About me

• Sr. Director. Discovery & Design at AstraZeneca

• Super passionate about Problem Framing  (1, 2)

• Living in Paradise (Tampa, Florida) 

• Headphones on ~95% of the time (MS Teams or Spotify)

• Super eclectic taste in music (Sade to Yngwie, Marvin Gaye to Metallica. Not a fan of country music) 

• Live to work / highly engaged (positive, upbeat, glass half full and you can always refill it)

• I believe people are inherently good

Passionately Opinionated, Admittedly Human

I am highly engaged and spend a lot of time thinking about the work, and bring a number of years of experience to the job, so when I offer an opinion, it’s generally because I’ve thought through things pretty deeply or because I understand the situation really well. I can usually rattle off a number of pros & cons pretty quickly. That said, I’m human, and fallible, and willing to admit when I'm wrong (when the facts change…). If there is a disagreement about something, I try to carve out time to challenge my thinking and consider alternate points of view… 

Need to know

• I’m roughly ~70% introvert, and really value alone time (I need it to recharge) 

• I prefer small teams of passionate people, and am totally comfortable working alone 

• I think most meetings are a waste of time, and am deeply suspicious of any that have more than 3 to 5 attendees… and most meetings are too long. 

• Hates when people credential themselves (repeatedly), I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care

• Hates when people complain 

• I’m totally comfortable (even thrive) with ambiguity

• I want people to regard me as smart; and I write people off too quickly that I don’t think are smart or engaged (unengaged people are my kryptonite) 

• Blind Spots are organizational politics and  assuming that everyone knows everything that I know or everything I’m thinking

Working with me

I'm an incredible optimist, and believe that most things are possible. When people say that things are hard or can't be done, I want (need) them to explain why. 

• I’m typically online and ready to meet by 6AM EST (11AM UK)

• I tend to shut down around 5PM EST (10PM UK) for a couple of hours, but will work a few nights a week

• Email or Teams, then text, then phone call. 

• I'm not good with small blocks of time. I need long blocks of uninterrupted time to be productive 

I commit to the following, and look for the same in the people I work with:

• Passionate ownership and engagement of the work I’m involved in

• Be intellectually curious, and seek to understand as much as possible

• Recognize the goal is delivery  

• Have genuine empathy for our customers and our team  

• Politics free - my only agenda is to improve the lives of patients, partners and co-workers 

• Admit I’m not always right, develop something to help us work through disagreements

~20 things you might not know about me:

1. Salty, not sweet (pretzels, not chocolate) 

2. I was robbed at gunpoint; it changed my life

3. I love movie quotes! 

4. My favorite book is Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, 

5. My favorite business book is Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

6. I lost my sister to Leukemia when I was 15 (she was 18) 

7. I’ve been to Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand,  - and would love to go back to any of them

8. I took a class in DC on how to make French Macaroons, but I still can’t get them right

9. There was a time when I could do a great Katherine Hepburn impression, but those days are gone

10. I enjoy watching football (European, what we call soccer). I like AC Milan & Barcelona 

11. My superpower if my ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime... at the drop of a hat (unless I’m thinking about something work related, I have at least 1 work-related sleepless night a week).

12. My musical tastes are very eclectic, I don’t care for Opera or Country though

13. TV isn’t my thing, I love movies, especially comedies and suspense movies (not horror or supernatural thrillers)

14. Believe it or not, I’m not really a Sci-Fi guy

15. I’m not good in large social situations, they paralyze me

16. My drink of choice is Hendricks & Tonic with lime (you probably already know about the coffee)

17. I’ve traveled to 38 of the 50 states. States I’m missing are: Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa, Alabama, New Hampshire, Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii. 

18. I drive a nice car, but I’m not really a car guy

19. I’m the least handy homeowner, ever. Changing lightbulbs is about where it ends for me

You can reach me at jstrande@gmail.com