The weekends are completely full now. First, it’s football training with the boy, then it’s usually a child’s birthday party, followed by something mad like a Costco run. I need more spice in my life. Give me a pub visit and pies!

I wrote loads of blog posts this week, played some serious games with Jasper and started looking into wholesale a lot more. It’s a minefield out there!

Monday

First day without our superstar Product Owner. Messaged him to call him a swear word and tell him we miss him. THEN I warned him of incoming Switch 2 sales and told him to hurry up and buy one so I can beat him at all the games.

In the evening, I decided today was the day to kick-start Faire. I want to take Bobbin and Bumble much further and wider, and Faire feels like the place where we can start testing wholesale a lot more. We already have loads of shops stocking our items, but I’m unsure whether we’re running at an optimised rate, be it profit margins, attracting more shops or even giving existing shops the best rates. But first, I need to optimise the listings. I’ve got a flow in place, and the folks over at Candid Founders have been hugely helpful with their advice on how to win at Faire. They’re certainly worth a look if you’re starting out too!

I must say as well, I’ve been watching a lot of Skyrim videos and thought… maybe, just maybe, I could wander around Skyrim instead of thinking I need to follow a linear storyline. Well, I loaded it up last night, looked at the clock and thought, fuck sake, it’s 2am.

What a game. WHAT A GAME. It’s older than my kids, but it’s such a vibe. It’s just a cosy game, and I think I finally get the hype. It’s scary, cosy, smart and just so bloody good. Shut up and play it.

Tuesday

Did a night’s worth of Faire work last night AND made a plan of attack. I love doing this. It gives me life knowing I can make a dent in income or even traffic, and I’ve got so much experience in this stuff now, be it Etsy listings or websites, that I feel really comfortable making decisions in the interests of the business. The thing is, I love data. I love working through data, getting into “what is the user thinking and why?” and coming up with possible solutions.

That said, Faire’s dashboard is lacking, so I’m leaning on my brain for this one! I usually tell Emma that leading by gut costs money, but in her case, it often makes money!

Work-wise, I’m swapping teams again. The project is at that point where I think the developers are behind me, which, again, I say this often, but that’s the point. Before, it was a hand-to-mouth style of working, but I warned the team that I’d get ahead of them. I’ll always feed the system with work, and it’ll be honest, tested work that users actually want… sometimes. We all know the deal is one for them, one for us. I’ll let you work out who “them” is. It’s not the devs!

Wednesday

This week is going so quickly! Got tons of tasks from my other team again. It’s something I can’t really discuss, but it’s a reporting system where reports come in from users, sometimes anonymously. It’s basically a big table of information, but the use cases involve quick phone calls, quick reference points and the ability to escalate things when they need urgent attention.

I’m quite strict about using a design system. It makes things easier to develop, decisions can be made on the fly, and, more importantly, I can whip up a prototype of sorts to show users without spending forever building something from scratch.

Bobbin’s workload never ends. Emma had an incredible meeting that’ll open so many doors, and it’s exciting as hell. It means more work, but that’s no bad thing at all. The main issue is that the hallway won’t paint itself!

Thursday

Things definitely happened today, but I forgot to fill this in, and now I cannot think of a single damn thing!

I did spend some time writing, though. I wrote about four or five pieces for LinkedIn and the website. I tend to write LinkedIn posts a couple of weeks in advance and then publish them on my website later to keep track of, and archive, the thoughts I had at the time. The interactions I’ve had have been incredible, and I’ve really enjoyed them. From ex-directs (people I used to manage) to folks knee-deep in AI design work who need a little nudge here and there. I’ve enjoyed speaking to people from all over the world, having calls and just seeing what else is out there.

Friday

I’m writing this post-trip to Hickory. Emma got an invite for some PR stuff, and I was the cameraman. I like Hickory a lot, so it’s a dream combo for me, and I hope we got some good shots, but damnnn, I am sleepy!

Before all that, it was work time. It’s demo day today, so we sit back and drink coffee. I don’t run many of the Friday demos anymore. They’re all dev-led because of where we are in the project’s lifespan, but I love seeing “the thing” in action and working the way I envisioned! The users are going to be pumped about some of the things we’ve built.

It’s also time to review all the work done by the email company, as we’re coming up to renewal time. I can already see a couple of things to question. It’s been three or four months’ worth of work, but I’ve only been involved for around two or three weeks. There are some huge gaps in places. I’ve been chasing work to get things moving, which is great for output, but I’m questioning the deliverables against the contract agreements and what optimisation has actually happened, and when. I went into Klaviyo myself and found the answers I would have expected to land on my desk monthly, but nothing has appeared yet. This feels like a case of miscommunication and poor responsibility management, something I’m really good at fixing, so it’s not a huge issue going forward. But it’s certainly not as easy as “sign here”.

Listening of the week

I’m slowly building my October playlist, adding songs as and when they catch my attention. They’re not necessarily new releases, or even songs I’ve only just discovered. They’re just songs that have got me at the right moment and absolutely deserve a place on the list.

If you’ve got any recommendations, throw them my way. I love discovering something I’ve somehow missed or being reminded of a song I’ve not heard in years.

Have a listen to my October playlist on Spotify.

Roll on next week! ✌️