I agree with essentially everything you're saying here, but I don't see how something like this couldn't be useful to show work behind my results progressed. Or at least easier to consume than a traditional resume or modern blog-as-resume for that purpose.
I'm thinking of it as a simple tool for providing context and references to what I've done. The first step in making those claims of results credible.
I'm not talking about shipping a link in lieu of a CV or proper introduction to a job I'm pursuing, rather when someone reaches out to me and would like to know what I'm up to - I can show them.
Obviously, once you get to the point of sitting face to face with someone it's a totally different type conversation, but for the first exchange I see nothing wrong with this.
Your customer/employer not only doesn't care how the product is made, they don't want to know: They are hiring you to abstract away the detailed steps involved in making the product. [1]
They don't want to babysit you, or live your life alongside you. They don't want to understand every little thing you do. That is the very opposite of what they want. They want you to deliver something valuable with as little fanfare as necessary, to the point that they might pay extra to be able to download your work product without even speaking to you.
And they really don't want to hire someone who seems to be expecting to be micromanaged, and who is therefore more obsessed with presenting the process than presenting the results. Your todo list should not look more polished than your products.
If someone asks to know what you're up to… you tell them? Using sentences? Probably as few of them as possible, unless you're having the conversation over beer? If they don't find your claims credible… you offer them references?
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[1] Okay, there is a (considerably smaller) market for artisanal products where part of the deliverable is a lovingly detailed description of how the product was made. But those who buy artisanal products won't settle for a mere checklist. They want personality. They want lovingly described blog-style updates with coffee-table-quality photos. Or they want a minute-by-minute first-person account on Twitter.
I fully understand the thrust of what you're saying, but feel like it's reading a lot into my thoughts that I certainly don't intend. It's a bit smarmy too.
Still, abstract from what I actually said or meant it's an educational perspective and I genuinely thank you for it.
Why is your work relevant if you've created the results?
The mentality that carefully-documented work is a substitute for results is the bane of almost all professional managers. It's crazymaking when you set out to achieve a result and receive instead a detailed log of steps that failed to produce it. That happens often enough that I might not want to signal that particular "survival skill" to a prospective manager.
Perhaps the methods used to achieve the results or the context in which they were achieved aren't relevant from one position to another? Maybe the methods would reveal a momentary success that happens to be unsustainable?
I feel like your angle here is frustratingly assumptive in the same way as the other response below.
Having seen it twice now, maybe what I'm saying looks just like the symptoms of some "process not results" types you two have seen before, but it couldn't be further from my intent or work in practice.
Your good intentions aren't relevant. This thread is critiquing a marketing message. I'm sure you're great at what you do, but the strategy of producing volumes of well-groomed data about your process will work against you with many managers, and isn't expected by any managers.
You keep referencing things I made no mention of "mentality that carefully-documented work is a substitute for results", "set out to achieve a result and receive instead a detailed log of steps that failed to produce it", "the strategy of producing volumes of well-groomed data".
I don't see how you managed to fantasize all that from my suggestion about the potential utility of an easy, concise way to share what I'm working on and how with someone.
"That's bad idea." - Fine.
"No one cares." - Cool.
"Don't try to hide your failure to produce results behind a pretty status chart." - What the fuck are you talking about?
That's where the topic of intent came from, you keep baking it into your judgments.
By this point in the tangent I thought the interesting topic was why you seem to think that the work or method behind a specific result is irrelevant?
"I saved my employer $2MM/year with 3 months of work."
vs.
"I wrote Excel Macros and Shell Scripts to automate a bunch of reports."
I guarantee you the first sentence will get a lot more interest. It's also much more relevant-the specific technologies you used aren't really that important. Your ability to identify business problems and come up with solutions is.
I'm thinking of it as a simple tool for providing context and references to what I've done. The first step in making those claims of results credible.
I'm not talking about shipping a link in lieu of a CV or proper introduction to a job I'm pursuing, rather when someone reaches out to me and would like to know what I'm up to - I can show them.
Obviously, once you get to the point of sitting face to face with someone it's a totally different type conversation, but for the first exchange I see nothing wrong with this.