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This month, we’re reflecting on an often-asked interview prompt: “Tell us about an obstacle you’ve overcome.” As we consider our own answers, we’re also finding inspiration in the maker community’s approach to problem solving—from team goals and critical decisions to building foundations and communities. Below are a few of our recent favorite examples.
The Docket is our version of the staff picks shelf at your local bookstore. Every month, we recommend published docs that we’ve personally read, loved, and copied. See past installments 
From Ori, Data: When faced with a sizable challenge, we often get stuck trying to achieve a set of concurring goals, which makes developing simple metrics difficult. SuperGoals, as Michael Mignano presents them, provide a helpful frame for focus. By deciding on a single urgent and existential goal, a path opens to measuring progress that everyone can understand. And a little clarity can go a long way toward empowering your team to work energetically and creatively towards their objective.
From Joe, Sales: As a former Account Executive at Zoom, I was always astonished at the pace at which we were able to focus on and solve problems. Now at Coda, I bring the same rigor of Zoom’s Root Cause Reasoning ritual to my active selling opportunities. By defining a clear problem, the root cause of that problem, and the solution, I work with clients to align on the value of Coda early in the sales cycle. While the process itself is simple, I’ve found incredible value in solving for the why. And the more I ask, the better I find the outcome.
From Emmeline, People: When I joined a startup as their first HR Business Partner, I learned three essential truths: 1) There is no "pool of company resources." 2) Google is your best friend. 3) Google searches take up a lot of your time. When building policies or drafting out templates, I parsed through Google's infinite sites, and then tailored to my startup's needs. To have one doc (and one place!) with all the resources I need changes everything. The fact that it’s already built for the nuances of the startup world means we’re saving energy, sanity, and our most precious commodity: time.
From Trustin, Growth: Over the past few years, I’ve organized, worked for, and lived in various coliving houses—each with their own mission and culture. Organizing this type of community is always rewarding, but also frequently very challenging. Michelle’s doc walks through the recent creation of Elysian House—a coliving community that secured six-figure sponsorships—sharing tactical secrets and best practices to equip anyone with the knowledge necessary to get started.
Reframe your challenges as opportunities with these five docs from the Gallery.: A worksheet for personal success, inspired by the Andy Andrews book of the same name.: Lessons to help you focus on people, not things.
A set of templates to defang your daunting tasks.
Find these templates and more in your Insert Panel or with the / command.
...this doc from Mykola if you need advice, want to push the limits of natural language processing, or have a burning question for Columbo. ...this doc from Punit if you want singing lessons on the cheap, find comfort in repetition, or are finally committed to learning Left Eye’s verse from Waterfalls....this doc from Leandro if you love convenience, find comfort in repetition, or want to tell a robot what to do.
The Docket
September 2022
Docs to help you overcome obstacles.
and more docs in our .
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by , Partner at Lightspeed and Co-founder of Anchor
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by , Group Product Manager at Zoom
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by
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by , Co-founder of Elysian House
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