Things change and you won’t always get an explanation why. When I worked at Amex, any change of direction was pre-planned, planned, communicated, disseminated, discussed, put forth… all before it actually happened.

This is a refreshing change in tech, because I can respect when decisions are made quickly, when it can enable everyone to execute sooner. It’s usually better to know why, but sometimes that’s not possible. The tradeoff here is everyone’s participation in exchange for speed.

Working through ambiguity means taking on work you can finish. Usually that means alone, sometimes it means work you can do with 1-3 collaborators effectively. But when the overall direction is still being worked out, the work on the ground still needs to be done. Start with the doable work and start clearing the plate. The rest will come in time.

My colleague and I were tasked with a very large, manual workstream for 2-3 weeks which would become pivotal to our integration with Google. It wasn’t the time or place to rethink the process, or challenge the assumptions - we had to tackle the problem at hand first, and then cycle the feedback. But it’s not always fair to ask others to exist in ambiguity for no particular reason.

In a world that doesn’t build openly, learn to do so. Talk about the work you do with others. Set up 1-1s. Ask questions. The culture is set up that way to enable speed and decision making. The value you derive from the company is up to you - so knock on doors, look for clues, learn what you can.

Especially at a late-stage company (now literally Big Tech), we’re constantly asked to challenge ourselves with AI. What’s been helpful to me is to participate in small groups (“The Prompt Lab”), spend the time just experimenting (my Dupes Be-Gone! Which was a flashcard UI in Gsheets), and ask for it (like if we should arrange AI training as a team). We’re all on the same team. It should feel like it.

There are no silver bullets. Stop looking for them and start focusing on the outcome, and work backwards from there. There are usually tools you already have which can help you. As companies and budgets get bigger, it can become appealing to spiral into “build vs. buy” discussions… which don’t solve the problem that is currently happening. So while that noise distracts others, focus on executing the solution at hand, even if it’s ugly.

This is a lesson I learned by observing, not by doing. It’s something I see other people ignoring or placating, while putting their future in yet another vendor. This is actually a reason I am looking to work at a smaller company - somewhere where my feedback would actually be considered.