🤷🏽‍♀️ Owning a program that isn't your expertise

👋🏾 Welcome to The Program Playground newsletter, your guide to building better programs.

Here’s this week’s TL;DR

• What to do when you own a program you know nothing about

• Startups, pitches, and speed dating

🥴 What to do when you have no clue.

There wil be times when you have to own a program that isn’t your expertise. Instead of spiraling into despair, ride that wave.

Here are the four stages of The Nebulous Wave™️.

1.  "Why Not”: This is the moment you’re asked to run the program. You’re slightly curious, but don’t know anything other than the fact that you said yes.

2. “Immediately no”: Regrets!! After a week on the job you realize you’re way outside of your comfort zone. You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing and the only thing you want to do is yeet this program into the sun.

3. “Trust the process”: Post panic, you take a look around and recognize that you’re the sailor of this ship, and you have to start acting like one. You develop a stronger sense of ownership and tackle the challenge head on. As they say, the only way out is through.

4. “We good”: You’re tredding water, which isn’t swimming, but it’s better than drowning. After all, this program is still new, and new things take time. But you move forward and see a clear path to land.

There are a few cheat codes to skip from Phase 1 to Phase 4, but they require some humility:

• Ask for help: Not everyone’s favorite thing to do, but it’s always the most effective. Schedule a meeting with stakeholders, ping your manager, or craft a brief and ask a colleague to review it.

• Research: Watch a video, listen to a podcast, attend an event. Literally, the internet.

#JustKeepSwimming

 🦄 Look at me, taking my own advice.

Recently, I took over a program that supports startups. I’m not deeply versed in this space, so 80% of this was new.

In this spirit of riding that wave, I went to my first founder pitch event last week during Philly Tech Week. It was like glorified speed dating session, where every few minutes founders pitched to an investor, then shifted to a new investor when the buzzer rang. I wasn’t pitching, just observing. Here’s what I noticed:

• Pitching is hard: not only does this public speaking, but speaking about something so close to your heart, AND ALSO, asking for money. Couldn’t be me!!

• You gotta know your stuff: almost every investor asked about the data, the competitors, and the funding. Pretty remarkable to see founders know so much about a niche field.

• Everyone has a lot of ideas: and you should feel compelled to share them!

Check out some of the highlighted startups from the event!

Peadbo - A platform that helps organizations empower their rising talent and build your personal advisory board.

Brownce - A beauty service app that helps Black and Brown people find nearby beauty professionals and vendors.

HERide - A rideshare company designed for women by women, emphasizing safety and community. They recently signed a contract With Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport!

Thank you for reading!