Category: Uncategorized

Enshitification ‘R Us

Recent current events have me thinking a lot about the ‘enshitification’ of everything. The term was originally coined by author and blogger Cory Doctorow and describes the gradual decline in quality of online platforms and services as they prioritize profit over user experience. You may have read Seth Godin write about the “race to the bottom” years ago, and there are some significant parallels.

While AI and automation are so valuable in terms of scaling up, cutting costs, and doing things that wouldn’t be possible with manual processes, it’s incredibly important to monitor and audit the product of these systems.

This often appears in email marketing and automated messaging. Have you ever received a message starting with: ‘Dear [//Campaign Recipient]’ which was clearly missing some key elements?

Sometimes these simple oversights and “copy and paste” can lose context and add insult to injury.

Take for example, this automated e-mail message from a recruiter informing an applicant that they didn’t get the job they were hoping for. No rationale, no reason, no one to contact to get feedback. But, hey, connect with us on our socials!

This morning ALONE, I’ve had three other examples of this:

1. A reimbursement claim denied for the fourth time with no notes as to why following a phone call with someone who personally guaranteed me that I submitted all of the necessary information.

2. Prescription coverage denied for information that the insurer claims was missing but was included in the prescription.

3. An invitation to update my ESPP contribution rate with no hyperlink or instructions on how to do it. Once I arrived at the website, another alert reminding me of the deadline to do so with no instructions or links on where I could make the changes.

I think we can do better than this. I think we can hold ourselves accountable not to just revenue and profitability, but the mark we leave on humanity and the way that we make people *feel* through their interactions.

Whether as mundane as approval of a tuition reimbursement claim (don’t get me started on that) or as significant as a decision on employment or housing, having compassion for one another is what our society needs most.

We can do better. We must do better.

#Automation #CX #UX #EX

What would it look like if I worked at Google?

Using some of the latest AI tools available, I created a podcast episode talking about my appointment to a new role at Google. I’m almost convinced–where do I apply?

The Purge

It’s been about 10 years since I deleted by Facebook account and now just about a month since I removed the Instagram app from my smartphone. My last remaining social networks are YouTube and LinkedIn. Occasionally, I’ll search for or contribute answers on Reddit, which I’ve found to be the Internet’s User Guide to the World.

Since deleting these networks I’ve found that I spend more time reading trusted media outlets like my local newspaper (The Tennessean), The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. Most of these outlets no longer offer comment threads which helps me avoid the poison of cynicism, hate, and prejudice rampant in social networks.

When I was in college, The Facebook seemed like a promising platform to connect others, share plans, and learn more about one another. However, in order to pay the bills, its ad sales required it to spur behavior and addiction and since then it has devolved into what it is today. That said, it still provides tremendous value for millions of users, still connecting them over extensive time and distance.

While Instagram served as a fair “in-between” for me, I found over the last year that I was engaging less and less with the people I care about and more with countless memes and humorous clips engineered to captivate my attention. This was great for Zuck’s ad platform, but not the reason I had adopted the platform nor what I most enjoyed using it for. As a test, I uninstalled Instagram from my phone several weeks ago and have found that I’m not missing anything and instead finding myself with more time to restore my attention span.

Another thing I have observed since removing Instagram is that I’m no longer approaching real-life situations as opportunities to capture content and “catch the likes.” In retrospect, Instagram had almost become a Pokemon of sorts, with me chasing likes and reactions, trying to document every single event, sunset, laugh, and smile of my family. While I’m still capturing countless photos and videos, my motivation is to preserve the memory rather than to prove to the world how much fun we’re having.

I’m gifted in my ability to travel across the continent, what my career affords me to bring to my family, and all of the enriching experiences I had in my youth. I’m hopeful that without these time sucks I will be able to spend less time-consuming content and more time creating valuable content that serves others in one way or another. This isn’t a commitment to more writing, but an exploration of a new style of exploratory writing. A test of sorts to see if this is something that helps fill the gaping hole of time previously wasted on funny video clips and things designed to rob my attention span.

My New Love for Electric Car Racing

Recently I’ve fallen in love with a new favorite competition sport: Formula E racing.

Sure, Netflex made F1 popular again, but you know I always like to focus on the next thing coming, and that’s electric vehicle racing. Since Nissan released the Nissan Leaf, I’ve been a huge fan of electric vehicles, now owning Volvo’s XC40 Recharge (remember the one Starbucks was giving away?)

What’s incredible about Formula E racing vs. its ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) counterpart, is the notion of energy management. While ICE vehicles can only expend energy by burning fossil fuels, EVs both expend and generate energy through a process called regenerative braking. That means when the driver pumps the breaks, the motors are actually harnessing that potential energy and topping off the batteries. This makes braking decisions, turns, and acceleration very strategic maneuvers as drivers’ need to maximize their energy potential throughout the race.

While EVs are growing in popularity, there is still a ton of work to do on building infrastructure to support them, and especially to enable that family road trip. That’s why I’m proud of Marriott International and the hard work through a project led by my colleague Annie Ray, to build out charging infrastructure and EV charging standards for our hotels around the world.

Are you an EV driver? What car do you drive or aspire to own?

Enough is Enough

I wonder what the LinkedIn profile of Javier Lopez would look like.

An entrepreneur launching our next must-have app? An astronaut? Perhaps an engineer that could help invent a new sustainable fuel? Or what about a F500 executive, climbing the corporate ladder and supporting the diversity of leadership?

As a dad of a 3-year-old boy, I wonder, what could Xavier become? But we’ll never know.

Xavier was 10 years old when he was senselessly shot and killed among 18 of his peers in a Texas elementary school yesterday. Since this horror took place, I have been unable to sleep or focus.

What’s frustrating me the most about all of this is wondering, “what can I do?” As a nation, we constantly address this problem as a binary one, where one can only be pro-gun or anti-gun, with absolutely no in between. Clearly, such a wide gap is impossible to mend. But it is a false one.

According to Pew research1, 87% of Americans strongly or somewhat favor preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns, 81% favor making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, and 64% favor banning high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. What’s more shocking is that even 37% of Republicans support banning assault-style weapons, along with 83% of Democrats.

Decades of shootings after Columbine, it is evident that no amount of tragedy has resulted in meaningful change to gun safety laws. Yet, our automobiles have advanced so much to include 27 airbags, lane keeping assist, automatic braking, and driver alertness sensors.

Looking in on this nation from the outside, I wonder what others think. Here is one of the richest, most innovative, and comfortable countries in the world, and its proudest accomplishment is preserving its citizens’ unfettered access to weapons. Senseless.

If you want your guns, keep your guns. But let’s at least make it as hard to get another one as it is to get a mortgage.

If you’re an executive, I challenge you and your PAC to drop support of any NRA-endorsed candidate. It’s the least you can do. We must send a message that we cherish policymakers that are focused on advancing our nation, not our access to arms.

If you feel this post is of poor taste and “too soon,” you’re dead wrong. It’s too late.

The greatest test of our generation is whether we left this world a better place than we found it. For that, it’s not too late. We still have time, but we must act.

1Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/

A Case of the Mondays

When I first started at Marriott International, my leader would have a fun time leaving me voicemails. Often they’d sound something like this: “uhhhh hi yeah, Peter? What’s happening…Um, I’m gonna need you go ahead and come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around six, that would be great. Mmmkay? Oh, and one more thing, I’m going to need you to work a double, too.” #officespace #humor #hotellife #operations

Is this thing still on?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here and a lot has happened. We’re now over 6 months into a global pandemic that has cost the lives of over 200,000 Americans. Several industries have been decimated by the economic consequences of suspended travel. I’ve watched too many of my friends and colleagues lose their jobs, and some of them are even starting to lose hope about finding a job in this new reality. It’s horrible.

As we wait for a vaccine, it’s becoming more clear that it may not be the panacea we need to overcome this. If COVID-19 becomes endemic, we’ll need to rethink much of how we travel, meet, and gather as tribes and societies. Regardless of the near-term outlook, we will all be better served by trusting science. Hope and optimism are great tools to catalyze our recovery, but only if our actions are grounded in science.

One thing that has really bothered me lately is seeing people making their defiance of risks clear by not wearing face coverings when serving others–I’m talking to you, small restaurant owners and workers.

Wearing a mask doesn’t infringe on your freedom. In fact, it enables the freedom of others.

The point of wearing masks isn’t to protect ourselves, it’s to protect our neighbors. So, won’t you be my neighbor?

A Day in the Life of a Remote Worker

In 2020, it’s quite common to work from home occasionally, but working remotely is a world all of its own. There are three main work arrangements that workers may find themselves in:

  1. Working in an office with other co-workers at all times.
  2. Working in an office some days, but from home on others.
  3. Working away from the office at all times.

Beyond the three personal working arrangements, there are three different scenarios for which teams can be deployed:

  1. Working together in centrilozed co-located work environments.
  2. Working independently with no central location or common office.
  3. A hybrid of mostly co-located workers with some remote workers.

Based on my experience over the last three years, I will argue that while it carries many advantages, working remotely on a team of co-located individuals is the most difficult scenario of all. While there are many personal liberties in working remotely, there are many things that are missed by remote workers: spontaneous coffee chats, shared meals, ad hoc meetings, happy hours, and most importantly, bagels in the break room.

“working remotely on a team of co-located individuals is the most difficult scenario of all…”

Being remote among a team of co-located colleagues means suffering through the latency and technical challenges of video calls from giant conference rooms, and never really knowing how your ideas are being received while delivering presentations from 1,000’s of miles away. Being remote when everyone else is together means that you have to trust others and have confidence in yourself every time you connect and communicate. Being remote takes courage and resolve. But those things aside, it also has its perks.

As a remote worker, you can show proof through the results of my work and not just the hours spent in the office. As a remote worker, how you structure your day is completely up to you. Whether that means Tuesdays in coffee shops, or Wednesday lunch by the pool, as long as the work gets done, the flexibility keeps work interesting.

While today’s current events may offer you a first chance at working from home, I thought you may enjoy taking a look at a day in the life of a remote worker to see if it’s all you thought it was cracked up to be. So, without further adieu, here’s a typical day from my home office:

(All Times below are Central Time, my team is based in Eastern Time)

5:37 AM – Wake up, groggy, reaching for cellphone to check the time. Get out of bed and head into the kitchen where I grind coffee beans and fill the coffeemaker with water.

5:45 AM – Open laptop and read e-mail, prioritizing anything urgent for the day. Scroll through LinkedIn and industry news.

6:00 AM – Shower and get ready for the day

6:20 AM – Continue reviewing e-mail and news. Identify Most Important Task (MIT) for the day in Bullet Journal

6:45 AM – Wake up one year-old, play and read books, and get him ready for school

7:30 AM – Help mommy and son to car to depart for school and work

7:45 AM – Timebox the day in Outlook and get working

8:00 AM – Check in with a few colleagues on Teams to just say “hi”

8:07 AM – Tackle Bullet Journal tasks

9:00 AM – Attend first conference call, fully focused on deciphering cross-talk, identifying faint voices from the back of the room and trying to smile remembering I’m on camera the whole time, with my face likely plastered on a 60″ LCD screen.

9:14 AM – Engage mute button while dog barks incessantly as a neighbor dog walks down the sidewalk in front of the house.

10:00 AM – Select Flow State playlist and dig into deep work.

10:02 AM – Doorbell rings. Dog barks excitedly.

10:03 AM – Explain to the visitor at the door that I’m not interested in switching lawn care providers at this time.

10:04 AM – Replace noise cancelling headphones and get back to deep work.

1:37 PM – Realize I have been working non-stop for 3.5 hours and that 1) I need to pee and 2) I am starving

1:44 PM – Reheat last night’s leftovers in the microwave for 90 seconds and enjoy my quiet lunch break

1:53 PM – Return to my office after a long break to get back to work.

2:00 PM – Join Teams video call with smaller group, which is nice because I can actively participate in the conversation.

3:01 PM – Send memes about how it’s only Wednesday to select colleague or two to mimic some sort of social interaction.

3:07 PM – Tackle another chunk of deep work

3:45 PM – Submit the day’s MIT (Most Important Task) work to leader for review

3:48 PM – Review next day’s schedule and update Bullet Journal accordingly

4:15 PM – Leave house to pick up the little one at school

5:00 PM – Return home and entertain the little guy until dinner with mommy

6:00 PM – Dinnertime

6:20 PM – Video call with Grammy + Pappy, followed by lots of LEGO Duplo play

7:30 PM – Bathtime

7:45 PM – Read books and continue playing with little one

8:30 PM – Bedtime for the little one

9:00 PM – Catch up on late afternoon/evening email/Teams messages, if necessary

9:30 PM – Lights out

Keep in mind, not every day is the same. That’s the great thing about working remotely. With the opportunity to work somewhere new each day, or venture out for lunch or to sneak in an errand, you have the full control to make your day work so you can do your best work.

Working remotely isn’t for everyone. To be successful, you really need to have the drive, self-direction, and energy to propel yourself each day.

Do you work remotely, or from home occasionally? What does your day look like? What are your secrets to success?

What is your career purpose?

Yesterday, at the beginning of a call with my leaders, our VP surprised me with a remarkable question, “what is your career purpose?”

Reflexively, I answered something to the effect of, “to find ways to use existing investments to make work easier, improve customer experiences, and help achieve organizational goals.” I admitted that this was simply an expansion of my previous mission statement to “find ways to use existing technology investments to make work easier so workers can better serve customers.”

Unfortunately, my offer was dismissed.

“That’s not a purpose, that’s an objective,” I was told warmly. My VP went on to share about his last three days of discovery of his career purpose, and that led me to start thinking seriously about my career purpose, well beyond the bounds that I have thought of it previously.

This introspective inquiry has led me down a rabbit hole of self-discovery and research. I have literally been up since the middle of the night thinking about his question. Obsessive? Perhaps. Bothered? Not at all. Inspired? Markedly.

To determine my career purpose, beyond what I thought it to be, I knew I would have to look far and wide, and deep into my soul. So, I turned to the first place that anyone else in this predicament would go: YouTube.

It was there that I found a wonderful story from Oprah Winfrey about her discovery of her own purpose through the journey of her career:

“Your real job in life is to figure out what it is you are called to do and you use a job until you can figure out what the calling is because a job is necessary to survive…” 

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah’s early career development seemed so familiar to me. Sure, I haven’t worked as a news anchor and I, a straight white male, have no idea how difficult it must be as a black woman in broadcast journalism. However, I have experienced and know what it is like to try a job that you later realize isn’t the perfect fit. It’s these experiences that have helped me to learn, grow, and pursue other things more suited for my strengths and desires.

They say you know you’ve found your purpose when you find the thing that, even as Oprah says, “you would do for nothing.” But will we all find that thing?

It turns out that what we are supposed to do, and our purpose can be two entirely different things. What you’re supposed to do, that, according to Merriam-Webster, is simply something you lay down tentatively as a hypothesis. Your purpose though, that is defined as “an end to be obtained.”

Until you find your purpose, you’re left with nothing but what you suppose you should do. The only dilemma then is you have no end to march towards. So, how are we supposed to find our purpose?

Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, shares his perspective from the TEDx stage:

It turns out, according to Sinek, inspiring action all starts with sharing your vision and beliefs. So is finding your purpose just as simple as articulating your beliefs?

What is your career purpose? How did you discover it?

Leave a comment below.

Buying the Best Tools for Remote Workers

Shifting from working in a co-located office to working from home is a liberating and alienating experience. You quickly learn that limitations of the traditional office are non-existent and then much later that you’re the office manager, IT support, caterer, and receptionist.

As a technology enthusiast, one of the first changes that I embraced was the ability to choose which tools I wanted to work with. However, this comes with a catch: the upgrades would come out of my own pocket.

Not wanting to be constrained to a laptop display and a boring mediocre external display, I sought out the most capable, well designed, and high fidelity monitor I could find. For my keyboard and mouse, nothing less than ideal would suffice, so there too, I sought out the best of the best.

“The best investment is in the tools of ones own trade.”

Benjamin Franklin

While these tools may be seen merely as objects, and my pursuit of them as unnecessary consumerism, I instead saw them as a reflection of the value of my work and myself. I believe we are all worth more than a $20 keyboard and mouse combo. I believe we should have a monitor with enough real-estate and pixel density to help us do our work fluidly. I believe we should have a listening experience that helps us tune out the distractions and achieve flow. I believe we’re worth the investment of premium technology to do wonderful work.

Because of those beliefs, I invested in myself and I’m so glad I did. Now when I sit (or stand) at my beautiful desk in my ergonomic chair, or my thoughtfully chosen area rug, my hands flow across a beautifully designed and delightful to use keyboard built for creators. My right hand drapes over a precise and ergonomically designed powerful mouse. My eyes soak in pixels saturated with color from a curved display. My ears are enveloped in rich bass and my desk is clear of clutter due to the built in USB-C dock and port replicator in my monitor.

I’m not wealthy and my work didn’t reimburse me, but these were investments that have empowered me to do my best work and feel more value and confidence each day that I tackle a new project or stakeholder. I saw value in myself and my work, and knew that I also needed to assign value to the tools that help me do that.

Just as a chef needs a sharp knife, an artist the finest paints, a knowledge worker should value the tools and technology that will lead them to their best work.

What tools do you use in your office on the goal that help you to be successful? Leave a comment below.

Here’s what I bought:

HP ENVY 34 34-inch Monitor

$899

Logitech Craft Keyboard

$199

Logitech MX Master Mouse

$99

QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II

$249

Pottery Barn Pittsburgh Crank Standing Desk

$799

Steelcase Think Chair

Gift

Microsoft Lifecam Studio

$59