Walking on Water: How to Navigate Uncharted Territories

The current unprecedented predicament must have forced many of us into new living conditions, for a year already. Confronted with abrupt deviation from the norm, we might be trying novel ways of life in the (online) workplace and at home to find a new balance. Some thrill-seekers even started on a new job, changed careers, moved cities or embarked on other adventures during the pandemic. I also had a similar experience. And to deal with the accumulated major changes in life, I’ve learned some lessons from my mentors that helped me maneuver the season. I hope I can do their counsel justice by condensing those lessons well through this article.

In essence, this short piece is prepared as an encouragement for those who are about to make a turn at a substantial crossroads of your life, or who have just commenced unfamiliar ventures. I believe that new circumstances can potentially reveal to us our undiscovered strengths. Ambushed by a storm while sailing through life, we might just learn that we can walk on water.

For me, the huge change I need to undergo is getting into product management (PM). The role has tested my limits and unveiled what I’m actually capable of. Unexpectedly, the job brings out my ability to be comfortable being a noob, to say no to many things and people, and to take chances. These three principles are also what my mentors endorse and reinforce. Also, to reverse engineer the results they have achieved, I would happily practice those earnestly whenever I’m facing uncharted waters.

Comfortable being a noob

Setting out on a new venture is frustrating because we don’t have an internal preceding standard of operation to refer to. The sheer amount of learning required to figure things out may make us feel like we’re starting over as a novice. Likewise for me, on the first day of my new job, I quickly realized that conquering even a month there will be a tall order. Reason being, the role requires much more technical knowledge than I imagined¹. For someone with a business background, it definitely was a struggle and I felt like I was utterly unprepared for the role.

My part is to accomplish the daunting task of launching questions in a group of experienced engineers and product team, no matter how intimidating that can feel — and despite the risk of looking immensely stupid.

However, I’m thankful that I’m given the opportunity to be a noob. Meaning, I am allowed to be proactive and to ask many questions to my product mentors and the engineering team. Of course, it’s always advisable to think for myself prior to asking. I’ll be wasting many peoples’ time if I ask something that I can google for myself. Thankfully, the team is very open to contextual questions related to ongoing product development. My part is to accomplish the daunting task of launching questions in a group of experienced engineers and product team, no matter how intimidating that can feel — and despite the risk of looking immensely stupid.

Being okay with feeling half-witted for a prolonged period of time might help us to overcome steep learning curves. Because, sometimes our biggest enemy isn’t the external challenge of gaining the skills and knowledge, but the internal distress upon learning new things. Once we make peace with the discomfort, it might just propel us to quickly absorb just about anything we set ourselves to learn. I think this is aligned with what Carol Dweck described in Mindset, the belief that we can grow through our efforts. Consequently, there’s no limit to what we can learn, if we just allow ourselves to be a newbie at all times²!

Saying no to good ideas

Being in the middle of an uncharted territory also gives us a plethora of directions to choose from. With that unrestrained freedom, finding a focus is crucial for maximum impact. With established priorities, it will be clearer on what to say “no” to along the way. For example in the PM context, when suggestions to build various products flood in, it’s in the hands of the PM team to prioritize the more impactful ones and to unfortunately say no to a hefty amount of good ideas. Consequently, there are many tasks on our team’s board that we don’t pursue because we selected a great few that bring in the most impact. And it takes an effort for us to not feel bad about forsaking those.

I also get to put this principle into practice when deciding on my own career development. 2 months into this new job, a colleague from another tech company reached out to me about an opening in his product team. I entered the recruitment process with the sole intention of quenching my nervy curiosity, but I ended up getting the job offer 😳 After many deliberate considerations, the pursuit of prioritized goals required me to say no to the offer.

Sometimes, although our minds are clear on what to decide, it doesn’t negate the fact that the FOMO feeling is real and it lingers. Such fear of missing out is something that we need to overcome to remain focused. In a quandary, that clarity will help us stand firm and make us bold enough to abandon good ideas, or in my case to decline a job offer from a bigger firm like, hypothetically, Tokopedia³. If you are still unsure on what to focus on this season, reading what other accomplished and focused public figures like PG, Christensen, or Viktor E. Frankl have to say might help a bit.

In a quandary, that clarity will help us stand firm and make us bold enough to abandon good ideas

Taking chances

In uncharted territories, we can’t always accurately predict the outcome of our efforts. In fact, no matter how much foresight we collect while preparing for Plan A and its accompanying back up plans, sometimes the greatest life surprises lie in serendipity and not figuring out everything before we embark on a new journey.

In hindsight, great adventures often start with the decision to take a shot, like how we took the chance to start on a new role or projects, and how our leaders or investors took the bet to believe and invest in us. There is a risk we would fail spectacularly, but there is always a likelihood where we would beat the odds while enjoying the steep learning curve in unfamiliar circumstances. Who knows I would love the thrill of the fast paced environment in my new job? I also didn’t expect to have the honor to be mentored by leaders who would provide me with the psychological safety to learn, and the space to build meaningful products.

It’s so that we can take a leap of faith to see ourselves walking on water, like adventurously living by the three principles above.

Great rewards can only come after the decision to abandon risk aversion that is like a comfortable safe ship. It’s so that we can take a leap of faith to see ourselves walking on water, like adventurously living by the three principles above. Of course there’s a thin line between being a reckless daredevil and one who is fearless in taking calculated risk. I attempt to be the latter, and I’m inviting you to do the same. What do you think⁴?

Footnotes

1. To illustrate, in my first week I first learned about what an API is (yes, I was that clueless), and I couldn’t understand a single sentence my engineering team delivered in our discussions. In contrast, in the second week, I was already expected to present a product flow that largely includes back end flows and a revised design of our current API documents. It was indeed a steep learning curve 😬
2. After 3 months, overjoyed that I’ve passed probation! Still a long way to go, but let me celebrate this small milestone. Managed to learn a few new skills from writing basic json, html and SQL, to designing the front and back end flow of our product. From managing experienced stakeholders, to troubleshooting technical debt. From being 100% lost, to now 90% lost. I’m still pretty much lost, but I’m a happy noob.
3. I really appreciate their team for the effort and the time spent on getting to know me throughout the process, and am very sorry that we don’t get to work together for the time being. Hi PDP team, if you’re reading this, (again) thank you for the opportunity to meet you guys!
4. On a side note, my team is always hiring! Check out this page or DM me for further info :)