✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Why you need a "WTF Notebook"

simplermachines.com · 1,462 words · saved by 1 readers

There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." I keep a bullet journal. I'm not one of those people you see on Pinterest with the fancy spreads – I mostly just use black ink, the standard setup, and the occasional custom collection. Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: "WTF - [Team Name]." Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go "wtf," and a task every time I come up with something I want to change. For two weeks, that's all I do. I just write it down. I don't tell the team everything that I think they're doing wrong. I don't show up at retro with all the stuff I think they need to change. I just watch, and listen, and I write down everything that seems deeply weird. This is a trick I picked up from a team lead a few years ago, who learned it from a previous lead of his in turn. It's one of my most powerful techniques for m

I keep a bullet journal . I'm not one of those people you see on Pinterest with the fancy spreads – I mostly just use black ink, the standard setup, and the occasional custom collection. Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: "WTF - [Team Name]." Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go "wtf," and a task every time I come up with something I want to change. For two weeks, that's all I do. I just write it down. I don't tell the team everything that I think they're doing wrong. I don't show up at retro with all the s

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading