Tag Archives: team

Goodbye LANDMARK Web Team. Shukran!

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

After two phenomenal years of launching apps at the Landmark Group’s Web Team, I’ve decided to move on. But before that, I wanted to thank the incredible people and fabulous products that made this journey truly remarkable. The Web Team, January 2017

My B2C Debut

Firstly, a big thanks to Arjit, Ziyaad, Daniel and Savitar for sensing potential in my B2B Product skills and entrusting me to lead consumer products. Also Derrick, for offering a wide range of responsibilities ranging from E-commerce to Loyalty strategy, and launching features and new territories. Thanks for believing in me and I hope I delivered every project to your expectation. Savitar’s passion, humility and attention-to-detail will forever inspire me.

The Web Team, January 2017
Continue reading Goodbye LANDMARK Web Team. Shukran!

Goodbye Zycus

Unfortunately, it is only through some discomfort that we learn and grow. After 5.5 supercalifragilisticexpialidocious years at Zycus, I’ve decided to move on to explore the B2C side of the product world.

I am thankful to Satish & Nirav for sensing my product acumen, and on-boarding me to product management. A big thanks to Sachin & Bikash for being the fantastic managers they’ve been. They entrusted me to lead one of Zycus’ prodigious product line – in terms of challenge, breadth, depth, team, revenue – from concept-to-revenue, and offered exposure and opportunities like never before.

Some of the best memories with the smartest folks...
Some of the best memories with the smartest folks…

All along, I’ve had the privilege to work with nimble & energetic Zycats – all possessing the right attitude. In 2011, Zycus ushered me to lead product owners; I see them all as my career accelerators. Together with them, my 60-member development team (of teams), lead by Shekhar, has been the top-most reason for my all my success and accolades. I wish to thank all of you, You rock! I am convinced that I’m leaving the product with virtuosos, and wish to see the product line – so dear to my heart – continue to delight users.

My professional toolkit would’ve been soporific without the cross-functional interactions I’ve had with the sharpest minds Continue reading Goodbye Zycus

Engage in one-on-ones & motivate your team with this Trello board

After a lot of reading & thinking, I came up with the idea of a simple Trello board to help me conduct effective one-on-one meetings with my team, and to plan each team member’s growth. This is the boilerplate that I could quickly replicate for each team member using  Trello’s “Copy Board…” feature. My team has been using it since last October and they’ve found it really helpful to communicate their achievements, issues and most importantly, to plan their growth.

Thanks to them, its now mature enough to help other managers better engage with their teams.  The boilerplate board is now public so you can easily copy & build on top of it. Here is a sample board showing real-world use. Get started by copying the boilerplate, and let me know how it works or how we can improve it.

Boilerplate (Get started by copying) | Real-world example

Motivation/Idea

My one-on-one pattern has greatly evolved over the last 4 years that I’ve managed teams. Starting naively by tracking work,  it now leaves the daily stuff out and instead focuses on the individual itself. When my travel increased, I felt the need for something online to retain the connect. I believe in transparency and I hate secret dossiers; I wanted a platform where we both have the same view of the relationship, which becomes the single version of truth for all discussion. Also, since it was their plan, I wanted my team to have access even when they decide to move on.

I’ve got inspiration from a lot of sources: blogs, surveys & talks I’ve participated in, etc. Thanks to all!

Board Structure

There’s enough on the board for either of you to take interest. It helps drive strategy, but still track tactical stuff; stuff that’s important for the individual’s growth, and the manager’s. Continue reading Engage in one-on-ones & motivate your team with this Trello board