It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Jason Lengstorf. His Learn With Jason livestream is the inspiration behind the AATT livestream. These days, I find myself mainly sharing his written content, specifically this post, here’s my favorite bit:
Have you ever taken ownership of a project, and the only thanks you get for doing a good job is to have similar tasks dumped on your plate? You've entered a pie-eating contest where the prize for winning is more pie.
Whenever you take on ownership, you're sending a signal to the folks around you: you're willing to be responsible for this task. People who see you owning and completing this task will assume that you are both A) capable of handling this kind of work, and B) interested in doing more of it.
Whether or not that's a good thing depends on whether or not you enjoy the work.
This is exactly what being the “Airtable guy” or Airtable expert feels like in a large organization.
This workflow is in Airtable → I’d like to improve this workflow → You’re the Airtable expert → You should fix my workflow.
Look — being the Airtable expert is a fantastic thing. You can look at any workflow and often quite easily, just make it better. That’s obviously good for your career (if you play your cards right).
It also has its consequences. Above all, you become the go to resource anything Airtable related. And by anything, I mean anything:
- Broken workflow in Airtable? You have to fix it whether or not you built it.
- Someone has an Airtable question? Your DMs is their first stop.
- New workflow that could be built on Airtable? You’re responsible for building it, onboarding the team, and its maintenance in the future! Thanks buddy!
This wouldn’t be a problem if your title was “Airtable expert.” It’s probably not though. You just happen to be the Airtable expert (maybe because you picked up the Ultimate Guide to Airtable or maybe you just watched a bunch of streams). In fact, in my experience, most Airtable experts have nothing related to Airtable or workflows generally as part of their job description.
So what should you do when you start seeing that you’ve won the pie eating contest and the prize is more pie? Here’s what I’ve learned:
Force your manager to prioritize & make sure you get credit
It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying yes to Airtable requests simply because you like Airtable (or maybe that’s just me?) or they seem like quick fixes (until you realize the base is disastrously structured). You’ll quickly find yourself with your existing workload and all this new work that your manager isn’t paying you for.
Instead, bring these requests directly to your manager. Make it their decision whether or not you should commit time to fixing the workflow. They’re the guardian of your time. Furthermore, this has two positive consequences:
- It makes them aware that you’re a go to resource for what are usually important workflows
- It forces them to prioritize between your existing work and all this new, unplanned work. Is it more important for you to write this blog post or help the customer success team fix their Airtable CRM to hit their OKRs?
If you’re going to be tasked with fixing everyone’s workflows, you might as well make sure that you’re targeting the most important workflows and getting credit for it.
Steer clear of hopeless workflows
The problem with most workflows isn’t the tool it’s managed in, it’s the fact that the people running it have no idea what the workflow is. I’ve been asked numerous times to “migrate a workflow to Airtable” with the hope that that alone is going to fix their broken workflow. But the real problem was that the team had no clear definition of status, understanding of the inputs or outputs of their workflow, etc.
Now as the Airtable expert, it’s not your job to improve every team’s workflows. Your role doesn’t include “Airtable”, don’t start taking on the responsibilities of a project manager!
Your role should be to help teams get the most out of Airtable for a given workflow. If they come to you with a broken workflow, guide them to resources that could help them untangle it. Only once they’ve done so, should you agree to help them move it to Airtable (with manager permission and the associated recognition).
Being the Airtable expert in an org is a rare opportunity to really impact key workflows, to make a difference somewhere. I can’t count the number of folks I know who were promoted to senior operation positions simply because they became the go to Airtable person. The dark side of being the Airtable expert is burnout trying to fix everyone’s problems. It’s a constant barrage of insignificant help requests and colleagues dumping their workflows on you.
Make sure to pick the right side on this one!
