Author: mohd.farihin.bin.anuar

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Journal

My Construct Farewell Speech

I always believe that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. And, it’s true. No accomplishment and breakthrough in human history has ever been achieved by being comfortable. The upcoming mission to mars and the idea of reusable rockets are all seemingly impossible tasks. And these are already here and we are living though this moment that demonstrate the creative innovation and engineering marvel of the human spirit powered by a simple vision.

Applying this in a smaller, personal and relatable scale, I never would have known that I was capable of handling 25 concurrent projects until I tried and get uncomfortable working 14 hours a day. Also there were many times, I’ve been put in a spot where I would be left to figure out things all by myself. All these circumstances and spot I’ve been put in has made me comfortable to be uncomfortable, and push the boundaries of my limit. I implore that you to do the same for yourself. That to me is my definition of being growth-oriented, which is one of Construct’s core values, and, it is deeply connected to your ability to persevere. Arshad, Victor and Raveena..

Next, what does it mean to get the job done right? How do you get a job done right? Quite often at times, we are so focused on delivering the job that we often miss the “right” part. Getting a job done right is when you know what right means and that translates to delivering the goals through meeting the KPIs and success matrices. But some of our projects have no success measurements or KPIs. So how do you measure success when there are no metrices like Oh.. I want to lower the bounce rates by 20%?

Here is my trick whenever I get such projects with no success matrix or KPIs. For PMs, a project success is based on delivering a project on time, within scope and budget based on a goal or KPI. To be a better PM, replace scope with client satisfaction. So that becomes On Time, With Client Satisfaction and within budget. How would you know if the customer is satisfied? When they come back to you for more. And I assure you, you will be dependable and forced to adopt an ownership mindset. This is as Charan like to call it the nasi kangkang black magic that I use to get clients coming back for more. However, if the success metrics and KPIs are provided, then you can focus on getting the job done right. The term “the customer is always right” only applies to customers and clients who have provided their KPIs and success matrices. That means, they objectively know what they want. Otherwise, it is questionable.

It’s every human being right to be respected and loved; no matter their profession, abilities or social status. I know respect can be given through designation and title. But it runs deeper than that. It’s mutual and over time, has to be maintained. Just like polishing a trophy from time to time. And when you take time to polish your trophy, you will gain real respect and real love.

So when I think about respect, the one thing that comes to mind, is family. We all respect our daddy and mummy and love our sisters and brothers; even though they can be annoying and upright irritating. But if someone external and not within my family were to criticize or hurt with my sister, you will soon have a fucked up older brother fumed with rage and anger to deal with next. And everyone in Construct is my family. Whether they play the persona of the adorable sister, a crazy uncle, a younger brother seeking attention, or just Santa Claus, they are my family — my extended family.. I can say this with certainty since I spend at least 40 hours or more with them in a week.

So when clients criticize, diss or bully my sister’s or brother’s work or worse still, bully them, and knowing the effort they put in to produce that work or improve themselves, then they are no longer dealing with Dr. Jekyll or Mr. NSYNC; they deserve my alter ego of Mr. Hyde or the Hulk. Some of you have seen how fierce I would fight with the clients in the arena. Issac, Zul, Esther, George, Minh… And there’s no need for a reason, or be shy, to show compassion, empathy, provide a listening ear, support, guide, protect or even discipline your family members whenever necessary. It’s only normal and a human thing to do. So treasure and love your extended family members like your own and naturally they will respect you because you ensure their honor, dignity and effort is appreciated, maintained and fought for, in the arena. But, do it tactfully.

Believe it or not, the things I spoke about just now are all related to the Core Values of Construct which I hold close to my heart and whole-heartedly believe. Growth Oriented, Dependable, Ownership Mindset and Respect for everyone from a PM perspective. Omer and Saifuddin

Now I would like to say my personal thanks to an extended family member and mentor, Charan, for hiring and taking a chance on me. Thank you. I would also like to thank the leadership team family for their mentorship, guidance and support over my 3 and a half years in Construct. To the rest of my extended family, I am sorry if was harsh or if you felt that I could have done a better job at supporting you. Clearly, I’m still human and have room for improvement. Please forgive me for this.

Also, I’m not saying this is goodbye. The digital world is rather small and I’m sure we’ll have opportunities to work together again when the stars are aligned. Leave me a testimonial on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohd-farihin-bin-anuar/) if you think of me as family or just say hi to my mobile at 92216740 if you need someone to talk to.

You can also read articles on my website that I’ve started recently https://mohdfarihin.website. I promise I’ll try to post regularly. 

Thank you all.

Signing of,

Hin (Awesome Project Manager)

By the way, I know some of you will miss my singing in the office whenever I leave office early, so you can bookmark and listen to my other alter ego performing that has captured me at my best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQEvnmA2P1o&t=118s

Categories
Journal

Inspirational Music for the Soul

Categories
Journal

Female Singers Who I Think Are Awesome

Helene Fischer

Beyonce

Morissette Amon

Christina Aguilera

Sarah Brightman

Ailee

Ariana Grande

Mariah Carey

Celine Dion

Adele

Che’Nelle

Pia Toscano

Nicole Scherzinger

Categories
Cybersecurity

Security & Code Quality Tools

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General & Generic Code Quality (Static Application Security Testing — SAST)

This is a White-box testing method. (inside out approach)

  • Checking naming conventions
  • Checking of duplicated codes
  • Highlighting complicated codes such as if-else while loops
  • OWASP vulnerability
  • CWE list

Tools to Use:

Dynamic Vulnerability (Dynamic Application Security Testing — DAST)

This is a Black-box/Grey-box testing method. (Outside in approach)

  • Performed on runtime with deployed binaries.
  • Checks for application inputs and responses.
  • Crawls the site

Tools to Use:

Dependency Libraries Vulnerabilities

Open-source security

  • Software composition analysis (SCA)
  • Scans each OSS library

Tools to Use:

Container Security

Cloud-based applications and server-less

  • Signature monitoring of container drifts and rogue containers
  • Scans for setup errors and vulnerabilities
  • Provides risk scoring for vulnerability type
  • Checks image registries and specific images are used

Tools to Use:

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Categories
Journal

Soft-Skills and Human Skills

I never liked the term “soft-skills”. It has never sat well with me. It should be called “Human skills”. And it’s nice to see someone advocating and hating the same term.

Simon Sinek on Soft-Skills

Having soft-skills doesn’t make you weaker at all. There is no point in being a leader and having no one following you because being a leader means having followers. And, if you have no followers, then you’re not — no matter what your title is. Simon Sinek gives a great example of how to identify the toxic leaders and the natural born ones. 

Metrics to measure “human skills” are very important.

Categories
Journal

Thinkers Doers — Art & Science

Steve Jobs best summarises it in his video below.

  • Steve Jobs was focused on only one industry.
  • He made observations of what works and what doesn’t.
  • The doers are also the major thinkers. They are the same person.
  • Art/designs is imaginative but when it is applied together with science, a masterpiece is produced.
  • Taking credit for thinking is easy but doing is difficult.
  • Usually the doers are the ones that work through the hard intellectual problems.

Traits of a doer:

  • Confidence
  • Ask questions
  • Get it done and take action
  • Taking a big problem and solving it incrementally and in chunks
  • Passion is key
Categories
Journal

Objective, Political & Personal Truth

The credit goes to Neil deGrasse Tyson who explained this concept beautifully.

The rise of the internet has led to the many distortion of information. The first thing is to accept that we all have a sense of bias. It’s just hard-wired into the human brain. Some have more than others.

As someone who has committed to constant learning, it is important I that I should source for information that is bias-free.

The 3 categories of Truth are:

  1. Personal Truth
  2. Political Truth
  3. Objective Truth

Personal Truth

Personal truth is something that you believe is true no matter what anyone else thinks of it. For example, some of us believe that we are descendants of aliens and build a religion around it. Another example, are German Nazis who believe they are superior in every way compared to others.

I believe people have the right to believe what they want to believe.

Where it becomes damaging, is when it starts to distort your ability to interpret reality because you have an unjustified viewpoint based on the belief system that you have adopted. You will feel good about yourself and the group you belong to. But quite often in order to feel good, it involves belittling or ill-treating other groups.

There is no harm in having a personal truth but not to the expense of not accepting the facts or degrading others especially when actual evidence are being put forth. We should all take things with a pinch of salt.

Political Truth

Being human means making mistakes — we all do. Some of us atone for it for the whole course of our entire lifetime. But in politics it could get really dramatic.

Take for instance, Donald Trump calling Hillary “Crooked Hillary”. Indeed, she could have deleted all 33,000 emails and that gave him all the more rights to call her “crooked”. But she has also done so many good deeds to this world and the United States such as her attempt to get rid of “bad teachers” in the education system back then.

I’m not saying that what she did is forgivable and that we should all move on. But to be labelled “crooked” for the rest of your life is not right. People do change. Did she do something wrong? Yes? Maybe? But to be called that throughout your career? I don’t think so.

Objective Truth

Objective truth is something that is true for everyone, whether they agree with it or not.

Objective Truth is when its truth conditions are met without bias (influence of one’s perception, emotions, or imagination).

For example, we all agree that the Earth is round. That’s objective truth. Others may believe the world is flat but the scientific discoveries and proofs all points to the fact that the earth is round.

This is the truth that is rooted in science and facts. Objective Truth should take precedence over any others especially in research and observational studies.

Categories
Operations and Processes

Pricing Strategies for Agencies

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Pricing has always been a difficult area for any agency. Are you concerned about setting fees that clients are okay to proceed with but you do not want to undervalue your business such that you’re making a loss.

Determining a one-size-fit-all pricing strategy is difficult and hard to implement. Therefore, I’ve provided a list of various pricing strategies available for agencies as well as some information on how to use them.

  1. Customer-based pricing
  2. Competitor-based pricing
  3. Cost-based pricing
  4. Value-based pricing

Customer-based Pricing

Customer-based pricing looks at each customer as an individual entity. This involves looking at what they are willing to fork out and pay for your services. In short, you are using the customers’ perceived value of your services.

When to use it?

  • If they are new clients: When you know their budget and they have approached you for costing. You will need to check if they were referred by someone else who may know your rates. Most of the time, clients will be obligated to tell since they will assume you will be giving them a discount for it.
  • If they are existing clients: You should already have/engage a dedicated Account manager. The Account manager’s credentials and the value they bring to the client will be the deciding factor if you need to increase your prices. This helps to justify the increase of pricing when the need arises.
  • If the company has a strong influence on their industry (the A-listers) and you do not know the competition that you are up against.

What's my basis?

Carl Sagan once said “extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence”. So here’s my evidence.

If they are new clients

We have always seen apps that offer credits or some value when you refer others.

Dropbox is one such example. When you refer a friend to use Dropbox you and your friend could get additional space. And Dropbox is just one example. 

There are thousands out there and it has become a norm to believe that if am referred to by someone, I would get some sort of perk — especially if the person is a credible source.

If they are existing clients

I’ve received EDM mailers from insurance agents. Whenever they won an award for “Best Financial Advisor for the Year”, it gets sent to my inbox. — Why?

That very same agent will reach out to me to see how I am doing. Coincidence? I don’t think so. And, with the assistance of technology, a click is all it took for them to know I have read the email and blogpost.

When the agent calls, I am obligated to listen because that person has won an award. It’s got to be worth something. And that agent functions exactly like an Account manager in the agency setting.

Competitor-based Pricing

Competitor-based pricing is derived from the price that your competitors has set. This is assuming that pricing is the main determining factor behind the customer’s decision which might not always be the case.

For example, if a competitor is pricing their services for $50, customers will not accept your business for $100. In order to attract customers and compete in the same space, you will need to price your services for the same $50 — or maybe even a little bit lower.

When to use it?

  • If they are new clients: When you know your competitor’s proposed amount. If you don’t you can simply ask clients if they are okay to provide you a range to roughly know the competitor’s offer as they might not directly share the amount with you. From there, you can make a decision if the price point makes sense. Based on how the project goes and if the client becomes a repeat customer as you have met their KPIs, you can adjust your price point accordingly with data you have accumulated.
  • If they are existing clients: Be firm with your pricing. If you have a good working relationship and have always been meeting their KPIs and/or if you know who the competitor is, chances are they will cave. Remember that if you give in to their demands once, they will put you in that spot again and again.
  • If having that company in your portfolio is worth it for you to lower your cost and after you have done your assessment on the client and know their roadmap.

What's my basis?

Experience has shown me many times over that if you produce good results, clients will keep coming back for more.

If they are new clients

Insurance agents do this every time. Whenever I meet my agents, I will pit them against one other through various meetings with them.

For example, I will show my hospitalisation plan, life plans, amount I’m paying, etc. They on the other hand, will explain why theirs is better in an attempt to convert me if it truly is better. Otherwise, if theirs isn’t, or if they are simply uncertain about the competitor’s product, they will say things like: it’s great that you are well-covered and move on.

Do not waste your time negotiating unless the client is a keeper and can bring value and definite exposure to your company.

If they are existing clients

We lost a pitch to a website revamp. The reason was due to our price point being higher than the competitor. However, the client came back and highlighted the terrible execution of their website from our competitor.

They needed our help to fix what the other agency has failed to deliver.

In the end, the cost the client would have to pay is a lot more than they had planned previously. This is indeed very sad but also a good opportunity for us to showcase the reason behind our price point. It is the value that we provide that matters and hence why we are more expensive.

So the next time we place our costings, the client would then be willing to pay.

Cost-based Pricing

Cost-based pricing is what I would like to call a churn and burn model (material and labour cost). They mostly focus on production.

Using this model, agencies would charge by man hours or man days. This model works when processes are streamlined and standard. Everything works like clockwork and it compliments well with packages too.

However, if you don’t require a lot of hard materials or products to complete a job, this kind of strategy might not make sense for you.

When to use it?

  • When your output is templatised and processes are the same for each website you do — e.g. choosing a WordPress theme and customising for the client.
  • Less customisation and minimal creativity work.
  • When you are focus on quantity and less on quality as your processes should already have taken care of that.
  • When you offer packages — it’s normally derived from material and labour cost.

What's my basis?

This pricing strategy restricts or sometimes even kills creativity. I personally do not recommend this approach if Creativity is the heart of the business. It also punishes those who are competent.

How did I derive to this?

Creativity is deeply rooted to imagination. The ability to imagine differs with everyone. And Creative people tend to have more imagination than others which is why they are Creative.

I can say this because I was once a designer too. The moment you restrict Creativity, it dies and it becomes execution work. That will lead to the good Creatives leaving and the less adventurous ones staying.

Now, think of the Nike logo and how much it’s worth. Based on material cost, a tick would take 5 minutes to execute. Even if this is based on an hourly rate of $150 and you’re charging 1 hour, the value of that logo is worth $40,000. It just doesn’t add up.

I would suggest a value-based pricing if Creativity is the heart of the agency.

Why does material and labour cost punishes people? Say I take 20 minutes to do a full blown timeline or project plan. Others, may take an hour. But because of my competency I will end up having more on my plate and that creates an unbalance in the number of projects I’m handling unless someone is governing that, to provide fairness and fairplay.

If you see production floors such as car manufacturing plants, you will see that there is little creativity play. The only Creative work is the stock colour of the car. They don’t really design the car, they spray the colours on the car — and even this, is templatised.

 

Value-based Pricing

Value-based pricing is the last pricing strategy on this list, but is the most important one amongst others.

Value-based pricing doesn’t necessarily consider your costs or what your competitors are charging. Instead, it looks at how much value you’re bringing to your clients.

If your agency is spending one hour on a project but you’re delivering $40,000 worth of value to your client, you should not be charging for that one hour of time. Your pricing strategy should be based on the amount of value you’re bringing to the client. It is like the Nike logo I’ve mentioned above.

Value can be different from client to client. You would need to set your pricing according to your clients perceive  abilities and skills of your work. By working with clients who really value your work, you can charge more.

When to use it?

  • When Creative work and customisation is part of your processes.
  • When you have data and recognition to back up your work.
  • When you do not have a fixed package.
  • When your focus is on quality rather than quantity as resources are limited and/or your team’s talent/status is well-known in the space. 
  • When you have good dedicated salesmen on your team to sell not just the work but the people too.

What's my basis?

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Categories
Journal

Having A Growth Mindset

In a nutshell, a Growth Mindset refers to someone who is continuously learning to improve themselves.

This has something to do with Talent and Skill. Both of these terms are often misunderstood.

Talent is something you have naturally — it’s innate. Skill is developed through hours and hours of beating on your craft.

Individuals who believe their Skills can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a Growth Mindset. They are able to achieve more than those having a fixed mindset (those who believe their Talents are innate gifts).

This is because they do not worry about how they are perceived by others (be themselves) as they are putting more emphasis into themselves learning. That is a Growth Mindset.

The reality is that we all have both a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. There is no one who has a “pure growth” mindset. It simply does not exist.

Here are some common misconceptions of a Growth Mindset:

  1. A Growth Mindset does not equate to someone who possesses flexible, positive or open outlook.
  2. A Growth Mindset is not just praising or rewarding someone for their efforts. But it also applies to their learning and progress, with emphasis on the processes that help them achieve it through seeking help from others, trying out new strategies, and overcoming setbacks to progress further.
  3. A Growth Mindset leader encourages calculated risk-taking and understanding that some risks would not work out.
  4. A Growth Mindset leader rewards employees for important and useful lessons learned, even if a project does not meet its original goals.
  5. A Growth Mindset leader supports collaboration across organisational boundaries rather than just having internal competition amongst employees or functional groups.
  6. A Growth Mindset leader is invested in the growth of every member, not just in words but in action, such as development and advancement opportunities.

Ultimately, with a Growth Mindset, it will help individuals understand who they are, what they stand for and become an X-shaped employee. The sky is the limit.

Categories
Strategy

The Five Whys Technique

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History of the 5 Whys Technique

The 5 Whys technique was first introduced by Sakichi Toyoda who is the founder of Toyota Industries back in 1970.

Till today, this method is still widely use to solve problems. This method uses a counter-measure approach rather than a solution approach. A counter-measure is a set of actions that aims to prevent the problem from re-surfacing again.

When to use the 5 Whys Technique

There are many ways to use the 5 Whys technique. As mentioned above, it is used for:

  • Troubleshooting/diagnosing, quality improvement, and problem-solving
  • Simple and moderately challenging problems
  • Quick understanding of the root cause of the problem

How to use the 5 Whys Technique

Here are the steps for how you can use this tool/technique.

  1. Identify the issue that you are facing.
  2. Ask yourself why this is happening
  3. Ask yourself again four times why this is happening.
Ultimately, you will get something like what you see below.

The 5 whys Diagram

Based on identifying the Whys, I can come up with 2 possible solutions to prevent the main issue from happening.

Conclusion

Based on the example above, you can see how the 5 whys can be used to troubleshoot and identify the problem and come up with 2 possible solutions to solve the problem. 

This is also why the 5 Whys technique is used more for a counter-measures rather than a solution approach.

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