An introduction to Heuristics from the trenches
This is a series, a very long time in the making. Over the past 10+ years, I've been capturing anecdotes, sayings and thoughts (over 100+ to date) that cross over between my personal life, my 20+year career in product management and general leadership, directly from personal experience as a product manager in a rapidly evolving discipline, and often from within the throes of 'digital transformation', or just from general titbits I've heard or learnt along the way.
When I started to capture these thoughts, I wasn't sure what I was planning to do with them, just that I wanted to write them down for my learning, and I have for a while now procrastinated about writing them up and publishing them.
Either way, this is the start of something new, and to be fair, I'm not sure where it'll end up, but the starting is always the hardest part. I've called them Heuristics — I'm sure some bright spark may tell me otherwise.
Where possible, I have given credit to the many brilliant 'who's' that I picked a particular phrase from, but if I have forgotten or got it 'wrong', I'm sorry.
I've given credit not only because it's the 'right thing' to do but also because I am and have always been surrounded by far smarter folk than I. Although I would say, I am in the camp of being a 'lifelong learner'…
i’ve discovered over the years that there is a very real difference between ‘learning’ and ‘understanding’ and you’d do yourself a massive favour by making the distinction clear in your own personal journey in my humble opinion.
In short, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, and as an old friend once said to me…
“You’re not very bright Tom, but you do work hard” Jarrod Frye (miss you man)
Nevertheless, I will endeavour to summarise why these heuristics have been compelling enough for me to capture them and, in practice (and where appropriate), try to incorporate them into my day-to-day work or life. They are unlikely to be essays of great depth and insight but more intended to be bite-sized thought bubbles; I may choose to expand on some as I catch up and clear the backlog, and so I share with you what I have, in the hope that you may find them helpful in some way.
