#392 – Eclipse

This week a solar eclipse crossed the middle of the United States.

A few of us were able to witness the inspiring sight in the path of totality. I am amazed thinking how many folks stopped what they were doing to focus on this single event in the sky. Below is a graphic showing the Airbnb listings that were booked for the eclipse (ht Dale / DevOps Engineer).

As I reflect on the eclipse, I think about what has our attention in general: relationships, work, hobbies, travel, etc. Sometimes there’s signal in the noise—we realize where we focus most. This can be a good thing when we spend time on what matters. Other times we may feel a bit scattered—all noise, no signal. We may have a sense that we’re not spending our time well.

At Parabol, we have a few ways we refresh our focus. Three times a year we set an overall company strategy with our key objectives. Each team identifies key results to purse for the trimester. Meanwhile, on our product team we have recently switched to working in six-week cycles. This allows us enough time to shape and ship our best bets. Having a common goal can be energizing, helping the team rally in the same direction.

Taking a pause to reflect on our goals on a cadence allows us to adapt just in time. Otherwise, we find that over time our efforts get a bit diffuse and we’re pulling in many directions. While this can yield new learnings, we have to reconvene to identify the signals and think through the tradeoffs of choosing opportunities to pursue on a small team.

This trimester we are working on ways to better serve organizational leaders and admins. This has been a growing area of opportunity for us. We are close to wrapping up another six week cycle. We look forward to seeing the impact of the bets we are shaping.

For me it’s a matter of often asking ourselves this question—how can we make better use of our time and spend more of it on what matters most?

We’re seeing our metrics normalize as we come back from the Easter break, although web traffic has slightly decreased, we see a noticeable uptick in weekly meetings and signups.

…released our new Activity Library for everyone 📚

…released recurring retros 🔄

…complete our last week of our 6-week first Shape Up cycle