Fani Kiran Vulapalli

When I first started working remotely I struggled with communication. Since I wasn’t in the office every day, I couldn’t just stroll up to my coworker’s desk and run an idea or question by them. Instead of face-to-face conversations, I was having chats over Slack and Skype, using emojis to try to translate some semblance of emotion. I remember one specific instance when I reached out to a coworker for help. My initial question was peppered with smiley faces and words like 'howdy' to convey a sense of playfulness. I was greeted with short, one-word answers that jumped straight to the point. While I tried not to read too far into the answers, it was hard not to. Here I was in my first remote work environment trying to connect with coworkers and instead I almost felt like a nuisance. Definitely not the way I wanted to come across. A little over a year later, I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered remote communication, but I have become much more comfortable building relationships...

If you stop by the Patagonia office during lunch you would be more likely to see employees grabbing surfboards and heading to the ocean rather than into a conference room. While that seems like unusual activity for a company that earned $600 million in 2013 it’s all part of an effort to encourage work-life balance at the company. In some circles, the idea of fun in the workplace seems almost contradictory. But, Patagonia and other leading companies like IDEO have demonstrated how emphasizing fun at work can increase productivity, decrease employee turnover, and inspire new products. Why Have Fun in the First Place? It seems like a no-brainer right? Playing was fun when you were a kid. You probably still have a great time playing as an adult. So, why don’t you do it more often? Amidst work, social commitments, childcare, bills, home improvement projects, and the like, finding time to cut loose can be challenging. Research indicates this lack of playtime is detrimental for a...

I read a story recently about two developers. Both had roughly the same expertise and learned at about the same rate. As they improved their skills, one of the developers shared everything he learned on a blog. The blog soon became so popular that he grew a huge audience and raised thousands of dollars in a related Kickstarter campaign. The other developer, having shared nothing he learned, had barely an audience to speak of. What I love about this story is that the developer who didn't share what he learned thought little of the other developer's blog. For him, the blog posts were useless, because it didn't teach him anything he didn't already know. What he failed to realise was that a huge number of people didn't know all those things yet. The first developer took advantage of the fact that there's always someone who doesn't know as much as you. If you know something—and I know you do—you should be sharing what you know right now. Not convinced? H...

As chief HR officer for a professional services company, I’m focused on providing our clients the talent they need when and where they need it. Doing this means I often spend time analyzing key data -- from chargeability and payroll costs to talent supply/demand forecasting and retention. Then there’s a metric many might be surprised to learn I also keep a close eye on: vacation time used. Why? Certainly, a company’s balance sheet can benefit from employees using their paid time off. But to me, the advantages lie in innovation and productivity. I’ve been giving this some thought as I prepare to head on my vacation this week. There is no shortage of research that shows the strong correlation between downtime, creativity and productivity. When the brain takes a prolonged rest, creativity goes up – enabling fresh ideas, better and faster problem solving and ultimately, increased efficiency and productivity. I emphasize prolonged rest because the length of time away from work matter...

Anything is possible in the world of gaming. In the real world, however, your game can get obliterated in no time if you don’t listen and talk the language of your users. You might have a fantastic product on your hands. But communicating this on the right channels, at the right time, in the right tone is the order of the day. The gaming world has definitely tapped marketing in a big way. However advertising dollars can only get you that far if you are a small game developer. More importantly, smaller game developers are mostly cash strapped. Therefore, the right amount of media attention could actually be a huge ‘game changer’ in their overall success. As a PR professional and an avid gamer, here are top 5 things that come to mind when you want to garner the right amount of positive media attention to your gaming app. Compelling Hook Whether you are a game developer or a pin manufacturer, you definitely need that one compelling hook for consumers to engage with you. Since th...

Don’t watch the movie Halloween when you are seven years old. It was a bad idea then and it’s a bad idea now. That mask is why I started sleeping with my bedroom door closed. Some twenty-odd years later, I still see that lumpy-white face when I look out into a dark hallway. Fear is a very strong emotion but I am sure I don’t need to tell you that. I wanted to understand exactly how fear was processed in the brain and what makes it so different from other emotions we can more easily control. What I found out will hopefully give you some better insight for how you can overcome and control your own fears. Fear 101 Fear is not anxiety. Fear is an emotional state that exists in the presence of danger and ends once that danger has passed. Anxiety exists when we anticipate a danger or threat, regardless if one is present or not. “Human anxiety is greatly amplified by our ability to imagine the future, and our place in it, even a future that is physically impossible.”—Joseph LeDou...

Let's say you're feeling unmotivated, unsure of yourself, aimless, can't find your passion, directionless, not clear on what your purpose in life is. You're in good company—most people are in the same boat. This post originally appeared on Zen Habits. Now, there about a million things online telling you how to find your passion in life, and that's a good thing. It's a search worth undergoing. I'm not going to give you a fool-proof method, or a 5-step method, nor share my passion manifesto with you today. I'm going to give you a one-step method. However, that one step is a doozy. The One Step to Finding Your Purpose How to Find Your Life Purpose? Escape Your Bubble EXPAND It's simply this: learn to get outside your personal bubble. Your personal bubble is the small world you live in (we all have one), where you are the center of the universe. You are concerned with your wellbeing, with not wanting to look bad, with succeeding in l...

Behind every great product is a great team. These are the people who will be standing at your side through the ups and downs and everything in between. It’s not enough to just lead, you have to be the right kind of leader for your team. That’s why generic leadership advice can be so hard to parse through. No two teams are the same. Your brand of leadership has to respect that. Want to build a great team? You’ve got to know who you are and that means acknowledging what flaws you have. Think of your team as a mosaic. You’ve got all these seemingly disparate pieces, each functional, each capable in their own right but when you pull back, you get this full, rich image. One that would have never been possible without each piece working together. What am I really saying here? It’s as simple as this: Before you build your first product–before you build anything–you need to build your team. Here’s some tips on how to do it: The New Science of Building Great Teams HBR.ORG Yes, th...

Last Tuesday, after running errands, sitting in traffic, and finishing a normal work day--I still had time to read for nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes. In just one day, I finished nearly half of Essentialism by Greg McKeown. With this kind of speed, my Amazon Wish List would be toast within weeks. Now comes the confession: I wasn’t actually reading. I was listening. Essentialism was my first audiobook. It felt a bit like cheating, like audiobook listeners couldn’t really call themselves hardcore readers. Another problem? While I easily finished the book, I doubt I remember half of the information. This led me to explore the science behind reading retention. It’s easy to blame technology for what appears to be our growing lack of retention. But perhaps we've been asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking on what we should be reading, we're much better off solving the issue of retention by asking how we should be reading. Flipping, Scrolling, and Skipping, Oh my! In 2...

Colors are important to making things look good, whether it's the clothes you wear or the presentation you give at work. But not everyone instinctively knows that orange and blue is a perfect combination. If you can't trust your own judgement, understand and rely on the basics of color theory to always pick the right colors. Learn the Color Wheel This is the basic color wheel and it will guide you in making color choices. You've probably seen it in school, but here's a quick refresher just in case you've forgotten. Red, blue and yellow are primary colors. When you mix red and yellow, you get orange; mix blue and yellow, you get green; mix red and blue, you get violet. Orange, green and violet are hence called secondary colors. Tertiary colors like red-violet and blue-violet are derived by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. All colors have tints and shades. A tint is the variation of that color when mixed with white; a shade is the...

Have you ever sat looking at a blank text document, page, or canvas and wondered how you ever managed to start new projects in the past? Assuming creative block exists (some say it doesn't), it can hit anyone involved in creative work—from writers to performers to composers to scientists. How you work through creative blocks will be different to what works for me, but understanding what they are and why they happen is a good starting point. What are creative blocks? Creative blocks are such abstract notions that it's hard to pin down a specific definition of what they are and why they occur. The general consensus seems to be that a period of time when an artist can't access their inspiration or can't bring themselves to create new work--is a creative block. It's that blank page syndrome by another name. Creative blocks can happen for various reasons. It might come as the result of criticism, as it was for Rachmaninoff, physical or emotional drain, or simpl...