everything is not a p0

context:

come february 2020, i officially graduated from being a lone warrior to a people manager -- right from hiring, onboarding, helping folks grow from interns into full-time product marketers (that's a post for later). i was ready -- i was reading all the right books, talking to the right folks, i was prepared. we also had a new manager to lead the entire herd.

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the mother of all learnings so far:

everything is not a p0 (even if everyone tells you otherwise)

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for brevity, p0 loosely translates to the most important things to do to achieve a certain goal.

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in an ideal scenario, what this means in action for me, my direct reports and my manager:

don't act, worry or get bothered about something that's not a p0

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in reality, what this meant in action for

1. me - solving p0s

2. direct reports - understanding what is p0 and working on it step-by-step

3. my manager - worrying about p0s, p1s, p2s and talking to me (who's busy solving p0s) about them

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when the reality kicked in, it was irritating and confusing:

- we had our goals lined up till march 2021, why hurry to solve everything right now?

- we are already in the midst of solving one problem, why add another?

- why didn't we think about these problems before hiring the team?

- there's enough visible progress, why focus on indicators that aren't important right now?

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the cause:

- while we had a plan till 2021, there was no monthly breakdown

- priorities weren't set in stone

- no leading indicators were agreed upon

- either there was a gap in communication or thought

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