believe that you can attain a skill set. Everything is learnable.
Believe that every challenge can be tackled and solved with persistence and hard work.
Strive to be better. We can always improve and do better
#12 Positive Intent
Assume positive intent when having difficult conversations with people
It is natural that people put their self interests/self growth before team and company. Try to understand where they are coming from before recommending action or correcting their course.
#13 Mindfulness
It has become challenging to be present in the moment. Avoid distractions and give full attention to the person in front of you
Make eye contact as often as you can.
Ask open ended questions and be curious about what other person is saying both verbally and non-verbally
#14 Curious
Always be curious and learn. Build breadth of knowledge. Seek for knowledge.
T shaped learning: Go deep in your domain but at the same time go wide across domains
#15 Transparent
Be bold and share transparently tough decisions and the thinking behind them.
Share as much context as possible on every decision/choice you make