Stories and Insights: Reflecting on 200 Sherpa Tuesdays

Four years ago, back in June 2020, I started my new venture, The Product Sherpa.

I was eager to serve as an advisor, guide, and “sherpa” to multiple companies, helping them with their product, business, and strategy challenges.

By then, I also had written and published a few articles on product best practices. But I had no idea that these would eventually become The Sherpa Tuesdays.

I soon discovered I genuinely enjoyed writing and sharing more than product success techniques. Stories of my challenges, failures, and adventures in this wild world emerged with new themes.

My thirty years in the corporate world have been an invaluable source of inspiration. But I also like to share my personal side, and I now realize all these real-life experiences resonate with you.

Two hundred weekly articles later, The Sherpa Tuesdays has become more than a blog or a newsletter. Each article builds on the same guidance, encouraging you to navigate your personal and professional lives with resilience, intelligence, and mindfulness.

I do it with the sole intent of helping you enrich your perspectives, think differently, and adopt new approaches to your unique situations—in other words, helping you succeed!

What have I been asking in return?

Nothing more than three to four minutes of your precious time and attention every week if the covered theme rings a bell and the assurance that you’ll leverage my learned lessons on your path to excellence.

Some of you have asked me where to start when trying to catch up with the Sherpa Tuesdays. What previous articles are worth reading? Which ones resonated the most?

My first advice is to browse the archives and open the posts whose titles catch your attention. But if I were to summarize and pick some of the most impactful themes and articles, here’s my selection:

Leadership and Management

• • From Ocean to Office: 5 Leadership Lessons from a Gale in the Farallones. How a sailing race to the Farallones gave me a few parallels with the business world and how to thrive in challenging conditions.

• • From Pleaser to Leader: How Robert Overcame Fake Urgency. The transformative journey of a manager, Robert, breaking free from fake urgency to reshape team dynamics and build strategic leadership.

• • I Never Thought That P&L Ownership Could Be So Attractive! Shares insights on the attractiveness and importance of owning profit and loss responsibilities in driving business success.

Decision-Making and Critical Thinking

• • What Was I Thinking? Top 3 Lessons I Learned To Make Better Decisions. Focuses on recognizing and handling biases to improve decision-making processes.

• • 4 Principles To Beat The Forecasting Experts. Offers strategies for making better predictions and decisions in uncertain situations.

Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness

• • Emotional Intelligence and Persuasion: A Lottery Ticket Tale. Demonstrates how a mindful attitude and emotional intelligence can enhance persuasive abilities and personal interactions.

• • Stop Obsessing With Productivity. Add Mindfulness to It! Advocates integrating mindfulness with productivity to boost creativity and overall well-being.

Tech and Ethics

• • I’ve Spent the Past 30 Years in the Tech Industry – Should I be Ashamed? Explores the ethical considerations of working in the tech industry and crafting a future we can be proud of.

• • My Latest Nightmare: Artificial Intelligence Killed the Product Managers. Discusses the impact of AI on job roles and how to leverage AI tools effectively without losing the human touch.

Handling Change

• • Dealing with uncertainty is hard! Should You Resist or Accept It? Addresses strategies for coping with life’s uncertainties, emphasizing acceptance and adaptability.

• • Navigating Change: How Ukrainian Talent Helped Our Agile Transformation. My transformative journey of adopting Agile practices and outsourcing to Ukraine with its challenges and successes.

Resilience and Personal Growth

• • Beyond Despair: A Decade of Life Lessons After Losing Valentine. This article highlights the journey of resilience in the face of profound grief, emphasizing the importance of finding strength and meaning even in the darkest times.

• • I Hit the Wall! My Resilience Journey in the Eugene Marathon. How I drew strength from my daughter’s memory, finding the resolve to finish my 46th marathon with determination and resilience.

And last but not least… 

The French Series

• • Beyond the Stereotypes: French Work Culture vs. Corporate America. The nuances of French work culture reveal a fascinating approach to hierarchy, complex decision-making, and unique customer interactions.

• • Should You Resolve Conflicts Like the French or the Americans? Despite decades of globalization and softened cultural differences, differences persist between the French and Americans in conflict resolution.

• • A Leadership Lesson From My Time in the French Military. Command-and-order dictates don’t go anywhere. Instead, provide context on the challenges at hand and let your team make the difference.