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August 14th, 2021

Learning about Atomic Concepts

Summary::

Adobe is a strong company but some of its market segments it takes second place to competitors like Figma, Sketch, and Canva

These competitors thrive by having distinct atomic concepts from Adobe

They have fundamentally different primitives

Market transitions unearth new use cases and types of users that seek these different concepts

Differentiation via atomic concepts negates Adobe's incumbent market advantage

Competition is no longer about building up to the incumbent's feature set

The incumbents feature set hinders their ability to adopt or enable the different atomic concepts

When customer needs change rapidly, incumbents are left with a large overhead

Sometimes a small unaddressed use case grows large enough to support it's own company

Sometimes the scale or dynamic of a market shift enough to run the existing product fit

e.g. eBay thrived on item scarcity, but that scarcity went away in time

Sometimes the needs of the customer change

Photoshop was built for editing images but designers at software companies need to build UI/UX and iterate collaboratively

pixels are the wrong abstraction level

The best products map to how their customers think about their workflow

they choose the right atomic concepts

Atomic concepts are the core concepts around which the entire product is built

they align with how customers think about their workflow

they compose well with other atomic concepts

Similar products have slightly different atomic concepts that make them distinct

Photoshop focuses on pixels and images

Illustrator operates on vectors, not pixels

Sketch also operates on vectors but on a project level, with multiple designs

Figma is similar to Sketch but extends the project focus to the entire collaborative process

it also makes plugins and community first class concepts

Canva is similar to Photoshop and Illustrator but focus on components and templates instead of pixel and vectors

Atomic concepts are fundamentally linked to the core loops of a company

everything that makes an establish company strong is built upon these concepts and will fight back again changing them

e.g. blockbuster tried to make a team to compete with netflix but all levels of business fought against it

startups thrive by finding asymmetric angles that incumbents are unable for follow

(stopped at the "Figma bet on collaborative product design" header)

Reflection::

Learning about receiving and giving feedback

Summary::

Feedback is critical for culture, and trust

Your team will not feel comfortable giving negative feedback if it is not encouraged

Failing to proactively collect feedback will:

make it hard to see a company's problems

grind operations to a halt

drive talent away

Seek feedback by:

explicitly asking for it

e.g. "if you were in my position, what would you change?"

e.g. "what feedback are you afraid to give because you think it might hurt my feelings?"

acknowledge it

summarize and confirm your understanding is correct

appreciate it

listen, don't make excuses, understand, thank them

accept it

(or not)

act on it

create an action item, schedule it, do it, update the feedback-giver, publish the feedback

Give feedback using a medium where you can see the receivers reaction and can defuse the situation if they feel defensive about it

Give feedback by:

asking for permission

give a heads up, don't make it a surprise

factually state the behaviour that prompted the feedback

factually, not interpretatively

state how the behaviour makes you feel

without this it is hard for the other person to understand where you're coming from

state the thoughts, opinions, and judgements you have

request what you'd like to see

as a positive action (e.g. do X) rather than a negative action (e.g. don't do Y)

ask if the person accepts the feedback and the request

if they do, hold them accountable to doing it

Giving and receiving feedback can be hard at first because there's already an implicit backlog of feedback to process, but it will be cleared quickly

Watched

[[Video/[Coming Home to The Delacorte with MERRY WIVES | The Public Theater ]]

What needs to be done for moving apartments

{{DONE}} buy more boxes

{{DONE}} buy soft packing stuff

{{DONE}} fill out the tax form (10min)

{{DONE}} email landlord about moving apartments questions

I saw in the least that I need to speak to management before installing an AC unit. Is it alright if I install one? Is there a specific kind/model that is recommended or any rules around installing them?

I see that there is power and ( I believe) gas in the apartment right now. How do I go about switching those to be under my name?

{{DONE}} switch WIFI address

{{DONE}} Take down big tub from closet

{{DONE}} Look into what is actually mine in the closet

{{DONE}} sort through trash closet items

{{DONE}} Sort through cleaning supplies

Furniture

{{DONE}} Take art down from walls

Larg painting

Small paintings

metal line work

{{DONE}} Pack up books from bookshelf

{{DONE}} Pack up books from bedroom shelves

{{DONE}} Take off fairy lights from birch poles

Desk

{{DONE}} Pack up desk drawer

{{DONE}} Pack up monitor

{{DONE}} Pack up computer supplies

{{DONE}} Pack up everything drawer

{{DONE}} Clean out bedside table

Cabinets

{{DONE}} Clean out spice cabinet

{{DONE}} Clean out upper cabinets

{{DONE}} Clean out dishware cabinet

{{DONE}} Clean out under stove

{{DONE}} Clean out narrow cabinet

{{DONE}} Clean out above fridge cabinet

Food

{{DONE}} Clean out Freezer

{{DONE}} Clean out Fridge

Bathroom

{{DONE}} Pack up soaps

{{DONE}} Pack up drawers

{{DONE}} Pack up under cabinet items

{{DONE}} Sort through cleaning supplies

{{DONE}} Take everything out from under the bed

Pack up

{{DONE}} Pack up NAS

{{DONE}} Roll up carpet

{{DONE}} Pack up unused clothes

{{DONE}} Pack up remaining clothes

Fixes

{{DONE}} Fix holes in walls