2020 proved to be a year like no other I've experienced. While there were so many challenges for so many people, I feel lucky to be able to say 2020 was a year of significant opportunity for me. That doesn't mean there weren't challenges and hardships for me too, but on reflection the year felt a success.

At the start of 2020 I felt revitalised and energised. I had just been to Cornwall where I had been to the Eden Project which completely altered the way I was thinking about the world. I always had an appreciation for nature but the environmentalist in me was definitely awakened by visiting. Consequently I knew I wanted to educate myself on environmental and animal rights issues better than I had.

There were a few other goals I wanted to achieve in 2020 which were the following:

1 - Start running.

2 - Read 30 books.

3 - Settle into my new role in Product Management and say yes to any opportunities that came my way.

I realise that for the first and third it's a little subjective in terms of how successful they were, but hopefully my reasoning will make sense as we progress through this.

Running

At the start of 2020 I hadn't done any running in about 15 years, and even then I absolutely hated it. I couldn't think of anything worse. However, I had recently moved to Kingston and where I live there's no gym within easy walking distance. Consequently I decided because I live not far away from [[Richmond Park]] that I would give running a go.

I knew it would be painful to start with, and the sheer amount of public embarrassment i felt about running in public was real. But as I started to overcome that I found myself starting to enjoy things. What really helped for me was listening to the Rich Roll podcast, in particular the David Goggins episode, but there are so many gems. Slow progress is better than no progress.

At the end of the year I clocked in just over 150 miles, which I'm pretty pleased with. Along the way there were months where I was a lot more dedicated to it, and many months where I let it slip. I'm sure I could've achieved much more if I put my mind to it. But given that I was starting at zero at the start of 2020, I'm happy with where this is at.

I wrote a previous post about being a new runner see here.

Reading

For the last 7 years I have set myself a goal of reading 30 books every year and every year I fall short. 2020 was no different on this front as I managed a grand total of 11 books which is a slight improvement on 2019's return where I managed a mere 9. In fact this was actually my best effort since 2017 where I managed to read 15.

Like most people's New Years Resolutions, I started strong but then fade away mid year before feeling a sense of guilt at my failure towards the end of the year. 30 books is only 2.5 books a month which on paper looks so achievable. With a bit of focus, I will hopefully manage to achieve this in 2021.

In terms of the books I read this year, there was a definite theme focused on Health and the Environment. I learnt a lot, in particular from How Not To Die by Michael Gregor, but the most mind-blowing book I read was Not As Nature Intended by Rich Hardy.

Product Management

In November 2019 I had moved into a brand new role in Product Management as a Product Specialist. Coming from Customer Success I had a solid understanding of our products and how our customers use them, but I also knew there was a heap to learn about Product Management. Even the fundamentals were new to me so I knew that I needed to get stuck in and absorb as much knowledge as possible.

I decided the best way to achieve this was to say yes to pretty much any opportunity that came up. Being the first to put your hand up to help and then delivering on that is not only the best way to learn, it also ensures you're recognised as someone reliable. Little did I know at the onset that this would lead to some of the biggest challenges, biggest highs and also some tremendous lows of my career.

Nightingale

The first major opportunity came not long after COVID descended on the UK. There was a request for people to help volunteer with the setting up and ongoing support with the Nightingale Hospitals. I immediately volunteered to support the effort and spent the next 7 weeks on the ground helping ensure that the Nightingale was appropriately staffed in the event it was required.

Those 7 weeks were super intense, long days. Sometimes they would be really frustrating but often I found the camaraderie in the team kept the spirits high. There was a unity and a sense of purpose where everyone is working towards one goal that I think is difficult to find in most jobs.

The Nightingale's are getting a bit of a bashing in the media at the moment, but one things that can't be denied is the sheer amount of hard work that was put in by everyone that was there. There was a sense of unity where everyone was getting stuck in and supporting in any way they could.

I came away from the Nightingale with a renewed sense of why I'm doing the job I do - building software to help clinical and non-clinical staff deliver the best care they can to their patients.

Hackathon

The second major opportunity came about half way through the year when the business decided to do something like a hackathon. I say something like a hackathon because there was no coding involved and no prototypes required. The idea was really around identifying areas of opportunities within the business where we could improve or innovate. I had a few ideas so I decided to create a team, get all ideas out on the table and settle on one of them.

This was the first time in my career I've had to be the face of something and lead a team. The people in my team were all people I knew well and could rely on to get stuck in and offer honest feedback, and I also was confident in our idea. However about a week into this we found out another team had a very similar idea but with a slightly different angle. Eventually their team and our team were merged into one.

The merging of our teams was initially a really tricky experience because suddenly 2 groups who didn't know each other and had slightly different visions were forced to work together. Creating a productive environment where everyone understood who is responsible for what alongside understanding the different ways people work and getting everyone to pull in the same direction wasn't easy. However once we ironed out these challenges I felt our team had become so much stronger now working with this other team. They brought a perspective and understanding to the team that we didn't have.

We didn't win the Hackathon, but we were a finalist which I'm immensely proud of. This was a huge learning experience for me because it helped me develop a host of skills, in particular those around leading a team and public speaking. Delivering a really sharp remote presentation with your team to the CEO and senior leaders in the business was equally nerve wracking and exciting.

Through my experiences at The Nightingale and at our Hackathon, I found that there were so many more opportunities to get involved with things afterwards. Different projects within Product Management but also outside of it in the wider business.

2021 Goals

This year I want to build on what I achieved in 2020. Last year feels like a year of building foundations and I want 2021 to be the year I build on top of that. A key area to building on those foundations is building consistency, something I felt I was lacking across all aspects of my life. Running was stop and start, Reading was stop and start and so were attempts at eating healthier. All of these things I want to address for 2021.

Health

I ran 150 miles in 2020 and I want to level up this year, so I'm aiming for 365 miles in 365 days. This feels achievable as long as I'm consistent as it only works out to be about 7 miles per week.

Healthy eating is something I specifically want to call out. My diet is somewhere between vegetarian and vegan. Truthfully besides the odd pizza or chocolate I would already be vegan. Going vegan doesn't equate to a healthier diet as my real downfall is processed foods, so therefore my goal is to incorporate more fruit and veg into my diet. I'm planning to use Dr Gregers Daily Dozen list that I discovered in his How Not To Diet book to track this and we will see how this goes.

Knowledge

Once again I'm aiming for 30 books this year. This year however I want to ensure that I have a Product Management lens on what I'm reading, so of the 30 books I want 20% of them to be Product related.

I'm not setting any specific work related goals this year beyond keep doing what I'm doing and keep saying yes to opportunities.

Creative

I've been wanting to write a blog for years, and honestly I mean years. Usually it's a fear of feeling like I have nothing unique or interesting to add to the conversation, so I don't bother. However I've recently felt that it's worth contributing - You don't have to offer a brand new perspective, just your own.

My plan for 2021 is to publish two pieces a month minimum just to get the ball rolling.

It's been valuable to reflect on 2020 like this. As I said right at the start I feel lucky to be able to have been shielded from a lot of the hardships that so many people have faced, whether that's on the health front or financial front as a result of COVID. My hope is that 2021 proves to be the year we manage to by and large move past COVID and return to a sense of normality.

Tom