This is the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people. If you think traditional HR practices are stale and out of touch, you have found your People🤘

Learn how product principles and design thinking can transform your People function into a growth driver… all in the time it takes to drink your morning coffee☕

Whether you’re a PX newbie or already a pro, here you’ll find actionable tools and tactics to get full leadership buy-in and make an impact from day 1 🚀

P.S …mine’s a Cortado with oat if you’re buying 😉

Stop sweating over your People Ops

You’re leading HR in a growing start-up. It’s not even 12PM and you’re flooded. New policies for global sites. Onboarding flows need refinement. CEO needs data ASAP for the board meeting, and performance cycles won’t build themselves. Or will they? 🚀 Meet DreamTeam: an AI-native people management platform that cuts admin to zero, helping you focus on people and impact – at last. Stop drowning in busy work: Policies created with simple prompts Performance reviews & surveys built instantly with AI Employee questions auto-answered in a chat Board-ready insights, generated automatically Sounds awesome right? It really is...👀 ​ Find out more!

Read time: 2 minutes

Hey Reader 👋🏻

This is going to be a little bit different to the usual newsletter format today - If you came for tactical product-led PX tips, I am going to disappoint you today (in part), but feel free to dive into the newsletter library (and/or the archive library) where you will find plenty of product inspired insights for People teams to get stuck into 🙌🏻

As I sit down to write I am feeling more reflective than creative, so I want to lean into that.

Why so reflective?

Today is the 100th edition of the PX Espresso newsletter 😱🥳

Discipline > Motivation

100 newsletters is a big milestone. Well, it feels like one to me anyway. I am proud of myself for getting here, for staying motivated and disciplined enough to sit down and write for 100 weeks.

Think about it, how many things (outside of the 100% mandatory "life" stuff) have you been able to do consistently for 100 weeks?

I am a pretty focused and driven individual, but even I can't think of anything else in my life which I have shown up and put in the work, every week, for 100 weeks.

And as much as I love writing (I really do), sometimes I just don't wanna do it. Like, really don't wanna do it. Throw a toddler tantrum to my wife, don't wanna do it 😅

For context, those are usually the days when it's been a busy week, I am already exhausted, it's 8pm on a Thursday night, we have just managed to get the kids to sleep after a battle... Then I have the realisation; "it's newsletter day tomorrow!" 🤬

In those moments, all I want to do is sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and rest. To be comfortable. To do nothing. It takes every ounce of discipline to override those feelings, open up the laptop and write - (yeah I know... just be more organised and write the newsletters ahead of time... 😅 working on getting better at that!).

I heard a phrase recently which stuck with me; "successful people are able to make their mind stronger than their feelings"

I now find myself repeating this mantra when motivation has left me.

I don't know who said it, it was an audio bite, but the phrase was a response to the question "what makes successful people different?".

I understood this concept immediately. I recognise it in myself. I have spent years developing mental resilience. The ability to push past the feelings that tell you to "hit snooze", "do it tomorrow", "you would be happier if", "if would hurt less if"... so on and so on.

Honestly, I wouldn't get anything done if I let those feelings win - comfort is a much easier path than discomfort. But nothing worth achieving comes on the path of comfort. Discomfort is part of the process of attainment.

Some days I do lose the battle, comfort wins.

But 9 times out of 10, when I can't rely on motivation I turn to discipline and I get it done (and I always feel great for doing it).

P.S nothing builds mental resilience like long distance triathlon training! The 4am alarm clock in the depths of winter followed by a 2 hour workout before anyone else is awake, that will do it 😅

Honestly, if you can discipline your mind to do something like that, I don't think there is much that you can't achieve. I mean that with absolutely seriousness and certainty.

So yeah, I am proud to reach 100.

Beyond proud, I am grateful.

Grateful that I get to do it. Truly I am blessed to call this work.

Grateful to all of you who read, respond, share and take action on my words. Beyond grateful to you!

Grateful to all the brand partners who have sponsored along the way.

Grateful for the opportunities my writing has created for me. Of which there have been many.

Grateful for the life entrepreneurship has enabled for me and my family. A life of freedom unimaginable to most.

Grateful for my wife with whom I get to share the highs, lows (and tantrums) with. She inspires me to be more, every day.

Grateful for the friendships I have made along the way. Beautiful, rich, real friendships.

Grateful for the community which has emerged around the ideas I share. A global, connected, and deeply caring community.

I set out to create content. I ended up creating community. It's a beautiful thing.

If you are going to build anything, build community.

On Monday I get to see many of the friends I have made in the last few years - along with many of the community too - at Immersive PX | London - I can't wait. The timing feels serendipitous.

These pictures bring me so much joy - one taken on the rooftop balcony at the inaugural Immersive PX event in London a little over a year ago. The second on Ness's roof top whilst in Amsterdam for Immersive PX in June this year... (I need to find some sort of rooftop or balcony at next weeks Immersive PX to maintain tradition it would seem 😆).

Just look at the joy on these faces! 😍🥹

Would you believe, with the exception of my wife Nish, and my long time friend Glenn, most of the people pictured (some of whom I am sure you recognise as absolute legends of our profession - they are all legends to me) I didn't know 2 years ago. Not personally anyway. Some I admired from afar, some I had some interaction, some were complete strangers.

Through writing. Through consistency. Through care. Through community. I now get to call these people my friends. 💜

I create opportunities for us to come together. To share. To grow. To inspire.

Alchemy does the rest.

The PX (and a Product) lesson in all of this.

Great products don't just serve users. They build (and are built by) communities.

Great businesses don't just hire people. They build (and are built by) communities.

If the PX Product (the experience of work) you are building is only designed to serve your people, you are missing an enormous opportunity to build something much more meaningful. Much more powerful (and much more profitable ultimately too!).

I mentioned alchemy just now, but alchemy is not what creates the community. Alchemy is what happens when connected and inspired people come together. Community happens when people feel like they belong. When they feel like they have value. When they feel like they are seen. When they get that deep exhale, "I am with my people" feeling.

You don't have to motivate people in a community to act. Just create opportunities for them to come together. To share. To grow. To inspire. Let, alchemy do the rest.

If you want to build a conscientious, connected, and high-performing organisation, you could do a lot worse than building a community.

There is actually nothing common about community. So when people find it, they tend to hang around.

I am beyond grateful to have found my people and to be able to create the space and opportunities for others to find theirs, too.

Here's to the first 100 newsletters and the community they helped create. 🥂

Thanks for reading. Thanks for being part of this community. 💜

Here's to 100 more... 🙏🏻

OK, that’s a wrap for this week.

Grab your coffee and open up your inbox same time next week for more insights, tips, and resource flags on how to smash HR silos, add strategic value and turn your People function into a growth driver 🚀

With love,

Luke ✌🏻

PS, when you are ready you might like...

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