sarahcpr

I’ll start this off by giving a shout-out to all my homies at Yahoo! Travel. (Do people say “shout-out” anymore? Or “homies”?) Anyway, today is my last day with Travel. I’ll be moving over to the Flickr team to help them build a product that people have actually heard of, which is going to be damn near impossible. But as excited as I am about that opportunity, I’m really going to miss the Travel team*. They were my introduction to Yahoo, they’re the reason I moved out here and they’re the reason I stayed. As I think back on the last year and a half, I realize how much I’ve learned in my time here. And to commemorate the occasion, I’d like to impart some of those lessons here, for those of you who are just getting started at Yahoo (or who are just kinda bored this morning). So here they are, the two keys to success and survival at Yahoo:

1. You don’t know everything. I remember vividly my excitement about coming to Yahoo, how I was going to revolutionize the world with all my brilliant ideas. I also vividly remember the quick and disappointing realization that every great idea I had had already been thought of. I think back on some conversations I had in the first few months at Yahoo, where I imparted my brilliance to nodding, smiling heads, only to later discover an old design or even prototype of that same idea, and realize that everyone was just being polite. So it became obvious that the challenge would not be in coming up with great ideas. No, it would be in figuring out which ideas were worth fighting for, and then figuring out how to wage the battle. And with that, comes the realization that sometimes you can have your biggest impact working on an idea that isn’t yours. Just because an idea isn’t yours doesn’t mean you can’t put your mark on it, champion it and be the driving force that helps get it launched. And in the end, that’s what matters. Launching. And the way to get things launched is to realize that you don’t know everything, that you’re surrounded by incredibly smart, talented people who can all teach you something. Don’t try to constantly prove how smart you are with all your brilliant ideas. They hired you, they know you’re smart. Apply your intelligence to creating an environment at Yahoo where people don’t just try to outdo each other, but actually work together better to get those ideas launched. I once told a coworker that the slogan here should be, “Yahoo! Where Great Ideas Go To Die”. Saving those great ideas is the challenge, not coming up with them.

2. No one else knows everything either. Once you accept that nothing is new, and everything’s been done before, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to get intimidated when it hits you that you’re working with world-famous Internet masterminds. It’s easy to get nervous before you share your work, or not want to share it at all because you know it pales in comparison to other work that’s going on within the company. But at a company like Yahoo, if everyone sat around not saying anything or not sharing anything, for fear of looking stupid, we’d probably be putting out awful, uninspired work. (And, ok, sometimes we do). So you have to speak up, you have to state the obvious and you have to ask the dumb questions. From the smallest status meeting to the biggest presentation, this holds true: Don’t try to cover up what you don’t know, but make sure to share everything that you do. Because as smart as everyone is, you’ll be surprised at what people might miss, or might not really understand. Sure they may have already thought of your idea, but do they have the exact same vision for it that you do? Do they see its relevance within the larger picture the way you do? Probably not. So put yourself out there, be passionate about what you think is important, be honest about what you think is not, and have a point of view! Yahoo will be better for it, and you will, too.

*Know any kickass visual designers looking for a sweet gig? (Do people say “kickass” anymore? How about “gig”?)