Category: Journal

My personal journal based on my journey.

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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

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Inspirational Music for the Soul

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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

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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.

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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
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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.

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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.

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Gender Discrimination in Tech

I wanted to understand why she would leave the Tech/Digital industry. Her main reason was because of Gender inequality and discrimination she had to wake up to each day.

I got curious and decided to probe a little further. And here is what I learned.

She sounded like a proficient project consultant. She talked about the works — the UAT phase, the development lifecycle, the people related skills, etc. I knew immediately that she had to at least be mid management. 

It all began when she was telling me about her stocks. She was justifying and insistent that Tech stocks are the way to go. Obviously, I knew this too but wanted to know her reasons for upselling them. Everybody has a story.

I knew that I had to open up about myself first before she would open up to me. It’s basic psychology. The “I’ll share mine, if you share yours” mentality.

She told me that she used to be a developer years ago. Her Tech stacks were, SQL, PHP and Java. Aside from having a kid that made her decide to change her line of work, and because it offered her the flexibility of managing her own time, she uttered the words, “Gender Discrimination and Inequality”.

I told her that I’ve seen movements such as “Women in Tech” these days that hopes to address and change the mindset of people. But the reality is that, the Tech space is still predominantly a “men’s domain”. I knew this is still the case, and I hope, given more time this mindset would change.

Remembering My Past

Back in the day, when I was a developer, my mentors were mostly ladies. I admire them as they invested time and effort to train me to become a decent developer. I will never forget their kind gestures.

The men, on the other hand, mostly offered me advice. But it was the ladies who got down and dirty to train me. I have nothing but respect for them.

I remembered asking a bunch of guys from the development team on something I was stuck on for a while. But none of them, really offered to look at my codes. Instead, they asked me if I had checked this and that. They had this air of arrogance and I felt like they were looking down on a rookie like me.

I did not seek help from the ladies initially, as they were seated further away from me. But upon hearing the commotion and because it was rather small office, they pushed their swivel chairs over to my seating area, sat down beside me, and started looking at my codes.

They analysed my codes, add watches (a .net IDE thing) and showed me where my mistakes were.

From that small gesture, I’ve learned that:

  • Support is important — the willingness to get down and dirty with your peers or juniors
  • The right support can groom people to be the best they can be
  • People can be generally shy to ask for help because they do not want to be seen as incompetent or disturb their other busy peers

They did not fix my problem but pointed out to where my problems were and got me to fix it myself. This builds my confidence over time and I became a System Analyst thanks to them. 

Till today, I still look at the developer’s codes at times to understand their logic and functions. I do not fix their problem but highlight where the problem might be.
 

Her Story

“A”, started her career as a developer with the Tech stacks mentioned in above. She is familiar with the full SDLC and was doing your typical Requirements Definition, Technical Documentation, User Acceptance Testing and User Training.

She was at the prime of her career but soon realised that she could not climb any higher than her current position because of gender. Most would look at her with judgmental eyes — not knowing that she started out as a developer.

She could not become a Project Manager despite meeting all the criteria in my book.

I’ll admit to having a soft spot for them because it was the same for me. I was a Developer turned Project Manager too. 

Both of us shared the same viewpoint that we simply were unable to compete with foreign talents that are much more talented and cost effective for companies to hire, compared to us — locals. I would assume that the journey she would have to struggle to go through would be even tougher than someone like me because of her gender.

And it’s really tough.. for me. I got my fair share of rejections and it hurts just thinking about it. Imagining her going through worse, is just awful.

Based on my talks with her, I could tell that she has the experience and capability of becoming a Project Manager.

What she lacked was the certification to prove that she is capable of a Project Manager role during that day, because back then, it was true that you do need certificates to prove your competency. I personally do not agree with how some organisations would base their potential employee’s competencies on certificates but that’s just how it was in the past and to some degree, the present too.

Her motivation and role model was her aunt who worked at a huge corporation (starting with “P”) as a Project Director.

I asked her if she would want to come back to the industry if the opportunity presented itself to her. She sounded happy and wanted to give it another go. So, I’ll be on the lookout for her.

Conclusion

I sincerely hope that the idea and mindset of Tech, being a male dominated industry that only males would be proficient in it, would change. It is definitely not true. 

I’m glad that more and more women are in Tech right now and I hope that mindset would change sooner than later.

For someone who took an IT Diploma, an IT Degree and worked as a Developer like “A”, it clearly shows that she has a passion and interest for that industry. Even when she changed her job to become an Insurance Consultant, she is still fascinated by the Tech space. Hence, why I like this phrase so much — Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

We should all do better as human beings and restore faith to people like “A” in a system we have created.

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Inspirational People on Social

Wish I knew these guys personally and professionally

Jon Kolko – Design Strategist, Product Manager, Educator & Author

Peter Kent – SEO Consultant, Trainer & Author

Joe Natoli – UX Consultant, Author & Speaker

Elon Musk – Founder, CEO & Chief Engineer

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist, Planetary Scientist, Author & Science Communicator

Jack Ma – Business Magnate, Investor, Philanthropist & Educator

Barack Obama – 44th President of the United States

US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven – United States Navy 4-star Admiral

Simon Sinek – Author & Inspirational Speaker

Sadhguru – Indian Yoga Guru & Author

Jim Rohn – American Entrepreneur, Author & Motivational Speaker

Will Smith – American Actor, Rapper & Film Producer

Steve Jobs – American Business Magnate, Industrial Designer, Investor & Media Proprietor

Denzel Washington – American Actor, Director & Producer

Bill Gates – American Business Magnate, Software Developer, Investor, Author & Philanthropist

Dave Chappelle – American Stand-up Comedian, Actor, Writer & Producer

Chris Do – CEO & Founder

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Regret #1 – Working With Talents