👋 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 experience. If you’re a leader, operator, or founder, I hope you’ll subscribe.
⏱ Read time: 2 minutes
“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
This stretch of the year — from just before Christmas to just before January 1 — always feels a little different.
Things slow down.
Life is maybe a little quieter than usual, making more room for reflection.
I’ve been thinking about what I’m grateful for, as well as what I’m planning for in the year ahead.
First, I’m deeply thankful for my family. For our health, for happiness, and for the simple fact that we get to spend time together over the next couple of weeks.
I’m also feeling thankful for what’s coming.
Charlene and I are working on some new adventures for 2026. New ways of being. And, perhaps most meaningful to me, the opportunity to be a beginner again — to step into something I haven’t done before, with curiosity and freshness.
We’re also looking forward to traveling in a way that feels different — a little more open-ended, and a little less rushed than in past versions of our life.
I’m grateful for you, too – for everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, especially those who’ve joined recently. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here. If something resonates, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to explore, feel free to reach out. I always appreciate hearing from you. A few things I’ve written so far have come directly from this group reaching out.
As the year winds down, I hope you find a bit of quiet too – a moment to reflect on who you want to be, and what you want to make space for in the year ahead.
Take care.
Bonus round – A recent book I’ve read:
Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, by Jerry Colonna. Colonna is a former VC and now a longtime executive coach. The book is one part memoir, one part coaching insights, and one part philosophy. It’s clear, often painful, and surprisingly hopeful.
The TL;DR is that change — and ultimately leadership — comes less from specific playbooks and more from confronting how personal fears can make you complicit in creating realities you don’t actually want. Better leaders, Colonna suggests, are simply better humans: more honest, more self-aware, and more willing to face themselves without illusion. Highly recommended.
A quote to give you a flavor for it:
“But choosing requires knowing. It requires knowing how what happened to us influences the choices we made and continue to make. Again and again I ask my clients, ‘How are you complicit in creating the conditions of your lives that you say you don’t want?’”
If this helped you think more clearly about leading teams or products, I write here once a week.
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