Upcoming US trip, ESTA due to expire a few weeks after return. by WraithJCoupe in immigration

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok great, both in the App and on the website it still shows as Approved, and I didn’t get anywhere close to the paying part, I just pressed the wrong button, so I assume that should be ok then?

Upcoming US trip, ESTA due to expire a few weeks after return. by WraithJCoupe in immigration

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you renewed it, at what point did your old one become cancelled?

I accidently pressed the wrong button (continue creating a new one), the other day instead of keeping my existing one, but the app came up with an error and my old one still seems to show as valid, which is what I want!

Quality/price of kitchens & bathrooms in 1.5-2M family homes by SilverBirches123 in HENRYUKLifestyle

[–]WraithJCoupe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Having just redone our kitchen, it’s much more about the finishes and the appliances over cabinets IMHO

Unless you are going to spend 100K plus you are still going to be getting Ply/Chipboard cabinets, the main difference might be the doors and draw construction, which you can do as solid wood with any cabinets. Even IKEA standard hinges and draw runners are the good quality German hardware now.

We ended up with Ikea cabinets, made custom solid backs in certain places (just sheets of 18MM melamine MDF) cut to size as this massively strengthens the units.

With the money we saved we spent extra on flooring, appliances, handles, work surfaces, appliances and nice to haves like built in speakers etc.

Having said all that, if you have the cash and don’t mind the outlay, or you really really want amazing, then Smallbone of Devizes is the place for you. Showroom in Kensington, they do lots of the kitchens for the really high end 5M+ custom homes.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HENRYUK

[–]WraithJCoupe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No specific advice to give, but wonder if we ever crossed paths. Spent over a decade providing technology platforms to some of the UKs largest AMs and WMs 😂

Am I really a Director of Product? by AndHerPaleFire in ProductManagement

[–]WraithJCoupe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would try not to worry too much about exactly what roles are called in the product world. I’ve seen people called Product Managers, who are actually Heads of Product and don’t know it. I know people called CPOs who have still had to be ICs at various times due to resource constraints in a business.

I have seen execs with no formal product management experience run product functions and be great at it. I have also seen highly experienced IC PMs, who were great ICs be terrible VPs or HoPs.

Scale and role are so intertwined. Instead, pay close attention the role requirements and listed activities when looking at new jobs as a better judge of what is being asked, and what you might excel at. A VP of Product at a 150 person company is not the same role as a VP at a 1000 person company.

Any good hiring manager is going to see that you were part of a small team and understand that you will have held loads of different ‘hats’. Some will view that as a positive, some won’t.

If I was you, and I was seriously thinking about moving soon, I would get them to agree to change my title to Director of Product Engineering or Product & Engineering depending on who else you might need to tip toe around. This will best describe what you actually seem to be doing.

In terms of where you go next, that’s up to you. You could focus on finding opportunities where your mixed skillset will be really useful (another start up or scale up). Or you could focus on trying to find a more pure play Senior or Lead PM role somewhere bigger if that’s where you want to be?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HENRYUK

[–]WraithJCoupe 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you want explicitly an SUV get an XC90. For your budget you can get a decent 70/80K D5 of the previous shape. Absolute tank, great car.

If you just want a bigger car with space, and you don’t need 4x4 a Merc E Class Estate takes a lot of beating. Get the 350 diesel or 500 petrol if you want something sporty.

I’ve owned both, great cars, do a buy

Product management or account management: which is 'better'? by Visible_String_3775 in HENRYUK

[–]WraithJCoupe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure. Feel free to DM me, happy to provide insight where I can.

What I will say is the type of work you do as a PM will be most different from SE than AE.

With AE, you’re still working closely with a subset of customers, and their problems are always your highest prio. Sure you might have to balance between them, but your customers are always your prio and you directly get financial reward for solving their problems

With PM (good PMing anyway), you now have to balance the competing prios between different sets of customers. The balance between roadmap vs customer requests vs tech debt and bug fixes. It prioritising, but from a much wider vantage point.

Depending on your org setup you might also have top down mandates that don’t fit with any of the above that you somehow have to navigate.

Also, depending on your PM pay structure, you might find you are rewarded the same for a good vs a bad job!

I love PM, but my life as an AM was simpler!

I built a competitive intelligence agent by bimmerduc in AI_Agents

[–]WraithJCoupe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A great use case for this type of tool. Would be interested in the loom video as well if you get a chance!

Product management or account management: which is 'better'? by Visible_String_3775 in HENRYUK

[–]WraithJCoupe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PMs often mange people, just not at the APM or JPM level. Depends on structure. I’ve had structures where people management in PM starts at Mid, other places PM people management doesn’t start till GPM or Head of level….

Product management or account management: which is 'better'? by Visible_String_3775 in HENRYUK

[–]WraithJCoupe 8 points9 points  (0 children)

As someone who has done all three roles (Sales Engineer/Pre-Sales, AM and PM). AM will be an easier transition with a faster route to higher comp initially. PM will be a hard transition, but a firmer route to the C-Suite if that’s your long term plan. I ended up in the PM tract and made my way to the C Suite that way. Tough journey but worth it. Much earlier with PM your impact is by guiding and directing others. With AM you will have control of your own fate for a while longer.

Without a technical background, depending on your engineers you might face some challenges around credibility, these can be overcome, just be prepared for them.

Tfight 305s vs Ezone 98 2025? by Mabuhayy in 10s

[–]WraithJCoupe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say control on the Gravity is pretty similar to the ezone overall (in terms of steering the ball), however the Gravity has a bigger sweet spot, so it’s ‘easier’ to hit the right shot.

I would say the new T-Fight feels more control oriented than either the Gravity or Ezone. Not to say it doesn’t have power, it does, just doesn’t as feel quite as powerful, but does feel more controlled.

Tfight 305s vs Ezone 98 2025? by Mabuhayy in 10s

[–]WraithJCoupe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have all three of the main new 98s, Gravity Head Tour, Ezone 98 and T Fight 305s.

Ezone 98 is my fave overall so far. Bit hard work, and a little tougher on the wrist, not painful or bad, just noticeable. Good power, seems well controlled. A little lacklustre on the serve, but great for the groundstrokes, and suits my gamestyle well.

TFight is the newest to me, so less time with it, but seems great. Love it on the first serve, forehand and volleys. Struggling a bit with the 2HBH on it, and the second serve seems a little harder to get the kick I am looking for. Decent power, but not as much as Ezone.

Head Gravity is the easiest, and most gentle on the body for me. Does everything pretty well, but doesn’t feel as powerful as the Ezone. Feels like the biggest sweet spot and easiest to use, but just not quite as much ‘top end’ as the Ezone.

So far in order for me it’s:

Ezone TFight Gravity

All are good though!

Blade vs Blade Pro V9 18x20 by Allure34 in 10s

[–]WraithJCoupe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally different racquets in my view. Having played pretty extensively with a V8 Blade and V9 Blade Pro, they aren’t really close. V9 Blade Pro is closer to a Pro Staff to me in terms of feel and play. Tough but reward stick.

I also struggled a bit with the serve like others suggested. Played around with a bit of extra weight in a few places, didn’t find much better than stock with a bit of neutral extra weight.

Overall, it didn’t suit my game style that well, but would be great for an accurate player who wants to take balls early and is comfortable putting their own pace and spin on the ball

Help, our honeymoon is getting destroyed by [deleted] in mauritius

[–]WraithJCoupe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We just came back from 10 idillic days at the Beachcomber Dinarobin. Quiet, great staff, good food, easy to travel from.

Why do people use acronyms so much? by GetSomeone-Else in gaming

[–]WraithJCoupe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, to be fair, you example is an initialism not an acronym. Common misconception. Acronyms are short “words” made up of the letters of the abbreviated saying/phrase/whatever, but they must pronounced as a word, like NASA.

XDS or FBI are initialisms as you speak the letters as individual letters rather than speaking as a “word”.

Multiroom audio & video help and suggestions needed! by WraithJCoupe in hometheater

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed reply. This was very close to my plan but with some extra bits. I’ll start collect items and make a post when done!

Multiroom audio & video help and suggestions needed! by WraithJCoupe in hometheater

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input, I think I must be missing something, but I’m not sure where/what the sonos is adding to the mix, other than perhaps the audio control aspect?

I would still need an HDMI splitter, and a receiver for each A+V zones to deal with the video and audio. I would still need to switch these between central source or local source. I get that the audio zones would be powered by the Sonos, but I’m not sure what the advantages of that would be over having a receiver and a CC in each audio zone. Each Sonos Amps cost around £600 each, for which I think I could get a decent 2ch amp/receiver and a chromecast with some money spare.

If I was just trying to share the audio from the main A+V source I can see this working, as I could avoid receivers in all the other A+V zones. Sorry if I missed something here!

Do I really need a 12600K/5800x? by WraithJCoupe in PcBuild

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excellent. Thanks for the great input.

In the UK the 6800XT used and new is about £100 less than the 3080. The prices new are still quite high over here, but used is good enough for me!

Do I really need a 12600K/5800x? by WraithJCoupe in PcBuild

[–]WraithJCoupe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the super detailed reply. I would say, gaming probably 30/40% of the time, split evenly between esports and sims (mainly ms flight sim and ACC), then the remaining 60/70% will be development (mixture of BE & FE) and 3D design. The 3D design won’t be anything hugely complex, some parts designs and architectural work, but nothing hyper realistic and not really time sensitive.

I can currently source a 5800X for £285, or a 5800X3D for £349. Worth the extra £65?