Self-Consciously Managing Spending

Retail Therapy

One of my weaknesses (among a long list) is shopping and buying stuff.

Most of us are fortunate enough to have all the necessities we’ll ever need. I for one definitely don’t need most of the stuff I buy.

But I generally work pretty hard, so I feel the need to occasionally treat myself with a bit of a spending splurge.

No need to get into details here, but a while back, I knew this habit was a problem.

Money In, Money Out

Firstly, it’s healthy to understand how money flows in the household - the channels through which money flows in, and the many avenues it flows out. We have control over both, but money flowing out is arguably more within our direct control.

In other words, simply reducing your spending can be much easier than finding ways to make more money.

I’ve been tracking my spending over a decade, and ranking as the highest non-essential expenditure is clothing.

So at the start of 2020, I set out to create a solution to the problem.

MVP Purchasing Decision Checklist

Starting small, the first version of the solution boiled down all the decision-making factors into a simple consistent checklist using a simple light-weight Google Sheets table. (I briefly touched on this a couple of years ago.)

How It Works

Every time I have something rather expensive I want to buy, I run it past the checklist, which is based on 5 criteria:

1. ⏳ Longevity & durability: Do I see myself using the item on a regular basis, and still use it in 3 years' time?

2. 🧩 Versatility: For clothing, can I match the item with several other items and do I feel good wearing it?

3. ⭐ Uniqueness: Is this item different enough from an item that I’m perfectly happy with already?

4. 💖 Excitement: Do I truly feel excited about the item?

5. 💵 Value retention: For expensive items, is there a decent resale value in the future?

If the item doesn’t tick at least 4 out of 5 of the criteria, I drop it and never think of it again.

If it does, hello debit card!

Limitations

The 5 criteria helps organise and structure thoughts and feelings about the item, but it’s certainly still very subjective. After all, we’re dealing here with emotional, non-essential items that don’t have an urgent function.

Also, time helps normalise what could be fleeting moments of excitement. So after a week, I run through the checklist again for the same item, and this potententially results in a return.

Checklist v2.0 on Notion

The checklist’s been working well for the past few years, and I’ve been able to curb my spending considerably.

So recently, I decided to transpose and uplift it to a proper platform - I chose Notion - and share it with others facing the same problem.

I recently launched it using Gumroad, and you can find the Purchasing Decision Checklist here.

It’s a quick little Notion template that can be easily copied. Hopefully it can help you as much as it’s helped me.

Manage Life's Projects Using an Agile Kanban Board

Agile in Practice

In Agile delivery, there’s a concept of an Agile Release Train where long-running teams incrementally and continually delivers. Typically, this also comes with fixed team capacity (supply) and a virtually infinite backlog (demand).

This means we need laser focus on a select few initiatives/tasks at any given time to effectively get things done.

A tool commonly used to support this is a Kanban board. It visually depicts the work in progressive stages, helping narrow focus by limiting the volume of in-flight work (aka work-in-progress limits). In summary: you get more of the important things done.

Here’s a simple classic Kanban board:

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Life in Agile

I’ve used Kanbans for a decade to manage work within projects. Why not us a Kanban to manage projects in life?

There’s a parallel here. We all have limited time and energy (supply) and an endless list of stuff we want to do in life (demand). Attain that financial goal, buy that house, go on that trip, learn that skill, achieve that qualification, support a family member on their projects…endless.

It’s too easy to get distracted, and life’s too short for idle whims. Open up Facebook, TikTok or Youtube for a few minutes, and suddenly the whole day’s gone. It’s critical to ensure we focus on the “right” things first and foremost.

This is where a Kanban board can be an absolute game changer.

Like in Agile, a Kanban can be used to visualise each project in life, narrowing your focus on what really matters. And honestly, it also helps me feel less overwhelmed with “life”.

My Life Projects Kanban

Here’s my Life Projects Kanban I created for myself recently (and yes, it’s real!), using Trello:

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Looks like there’s a lot going on, but it’s rather simple. Each card represents a life project, which needs to be a major and meaningful initiative (in my mind anyway) that can exist between 6 months to a few years.

The projects are then organised in stages and dimensions.

Project Stages

My Kanban’s broken down by 6 stages:

1. Bucket List 🗻: A wishlist of all the stuff I’d love to pursue, sorted roughly in a priority order. Basically, a life backlog. It’s also a great prompt to think ultra long term and ask yourself what you really want in your life.

2. Upcoming 🚆: A short-term holding bay for the next few projects I plan on tackling.

3. Active 🔥: Projects that I’m actively pursuing that I’m truly focused on. Limit this to 2 - 3, maybe max 4, to effectively maintain focus.

4. Passive ❄️: Projects that are on the radar, but are on autopilot. Either I have reliable and regular habits that sustain them, or I’ve outsourced them to someone else to look after. Limit this to 4 - 6 at a time.

5. Completed 🎯: The done pile. I know you should appreciate the journey, not just the destination, but this is still my happy space!

6. Cancelled 🛑: Sometimes I just have to say “no” to projects that I may have planned or started, but have found is no longer worth it. Letting go makes space for other things.

Life Dimensions

I also use colour-coded labels in Trello to designate each project to the different dimensions in my life. Also helpful to check that projects cover a balanced spread of dimensions.

Everyone perceives the facets of their life in their own way, but here are my 6 dimensions:

1. Family 👪

2. Finance💸

3. Career 💼

4. Skills 💪🏻

5. Quality of Life 🌞

6. Trips ✈️

Dream Quarterly, Review Weekly

In typical Agile PI planning fashion, I find it best to re-dream every 3 months where I re-evaluate whether my projects still hold their place in the Kanban. Quarterly is a good balance between regularly revisiting all the projects on the board (and pivoting when needed), but not too frequently. All projects need time to run their course.

And similar to Agile sprint planning/review fashion, I prefer to review every week how I’m going with each project. On a weekly basis, I quickly run through the active and passive projects and add a quick update on how I’m inching progress in each project. This weekly ritual only takes 5-10 minutes.

Also, at the subconsious level, reviewing weekly helps me become more observant of opportunities related to those projects. Some call it “Manifestation”, but I believe if you’re continually thinking about specific goals, you’ll notice more opportunites to progress those goals.

Habits to Support Passive Projects

Like passive income in your portfolio, habits and systems can greatly support projects. For example, the habit of preparing gym gear the previous night supports the habit of going to the gym 4x a week to support a fitness goal. A topic for another time, but a serious consideration that can shift a project to the coveted “Passive” stage where it’s on autopilot mode.

Why This Matters

Life often feels like it zips by so quickly. That goal you wanted to achieve, the adventure you wanted to take, or that skill you wanted to pursue - they can drift farther out of reach as time passes. That’s the reality.

The Life Projects Kanban reminds me to keep dreaming long-term and keeps me focused on the most important projects in my life right now.

3 Best Ways to Miss Target Delivery Dates

If a project is worth pursuing, it probably comes with an array of risks and unknowns. That’s ok - implementing a project that makes a difference is hard. But it does mean that missing target delivery dates is a real possibility.

It happens. We’ve all been there.

So, what’s within our control and what can we do about it? Here’s 3 things to do:

1. Communicate early, clearly and genuinely

2. Never assign blame

3. Provide solutions

1. Communicate Early, Clearly and Genuinely

It’s always difficult sharing bad news, but as soon as you know you’re going to miss, you’ll want to communicate this to impacted teams and stakeholders as soon as possible. The longer a problem gets to brew, the more expensive (and painful) it is to resolve. Once people know, it opens the doors to work with them to get things back on track.

Also, the reasons for slipping are usually convoluted and complex - several things have probably failed to result in the situation. Clearly articulating the contributing factors is gets people on board and reassures them you understand what’s happened and what to do.

2. Never Assign Blame

At no point should you point fingers. Never ever. Particularly in crises.

A progressive, forward-looking mindset focuses on the future. Sure, it’s important to look back to understand the root cause. But assigning blame never helps anyone.

One exception: If you’re the one at fault, then be honest and gracefully accept responsibility. Everyone makes mistakes, and admitting to fault builds your brand (and character) as long as it’s accompanied with learning.

3. Provide Solutions

Now for the exciting part - how to move forward! Missing dates is just another problem, and there are always solutions to problems. Work to design a few solution options before communicating the problem.

It could be cutting scope, finding alternative funding or dissecting delivery into smaller chunks. There’s always several ways to skin it.

It’s simply legendary to put forward a problem only to swiftly follow with possible solution options that you’ve already thought through.

Then once there’s a decision on the best course of action, get to work and save the day!

How We Talk to Our Kids

The Traditional Model

Here’s the parental narrative I’ve been used to - kids should always listen to their parents, they should “respect” their parents. And if they disagree or talk back, they’re “bad” kids.

This approach discourages kids from being intrigued about the world or questioning the status quo. The curious cues kids naturally have, like “why do we do that?”, gets silenced by consistent responses of “shoosh, just do it”.

It shuts them down.

Kids are People, Just Littler

But imagine if your colleagues, friends or partner spoke to you like that. Over and over.

Kids are naturally curious, naturally questioning, and more aware and intelligent than we realise. They’re often more reasonable than we expect, if they’re given the space to reason.

We need to remember that kids are people. With less life experience, sure. But people nonetheless. And we should talk to them accordingly.

I see my 3.5 year old son, Leon, as a mini adult. And I talk to him accordingly.

Independent, Logical and Empathetic Thinking

If they question your judgement, take a moment to consider their perspective. Their train of thought usually has merit. In fact, promote the thought process. Following up with questions like “what if…” and “what happens next…” and “could there be another way…” opens up their minds further. Allow them to flex their mental muscles.

If they refuse to take your course of action (or press to behave in an undesirable way), find out why. There’s always a reason. Seeking to understand what they’re going through will also teach them to seek to understand others too.

They mimic how we treat them. They’re mirrors of ourselves.

Speaking to them in a consistently calm, rational and caring manner - especially in the face of conflict - builds up independent, logical and empathetic thinking in them.

I feel so proud when Leon listens, considers and questions:

“But dad, we could do this instead” or “I broke it, but can we use this to fix it?”

Kids are so amazing.

Deliver Small, Deliver Frequently

Small Chunks

A positive, healthy and efficient way of working is to deliver things in small chunks. Once you’ve made a decent start, you could:

• Share it with colleagues to gain feedback

• Check-in with stakeholders to make sure you’re on the right track

• Test it with customers to validate it’s something they’ll actually want

Gaining Momentum

When delivery is frequent and visible, there’s also something magical about the momentum it generates - to both your own team and teams around you.

Perfection is an Illusion

The alternative is a gamble. Working away inordinately in a silo and hoping that what you’re building will hit the mark - that’s not a reliable nor efficient way of working.

Everyone's Facing Their Own Demons

A stakeholder may have been questioning your every move. A team member may have ignored your feedback on a document. Your manager may have sounded like they threw you under a bus in a meeting.

These situations suck. But before jumping to conclusions, it’s worth pausing.

Everyone's going through their own demons. Everyone.

That stakeholder may have difficult stakeholders breathing down his neck. That team member may have been deeply distracted with issues at home. Your manager may have just been forced to make a position redundant.

It's highly likely they didn't mean it, or weren’t fully aware of their impact.

Take a breath, and acknowledge - we're all human.

How to Transform a Bricks and Mortar Store to Play in the Digital Space

A friend of mine owns a local grocery store and as a traditional bricks & mortar business, Num Lee Long Asian Groceries had avoided turning to online sales channels since the decade they opened their doors.

They had a strong and loyal customer base, and the impetus to go digital just wasn’t there.

Then COVID-19 Hit

And crises can be the best catalyst. With restrictions in place, the volume of customers visiting the store plummeted.

It was devastating. But the case to go digital was now inescapable.

The Pivot

After some research and planning, we blitzed it and delivered a live and fully functioning online store for Asian Pantry in 2 weeks.

Here’s how we made it happen.

Landing on a Solution

Once the big questions were answered via a Lean Canvas, our first step was to understand and prioritise the store’s features using a basic Product Backlog. We then performed a bit of an options analysis and chose to go with Shopify.

The base Shopify platform was very mature and robust. But the most exciting part was the plethora of add-on apps that provide more sophisticated functionality - everything from complex shipping rules and integrations to enticing loyalty & rewards programs.

A 5-Step Process to Build a Shopify Website

Breaking down execution into 5 major steps:

1. Choose and Customise a Theme: With the brand design locked in, we selected and customised a simple, minimalist theme called Warehouse that relied on the volume of products to speak for themselves.

2. Prep Products: This is the big one. On launch, we had 888 products (yep, we’re Asian!) available online - no small feat. The business owners had to clean up their data on thousands of products they sold at their physical store and take fairly decent photos on most of them. They’re still adding products to this day.

3. Import Products: This was also tricky. I had to design and build an import tool in Google Sheets that semi-automates the generation of a CSV file to import into Shopify. As each product had a varying number of product images, it was more complicated than I thought!

4. Configure the Store: The boring but essential bits of setting up the store’s shipping, tax, payment, contact, etc. details.

5. Test and Gain Feedback: Shopify is a tried and proven platform, so we only did some light testing for the business owners to have confidence in the website and understood the user experience. They also gained feedback from friends who beta tested it before launch.

Launch

Clicking the button to launch something is always nerve-wracking! Initial traffic and conversions was non-existent (as you’d expect) until the marketing kicked in.

Once live customers started using the website and make purchases, we continued to rapidly implement tweaks. There were some visual tweaks, lots of functional tweaks, and even the business model changed to adapt to customer demand.

And that’s exactly what you want - launch something that’s “good enough” with minimal cost/effort, then gradually improve from there.

How to Make Smart Purchasing Decisions You Won't Regret

During these crazy, uncertain times, it’s more pertinent than ever to be smart with how we spend our cash on personal things.

Whenever I feel like buying something for myself, I run through a simple 4-step checklist:

1. Longevity & durability: Do I see myself using the item on a regular basis and/or will it last a long time?

2. Value retention: For expensive items, Is there a decent resale value in the future?

3. Versatility: For clothes, can you match the item with several other items and do I feel good wearing it?

4. Bottom line: Do I truly feel excited about the item?

If my answer is yes to all the above, great! Now I wait another 5 days…

After 5 days, I repeat the checklist. And if all answers are still yes, then I go for it.

This has helped me minimise unnecessary spending and I haven’t purchased something I’ve regretted in a long time.

Make Every Minute of Your Day Accountable

Time is Super Scarce

Life’s short. Particularly when there’s so many things to do. And even more so when you’re a parent!

Juggling different commitments, jumping from one thing straight to another, trying to squeeze as much as possible from life. I feel I don’t have the time to do what I want these days, and some important areas of my life are falling into the peripheral.

I’m sure I’m not alone.

Time to Make a Change

So, with the same 24 hours that everyone else has each day, I had 3 big questions in mind:

1. Where was all my time going to?

2. Where do I actually want to spend my time?

3. How do I optimise my time each day?

The first question required more than being honest with myself. I needed to hold myself accountable to real, fact-based data. In search of a personal timesheeting tool, I chose to use ATracker Pro app to track my time, every day, right down to the minute.

To personalise, it took some time to configure. I also had to build a habit of tracking each activity I was engaged in. After 6 weeks though, I had enough data to be really insightful.

What I Found and What I’m Focusing On

Among an ocean of realisations, a small snippet of 7 averages, ranked from most to least time spent. Plus what I’m focusing on changing in each area:

1. Leon: 2.5 hours/day on weekdays and 7.5 hours/day on weekends spent with Leon.

   • That’s pretty massive, and I want to keep that intact as much as possible. He grows and evolves a little bit every day and I don’t want to miss any of it.

2. Film / Netflix / Youtube: 1.5 hours/day spent on watching something. I typically do some work while watching something in the background, for what it’s worth!

   • I want to reduce this to 1 hour/day. Multi-tasking isn’t effective, and I’d be more productive without something playing in the background.

3. Transit & Waiting: 1 hour/day spent travelling to somewhere or waiting for something. Dead time.

   • In terms of transit, I think I’ve optimised this as much as possible. I’ve shaved travel to work to 8 minutes one-way and I try to optimise weekend family plans to minimise travel.

   • In terms of waiting, that’s mostly unavoidable, but I want to use the time better by reading.

4. Shopping: 20 minutes/day spent on shopping either online or IRL. Argh, my weakness!

   • Alright, this has got to get stamped out. I want to reduce this to <5 minutes/day by deterring myself. More on the tactics I’m using later.

5. Gym & Sport: 15 minutes/day spent on keeping my body in shape. Underinvested.

   • I want to double this to 30 minutes/day. In my weekly routine, I’ve now included 30-minute gym sessions 3 times a week and 2-hour tennis sessions 1-2 times a week.

6. Reading: 3 minutes/day. Embarrassingly abysmal!

   • I just want to increase this by any amount. Reading before bed is now part of my pre-sleep routine and a recurring task on my to-do list.

7. Meditation: 1 minute/day. Severely underinvested.

   • Like reading, I just want to do a bit more. I’ll start to build the habit with a quick 5-minute “micro” meditation 3 times a week.

One Final Thought

At the micro level, I found this exercise super useful. I feel like I’m using my time with more intent.

But at the macro level, I also want to ensure that the stuff I’m doing day to day - no matter how optimised - builds towards my longer term goals and roadmap.

I’ve created a visual personal roadmap that I revisit weekly to keep myself in check. More on this next time.

Australia Post x Western Union Service Blueprint

Only the Tip of the Iceberg

After pulling together Customer Journey Maps, and having a pretty good idea of the current customer experience, we wanted to focus on something that’s easily forgotten - staff experience.

What about the people behind the customer experiences? How did they feel about their daily tasks? What did they think about the processes and the systems that consume them? What were the pain points they felt?

All of this creeps into the customer’s experience too.

The Whole Truth

We found the best approach to give us a holistic understanding of the staff experience was to develop a Service Blueprint.

For me, a Service Blueprint is just a visual representation - on one page - of how a service is delivered. Some areas in a Blueprint may be painfully obvious, but we found many areas to be very invisible and elusive, known only by one or two people in the organisation.

This Nielson Norman Group primer is a great guide on how to get started.

Our Service Blueprint comprised of the typical 5 main elements:

1. Customer journey, including evidence and time: We had this already, and it formed the starting point and backbone.

2. Frontstage actions: Actions or experiences from staff that can be seen by customers.

3. Backstage actions: Actions or experiences from staff that happen behind the scenes, supporting frontstage actions.

4. Supporting processes: Internal processes or steps that support staff in their frontstage/backstage actions.

5. Pain points and delight points: We used digital post-it notes attached to each action/process to symbolise pain points and delight points experienced by the staff and customers.

There’s lots of material online to find out more, and Nielson Norman Group’s definition is a good one.

Also, I'm no Service Designer and having one helped immensely. We were fortunate enough to work with the super talented Lisa Johnson.

After rounds and rounds of collaborative workshops, this was the latest iteration of our Service Blueprint*, created in Miro, split into two parts:

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* Intentionally low-resolution for confidentiality reasons.

The One Biggest Learning

The biggest learning from this experience that I can share is - just start. Start small. Start with whatever bits you know. Maybe even start with parts composed of assumptions (but definitely clarify with others later).

Service Blueprints can feel overwhelmingly complex to create, but once I started, it kind of felt like it started building itself.

Next Steps

Creating the Service Blueprint helped us immensely to:

• Really understand staff experiences, pain points and opportunities for improvement

• Share this understanding with stakeholders and the wider organisation, facilitating empathy and investment in improving the status quo

Of course, having a Blueprint didn’t actually change the status quo just yet. More on where we went from there later…

Early Financial Literacy Concepts for Kids

I’ve just started instilling something early with Leon, my 2 year old son - a weekly allowance.

1. Savings

Every Sunday, I give Leon $2 worth of coins to put into a small glass mason jar. I want to instil an attitude of saving as early as he can grasp the concept. Seeing his coins build up slowly will help him understand the concept of accumulation over the passage of time.

2. Expenses

Soon, when he wants to purchase little things like treats or small toys, we’ll visibly tap into his savings. And from that, he’ll start to understand that things cost money, and take away from the time taken to accumulate.

Everything costs something. And maybe we should reconsider before simply splurging.

3. Income

When he’s able, we hope to give him some small jobs here and there. From this, he’ll realise that pushing ahead beyond the meagre $2/week takes extra effort and hustle.

(These jobs would be beyond routine housework, as the whole family has a duty.)

4. Compounding and Investing

And later, compounding and investing. I can’t wait to expose Leon to these magical concepts. But one step at a time!

How I Prime My Day Everyday

Highly Personal

Time in each day is so precious and limited. So I use a very consistent and regimented morning routine to get my mind and body primed to try and crush each day as much as possible.

Boring, But in a Good Way

Yeh I know, routines are boring. But I find that boring things give us the stability from which more interesting and exciting things spring off.

With a morning routine:

• I feel my day is framed and more organised (concluding with my pre-sleep routine)

• I’m more in control of my state of mind (without social media or emails)

• I don’t expend any mental energy on what I need to do in the first few waking moments

I keep my routine the same regardless of weekday, weekend or public holiday.

My Morning Routine

Here’s my morning routine:

1. Take deep breaths and stretch for a few minutes

2. Drink a large glass of water at room-temperature

3. Talk/play with our 2 year old son, Leon, for a few minutes

4. Take a quick shower (I keep this at 5 minutes to save time and water)

5. Have breakfast with Leon (usually a muesli mix without milk)

6. Review the day’s to-do list (prepared from the previous night) and calendar of meetings/appointments

7. Walk our dog, Muffin, to a nearby park for 15 minutes (also allows me to think through the approach of the day, if needed)

8. Get dressed and, if it’s a weekday, walk to work (I’ve managed to cut transit time to 8 minutes which has been absolutely priceless!)

And that’s it really.

PS. Oh, coffee’s definitely part of my morning too! But that’s usually later on.

Australia Post x Western Union Customer Journey Map

When I was assigned the Western Union transformation program by Australia Post recently, I wanted to firstly understand the current customer experience and their pain points. Creating the Customer Journey Map took 2 weeks of intense work over and above the usual project management work, but it was super interesting, and well worth it.

(Later on, the focus shifted to the employee experience and expanded into a Service Blueprint, but more on that later.)

Here’s the key steps I took to create our Customer Journey Map:

1. Persona: Profile our major persona and define their goals

2. Existing Data: Source, collate and synthesise all existing data around the current customer experience, including staff manuals, previous customer interviews and other technical documentation

3. Stages & Steps: Outline the high-level behavioural stages that the customer takes, then elaborate on the touchpoints and steps within those stages

4. Emotions & Pain Points: Further elaborate on the journey’s step durations, emotional journey and pain points

5. Validate: Validate with an outlet manager and update accordingly (we also used the session to understand her pain points from an employee experience perspective)

6. Share: Walk through with the project team and relevant stakeholders

And here’s the CJM we created, using UXPressia.

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From there, the Customer Journey Map helped the team and I to empathise and focus on what mattered from the customer’s perspective, ideate on opportunities for a future experience and prioritised requirements for the project.

Great Minds and How to Grow Them: Notes

A large part of my world right now is centred around my 20 month old son, Leon. He’s the most beautiful soul and brings us and those around him so much joy.

I believe my role as a dad isn’t just to always be there for him, but to support him in anything he wants to do and help him boost and expand his aspirations.

With that intention, I picked up a book by Deborah Eyre and Wendy Berliner called Great Minds and How to Grow Them. It’s about instilling a growth mindset in kids right from the beginning using very doable, everyday practices and attitudes. I found it super insightful.

Below is a preview mind map of my notes from the book, and here’s the full mind map. I hope the parents out there find it as interesting as I have.

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Tools of Titans: Notes

I recently finished reading Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans - finally!

It’s like an anthology of ideas - tactics, routines and habits - collected by Tim Ferriss over a couple of years from some truly great people. Some I’ve heard of, some I haven’t, but they all had interesting perspectives and takeaways.

And as part of the speed reading course I’m currently training in, I’m trying a new form of note-taking I’ve learned using mind maps. Thought I’d share the mind map I created for Tools of Titans. Enjoy!

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Disclaimer: These notes are far from comprehensive and are pretty biased to what I feel is relevant for me. I really recommend reading the full book.

By the way, I created this using a flow charting web app I’ve been using for a while now called Coggle, which I absolutely love. I’m unashamedly using the free version due to my austerity personal budget measures, and it still works great.

I’ll get into Coggle in a future post, I’m sure.

Opening Fashion Lane to the Advertising World

Working on the terms in an IO (like an agreement plus invoice) with an advertising agency.

Fashion Lane is an awesome aggregation website where savvy shoppers visit regularly to keep tabs of fresh sales. My good friend Ed Chan’s done an amazing job designing, building, launching and iterating it pretty much single-handedly for the last 4 years. 

The site’s sole focus has been on its users by providing highly relevant and timely sales content. With that focus, its popularity and user base has been growing wildly, measuring up to and surpassing many older domestic and international fashion websites.

It’s also been a closed platform to advertisers, until now.

The Fashion Lane team's been growing in the last 12 months. And more recently, Ed wanted to beef up the product management and project management side of the business. He approached me, we talked, and as an avid user of the site already, I felt compelled to join the Fashion Lane story.

In the few weeks since coming onboard, we now have a media kit doing the rounds, deals are being executed and we have more advertisers in the pipeline to meet. Special shout out to the wonderful team at Rakuten Marketing who have helped us get up and running as well.

Minimal Effort Gratitude for the People You Work With

Have you noticed anyone around you doing particularly great work? Don't just sit there and silently observe - tell them!

Send them an email. Without expectations of anything in return. Be specific. Cc their manager too while you're at it.

So much great work's being created around us, but passes by with zero recognition or acknowledgement. Everyone's too busy with their own shit apparently.

This digital pat-on-the-back not only makes the person feel great about themselves (which they should), but also encourages them to continue creating great work.