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
Reflection::
i.e. it's real work, treat it as such
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}} 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
{{DONE}} August 15th, 2021 Call first then go to Green Village Used Furniture