Fabian Lua | Making sense of my days

One difference between working for a big company and at your own startup is the direction in which resources flow. Employees pinch from a big company but donate to a startup. In a corporate environment, you probably would not feel guilty printing a personal document in the office. At your startup, you might be bringing snacks from home to feed your team.

Fabian has spoken to hundreds on topics spanning entrepreneurship, community-building, product management, design, pricing and travel. With insights into the psychology behind engaging users and the evolution of live experiences, he provokes discussions around the role you and your organisation play in the future of online-offline interaction.

Gallery:

Developing tech products and building a community around it:

• Jan 2015 Trending SG, Speaker - 9 tips for event marketing, event spaces and event tools
• Dec 2014 Across the Border, Speaker - Communities across borders
• Nov 2014 Google GDays Georgetown Penang, Speaker - Community: at the heart of technology
• Apr 2014 MIT Technology that Matters, Speaker - Growing Startups Across Geographies
• Mar 2014 Hackers and Painters, Speaker - Dogfooding: a Product Manager’s best friend

The stories behind starting architecture walks in Singapore:

• Mar 2015 PechaKucha Night Singapore x Singapore Design Week Speaker
  
• Jan 2015 Idea Nation 聚意堂, Speaker - Magical spaces in Singapore 新加坡的奇幻建筑之旅
• Nov 2014 TEDxYouth@Singapore, Speaker - Travel without leaving home
• Oct 2014 Archifest: Crowded powered by PechaKucha, Speaker - The art of noticing

More:

• Feb 2011 Blink Blank, Speaker - The Price is Right: Ticket Pricing and Human Behavior from the Airlines’ Perspective
• Oct 2010 Barcamp 6 Singapore, 7 things I learned from having a beer (and my 90 beer caps collection)

I'm passionately curious about life events that change trajectories. And I've had a few of those moments: studying at Penn and MIT in the United States and K.U. Leuven in Belgium, switching from a stable 'scholar' career track at an established firm (Singapore Airlines) to a (then) upstart company (Viki) that didn't even seem like it was based in the right location (Singapore, not San Francisco).

So even though I'm not a startup poster boy, I've been lucky to have the benefit of experience that would be useful to others starting down certain paths. That's why I give talks - it is my way of giving back. You can never start too early in giving back.

This post is essentially an invitation to organisers - if you're looking for a speaker, maybe I can help by being one. I'm particularly interested in speaking to these three groups 1) youth / students 2) people at a transition point of their lives 3) curious polymaths.

In the past, I've spoken about:

• Growing Startups across Geographies at MIT Tech That Matters Series 
  
• Singapore is a hub for startups and technology, but startups founded or based here cannot afford to restrict hiring or innovation to Singapore. Fabian shares personal and practical lessons learned from helping startups like Viki and Peatix grow across geographies.
  
• 7 things I learned from having a beer (and my 90 beer caps collection) at BarCamp Singapore 6
• Have you ever wondered why is it that twist off beer caps have not taken over the world?
• The Price is Right: Ticket Pricing and Human Behaviour from the Airlines’ Perspective at BlinkBlank #11
  
• Ever wonder how air ticket prices could vary so dramatically? How do airlines decide on pricing? In this talk, Fabian Lua won’t quite go so far as to “Break the Airlines Code”, but he will give some insight into airlines’ approaches to figuring out how much consumers are willing to pay to travel. He will also share some anecdotes that reveal the lengths people go to score cheap tickets and find loopholes in the system.
  
• As you can imagein, I got into some trouble giving this talk. 
• Dogfooding: A Product Manager's Best Friend at Hackers & Painters 
• Fabian Lua (@fabianlua) talks about when Product Managers need to "eat their own dog food".  The talk will cover lessons learned from building a set of new subtitling tools at Viki ("global TV site powered by a volunteer community of avid fans").  Fabian is currently the Community Growth Manager at Peatix and was Product Manager, Community at Viki.
  

Related experience I have:

• Guided architecture walks (my own project) and art walks in Tiong Bahru and Marina Bay (with OH! Open House)
• Co-organised talks at TEDxSingapore, TEDxMITClubSingapore, MIT Enterprise Forum Singapore, Backstage Pass at Peatix etc. Attended conferences like TED Global.
• Attended lots of talks series like Creative Mornings and Pecha Kucha Night.
• Essentially I'm familiar and comfortable with different formats, and have seen a bunch of great talks.

Other topics I can talk about:

• Hacking the wine list. About how to choose the best value wine from a restaurant menu. Because I prepared this talk halfway but never gave it.
• Being Singaporean in a tech startup. Because there just aren't enough Singaporeans venturing out to startups.
• Taking a scholarship or not, and career choices / transitions. Because I was a Singapore Airlines scholar, and jumped to a tech startup.
• Startup culture, and culture in startups, including working remote. This is a topic I'm passionate about.
• Becoming a product manager (or moving from being a product manager). Because that's what I've experienced.
• Stroke happening to someone close to you. Because my dad suffered from a sudden stroke.
• Architecture in Singapore. I'm not an architect, but I'm a fan.
  

The easiest way to start a conversation is to leave a comment below. I don't know where this will go, but I'm just putting it out there!

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Related post: Help others wholeheartedly (How I network)

"Fears unfaced become your limits." Robin Sharma

We start fearless as children, but as we mature, we shy away from what we are weak at. Over time, our weaknesses become our limits - out of habit.

Introverts are naturally more averse to networking than extroverts.  But I learned early on as an introvert that avoiding or even looking down on networking is a defence mechanism. We are just denying that networking can be meaningful and powerful - but secretly jealous.

Not that introversion can really be shed. I am still uncomfortable with small talk, and I still feel overextended when I dive into networking events where everyone else seems to already know each other. I still prefer one-on-one conversations and the company of close friends.

Instead, organisations and networking events should help everyone, including introverts, network. Even when an organisation tends to be born from a commonality, like the university you went to or the company you used to work for - its true power is in its diversity.

One big but simple lesson I learned from attending TED Global is - no one came here to be alone. The TED team remarked that there should be no reason you are standing there alone when someone else is pretending to look at a display. No one came here to look at a display either. That simple comment gave me courage to keep initiating conversations.

So I am a firm believer that the event format and organisation structure matter, more so than whether the people within are seasoned networkers or taking their tentative first steps. 

Improving the way networking is done at and between events is the exact topic at Peatix Singapore's next Backstage Pass event on Thursday. It might seem like I am being incredibly biased or sneaky to be writing this, but truth is that the three speakers we have are amazing and truly believe in what they are teaching. And it would be awkward for them to promote themselves, so here goes.

I knew Grace Clapham from TEDx circles four years ago, and everyone who meets her goes away impressed by her passion, sincerity and abilities. In addition to her own projects (like Change Ventur.es), she is always involved in organisations that give back to the community - Creative Mornings, TEDx and more. Like many of the wonderful speakers we have had before, she readily agreed to our invitation for Backstage Pass in spite of her crazy schedule. And she brought in Solonia Teodros, another amazing lady who co-founded community-driven initiatives including The Hawker Sessions and The Feast Worldwide Singapore.

I am very excited that Grace and Solonia will be conducting a hands-on session that teaches you what interactions to "force" to kick things off, and what activities to do to build trust and transfer knowledge.

We found Jonathan Kwan via Audacity 2014, and meeting him just once convinced me that he has lots to share on getting the strategic structure right for organisations so it can grow. One specific example is how it is easy to attract people who are not yet influential but are enthusiastic about your organisation to show up. But they actually want to network with the influential people who might not be as enthusiastic about showing up. Strategic issues like that make a difference to the networking experience, and he has lessons from building his university local alumni community to share.

Everything else is gravy, but look at this gravy: there are already many other interesting, friendly and accomplished people who have already confirmed their attendance. For $15 entry you also a tasting platter of Carribean food and rum punch from Lime House and $30 worth of Spotify credits.

What we learned at Peatix Singapore is that Singaporeans are really last-minute ticket buyers. People scramble right before the event asking us to save some space for them. But don't worry - we provide refunds if something really crops up, and you can always transfer your ticket.  (Get your Backstage Pass tickets here).

"Dogfooding" (i.e. using our own product, or in this case, also organising events) really teaches me what organisers experience. Any organiser would tell you it isn't easy, and is often a humbling experience. But they'll also tell you that the people who come and benefit keeps them going.

On that note, please also come to my talk about Product Management / Community on Friday, March 7th at the Paypal office (Millenia Tower, at lunchtime). Thank you Calvin Cheng (organiser of Hackers and Painters for inviting me).  I don't really like giving talks, but I realised it is an important way of sharing knowledge for the community to grow.

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On its launch day, Facebook's news reader app Paper averaged 4.5 stars over almost 3,000 ratings - amazing results since Facebook has previously been consistently criticised for new features.

One reason is that Paper provides an additional option but doesn't replace an older feature or app version.  People scream (understandably) when they can't stick to their old ways. In this case, there's simply a new toy to play with.  The core Facebook app still works like it did yesterday.

I learned a lot about user reactions when rolling out the new Subtitle Editor and Segment Timer apps at Viki.  Even though the new apps were designed to be more intuitive and friendlier to beginners, we knew that tutorials were important.  We considered integrating tutorials into the apps, or splitting out a trial version to be an interactive tutorial.  In the end, because we didn't want to weigh down an already heavy app and wanted to launch + iterate faster, we used a video tutorial and contextual clues like tooltips, help modal windows and colours.

So I'm particularly impressed that Facebook had the time, resources and commitment to incorporate a truly interactive and contextual tutorial into the Paper app.  It isn't just the usual walkthrough when you launch the app for the first time (e.g. Gmail mobile app's).  Thinking that people will learn or bother learning from swiping through tutorial screens the first time they launch your app is like believing people read manuals before powering up their new gadgets.

People simply skip manuals.  They only return to it when they mess up.

So Paper's time and context dependent "coach marks" coupled with GPS-like voice instructions are excellent.  They even affirm you when you've completed the right action.

It is also a sign of humility - that the team behind it knows that even Facebook can't afford to lose users from frustration.  They had to make swiping the cover image lead to a different section (probably makes more money for Facebook) while doing more to make sure users understand that non-intuitive interaction / experience.  Observing my wife use my Paper app for the first time (the tutorial only showed me since it only shows once) indicates that the default expectation of swiping the cover image is that it moves you to the next story.

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My years at Singapore Airlines taught me that it is easy to either be a “yes man” or say what you mean to say, but too aggressively.

Managers who lack confidence love colleagues who agree with them - very humanly so.  In big corporations too many choose what is less painful (seek consensus, disagree behind the back) than what is right for the firm (challenge outdated beliefs of senior experienced people, accept alternative views professionally, not take it personally).

At the same time, frustrated upstart employees find it easy to protest, self-righteously.  I’ve walked out of a 50-people meeting because it was clearly so unproductive, sending a message - too bluntly.

I’ve since wondered where the balance is - both when managing and being managed.  Essentially, how to say what you mean to say?

This is even more critical when I moved to web startups, where speed and trust can make or break a product.

Heavily inspired by John Maeda’s “Four Rules" and the book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, I’ve decided it is best for me to be forthright, but respectfully.  Not making someone look bad or feel insulted is important if you want that person to understand and internalise what you just said instead of rejecting it.  And see why you said it.  

Being honest is actually a form of respect, but only when you make it so - being honest is also an art.

Image: x1brett (Flickr)

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I am an introvert - who networks.  I don't look down on networking, but it seems like sometimes introverts sneer at networking - maybe as a defence mechanism.

Rebranding, redesigns? Viki had already gone through a few of them by the time Howie Chang was brought on board to head UX and design (rather, redesign). In the tiny subset of designers within Singapore's still-small startup community, Howie had some fame. But working alongside him on tough projects was still a revelation.  I just read an article titled "Execs Who Can’t Attract Former Coworkers Are Red Flags."  I agree, and especially so on the implied reverse of "Execs Who Can Attract Former Coworkers Are Keepers."  I'd happily work with Howie again.

Last Friday I had the fortune of attending a Hackers & Painters talk titled "Shipping - Principles Worth Pondering" by Howie.  Here are five things I learned from him:

• Personal growth is uncomfortable. Howie plucked himself from a comfortable role at Viki and moved into the tangential area of Product Management in an industry he wasn't familiar with (online groceries). But I could tell he had grown his skills just in the months I haven't worked with him - in part because he had to in order to thrive in the new environment.
• Reading is also useful. He quoted a lot of wisdom from books and articles.  Startup folks understandably value actual experience and execution, but we often forget to supplement our growth by reading.
• Asking is a great way to know. Howie emailed e-commerce experts questions he couldn't find answers to.  This sounds so obvious, but we don't do it enough.
• Empathy is key. It is tough to build things or provide customer service for things you don't care enough for.
• Patience is underrated.  In our instant-gratification world where concepts like 'agile' are trending, being patient helps puts things in perspective, especially over the longer-term, and in retrospect.

The talk was recorded in full, so instead of reproducing all the content, here are some lovely quotes from him:

• Product Managers are servants and exist to serve tech / business / UX.  Some can't wrap their head around that, but it's the truth.
• E-commerce is like a return to mom-and-pop shops because these online stores offer a personalised experience.
• Major on a major.  Ignore verbal abuse of a few strongly opinionated people who write in but instead focus on what pains most users.
• Going mobile first is a great way to build the simplest thing that can possibly work.
• Be humble always.  Less ego goes a very long way.

And one of my favourites, having seen two sides of the Product Management role by now: "You ship what you have, not what you want."

In response to my question of how he earned trust and respect of teammates who had been at RedMart for much longer than him, his tips were simply everyday things like giving them a ride because he drives and they mostly don't - "we're dealing with humans after all".

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Photos by Michael Cheng

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