International development cycles
So I’ve been falling into a groove lately - managing an ‘around teh world’ development effort to ship our huge system - next week. More on the system later.
For now I thought it would be fun to talk about my 24/7 lifestyle and work habits. Keep in mind that all of these times (below) are PST - California time. So when I say 4 AM - that also means 7 AM NYC time, 1 PM middle Europe time, 4:30 PM India time and midnight the next day New Zealand time.
4 AM - update my ‘to do’ list for the next day. Keep all three teams going on full burners, Remove all obstacles, answer all questions, keep all resources fully tasked.
6 AM - call between NYC, Europe and India (I don’t need to be on that one - I’m actually sleeping then)
8 AM - I get up - followup on issues from the 6 AM call, get on the phone with client, go over items and issues for the day. Talk to leaders of all three teams - get their perspective on issues, meeting our deadlines, etc.
9 AM answer emails - follow-up on potential customers, keep teh pipeline moving forward
10 AM - connect up with specific team members, answer questions, resolve complaints, track down earlier versions of designs to resolve conflict. Make sure no stoppage, work through all issues.
11 AM - do a conf call with some client, potential client or press
12 noon - connect to Europe directly - have some lunch - stand back -”what are we missing?”
1 PM - field questions from New Zealand, triangulate NZ, our sys admin teams in Santa Cruz and Germany and make sure all infrastructure is coming into place
2 PM - get some of my own work done (respond to an RFP, work on white paper, recruit, etc.) , blog a bit, answer more emails
3 PM review code - test it first hand
4 PM - write up results, file bugs, add items to the ‘to do’ list, verify issues, make sure everything is happening, get ready for India to wake up
5 PM talk to India teams directly - verify facts, make sure little things aren’t falling through the cracks
6 PM - send out summarized issues - status report at EOD to client, keepall teams in sync
7 PM family time - dinner - put our girls to bed - sing them songs, read them books
10 PM - India wakes up - go over the day’s ‘to do’ list
12 midnight PM Europe wakes up - go over the day’s ‘to do’ list
2 AM keep track of all issues, test things out, respond to issues, answer questions