Sean Patrick Coon’s Post

"I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it." — Anne Lamott

I'm humbled by the amount of interest in our UXR role. I also know that the market is wonky, and times are tough. That being said, with so many applicants in play, I just don't feel comfortable having introductory conversations with candidates outside of the process. As researchers who create controlled environments for learning, I hope you can understand. Best of luck to everyone in search of their next role. 🙏🏻🤘🏻

Fanny Krivoy is the best. 🙌🏻

When people share that they've scaled teams or products from zero to one, they don't often get into the weeds of what that actually looks like. While no two situations are the same, it's safe to say that it's both a team sport and a difficult pursuit across the board—never presenting as a straight line upwards toward an explicit finish. Moving from an idea to returning dividends, or being the sole member of a function to leading a team that moves mountains is a dance that's tightly coupled with so many variables, both in and out of your control. So take control of what you can without sacrificing yourself in the process. Rapid growth without a clear cut vision for resourcing towards product vision is irresponsible, and undercuts your ability to find the right talent while developing their operating muscle memory as the business evolves. Instead of kingdom building, become a force multiplier. Prove that your leadership style can produce impactful outcomes with limited resources. If you're successful, you won't need to hard-pitch for larger headcount. Successfully scaling towards PMF requires incredible collaboration and a culture that allows for failures, all wrapped around clear vision into line of sight of a viable future state. Such growth can't occur with the function growing ahead of the business, nor the product progressing too fast to research and design core scenarios that meet human needs. The same notion applies to cross-functional relationships—if you invest too wide and deep to begin with, well, good luck delivering returns on the relationships that your colleagues will want with you, whether expressed or not. So be intentional, continuously align, pick your areas of focus wisely, speak the truth while staying open to new perspectives, build trust, move with purpose, and most importantly, establish boundaries that only shift when you can elicit clear rationale from others and why it would make sense for your team, your colleagues, and the business itself. I like to imagine a potter's wheel as a metaphor for practically everything I do on the job, because so much of the necessary work and relationships I need to realize over time will be impacted as I engage with what's directly in front of me today. Let your experience shape how things come back to you while you apply yourself in the details.

Are you passionate about helping healthcare providers (HCPs) get patients on life-changing therapies? What a coincidence—we're #hiring a fully remote UX Researcher. As a Series A startup, PrescriberPoint is already generating substantial revenue, and with a variety of customers and a diverse marketplace of users, we offer a dynamic environment for growth and impact. If you possess the curiosity and attention to detail that's necessary to uncover valuable human-centered insights, we want to hear from you. Apply directly! 🤘🏻 = = = Edit: While I would love to speak to each and every one of you so that you can gauge if I am a fit as a potential boss, or whether Prescriber Point is a fit for you, please do not make this request of me. I'm spread extremely thin. I literally don't have the time for such a thoughtful conversation. My recruiter is extremely thoughtful, though, and if he's interested in your application, I'm betting we'll speak soon enough. Thank you, again, for all the interest, and please, apply directly.

If "scathing" had an older brother who did a ten year stint, didn't have anything to lose, and chewed on nails while sipping turpentine. A taste: "A friend of mine was invited by a FAANG organization to visit the U.S a few years ago. Many of the talks were technical demos of impressive artificial intelligence products. Being a software engineer, he got to spend a little bit of time backstage with the developers, whereupon they revealed that most of the demos were faked. The products didn't work. They just hadn't solved some minor issues, such as actually predicting the thing that they're supposed to predict. Didn't stop them spouting absolute gibberish to a breathless audience for an hour though! I blame not the engineers, who probably tried to actually get the damn thing to work, but the lying blowhards who insisted that they must make the presentation or presumably be terminated."

By the time you get all the answers, the questions will have already changed. Order doesn't manifest longitudinally. So decide what's of most value today and knock it out of the park. That's enough.

Sparkle Sickness, as illustrated by Midjourney.