2020 in Hindsight: What Would You Have Done Differently?

Bill Rossiter

There’s likely one thing we can all agree on about the disorienting year of 2020: we deserve a do-over.

But like all challenges, when things don't exactly go our way, we still win the consolation prize of experience. Navigating a pandemic certainly proved this point—few of us emerged unscathed. Imagine what it would be like for all of us, personally and professionally, if we could have a redo? The Interrupt team indulged the thought and gathered (virtually, these days) to share the things we wish we’d had the foresight to do at the start of that tumultuous year.

Below are 20 random personal thoughts from 20 Interrupt team members on how they answered that question.

After you’re done reading, we invite you to pose the question to yourself.

“I wish I would have ...”

  1. Bought 600 truckloads of lumber and stored on my six acres of property, but not sure my spouse (or horses) would have been happy—well, until I sold it all for big bucks.
  2. Cancelled my $59 Delta Wi-Fi monthly subscription fee (which I should have done a long time ago since it only works 25% of the time!)
  3. I realize this happened at the start of 2021, but it feels like the cherry on top of my 2020—I wish I bought 1,000 shares of GameStop! (One of my sons bought shares and made stupid money, good for him.)
  4. Invested more into my home office space earlier on, had I known how much I would be working in it.
  5. Started daily journaling since so much new stuff transpired in 2020.
  6. Added a Wi-Fi mesh network to my home sooner. Work-from-home and virtual school stretched our Wi-Fi network until we added the mesh network. Incredible difference.
  7. Ordered my replacement windows sooner not knowing there'd be looooonnnnngggg delays. Took over four months (instead of the six weeks they originally quoted). And don’t even get me going on my broken fridge.
  8. Launched a lucrative TikTok career, although I might be too old for the TikTok demographic at this point!
  9. Gotten my generator fixed BEFORE the first big snowstorm of 2020, when power went out for a couple days. Learning to have a contingency to keep the important things working.
  10. Cancelled my gym membership and used dollars to purchase a Peloton bike to work out more given how much I stress-ate.
  11. Gone to a few live concerts while I still could have.
  12. Added satellite internet at our remote cabin so we could have spent more time there during the pandemic while still being able to work effectively.
  13. Recorded every last moment of my daughter’s dance company dress rehearsal. The shutdown started that night and the senior year season she had looked forward to for 10 years never happened.
  14. Bought Bitcoin. When one of my neighbors asked me about buying it, I said I didn’t understand it conceptually so didn’t have comfort investing. (Under $5,000 then, $56,000 today.) Fail.
  15. Moved my desk into the spare bedroom waaaay sooner.
  16. Spent more time in person with my father, who we unfortunately lost on March 27, 2020.
  17. Rethought the just-in-time toilet paper inventory system I used pre-Covid.
  18. Bought stock in Zoom (was about $100, peaked at $550 in October and at press time about $322).
  19. Made time to hang out with friends more.
  20. Taken a great trip with my extended family, especially my parents.

And for manufacturers to consider,

“What if you would have ...”

  1. Never stopped manufacturing production in March and early April. (It could have minimized or eliminated allocation issues and allowed for share gain).
  2. Stopped producing low-profit mix SKUs and replaced with high-end products, forcing the market to figure out how to sell and install only higher-end (higher value/profit) products.
  3. Done a true cost-to-serve/profit audit by customer to help prioritize unprofitable customers to shed in the allocation. (Studies show up to 60% of your customers are unprofitable—do you really know which of yours are?)
  4. Invested in and focused more on innovative digital and video solutions.
  5. Spent the last 12 months better understanding key audiences more deeply (via personas) to help drive deeper engagement.

At Interrupt, we can help you understand these types of opportunities and the best approach to keeping up with the trends in your industry. Contact us for more information or to set up a capabilities presentation.

2021 predictions impacting our industry

More Good Reads

Business Strategy, customer experience, trends & innovation

One House, Multiple Families: Why America Needs Multigenerational Housing for the Masses

The sandwich generation isn’t just a social problem; it’s an innovation problem, too. At some point in our lives, many of us become filling for the so-called sandwich—caring for our own children and our aging parents at the same time. Or we experience transition, in our jobs, relationships, or health, and need to live with family or friends to bridge the gap. This need for multigenerational housing is in direct opposition to our current priority building single-family, nuclear homes in the U.S. Here’s why one writer believes that needs to change, and why it’s an untapped opportunity for the construction and design industries.

trends & innovation

Home Affordability Gone Wild

Home ownership is a core part of The American Dream (if not *the* American dream). What does it mean for the construction building materials industry that so many potential buyers are squeezed out of the process? We explore the factors and how these players might best respond to the coming consequences for multifamily building and material costs.

trends & innovation

How adaptive ball fields are bringing a community together—and what it can teach us about inclusive building  

When the city of Mason approached the Challenger Baseball League about building an adaptive field, Jen Christmas was all in. Not only did she co-lead a $2.5 million capital campaign—she discovered the game-changing power of having the right people ask the right questions. It leads to adaptive construction that does more than comply with laws; it brings together a community of people in ways that weren’t possible before.