I'm a Product Launch Specialist. I manage go-to-market timelines and monitor all the activities relating to product launches at Impossible Foods, and if anything goes wrong that drastically impacts the launch's success, that's at least partially on my head. I am hired as a firefighter, and my job is to put out any and all sparks before they turn into blazes.
At any and all points during this process, there is a list of at least 50 theoretical things that could ruin a launch. Hiccups in getting the first batch of product shipped to retailers. Entering the wrong case gross weight into Walmart's item setup system, causing our product to be rejected upon delivery. Delays in getting product samples delivered to journalists early enough for great launch-day press coverage. None of these things I am directly responsible for, but all of them I have to oversee, and therefore it is to some degree my job to worry about all of them.
Except I'm realizing that's impossible. It's simply not feasible at all to try and predict every way something could possibly go wrong, because although I work with a phenomenal team, mankind never ceases to amaze in showing just how many ways there are to screw something up.
And so I've stopped trying to see five moves ahead on every issue like a corporate Bobby Fischer. I simply don't have the capacity. Instead, I look myself in the mirror and ask, "What is the one thing that is most likely to kill me today?" And then I make sure that doesn't happen.
When you spread your focus evenly across 50 issues, you're not actually solving any of them; you're just worrying about all of them. Especially in an environment where resources are constrained (as is the case at many young companies), sometimes it's just significantly more efficient to put out one brush fire than to actively monitor 50 fire hazards. I just channel a lot more of my time and energy into making sure the most critical fire hazard doesn't become the brush fire.
Blazes will inevitably start, and when that happens, I will be there to put out the fire as quickly as possible. But as long as I know the one thing that could kill me fastest is taken care of, I'm able to charge ahead knowing we will avoid utter catastrophe, and the rest we will solve when needed.
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