gordeonbleu

For the last 4.5 years, I’ve chronicled here my journey moving to and living in New York City. Today, that part of the journey comes to an end.

I’m grateful to have called this city my home for almost four and a half years. I’m going to miss this crazy city, and how perfect it’s been for my sense of wonder and discovery. Most of all, I’m going to deeply miss my friends here, as fleeting as the community is here. But now it’s time to figure out my next steps, and the best place for me to do that right now is with my hometown of San Francisco as my new home base.

43 months living in NYC. And exploring the East Coast.

3 years in NYC, today.

As much as playing hard and exploring the city become a part of our lives here, so do the habits we form around our work and commutes to and from it.

Visualized here is my time spent in the office throughout most of 2014 (sourced from my Moves app data). This doesn’t account for time spent working at home in the evenings, which is a visualization for another day.

In no particular order. Based on observations during the past seven years in the tech industry, working at companies with 50+, 100+, and 10000+ people. These are some of the common patterns.

Communicate early and often any changes about reporting structure before they occur. Reports should never find out through company announcements or HR org chart updates.

Hold 1:1’s as soon as possible. This is another way of just saying to check in about how things are going. Don’t wait months before starting these. The first 100 days are some of the most crucial periods for a new employee. Take the meetings seriously – so don’t cancel, and apologize about having to reschedule. Also offer a more informal setting as an option, as a gesture to be candid. (Ideally, don’t take 1:1’s in an open area. Try a conference room or a walk outside of the office if available.) This is always great to refer back to: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-tips-for-1-1s-with-your-employees

Invite feedback as a manager from reports, or from employees if you’re e-staff. For the latter, this can be done anonymously, and then answered in an all-hands setting.

If a report attempts to initiate something, managers shouldn’t try to bypass them to do it before them. Exhibiting leadership is not an exclusive activity. Management doesn’t mean adult supervision.

Management is imposed, but leadership is earned. Leadership is a quality independent of org structures.

Champion your reports' accomplishments. Don't hoard credit. Elevate your peers because we all got this far with the help of the team, and it leads to a better work culture.

Seniority shouldn’t be based purely on tenure.

27 months living in NYC. 3 boroughs and apartments later.

Year 1: Brooklyn (Williamsburg) Year 2: Manhattan (Lower East Side) Year 3: Queens (Long Island City)

Above: A little over a year of Moves app tracking data, tracking weekday versus weekend movements spanning my move from Brooklyn to Manhattan, to my move from Manhattan to Queens.

A colleague the other night remarked that he cares about UX, but not about visual design.

I've stressed in the past that visual design is a way we visually communicate to users, whether it's to help them understand and complete a task, or to evoke an emotional response.