Accelerate your job search using Agile principles. Presented by Dan Corbin and Alex McCarthy at Product Camp Austin on 2/10/18

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USE AGILE TO
SUPERCHARGE YOUR JOB
SEARCH!
Dan Corbin
dan.corbin@gmail.com
Alex McCarthy
alex.mccarthy@navigatenext.com

2. Advocates
Sponsors
In
Kind
Supporters

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• It’s hard to know where to begin
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Job Search Challenges
• Job searches can be overwhelming
Photo Credit Photo Credit

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My job search stalled until I took an agile
approach:
● Explore the options and define the goal
● Plan out the milestone, then break down
each step
● Keep iterating to achieve each goal
● Conduct periodic assessments
● Prepare for launch!
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Supercharge

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• Break work down
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5 Agile Principles
• Make work transparent
• Work iteratively
• Adapt to changing priorities
• Periodically reflect on how to improve
Sprint Planning
Backlog Grooming
Daily Standup
Sprint Review
Retrospective

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5 Agile Principles

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Hybrid Agile Process
Discover
Design
Develop
Release
Software
Explore
Target
Network
Negotiate
Job Search

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Agile Networking
NetworkTarget Negotiate
Sprint 1
Wk 1 Wk 4Wk 3Wk 2 Wk 1 Wk 4Wk 3Wk 2
Sprint… 1Sprint 2
Wk 1 Wk 4Wk 3Wk 2

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• Focus on your networking goals
– Prioritize your companies
– Get in front of hiring managers
• Create a new sprint plan for each sprint (4
weeks)
• Define your high level goals for this sprint.
• After completing the sprint plan
– Create scorecard for first week of sprint
– Update target company and people lists
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Sprint Planning

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Sprint Planning
Example
Date: July 4
Job Transition Goal: Start my new job by Jan 15th
Sprint Theme: Focus on regional hospitals
Process Improvements: Update target lists on Mondays and Thursdays
Key activities or milestones for this sprint:
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Prep for key meeting with
ACME HM next week
Complete CSPO and add
to LinkedIn profile
Annual meeting of local
chapter
Short week due to
vacation
Find and attend another
meetup this sprint
Quarterly business review
at work
Review previous meetings
and contacts to re-engage
Key performance indicators for this sprint:
KPI Target Notes
Complete company researches 8 At least 2 per week
Identify HMs and Influencers 4 HMs, 10 Influencers
Have networking meetings/calls 12 3 per week
Get new contact referrals 24 Average 2 per meeting/call
Attend meetups, happy hours,
etc.
3 PT, High Tech, one general TBD
Complete training CSPO by week 2 Continue SQL online course

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• Stay focused and flexible
• Create a new weekly scorecard for each
week.
• Weekly scorecard time to:
• Update and review the scorecard from the previous
week.
• Decide on priorities and activities for next week.
• Capture any key ideas, takeaways, activities,
results, information that will help with retrospective
• Create new weekly scorecard.
• Update target company and people lists.
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Sprint Execution using
Weekly Scorecards

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Sprint Execution
Example
Date: July 4
Job Transition Goal: Start my new job by Jan 15th
Key activities: Prep for ACME hiring manager meeting
Key Performance Indicators:
KPI Target Notes
Complete company researches 2 Sprint target is 8. 5 completed
Identify HMs and Influencers 1 HMs, 3 Influencers HM at ACME
Have networking meetings/calls 5 Great availability this week
Get new contact referrals 10 Average 2 per meeting/call
Attend meetups, happy hours, etc. 1 High Tech
Top 10 Target
Companies /
Orgs
Research /
PoV
Complete
HM / Org
Identified
HM Warm
Intro
HM call /
meeting
scheduled
HM call /
meeting
completed
Notes or Next Steps
ACME 7/15 7/18 8/5 8/8 8/21
XYZ 7/18 7/25 8/5 8/8 8/21
Mom and Pop 8/1 8/7 8/17
United Int’l 8/8 8/15
…
United Int’l 8/8 8/20

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• Review:
– Weekly scorecard
– Target company & people lists
• Set actions to complete that day
• If something is blocking progress then
1. Identify what it is
2. A resource to help
3. Engage immediately
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Daily Standup

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• Step up out of execution mode and
view from higher level.
• Review your sprint plan, weekly
scorecards and activities.
• Retrospective
– Capture: Went well, not so well
– Decide: start, stop, continue
– Do!
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Sprint Review and
Retrospective

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Sprint Review and
Retrospective Example
Date: July 4
Job Transition Goal: Start my new job by Jan 15th
Sprint Theme: Focus on regional hospitals
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results:
KPI Target Actual Result Notes
Complete company
researches
8 6 At least 2 per week
Complete company PoVs 4 4 At least 1 per week
Identify HMs and Influencers 4 HMs,
10 Influencers
7 HMs,
8 Influencers
Have networking meetings /
calls
12 15 3 per week
Get new contact referrals 24 16 Average 2 per meeting/call
Attend meetups, happy
hours, etc.
3 4 PT, High Tech, one general TBD
Investigate industry trends 2 0 AI/ML in healthcare, mobile
adoption
Complete training CSPO by week 2 CSPO TBD Continue SQL online course

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Sprint Review and
Retrospective Example
Date: July 4
Job Transition Goal: Start my new job by Jan 15th
Sprint Theme: Focus on regional hospitals
Key activities, milestones, trends, takeaways, insights from this sprint:
- Identifying hiring managers is easier than influencers
- CSPO takes more time per week. Schedule accordingly
- Getting consistently great feedback on attitude and organization
Retrospective:
What went well? A) Sprint planning. B) Identifying and addressing blocking issues
What didn’t go well? A) Underestimated amount of time needed for follow ups
What can we do differently? A) Have more coffees back-to-back
Future:
What is going to continue? Core process
What is going to stop? Not following up within 36 hours
What will be different? Estimate only three follow ups for every 30 minute

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• Find collaborators
– Launch Pad Job Club
• Take advantage of training
opportunities
– How to Get Into Product Management
Bootcamp
– The Product League
• Step by step, stick with it
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Putting It All Together

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Recommended Job
Search Process

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Additional Resources

20. Advocates
Sponsors
In
Kind
Supporters

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For soft copies of templates, sign sign-up sheet or email Alex.
25
Q&A
Dan Corbin
dan.corbin@gmail.com
Alex McCarthy
alex.mccarthy@navigatenext.com