A key theme for PubMatic and the industry as a whole in 2020 was “leading through change.” As part of this, we have asked colleagues for how they have put this mission into practice in their personal and professional lives this year. In 2021, we can be sure that the world will continue to see change and our industry will continue to evolve. We hope that these insights will help you lead through whatever changes come your way.
We recently spoke with Jordan Linville, Regional Vice President of Advanced TV at PubMatic, about what he is doing to continue creating value in his career, for his team, and with partners and customers.
“Meetings can be difficult when everyone is remote,” Jordan says of the work-from-home life. “While they are typically more concise and efficient, the need for process is more pronounced because no one is going to walk by in the office and say, ‘Hey, what about that thing we discussed last week?’”
Jordan has a list of two actions that he used only for client meetings in the past but has since implemented for internal PubMatic meetings:
- Have a loose agenda:
Even if it’s just 3 bullet points, it ensures that all participants understand why the meeting is taking place. It also centers the discussion and ensures we won’t need to have a second meeting to discuss that thing that should have been discussed in the first meeting. - State the purpose of the meeting right at the start:
Jordan says, “Troy Henikoff, a mentor and partner at Math Ventures, used to start every meeting with, ‘What’s the definition of success for this meeting?’ And the odds of having a successful meeting became much higher when everyone could define success.” That sounds obvious, yet it can be rare to observe a meeting where the goals or definition of success it stated at the beginning. Reiterate the action items at the conclusion of the meeting and send to all participants post-meeting.
In this environment, it’s not uncommon for one meeting to run into the next. This make the post-meeting follow-up increasingly difficult. “When our team quickly reviews the actions at the end of the meeting, it eliminates the work to send them,” Jordan says. “It becomes a quick cut-and-paste into email, and that helps me out when I’m running from one meeting to the next.” Aligning on the action items during the meeting also ensure that there is no miscommunication around those items.
What has been most rewarding, exciting or inspiring to Jordan during the pandemic?
“I love that I’ve gotten to know more about my co-workers out-of-office lives,” he says. “It’s ironic. A kid runs in the background of a conference call. There’s an interesting photo in someone’s home office. Or there’s a guitar in the background. All these things have happened and spurred awesome conversations around facets of my co-workers’ personal lives that I was never exposed to.”
Jordan has also taken the initiative in teaching his children the piano, and he finds it immensely rewarding—most of the time. They are not great yet, but both he and they are certainly improved, he says.
Overall, while working from home all the time has its stressors, Jordan has found new perspective on many facets of the work-life balance. He still misses seeing and chatting with colleagues in person and looks forward to doing that again.
