4 Lessons from Leading a Small Team at Google

As I mentioned in my last post, Friday was my last day at Google after a year and a half on the social impact team. For the last five quarters, I was the product manager for the One Today, a mobile app from Google with the purpose of creating a more socially aware and engaged world. The question we asked was this: Could we make learning about causes and taking positive action so frictionless, delightful, and engaging that we could change people's behaviors?

I could talk at length about the product and UX principles there (and who knows? maybe I will at some point), but for now, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the lessons I learned from leading a small team with a very large mandate.

Onwards and upwards!

After a year and a half on Google's social impact team, today is my last day. At day's end, I'll hand in my hard-won Google badge, say goodbye to the plentiful free food, and part ways with many colleagues who have become respected mentors and friends. These last seven years, on again off again, with Google have been an incredible ride: arriving at the Googleplex for the first time as a bleary-eyed 19-year-old, taking a year to travel around Africa on the emerging markets team, and last but not least, working with many extraordinary people.

So what am I up to next? On October 20, I'll be starting at Kickstarter as the PM responsible for the "backer experience", i.e. the chunk of the product you've probably interacted with as a non-project-creator. I'm insanely excited to start this new adventure, and I'm incredibly thankful for the journey that Google has taken me on.

Reflections on Burning Man

It's been a few weeks since I've been back from Burning Man, and after recounting the experience to many of you, it seemed about time to put my thoughts down for posterity. In short, Burning Man was incredible. When people ask me if it met or exceeded my expectations, I reply "Burning Man was a superset of my expectations." I'd heard so much about the experience from friends and from the media that I thought I knew more or less what I was getting myself into before I got there. Man, was I wrong.

Techie's Dilemma: International Edition

A few months ago, I wrote the first article in this series on the Techie's Dilemma. In this entry, I'll continue to explore the question that I spent months wrapping my head around: Where, in an interconnected world, does a globally-minded techie settle down? As I alluded to last time, I didn't limit my options to the U.S. Quite the opposite -- I actively sought out international options ranging from Cape Town to Bangalore to Buenos Aires. Today, I'll look at two of the particularly compelling international locales I explored: London and Nairobi.

Read more on the Huffington Post »

Launched: One Today by Google

Just over a month ago, my team at Google and I launched One Today, a new mobile app that encourages people to make charitable giving a part of their daily lives. The gist of the app is this: Every day, One Today serves you a new charitable project. If you think it's worthwhile, you can donate $1. If you're really excited, you can challenge the community to donate to the project by offering to match their donations. We're currently in a closed pilot, but one month out, I'm optimistic about the future of One Today.

In Praise of Great Parents

My family, as I was growing up, never resembled the "model American household." My mother was diagnosed with stage three cancer when I was six and never quite recovered afterward. My father often worked multiple teaching jobs and would wake up at 3am to meditate before his early morning commute. Neither one stayed home to take care of me like so many of my friends' parents did. There were never family dinners – we were all on radically different schedules. But for all of these seeming flaws in my family life, there were two things my parents supplied in abundance that, looking back, made all the difference: unconditional love and support.

Back at Google

Here I am, back at Google for my fourth first day at this crazy company. And I couldn't be more excited. I spent the last few months investigating opportunities all around the world, primarily at companies under 100 people, but at the end of the day, my real criteria for this next move were these:

• Role: Some combination of software engineering and product management with a road to primarily product work.
• Team: Smart, passionate people who will challenge me every day.
• Problem: Work on something socially important. Provide real value for real people.
• Technology: Web and mobile software.
• Location: New York City.

And strangely enough, after a whole year of discussions with Google, they finally offered me exactly that.

Techie's Dilemma: Silicon Valley vs. NYC

After spending the last few years traveling the world, it seems almost every major city is an aspiring tech hub these days. No matter where I go, the locals tell me the same thing: the government has recognized the importance of tech entrepreneurship, and they're taking major steps to encourage it there. The obvious archetype for these places is Silicon Valley in California, but there's a Silicon Something-or-Other just about everywhere I visit: Silicon Alley in New York, Silicon Roundabout in London, even Silicon Savannah in Kenya. After months of trying to figure out where I should move next, the only obvious conclusion was that each place had its own pros and cons. In this series, I'll take a lens to each of the cities I considered and the facts that ultimately led me to my decision.

Read more on the Huffington Post »

New York, I'm all in.

Or alternatively, taking the Kenya option off the table.

That's right. You heard it here first. After two arduous months pounding the pavements, I've decided to take the plunge and stay in New York despite the continued job uncertainty. Looking back on when I arrived, I assumed that it would be difficult for me to break into the startup world here. After all, I haven't lived in the US for over two years, and I haven't worked in New York since the summer of 2008. A long time ago. But in the weeks since, I've gotten to speak with a number of exceptional companies, and to my great surprise, they've all been happy to meet me. But the largest moral of the story is that timing has played a much bigger role than I anticipated. No one seems to argue my qualifications or credentials – whether or not they need a product manager at that given moment is a thornier issue. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. I've picked a role for myself where there's one of me to every five to ten engineers. Startups only need a PM at a very specific point in their life cycles. So after a great deal of thought and soul searching, I've finally decided to stay and see how it plays out.

It's Official: We're Living in the Future

A few days ago, while an old friend was visiting NY, I made the trek up to the Upper East Side to visit him at his brother's place. It was wonderful to meet his family, especially his very new little nephew. I don't see very many babies these days, so seeing how the little guy interacted with his grandmother made me remark to myself, "Wow, we're really living in the future." When I was growing up, cell phones didn't exist, and email was a largely unused technology. If a family member lived a long distance away, you got to see them a few times a year. The only middle ground was an expensive long distance phone call.

Big Decisions: First Thoughts on NYC

As some of you likely know, I've finally finished my travels, landed in New York, and begun the final step in my transition to whatever's next. I've been in New York for the last week, and I feel like I've gotten a good early impression about the tech scene here, life in NYC as a young adult, and what it would mean to be back "home". So here goes, my first thoughts on the big apple, the closest thing I have to a home, New York City.

The Traveler's Curse

Whether it was the time I lived in a bookshop in Paris or when I saw the sun rise over Africa after climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the stories I tell often give people the impression that my life over the last few years has been nothing but joy and excitement. And while the excitement bit may be true, as any experienced traveler will tell you, the journey has its own hardships that most people (myself included) don't tend to realize until they've done it. When I get that look in my eyes of longing for a place to settle down, even for just a year or two, I have a hard time expressing why such a concept is important to me at this point in my life. But recently a friend sent me a story he found online that I feel sums up these experiences really well. So, for your reading pleasure...

Big Decisions: First Thoughts on Nairobi

As some of you know, I'm currently in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to investigate potential job opportunities and the prospect of moving here for a significant amount of time. It's only been four days since I arrived (out of a total of two weeks), so my impressions are still being formed, but for now, here are a few of my early observations.

Making the "Right Choice"

The start of September marks the end of my summer of respite, and as a result, the beginning of my job search in earnest. I have lots of potential roads ahead of me: moving back to the developing world and establishing myself as a technology expert there, joining a more conventional small tech company in Silicon Valley or New York, going back to one of the big hitters like Google, or something entirely different. And so, for the last few weeks, I've had the question on my mind: How will I know if the choice I make is the right one?

Looking Back on a Year at Cambridge

Saying goodbye to my father
before departing for Cambridge.

I'll never forget the trip I took from my family's home in Arizona late last September. I set off for England to start my master's degree at Trinity College in the University of Cambridge. I had just finished a whirlwind trip around the US after 14 months of travel; I was sleep deprived, whiplashed by the sudden life changes, and apprehensive to be moving to another country again. I remember the bus ride from Heathrow to Cambridge. I hadn't slept in nearly two days, and crazy thoughts were ricocheting off my skull. Was I making the right decision? Was Cambridge the right place for me? Would I even be able to stay in one place for nine months? Well here we are, nine months later, and finally, I can answer those questions with certainty.

Living without Regret

There was an excellent article published in The New York Times the other day that resonated with me deeply. It doesn't take long to understand why – the article begins with the following passage:

At 17, I wrote a speech titled, “When You Come to the End of Your Days, Will You Be Able to Write Your Own Epitaph?” It reflected the approach to life I adopted after my mother’s untimely death from cancer at age 49. I chose to live each day as if it could be my last — but with a watchful eye on the future in case it wasn’t. 

My goal was, and still is, to die without regrets.

Reflecting on Three Years of Travel

Oxford, just after I arrived in 2009.

Three years ago today, I landed in England for the first time with my suitcases and a stomach full of fear and apprehension. I had never traveled on my own before, never been to Europe, never lived abroad, nothing. I remember getting off the plane and wandering around Heathrow as anxiety welled up within me. My phone wasn't working despite the preparations I'd made beforehand. I didn't know how to get to the tube stop where I'd be meeting my cousin who had been living in London. What was the difference between the rail and the underground anyway? I called my father from a pay phone in a panic. He didn't pick up. Neither did my aunt. I was stuck. I was alone. But though I didn't realize it at the time, this feeling of discomfort, of anxiety, would soon become an addiction.

How I Spent My Gap Year

Greetings, friends, family, and other readers. I'm going to be totally cliché and begin this post with an apology for not updating in months. I recently finished my first term at Cambridge, and after moving around so much last year, it was a  relief to be able to stay in one place for more than a couple weeks. The classes I took were generally interesting and challenging, the people I met absolutely extraordinary, and the Oxbridge culture just as decadent as I remembered. But that's not what I really wanted to write about today. A few weeks back, I visited some former colleagues at the Google office in London, and heard really encouraging news about the project I used to work on. Since it was secret and un-launched for my entire time at Google, I never really got to talk about what I was up to, but now I can!

Life In Motion

Greetings from Cambridge! I haven't decided yet whether to continue writing this blog, but seeing as I no longer work for Google and no longer live in Africa, at the very least, I thought it was fitting to come up with a new name. Why "In Motion"? Over the last year, I've done a fair bit of travel, and I've discovered that it's the one state that feels more natural than any other to me. It's the sensation of a plane lifting off the ground, the road speeding beneath my wheels, the wind rushing past me at furious speeds. I live for motion, alway pushing forward, looking back only to remember past joys and learn from old mistakes.

These last few weeks in Cambridge have been incredibly, absolutely hectic. We'll see once things normal out whether I can still find interesting enough things to say to put here. Until then...

One Year Ago...

One year ago today, I landed in Africa for the first time. Looking back at my journal, I arrived at my hotel, discovered I had no hot water, went to the office, and ate some chicken with jolof rice. Pretty typical day in west Africa, really, but it was anything but typical for me. I've come a long way since then, establishing an entirely new life and lifestyle for myself.

In short, some of my greatest accomplishments this year:

• Visiting 2 new continents and discovering a newfound love for parts of the world I hadn't even thought of before.
• Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and visiting my friend Alma in Rwanda after over a year of planning.
• Hitting 20 countries in the span of 12 months, many of them for the first time, and many of them more than once.
• Expanding my culinary comfort zone by eating all sorts of unusual ethnic dishes (see Nigerian giant land snails).
• Discovering frequent flyer miles and learning how to sleep on planes.
• Becoming comfortable taking bucket showers and surviving without proper toilets or electricity.
• Finally achieving platinum status on the Starwood Preferred Guests program (I'm actually way too proud of this given the fact that it just means I've spent way too much time living out of hotel rooms).
• Making friends with some pretty extraordinary people.
• Learning that I am in fact good at the work I've wanted to do for several years.
• Coming to understand a lot about myself, what I value, and what kind of life I want to lead.

Here's to hoping that this coming year holds just as much growth, fun, and adventure as the last!

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