Road trip retrospective

Jun 23

For most of my time at Milliman, a part of my job was software product management. So it was only a small surprise to see that after writing up notes about my road trip, I had done a classic software product management retrospective without thinking about it. I measured what mattered, and documented what I liked and would want more of, what I would keep the same, and what I didn’t like or would want less of.

My last post covered the big picture of my road trip, and a few highlights. Here is the more specific, less narrative, view of the trip.

Road trip in numbers

5740 miles
368 gallons of gas (from $3.269/gal in Minnesota to $4.799/gal in Washington)
75 hours of client work (of a target of 80)
50+ colleagues and friends seen or new connections made
40+ national parks/state parks/city parks/national forests/national monuments visited
34 nights away from home
32 nights in the van
23 run/walk/hikes
17 stops going, 8 stops coming home
16 Instagram posts
13 podcasts tried
12 states
11 people more convinced they need a van and/or dog
8 audio books tried (4 finished)
6 dog parks
4 breweries
3 days at a conference
2 items left behind (collapsible dog water dish, laptop charger)
1 day without Doolin
0 pounds gained/lost

What would I want less of

Driving fatigue – Could I find an electric van with autonomous driving mode? Maybe one day? In the meantime, shorten the length of my longest driving days, to recognize that I drive slower than Google maps assumes when I’m in a giant van that catches gusts of wind.
Clothes, road food – Easy enough to pack a little less.
Business attire – Jeans and sneakers can be dressed up or down with blazers an accessories, and very few situations require something more.

What I would keep the same

The season was perfect, I could see possibly trying for a fall trip after the heat of summer and before snow hits the mountains again.
Sleeping, cooking, and working in the van all worked great, as did my organization system.
The van! I rented it through Outdoorsy, but got to know the owner as well. He did an impeccable job building out the bed, storage, kitchen, window covers, electricity, work station, and so many more details. I would definitely want a van with similar amenities, if not the same exact one.

What I would want more of

More time between visiting people. There are a lot of ways I could make this happen, it’ll be a work in progress learning how to manage the emotional energy I have along the way.
More time with a human copilot (Collin) in addition to the canine one.
Get more exercise. This could be easier with a different balance of time between visits.
Plan stops at public aquatic centers (like the hot springs) to swim/soak/shower. That was brilliant.
Audiobooks and podcasts that teach me what I want to learn. I stumbled around this time and cobbled a few great things together, but a few duds as well. I would plan a syllabus and make sure any library audiobooks are available in time.
Bring nature reference books. I have a handful of books on plants and animals and clouds and geology and stars and it would be fun to have them around to understand better what I see along the roads.

Reading list

I borrowed these audiobooks from the Seattle Public Library Links through Libby. Links go to their pages on Libby. I looked for books on AI as well, but wound up learning about that via podcasts instead, both because they were more up to date, and because the waiting list for any books I wanted was longer than the road trip itself. I’ll share more on that in my next post.