Always Redefining Productivity: A Journey from Biology to Tech Leadership
My understanding of productivity has been continuously reshaped along my journey from pipetting in biology labs to leading technology teams. What began as a simple equation—more output equals more productivity—has evolved into something more nuanced. Through various roles and life changes, I've learned that productivity isn't about doing more things or even doing things more efficiently. To me, a productive life is one where each action aligns with what truly matters at a point in time, whether that's asking the right research question, building the right feature, or being present with family.
What Productivity Looked Like in the Lab
In the biology lab, productivity meant making the most of limited resources. Each experiment consumed expensive reagents, required precious equipment time, and demanded hours of analysis. You couldn't just run every experiment that came to mind - you had to be strategic. I learned that asking the right question was more valuable than running a dozen experiments. Even if we had unlimited funding and equipment, we still faced the challenge of interpreting complex results. The key was being thoughtful about which question to pursue next, accepting that in biology, you're often working with incomplete information.
Learning the Ropes: Productivity as a Junior Software Engineer
Transitioning to software development brought new challenges. Initially, I measured productivity by lines of code written or tickets closed—something I noticed many developers do at all levels. However, I came to appreciate that the most productive days weren't when I wrote the most code, but when I solved the right problems or prevented future issues through thoughtful design decisions. Sometimes, productivity meant spending an entire day understanding some of the most business critical existing code rather than writing new features.
Leadership and Productivity: Balancing Acts of a CTO
As a CTO, productivity became about juggling a much wider set of responsibilities effectively. Beyond technical delivery, I had to manage engineers, ensure security compliance, handle customer-facing duties, participate in fundraising, and more. Success wasn't about excelling in just one area—it was about maintaining attention and quality across multiple dimensions without burning out or neglecting core responsibilities that the rest of my team relied on me for. What surprised me most was that productivity at this level often meant making fewer decisions, not more. The most impactful moments came from carefully choosing which problems deserved my focused attention and which ones I needed to trust my team to handle.
Family Time: Productivity in Personal Life
Having a family made me realize that productivity isn't just a professional concept—it's also highly relevant to my personal life. Time became precious in both spheres, requiring a new kind of discipline: being fully present wherever I was. This meant truly logging off when I was with family and being completely focused when at work. It's a constant challenge that requires real discipline, but I've found that this intentional separation actually enhances both areas of life. True productivity, to me at this moment, isn't about maximizing every minute—it's about being purposefully present in whatever you're doing.
Escaping the Trap of False Productivity
Throughout my career, I've often fallen into what I think of as "productivity theater"—actions that feel productive but create little real value. As a developer, this meant obsessing over code style or building every single test case instead of solving core problems to the business. As a leader, it was over documenting or not reassessing what actually needs my attention often enough. The trap is especially dangerous because these activities often look and feel productive on the surface, making them hard to identify and eliminate.
This "fake productivity" is particularly seductive because it often comes packaged as best practices or proven routines. Following a successful CEO's morning routine or copying another team's agile process might seem like a shortcut to productivity. But I've learned that true productivity is deeply personal—what works for others needs to be adapted to your context, or even completely reimagined. Looking back at my journey from lab work to leadership, the same productivity techniques rarely worked across different phases. The key isn't finding the perfect system, but developing the self-awareness to recognize what meaningful progress looks like for you, right now.
Thoughtful Productivity: An Evolving Approach
Today, my approach to productivity centers on thoughtful evaluation and purposeful action. Whether I'm assessing new product ideas or planning my day, I focus on the quality of my thinking rather than the quantity of my output. This means taking time to reflect, question assumptions, and ensure that my efforts align with both short-term needs and long-term goals. This journey of understanding what productivity means to me led me to create triday—a free tool I use to explore what matters most each day. Rather than prescribing a system, it offers a starting point for your own reflection through simple prompts, helping you discover what productivity means in your context.
The lesson I continue to learn is that productivity isn't a fixed concept—it evolves with your role, circumstances, and life stage. The key isn't finding the perfect system or following someone else's rules, but developing the self-awareness to recognize what meaningful progress looks like for you, right now.