Learning by Doing

I’ve been fortunate to attend schools where Learning by Doing, Mens et Manus were the modus operandi. As an engineering double-major undergrad, I spent so much time in labs that I sometimes took it for granted. It wasn’t until I attended lectures at other universities that I appreciated the value of my undergraduate education at Cal Poly Pomona (side note: I need to be better at giving back & staying engaged with my alma maters). I remember being surprised to learn that some engineering programs were mainly theoretical and was shocked to learn that some grad students didn’t know how to use a spectrum analyzer or an oscilloscope.

Learning by doing is how I best learn so those educational experiences were perfect for me. For me to understand something better, I need to learn its first principles and put them into practice. This has been beneficial in my career and has also allowed me to explore various interests and hobbies.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out

When Doordash announced that it is reinstating a program requiring all employees (including the CEO) to do deliveries once a month, I was surprised at how controversial that was internally and externally. As a product manager, this is par for the course. At Ring, I used to voluntarily install products just so I could learn and improve the setup experience for installers and customers. At Sonos, I would voluntarily sit on customer calls and take notes on where changes were necessary.

Granted with Doordash, one delivery a month doesn’t capture the full experience of a dasher who works 12-16 hr days and barely makes enough to pay for gas. However, I think the collective learnings from those who share concrete feedback will bring about changes that will benefit the entire Doordash ecosystem. Whether or not this should be a mandate or an opt-in with incentives is a conversation for another day.

Nonetheless, I was elated to see this. I even started thinking of all the problems that will be uncovered as well as improvements that will ensue for customers, dashers/delivery drivers, & restaurants.

Now I get it, as an employee, you don’t necessarily sign up for stuff like this. While I believe, you should always give your best effort regardless of where you are in life, the truth is not everyone can. I don’t expect delivery folks to care about my experience when I order a meal just like I don’t expect the clerk at the grocery store to go above and beyond for me as customer. To be blunt, many of these folks aren’t paid enough to care.

Happy customers don’t mean Happy employees but Happy employees make for Happy customers

However, in the tech world (toxic environments aside), most employees of largely-sized companies are paid enough to care. If you work on a product, you should strive to make that product better with each and every iteration. You should care about a delightful experience for everyone who uses your product. A great way to bring about such improvements is learning by doing and eating the dogfood. By doing this, you’ll be able to bring about changes that improve customer satisfaction.

Who knows, you might even spot some inefficiencies that will spark the idea for the next great company. So…look up and view challenges as opportunities whether you signed up for them or not.

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