In my new role, I’ve been having a lot of conversations about what really drives consistent products. What stands out is how often people either don’t think about it, or treat it like a minor detail. If you zoom out, there are only a few core functions in a business. And whether people realize it or not, those functions shape the perception of both the product and the business. The way I see it, every single one of those functions can be treated like a sales and marketing function. At the end of the day, each one engrains the perception you want customers and the market to have. Here’s my question for the group: Do you think most businesses undervalue this idea, that every function is essentially sales and marketing, or is it just not talked about enough?

@Larry Hampton give us a rundown on your background - any projects you have going on, areas your looking for support in, wherever you want to take the conversation!

People don't realize that it is a crap load of work to just go through resumes for roles you are hiring for. Its also a shame how fast (me in this scenario) it can go from "I could definitely be a top candidate for all of these roles I've applied for" ---> (to) "These are some amazing candidates with impressive resumes, but none are what we're actually looking for". Job hunting sucks. Picking candidates sucks. The first part -> How Your Resume Looks Does Matter - I'm going to be trusting you to make our company (and me personally) look good. If your own personally crafted resume (which you can literally spend hours on end crafting until it looks awesome) looks like it was copied directly from notepad, why would I think your will make our product awesome. The second part -> Your Resume May Not Get To The People Who Wil Appreciate It - The recruiters are busy. The hiring managers are busy. There is a whole lot of stuff going on in the background. - Try to casually make connections. Expect it to take literally months. The last part -> There Are Proven Systems For Role Bullet Points - You need to make it clear you actually achieved things, and be able to effectively (and quickly) explain how. In case you didn't know this is a general skill you need to succeed in life. - Before the bullets, start with a short subtitle of what what the company actually does. We have no idea what these companies are. Its like someone telling you a story, refereeing to a person by name, that you do not know. Like, who/what are you talking about (and why does it matter to me)! - The bullets - "I achieved/improved/solved/idc BLANK problem BY doing X, Y & Z". Its literally that easy. Just do this. You will probably have a better resume then everyone else applying. Doesn't mean you will get the job, or even a call. But, if it gets to a respectable hiring managers desk, they will at least look at it, maybe even save it for when the next person gets fired (you would be surprised how often they are looking back on resumes of previously considered candidates).

Lately, not a lot of "building" in the sense of where this platform originated. However, a new job can kick off a drive of honing in some of the toolsets that get neglected when unused. This week was prepping for 1-1s with my new team, very exciting! My new boss put me onto a little podcast he found to help get things in order, actually turned out to be pretty solid. I already knew 1-1s are important (one of my "Building It Now" stories is supporting that exact initiative - fixing management), but data is tough to come by without putting in the time. The hosts of the "Manager Tools" podcast got the actual data though. Check out their videos and cheat sheet downloads. Pretty helpful I'd say. I guess I'll know the results soon. https://www.manager-tools.com/2024/04/manager-tools-one-ones-updated-part-1