For several months now I’ve been striving to push blog after blog to launch.

I’ve been jumping on phone calls, coordinating with multiple teams, and setting up as much as I can before launch day (subscribe forms, adding users, training, building out email campaigns, etc). Heck, I even had a span of a few months where I was also launching blogs myself! I’ve had to learn difficult tasks/concepts on the fly.

It’s been exhausting, but also dense with experience.

I kept all of these projects listed out on large whiteboard. Each one had a 3×5 card with info on the project type, client, and launch day. My goal was to have a comprehensive list of everything I had ever worked on.

Mostly, I just wanted to visualize my work.

An End to All That

Like a sad mismatched poker game, last week I passed out the cards to various teammates in preparation for the new title. I mean, who the heck plays poker with 3×5 cards with law firms written on them?

The total was more than one person can handle. Sure, some of them stalled because the firm was “waiting” for one reason or another, but most of them had some serious work and effort completed. No one was waiting on me or my team to get things done. There was also a handful that were brand spanking new.

I’ll admit, there are about 3-5 that fell off the face of the Earth. That bothers the bejesus out of me. You can build a blog for a blogger, but you cannot make them write.

I didn’t realize how reactionary my job had become. The squeaky lawyer definitely gets the blog, but only slightly faster than the next guy. Nearly every day was responding to emails while trying to fit in time to work on blog setup. Responding to asks just made the most sense for setting a priority.

While I don’t imagine the move to a new position will be nearly as reactionary, I do plan on keeping up with visualizing work in some way. Preferably, one that doesn’t feel like data entry.

A Start to Something Different

I’ve been reading Product Leadership by Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw. Really, I’ve been trying to get a sense of what a Product Manager looks like. What I really care about is how to thrive in the up coming new position.

If you’re managing a team of makers, your day will be judged by how well you protected them from distractions and what they were able to make.

I see this manifesting in multiple ways. If the team is jumping between too many tasks, then how can they focus on implementation. If they are jumping from call to call, how can they spend time making. If anything, it is the ultimate supporting role and I’m made for the work.

…the [Product] leader is also an advocate, coach, guide, mentor, and cheerleader to the team.

As a Jack-of-all-trades, I’m excited to see what this type of position has to offer. If anything, I know it will be fun to see what I can do. I’ll have to think more about how my work will be visualized. More importantly, I will have to think about how the work will be communicated.


If you ever get a chance, think about how your work is managed. How do you keep track of everything? A whiteboard? A day planner? A system of files in Google Drive? Whatever it is, I hope it works.

As always, I hope you found something to add to your everyday rhetoric repertoire. I know I’m finding stuff for myself all the time. I’ve been enjoying my dedicated morning reading with coffee on the back porch. I’ll let you know what the next few chapters reveal.

Thank you for reading!