Overcoming Overwhelm: The Three Levers Framework

Hi guys. It's Lina from The Monthly Method. I've been away for some time, and I want to jump straight into this episode because I think the topic that I have for you today. Is a great concept and the framework I can use to illustrate my absence from the podcast.

Let's go. So when I was a junior product manager, my manager and mentor, Alicia, introduced me to this great framework that I continue to use to this day, which I teach all my clients, and that's the framework of three levers. Whenever you are managing a project, building a product. You have only three levers to pull.

Resources, timeline, and scope, knowing this really simplifies and removes overwhelm whenever your project, product is not going according to the plan or takes longer than expected, whatever.

So taking the podcast as an example, I haven't been recording the podcast for a while, and all throughout this time I wanted to return to recording the episodes. I have so many ideas I want to share on this podcast, but somehow it wasn't happening. And I was like, okay, let's use this three levers framework. And see what we can do about it.

So the first one is resources. Should I bring more help? And I was playing with this idea, maybe I should have a. Co-host, maybe there is someone among my subscribers who doesn't mind having like a regular call with me and like we would. Just chat with each other on the topics that are connected to this podcast, and publish it as a podcast episode. and the reason why I thought it would be. great, was because it would add this, layer of external accountability.

I would know that, let's say every Tuesday someone is waiting for me on the call, I should show up and have some topics ready to discuss. Basically, yeah, external accountability. That was the first idea I had. But then I thought a little bit more about it. I looked at my schedule and you know, I have another business that is very busy during the summer, and I was like, where would I fit this call? Because I, I would have to be in my office. It has to be quiet.

And then I have to edit it anyway, maybe I should find an editor for my podcast. Then I was like, I have to find the time to sit down and record episodes. looking at my schedule, not gonna happen because throughout this time that I was away, I. Always wanted to sit down and record my episodes. And then every day there was like objectively more important things I could be doing, more high leverage. I wouldn't call it procrastination.

They were really something that had, A higher return on investment of my time. Then I was like, what about technology? Because technology can be a good resource as well. And that's something that has developed a lot throughout the years and now with ai. Things are getting a lot easier when it comes to editing. things can be transcribed and all of that. So there is a software that does all of this editing. It can highlight long pauses, it can remove it can spot any repeats that you've done.

I was like, okay, great. I think that's worth. the investment it'll reduce my editing time. Great. Then I felt like the resource column was exhausted by this point.

Then I was like, timeline, because before I would have an episode released every Monday. I was like, maybe I can make it less frequent. I'm still not sure what the schedule will look like, but that was one of the levers I can pull. And if you've ever worked with me, you know that the scope is the lever that I recommend the most, and that's the lesson that I've learned from software development because oftentimes.

the plan that we have for the release date, just keeps expending, we keep adding more features. This page should be doing this thing, that thing. and no matter how many resources you add or the timeline, it just keeps expanding. And so the best way is to kind of chop it from the very get go and say, okay, we only have three weeks for this. What can we do in three weeks? What's the core functionality of this feature? Even if it's gonna be black and white. No fancy design, no fancy automations.

What does it have to do? Like the absolute core functionality, and you build that and then you just add on top of that. that's the best way to go about it. That's the best way to fill momentum. And get feedback, and that's kind of like the core idea of Agile is that you ship often and you iterate a lot based on the real feedback. It's more like now you have this functionality, what are you doing with it? What is missing? What is the main struggle problem?

Most of the time it was like, no, it's fine. It's working. It does the job, and then we don't even have to improve it and we can jump to the next feature. Okay. So, coming back to our. Non-tech projects, same Logic applies My recommended approach is always to keep the timeline fixed and the scope flexible. So if we are running out of time, we are reducing the scope and well, I'm the person who's teaching it and I'm also the person who hasn't been.

Recording her podcast and I was like, maybe I should take my own advice and reduce the scope. And that led me to kind of the biggest

insight about my podcast journey. When I started the podcast, I was in a very different stage of my life. I was in between my jobs. I had a lot of time. We moved to England for a while, so I didn't have any social life there. And it was in the midst of the pandemic. Lots of free time, lots of opportunity to, walk and come up with episode ideas, come back, record it with the professional microphone. I was alone. Um, so it was quiet. It was the perfect setup for a podcast in life.

And now I am in a completely different season of life. I'm a lot busier. I have, another business that is very time consuming and, requires me to be on the road a lot. So my office time is actually drastically reduced and I'm also a mom, And I have some health related goals that I'm actively pursuing, objectively, a lot less time for this perfect podcasting setup where I first create a plan for the episodes.

Then I set up my recording studio with the microphone and all of that, and then I sit down. I record a few takes. And then I edit it. Then I put all this fancy transitions in and write a perfect blog post that would go along with this episode. Those times are gone and they're not returning anytime soon. And yet I was stuck on this concept that it has to be the same way that the podcast has to be the same quality.

It has to be done in the same way where I sit down with the microphone in my office to record it. Those times are gone. so the scope had to change. And no wonder I've been away for so long because I was trying to get back to this standard. But with my current life, it's just not realistic. And so the main. Takeaway that I had from applying the framework of three levers to the problem of not recording my podcast was that I have to reduce the scope drastically if I want to continue doing it.

I am recording this on my morning walks, whenever I feel inspired, whenever I have a good idea, and I'll be applying some new tools to help me edit it and save time on editing. There's not gonna be any fancy transitions. Or highly scripted, highly produced episodes. It's gonna be just me taking you on a walk with me and recording whatever is on my mind that day. Again, I'm not promising anything. We'll keep it flexible for now.

Just to get back into consistency again, one of my favorite concept, I have a blog post about it. It's called Normalize, then Optimize one of the major problems we have. Is that we always try to optimize before we even start. So, normalize, make something a normal activity for you, and then you can optimize it. Maybe then you can think about the publishing schedule and all of the best software to do it with and all of that.

But first thing, first you just need to get the reps in, make it a normal part of your day, your week, whatever. So I'm in the phase where I'm trying to normalize recording this episodes while walking. See how it goes, and then we'll be optimizing it. That's the concept that I wanted to share with you.

I always share it with my clients in the final week of the sprint, the third week, where they probably have some goals that are in progress and it's very unlikely they'll be able to finish them with the scope that they, decided on in the beginning of the sprint. So, there's always a process of descoping, so dropping all the fluff I also wrote a separate post about it not too long ago. It's called The Goal fluff.

I like to say that we have the goal and then we have all the fluff around the goal about how we think it should get done. all the perfectionistic noise that we have in our brain. So finally, because the sprint is when we do the discing, we reduce the scope and focus on the core. it's a skill that you need to get good at to spot the core functionality from the fluff, but you get there very quickly after a few sprints, and that becomes less dramatic for sure.

Because by this point you see a lot of momentum and progress and you're like, it's okay if it's not perfect as long as it's done. so I invite you to apply this concept of three levers to any project you feel stuck. The first one is resources. That means bringing in additional people, asking for help, delegating, investing in tools, software. Tech and then we have timeline extending the timeline.

in my opinion, it's the least efficient way of doing things because usually there is a fundamental problem in some of your assumptions and the scope, and so the more time you put in. the work tends to expand to the time allotted, the Parkinson law. So again, from my experience being a product manager, it never solved the problem. There was not a single case where giving it more time solved the problem.

and so, yeah, the third lever is the scope, my favorite, and most likely that's what's stopping you, from getting your project completed. What can be dropped? Like, how can you reduce the scope? How can you make it less perfect? what is the standard that you are keeping so high that it stops you from actually executing it?

So if you wanted to do something for like two, three weeks and you're not doing it like me recording the podcast, I wanted to do it for months, and I kept telling myself, oh, it's just like the summer season. You know, it's when I'm busy with the other business once the fall is over and it's winter time, then I'll be able to record the episodes. And then, you know, the winter came and went and I was still not recording.

So basically if it's not happening weeks on end, then it's just the scope that you picked does not fit. Inside your life because you have this concept, it's kind of like virtual reality, where you have this illusion of what your life is and what you can do within your life, and then you have your real life with all the deadlines, all the kits, all the chores, all the everything.

And then you are trying to take this like in your virtual reality and your imaginary version of your life, it's easy to do this thing, but in your real life it's impossible. And so I invite you to face the facts and say, okay, I've been trying to do it for three months. It's not happening. It just means that this scope is not working for your real life, and so the scope needs to be reused to actually be manageable, be realistic for your real life with all its limitations, all its deadlines.

So again, away from the virtual reality of your imaginary life towards the real life, what can be done here? What's the scope I can do? What's the version of it that is possible in my life? What's the budget I can afford? I think that's enough for the first episode.

If you want to see more of my content that is tailored to your sprint goals, to your projects and initiatives, I invite you to join the focus room. That's my private membership where we do sprints live together on the same schedule. We set our goals together at the beginning of the sprint on the call. Again, there is no homework, no videos to watch, just show up for the call. Then we have daily standups to make progress on our goals. Then we have weekly coworking sessions.

Where we work on our goals at the same time. And then at the end of the sprint we do a sprint with perspective together on our individual sprints and see how we can improve going forward. It's basically everything I've been doing for the last 10 years. The best things that, stood the test of time that I think are helpful in many different types of projects and.

The advice that I give within the focus room is tailored towards what people are working on at any given spread, which makes it even more fun for me to record and to publish those lessons because it's kind of an interesting challenge to see, okay, how can we apply this agile methodology to write in a screenplay or to launch in a YouTube channel or to, build in new business partnerships. It's fun, it's a small community and it's private so people feel safe to share.

Check the link in the description notes. But for now, have a great week. Talk to you later. Cheers.