Anuradha Sridharan

Recently, I came across an ad for a brand that sells packed curd. The ad copy says "busy with work, family, children, relationships etc? Don't have time to make curd? Here it is - {brand name} curd". Many years ago, I was buying such packed curd every week. But ever since I learnt how to make curd, I ask myself why the hell didn't I learn this simple procedure earlier. It's not rocket science.  But the food industry wants to project that you are a busy person with umpteen number of commitments. That spending a few seconds to mix a tsp of curd in a bowl of milk is not worth your time, they say. (I had written a detailed post  earlier about the things I started DIY in my kitchen. If you are interested, please take a look) The food industry likes to remind you repeatedly that you are a busy person in order to sell quick solutions that are loaded with preservatives and chemicals.  I have ranted enough about processed foods. But the purpose of this post i...

I have fallen in love with this whole idea of " Creative Confidence " and the principles behind it. In a popular HBR article , IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley had written about how everyone in the planet are born creative and creativity is not for the elusive few. Through their work, they help people rediscover their creative confidence . I'm planning to read their book on the same topic soon. Recently, I was watching a talk by Maria Molfino on Femgineer TV where she defines creative confidence as " a mindset that allows one to experiment, make mistakes, let go of perfectionism and detach oneself from outcomes ". These principles form the basis of design thinking which is widely being used in building products, services and experiences. From a personal development point of view, these principles are equally valuable towards building curiosity, explore various interest areas and enjoy the process of creativi...

Do you believe in coincidences/signs/serendipity? I'm not sure if I do but a recent event that happened has made me curious. I recently met someone who had been living in the same apartment as mine for the last 7-8 years. We have hardly met or crossed paths while our respective kids knew each other very well. Turned out that she was decluttering her home as she was relocating to another country. She sent an email to our community with the list of fiction books that she planned to give away. I don't read much of fiction and so I didn't go through the mail thoroughly. But her last sentence in the mail got me interested. She said that she loves reading non-fiction and maintains a google spreadsheet of books she has read and books she plan to read. She was willing to share the spreadsheet with anyone who might be interested. I wrote to her about the kind of books I have read, areas of my interest etc. The email chain turned out to be an interesting one for both of us as we...

I'm not a qualified nutritionist, so please use your own discretion before you follow whatever I say. This is purely based on my intuition and experience. My goal is to stay fit and active. I'm not looking for weight loss. So my principles may not apply to you if you intend to lose weight. Okay....enough of all the disclaimers :-) There has been an increasing trend of many people eating only salads for dinner. "No carbs in the night for me", "I don't take rice, I eat only chapathis" - such comments have become quite common these days. The most important factor when it comes to dinner is the timing - how much gap do you give between dinner and your sleep time? I usually eat my dinner at 8 PM and go to bed by 10:30 - 11PM. So there is enough gap for 2.5-3 hours for the food to get digested. I have come across people who proudly say they eat only chapathis for dinner but then go to bed immediately after finishing their meal. So eating chapathis and...

Image Source:  http://www.artistography.org/  I came across this quote sometime back (no idea who said it!) "A well-designed product requires no documentation".  Though I understand the underlying reason, it is a debatable one. Good product documentation is essential, given that the users/customers are so different from the creators of the product. Product managers need to consider documentation as an essential "feature" of their product. The depth and rigor of documenting every single workflow, use-case and product feature entirely depends on the product context, domain, target segment and most importantly, what your users need. Nevertheless, based on what I have observed across various software products, good product documentation essentially follows these 7 best practices. Before I cover them, let me clarify that product documentation refers to "Help" section of your product/app where your users would look for information whenever they have ...

Image Source: http://study.com/academy/lesson/experimental-design-in-science-definition-method.html  In the last couple of years, I have started to appreciate the power of small, quick experiments. As product managers, we often face the challenge of bringing together the right resources (especially, design / tech expertise) to validate certain ideas and to make progress. Thanks to the lean methodology, many of us have started to embrace the experimentation mindset, which involves Taking a complex problem and breaking down into small, executable chunks Seeking progress, irrespective of the results Incorporating key learnings/insights back into the experimentation process It's easy to read about a framework or a methodology from a book/blog and get excited about the benefits it can bring to your role. But unless we practically experience/execute it in our realm of work, we will not be able to appreciate the benefits or realize the impact. Experiments are akin to...

 It's been a while since I read fiction and when I came across the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued. First, the title. I know an acquaintance of mine who does wedding photography and her work is amazing. Capturing the candid moments as the couple enters an important phase in life must be challenging but interesting too. So I was curious to know how they work and capture such brilliant pictures. I got a good glimpse into their work through the life of the protagonist Risha Kohli. A good person at heart, cheerful, confident and passionate about her work. Through a chance encounter, she gets to meet Arjun Khanna - rich, talented, business guy who generally feels out-of-place in his world. How these two characters meet, fall in love and deal with their setbacks form the crux of this story. I loved how the author has built Risha's character through specific incidents in the storyline that not only move the story forward but also elevates the character. The first sect...