Voxelwise

Category: Projects

Iterate, iterate, iterate

Pretty much anything great comes from constant iteration. The vast majority of the time, it is better to start building and learning than taking forever to create a perfect plan that is uninformed by experience.

Last year I had to get a halloween costume with 48 hours of notice. I decided to go with something easy to pull together: a classic Star Trek uniform. Black shoes, black pants, a gold shirt (command staff, naturally), and a tricorder mockup. All I needed was the badge to put on the shirt.

There wasn’t time to order a badge online, so I turned to my 3D printer. I found a few badge files online and began the process of iteration:

  • #1: Too small, needs to be bigger
  • #2: Right size but had a printing error, so couldn’t really try the vinyl overlay
  • #3: Tried to use cut vinyl for an overlay, but it was hard to place and didn’t look good
  • #4: Try it a bit smaller. Ok overall shape
  • #5: Printed a gold final version, but the vinyl star still didn’t look great
  • #6: Made a window in the top layer and put a black layer underneath. Still looked messy.
  • #7: Combined elements of the previous tries: larger badge, flatter height, and a smaller window for the black layer underneath. SHIP IT.

If there is one thing that 3D printing has taught me is that you often need to just give it a try and see how things turn out. All the preparation in the world in a CAD program helps, but nothing is better than printing your current best guess and holding that iteration in your hands. Sure, you will print a few things that get thrown immediately into the trash can. Fortunately, plastic is cheap and the rate limiting step is just the time it takes to create a print.

I had been at my current company for just a few months the first quarter of 2020. We were working on a major new vendor integration. A staff engineer on my team came to me and said “we have been planning the project for four weeks, but we will need four more weeks to complete the planning and be ready to start coding”. I weighed my options. I trusted him, and I trusted his assessment that more time was needed for planning. At the same time, I knew that we had to begin the process of iteration so we could learn how the product plan would come together in real life.

“No. I’d like you to work with the team and start coding next week. Even if we have to throw away the code, we need to start building.”

It was a risk on my part, but a calculated one. In the end, I asked what the team needed more. Did it need greater knowledge of the vendor interface or did it need greater knowledge of using the interface in real world circumstances? I decided it was the later. While it is impossible to say if this was a key project decision, we did end up shipping the system on time that quarter.

It would be cavalier to leap into a big project with zero planning. Likewise, if your goal is to reduce risk to zero then you will be planning forever. The key element then is finding the right balance between speed and risk. One of the best ways to reduce risk is by gathering data on real world operation through constant iteration. Gaining experience and letting data guide you is worth many weeks of conversation on theoretical points.

Photo: The iterations on the badge, starting from #1 on the left to the final #7 version on the right. Hot glued some magnets to the back and I was in business.

Take your lemons and make unbelievably good lemonade

Use whatever advantages you can to create the best possible output. Be so good at navigating constraints that others think you are breaking the rules.

In college I was a photographer for the school paper, the University Daily Kansan. I loved photography and saw the journalism gig as a great way to get better. I started out doing speaker and podium shots. If someone was giving a talk on campus then I was usually there, getting a photo. It was actually a fabulous exercise. Sure, you could take the same boring shot dozens of times a month and get the job done. Alternatively, you could use it as an exercise to get creative. I tried to do the latter.

Over time I got to be a better photographer and I earned trust with the photo editors. My next evolution was sports, covering the football team (KU wasn’t known for great football) and occasionally covering basketball. To say that it was a treat to sit on the court covering a game at Allen Fieldhouse is putting it mildly…

In November of 2000 a huge gig came up. The paper was sending two reporters and one photographer to New York to cover the Coaches vs Cancer Classic basketball event (now called the Empire Classic). I got tapped to go since I had taken the time to learn the new Nikon digital camera system and could send photos back for publication same-day. I hopped on the plane with the reporters and got to sit on the court at Madison Square Garden to shoot the Jayhawks playing UCLA and St John’s.

The lighting conditions weren’t great at the venue. The professional photographers that surrounded me all had powerful strobe flashes linked in the ceiling to get the light they needed. The strobes provided enough light to freeze the action, making basketball shots easy. All I had was an ƒ2.8 70-700mm lens to get the job done. I had other tricks up my sleeve though. First, I knew how far I could push the ISO of the camera without getting too much noise, meaning that I could get good light sensitivity (and faster shutter speeds). I also had shooting techniques that helped, like following a moving target through the longer exposure to help keep the player centered on the sensor. This reduced blur. In the end, I got some decent shots that went onto the front page of the Kansan as the basketball team won the event championship.

When I got back to Kansas my photo editor called me into his office. “Hey, nice work on the Coaches vs Cancer event. That went really well. By the way, did you heavily Photoshop any of your photos? The photo editor at another paper says they look way over-edited.”

I was shocked. Event photography is all about capturing the moment as it happened. Here I was, being accused of bending reality. With a bit of anxiety I went to the nearest workstation and showed my editor the workflow from the raw image. First, crop the shot. Next, adjust the exposure curve with one click. Finally, sharpen the image and ship it.

My editor was satisfied with that. I head rumors that he called the other editor up and said he was full of it. Ultimately, the reason my photo was better was exactly because of my disadvantages.

When strobes fire they tend to illuminate everything in the arena, including the audience/background. The strobes are somewhat directional, but with that much light bouncing around there is a lot of spill and reflection. By using the ambient lighting focused on the court, it made the background darker and the players pop out more. No strobes led to more contrast, which led to a better photo.

With the benefit of hindsight, it was a tremendous compliment to be called a faker. I was able to make the most of my situation to deliver something that was at least on the level of full-time professionals. I think we should all aspire to something similar in our own work. Every day we run headlong into constraints and limitations. What you do with those constraints makes all the difference in the end. Try to leverage them into something so good people doubt you did it fairly.

Photo: Mario Kinsey with the ball at Madison Square Garden during the Coaches vs Cancer Classic in November 2000. I had to dig through my archives to find this one. I don’t know if it is the same photo that was published, but it was the same event.

Sitting with Uncertainty

The ability to sit with your anxiety and bathe in uncertainty for a limited amount of time can be a managerial superpower.

“Project Blue” was going to be a major effort. I would need to marshal the combined resources of all my software teams to make it happen on the CEO’s demanding schedule. There would need to be all kinds of project alignment, team alignment, people alignment, and change management if the company went all-in on Blue. I was ready. There was only one problem: the executives hadn’t decided to move forward yet.

For two weeks I waited, then I waited, and then I waited some more. My hand was metaphorically hovering over the “GO” button and I needed an up-or-down decision. We were either moving 100% of available product development time to Blue or it was business as usual. Because the decision had so much gravity, with an untold number tradeoffs, the final decision was not forthcoming.

One of my favorite quotes ever is “nothing clears the mind like no choice”. While I did push the CPO for a decision, I knew that the executives had to complete their discernment process to know with confidence which direction to go. This would take time. The decision was out of my control.

What is a manager to do at this point? My advice is to hone the fine art of sitting with your uncertainty and anxiety. Yes, absolutely take action where you can and advocate for the direction you think is best. At the same time, also understand that it may be days or weeks until the uncertainty is resolved.

If you let the uncertainty eat at you then you only end up worn down and burnt out. Not the best way to start a major project. Instead, clear your mind, be comfortable that you have done everything you can, provide additional input where asked, and wait for clarity.

As an aside, we did end up moving forward with Project Blue but with a new project definition that meant the effort from my teams would not be needed. Business as usual…

Photo: Tail rotor assembly from an MH-65E “Dolphin” helicopter of the United States Coast Guard at the Camarillo Air Show. Don’t stick your hand in there.

Where to Jaywalk

Always work to identify your major project risks, then work to mitigate those risks in whatever way that you can.

I had to jaywalk the other day. Well “had” is an exaggeration, but it was the best option relative to walking another block in either direction. The street had light traffic, so the risk of crossing was pretty low. There was something else that helped mitigate the risk: I was across the street from our local hospital, containing the only Level I trauma center between San Jose and Los Angeles.

We’ve been talking a lot lately at work about how to empower teams and maximize their velocity. One mechanism was through guard rails. If you clearly define what is in-bounds and out-of-bounds then teams don’t have to waste time asking about what is possible, they can just execute. The other mechanism was that of safety nets. It is easier to take risks when the consequences of those risks have been reduced or eliminated. That can be minimizing the possibility of something happening or reducing the impact of a risk if it does come to pass.

So, project-wise, if you are going to jaywalk then do it at the hospital.

Photo: Freshwater Trail in the Townsville Town Common, Townsville, Australia. The only time I have come within five feet of a croc while mountain biking. No, there was not a hospital nearby.

Rain Boots and Sandals

There are many strategies that can lead to project success. It often pays dividends to consider alternatives, even when the proposed paths are wildly different.

My current random cycling goal is to ride every street in my home town of Santa Barbara, CA. This has led to a lot of evening and weekend bike rides through every neighborhood in the city, one cul-de-sac at a time. I have also ridden in a wide array of weather conditions.

A few weeks ago I was slogging along through a neighborhood in the foothills during a light rain. I was a bit wet, a bit cold, and wishing for the rain jacket that I foolishly left behind. During the ride I happened upon a pair of people out for a morning walk.

They were each happily walking through the rain and running water on the street. They each had a different approach to the problem though. One wore waterproof boots that rose to almost her knees. These rubber boots were certain to keep out any water on the ground. Feet dry – mission accomplished.

The second person took a different path forward: they wore sandals. Their feet were 100% soaked, but they hardly seemed to care since they no longer needed to worry about preventing water intrusion. Their toes may have been a bit cold, but they didn’t have to worry about the water anymore.

So, keep your mind open to alternative approaches as you solve problems. You never know when it might be time to remove your boots and throw on your sandals. Just remember your jacket…

Photo: Rainbow over the east side of Santa Barbara.