My first encounter with the idea of “drawing the box” was at the beginning of my career, when I worked at Microsoft.  I joined a team that had a significant number of women leaders which was a unique thing at that time.  During the interview, I was told that my manager was known for being really good at ‘drawing the box’.  I didn’t make much of it at the time and thought of it simply as: ‘the ability to clearly define a scope of work’.  Over time I learned that this was the magic that made space for the best ideas to germinate and grow, and inspire people to do their best work.  Most importantly it’s the magic sauce to making consistent progress without burning out.  

I learned a lot about ‘drawing the box’ while on this team, and I don’t think it was a coincidence that there were a lot of women leaders on it.  My focus on women founders is the box that I’ve drawn, and is not meant to exclude men.  It welcomes sponsors and allies if the values and messages resonate.  The stories I tell and the problems I focus on solving are based on interviews and working relationships with dozens of women.  It’s hard to imagine that they are exclusive to them.

Drawing the box is about skilled, intentional decision-making.  Decisions are what move businesses forward.  Our natural instincts may tell us that a bounded box seems restrictive, however it is these constraints that provide the necessary scaffold for infinite creativity.  

I am passionate about bringing more diverse ideas into the world, and I know from my personal and professional experiences that there is a gold mine of valuable business ideas in the heads of women who are waiting for more validation. I help them create, conduct, and scale low-cost customer research, and coach them on how to synthesize insights into product marketing, product strategy and design, and customer support plans. I’ve found that helping them find and translate the voice of the customer into a strategy provides the confidence they need to take the next step in moving their business forward.