How I Work: Ming Chan, CEO, The1stMovement
Ming Chan has an ever-growing playlist of “Ming’s in Flow” on Spotify that includes everything from Chopin, Mozart, Nymano, Nujabes, to RJD2. Design by Barbara Cadorna.
Ming Chan’s company is called The1stMovement for a good reason. It worked on the first online streaming platform for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games for NBC, the first online partner portal for Netflix, and the first Interactive TV and 2nd-screen experience Star Trek 2.0. Along the way, Ming and team won an Emmy award for their technical work on TV Land.
Raised in Hong Kong, Chan emigrated on his own to the United States in 1993 to attend high school. An early adopter of technology, he wove together his technical skills with his creative outlook to launch The 1stMovement in 2006. He and his team have designed and built digital products for Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, and Cisco.
Here, he shares how he works, notably how he structures his days in 15 and 30-minute increments; balances his flow (concentration time) with the noise (interruptions); and puts on his “nice pants” before he commutes to his home office.
The1stMovement office space. Images courtesy of Chan.
Rise and Shine
The term ‘Structured Chaos” would probably describe my work day well. I am a creature of habit, but what I have found is that no two days for me are ever the same. So my morning routine is all about putting some structure before the day of chaos ascends upon me. I wake up around 7:30 a.m., start my day with light exercise and stretching, followed by my morning cup of caffeine (I don’t drink coffee, but my weapon of choice is green tea with lemon and honey). After saying goodbye to my son for school, I spend 15 minutes checking my emails and organizing my calendar for the day. On days that I have in-person meetings, I head to the office, whereas on days that I do not, I spend the next 30 minutes reading Google news that is personalized to my interests before putting on some nicer pants and commuting to my home office.
Work Uniform
There is my “Going into the office” uniform and “Pretending I am in the office, but am actually at home” uniform. My wardrobe is simple and almost identical either way: neutral-color cotton T-shirt with dark-color slim-fit jogger pants (I do like my everyday clothes to be of comfort and quality and currently my favorite are Buck Mason T-shirts and Lululemon jogger pants). Living in California has its weather perks and this outfit works for me almost 300 days a year.
How I Structure My Day
I spend my day both working in the business and on the business. There are client engagement tasks as well as internal business tasks for me, and I structure my day based on a concept I picked up when I was a software engineer — the Agile methodology. There are a lot of different flavors of Agile, but I was most heavily influenced by Scrum and Kanban. Specifically, every project (both internally and externally) we have is broken down into phases, and time-based tasks each of us would own, including meetings. My calendar is maintained and updated with 15 or 30-minute tasks. Some are pre-determined and non-movable, but most are movable (including my 15-minutes nap from 2:15 to 2:30 p.m.). I spend the beginning of the day reviewing my Kanban (my “to-do list”), and adjusting my 30-minute daily tasks interval if anything urgent comes up. At the end of the day, I re-organize my next day calendar with priorities. What I have found helpful is this structure has helped me increase my concentration (flow) while accommodating necessary interruptions (noises).
Playlist Favorites
When I work, I listen to instrumental, down-tempo music ranging from classical and lo-fi to hip hop. I have an ever-growing playlist of “Ming’s in Flow” on Spotify that includes everything from Chopin, Mozart, Nymano, Nujabes, to RJD2. But for complex tasks that require deep uninterrupted flow, silence is golden for me.
Tools of the Trade
I am hooked into the Google ecosystem. I use Chrome, Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides everyday, but I do supplement it with Adobe creative tools (Photoshop, XD, Figma) when I need to produce creative work. And lastly, since our team and clients are remote, I do spend the necessary time on Slack, WebEx and Zoom.
Dream Studio
My dream studio came close when we moved our Denver office into a mixed-use community building called TAXI right outside of downtown Denver some years ago. The space we had was open, bright, well-structured and organized with space for both individual and collaborative, team work. And we had a ping pong table in the middle of the space! We were in a community of growing businesses and would spend time outside of our space chatting, hosting events, and collaborating with other creative folks.
T1M’s former office in Denver; a mixed-use community building called TAXI.
One Unique Thing About My Work Process Is…
It requires planning. Spending time to plan and prioritize how to complete my work is just as important to me as doing the work itself.
Mantra
Do more with what we have.
My Brightest Idea that Never Saw the Light of Day
I started an initiative with my fellow developers back in late 1999s and early 2000s called “Tiny Applications”. Essentially, these are applications we would rebuild (say Microsoft Word) so it would fit in the corner of your desktop screen or just a smaller screen in general. We stopped because we all became too busy with our day jobs. Shortly after in 2007, the iPhone was released and applications were built to fit in the palm of your hands. That is the closest I get to comparing myself to Steve Jobs.
To-Do List Item that Keeps Me Up at Night
The only thing that sometimes keeps me up at night is if I do not have any item on my to-do list (i.e. an empty calendar for my next day lol).
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