Article

Article

Article

Living a Lean Life

Living a Lean Life

Living a Lean Life

May 14, 2021

May 14, 2021

May 14, 2021

By profession, I'm a product manager. My job is to define the product roadmap and rally my team around a shared product vision. To mitigate risk, I subscribe to lean product methodologies. As a team, we carefully strip away features until we have a lean product that serves customer's needs and solves their major pain points but leaves out all the bells and whistles. Taking the time to be clear on our product roadmap, results in a clear, strategic, achievable plan that allows us to validate our assumptions early on and pivot if needed.

Taking a lean approach seems obvious when building products, so why, in contrast, can our personal lives feel so undefined? When building products, we work backward from a comprehensive product vision and carefully define a feature release schedule. In our personal lives, this feels quite different. We often feel like we're charging blindly down the tracks, only reacting to scenarios as they arise, ignoring the intended destination.

Like building products, we should aim to strip away features that don't move us towards our larger life vision. What if we created a weekly life release schedule, were more intentional about our actions, and only perform tasks that move us closer towards our vision? Defining this schedule would require us to scrutinize our actions and interactions and be more intentional about where we spend our time.

Much like building products, we will encounter bugs and unforeseen challenges in life; however, if we live lean, we will be more prepared for these scenarios and quickly adapt or pivot if required. Living lean requires us to be clear on what we want in life and design our life map. Our life map will span over several years but can be divided into a yearly, monthly, and weekly release schedule.

Thinking about ourselves as products can be challenging; however, if we take a step back, we realize that building products is quite similar to designing our lives. We start with a vision of where we want to be several years down the road, and work backward to define smaller goals that move us towards that vision. Much like building products, this process will be ongoing, and we must be willing to adapt along the way given new information and unforeseen challenges.


Are you enjoying my content? If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to my newsletter.

The Creative Journal is a weekly newsletter sharing my experiences, interests and knowledge in creativity, productivity, mindfulness and business.

Sharing what I learn along the way to help you be more creative, take your time back, get more done, create wealth and attain more freedom.

Subscribe to The Creative Journal

By profession, I'm a product manager. My job is to define the product roadmap and rally my team around a shared product vision. To mitigate risk, I subscribe to lean product methodologies. As a team, we carefully strip away features until we have a lean product that serves customer's needs and solves their major pain points but leaves out all the bells and whistles. Taking the time to be clear on our product roadmap, results in a clear, strategic, achievable plan that allows us to validate our assumptions early on and pivot if needed.

Taking a lean approach seems obvious when building products, so why, in contrast, can our personal lives feel so undefined? When building products, we work backward from a comprehensive product vision and carefully define a feature release schedule. In our personal lives, this feels quite different. We often feel like we're charging blindly down the tracks, only reacting to scenarios as they arise, ignoring the intended destination.

Like building products, we should aim to strip away features that don't move us towards our larger life vision. What if we created a weekly life release schedule, were more intentional about our actions, and only perform tasks that move us closer towards our vision? Defining this schedule would require us to scrutinize our actions and interactions and be more intentional about where we spend our time.

Much like building products, we will encounter bugs and unforeseen challenges in life; however, if we live lean, we will be more prepared for these scenarios and quickly adapt or pivot if required. Living lean requires us to be clear on what we want in life and design our life map. Our life map will span over several years but can be divided into a yearly, monthly, and weekly release schedule.

Thinking about ourselves as products can be challenging; however, if we take a step back, we realize that building products is quite similar to designing our lives. We start with a vision of where we want to be several years down the road, and work backward to define smaller goals that move us towards that vision. Much like building products, this process will be ongoing, and we must be willing to adapt along the way given new information and unforeseen challenges.


Are you enjoying my content? If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to my newsletter.

The Creative Journal is a weekly newsletter sharing my experiences, interests and knowledge in creativity, productivity, mindfulness and business.

Sharing what I learn along the way to help you be more creative, take your time back, get more done, create wealth and attain more freedom.

Subscribe to The Creative Journal

By profession, I'm a product manager. My job is to define the product roadmap and rally my team around a shared product vision. To mitigate risk, I subscribe to lean product methodologies. As a team, we carefully strip away features until we have a lean product that serves customer's needs and solves their major pain points but leaves out all the bells and whistles. Taking the time to be clear on our product roadmap, results in a clear, strategic, achievable plan that allows us to validate our assumptions early on and pivot if needed.

Taking a lean approach seems obvious when building products, so why, in contrast, can our personal lives feel so undefined? When building products, we work backward from a comprehensive product vision and carefully define a feature release schedule. In our personal lives, this feels quite different. We often feel like we're charging blindly down the tracks, only reacting to scenarios as they arise, ignoring the intended destination.

Like building products, we should aim to strip away features that don't move us towards our larger life vision. What if we created a weekly life release schedule, were more intentional about our actions, and only perform tasks that move us closer towards our vision? Defining this schedule would require us to scrutinize our actions and interactions and be more intentional about where we spend our time.

Much like building products, we will encounter bugs and unforeseen challenges in life; however, if we live lean, we will be more prepared for these scenarios and quickly adapt or pivot if required. Living lean requires us to be clear on what we want in life and design our life map. Our life map will span over several years but can be divided into a yearly, monthly, and weekly release schedule.

Thinking about ourselves as products can be challenging; however, if we take a step back, we realize that building products is quite similar to designing our lives. We start with a vision of where we want to be several years down the road, and work backward to define smaller goals that move us towards that vision. Much like building products, this process will be ongoing, and we must be willing to adapt along the way given new information and unforeseen challenges.


Are you enjoying my content? If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to my newsletter.

The Creative Journal is a weekly newsletter sharing my experiences, interests and knowledge in creativity, productivity, mindfulness and business.

Sharing what I learn along the way to help you be more creative, take your time back, get more done, create wealth and attain more freedom.

Subscribe to The Creative Journal