👋 Hi, I’m Jeff. I write weekly about lessons I’ve learned leading product teams and working to lead well in chaotic environments, drawing on 25+ years of building. If you’re a leader, operator, or founder, I hope you’ll subscribe.
📡 News this week → New year, new chapter: I recently wrapped up two years leading Product at Included Health, and I’m taking some time off to travel, write, and explore what’s next. Most of my writing will be happening here.
⏱ Read time: 4 minutes
In 2009, adventure writer Alastair Humphreys made a small, innocuous New Year’s resolution: take one photo every day.
Not “become a photographer.” Not “build a new portfolio.” Just: “take one photo.” Every day.
He posted each day’s photo publicly on Flickr. A couple hundred days into his journey, Alastair realized, and wrote, that his New Year project was teaching him more than photography. He was learning about the power of a small change, in this case, a daily practice. You can still find Alastair’s 2009 year of photos on Flickr.
The bottom line: Small changes can compound. The same is true for small operating tweaks for yourself or your teams. And a New Year is a great opportunity to take a fresh look at how you and your teams work.
If you’re reading this at the end of Week One of 2026 and thinking you’re already behind: you’re not. Consider this a weekend reset. Here are four ideas worth your time this weekend. Two are more zoomed-out and big-picture, and two are more tactical for you and your team.
If you try one of these, reply and tell me which one you picked. I’d love to hear what resonated.
Whichever one you choose, I hope it sparks something useful. Enjoy.
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Zoomed-out, big-picture:
1) From Katia Verresen: Welcome to Your Year in Review. Lots of templates exist for reviewing last year and planning the year ahead. My favorite method—one that I’ve used every year for a few years in a row now—comes from Katia Verresen, a long-time leadership coach.
This is a guided reflection on your past year, followed by designing your next year. You map what happened in 2025 month by month (using your camera roll + calendar), then draw “brain loops” showing how your past intentions turned into feedback loops of intention → action → result → change.
You’ll surface patterns from 2025 you’ve already forgotten and reclaim what you actually did. The hope is that you’ll walk into 2026 with clearer priorities and a surprisingly energizing future-self letter. Highly recommended.
2) From the Farnam Street Podcast: James Clear: How to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
James Clear is appearing on a few long-form podcasts right now because January is resolution season and that aligns with his book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. I really recommend his Farnam Street appearance: it’s 2+ hours on habits, identity, environment design, and staying consistent. And Shane Parrish asks great questions and lets the interview breathe, producing some good depth.
This is a very practical, accessible refresher on how habits actually stick, especially when motivation fades. The conversation includes some useful details on how James structures his day and solves problems. Two short YouTube snippets to get a flavor: Vote for who you want to become, and Spend LESS time on your phone.
More tactical for you and your teams:
3) New Year’s Action Plan for Product Teams
I wrote this post last year. January is the best moment for product teams to make a few small operational tweaks that compound all year. You can create more space, clarity, and creativity. This easy, few-step playbook is a foundational operating reset: How to focus on 2–3 priorities, have fewer meetings, and create more deep work. Everyone says they want these things, so here are a few steps to get there. Think of it as a very lightweight way to create some new clarity.
4) End-of-Year Performance Reviews: A Blueprint
I wrote a version of this while I was at Facebook (Facebook performance reviews are notoriously intense) and shared it with a few teams. Since it’s time for standard performance reviews, here’s some practical advice on how to start and write your end-of-year self-review effectively.
This is a simple blueprint and repeatable structure that helps a person make their impact obvious—and easy for you or others to advocate for. I also share some basic real talk on how to avoid overthinking this process—or having you or your team overdo it and burn unnecessary energy.
If this helped you think more clearly about leading teams or products, I write here once a week.
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