Meet Jan Klug, DICE’s Product Director and resident forager, ballroom dancer and powerlifter

When Jan describes his new title – he’s gone from Product Manager to Product Director in the course of the two years he’s been at DICE – he says that he’s in the middle of an experiment of “doing no work”. If that makes him seem idle, let us run through just a few of Jan’s hobbies: parkour, powerlifting, camping, hiking, ballroom dancing, music production, and home-brewing alcohol. The Hong Kong-born, London-based member of the Product team is industrious, to say the least, and his “no work” experiment is really about putting all of his time and energy into building up his department’s teams so they can run as efficiently as possible. Read on to find out about his foraging expeditions around London, his love of old school Dutch trance, and watching Black Sabbath crack the sky open.

On his “no work” experiment

I’ve gone from building products to building product teams. The way I describe it is that, right now, I’m in the middle of an experiment where I’m trying to do as little on the day-to-day as possible and focus entirely on hiring and setting up my teams to be as successful as they can be. Most of my impact is around alignment and making sure that everyone is in the same direction but not necessarily moving in lockstep. Instead of steering a ship, I’m trying to get a squadron of speed boats to go in the same direction. 

On his favourite gig ever

My favourite gig was British Summer Time, a festival in Hyde Park. I went with a big group of people on the metal day, when Soulfly, Faith No More, Motörhead and Black Sabbath were playing. I’m really glad I got to see Motörhead before Lemmy passed. The day culminated in Black Sabbath. It was a beautiful, bright, sunny day, and I kid you not, right when Black Sabbath played their opening chords, clouds gathered in the sky and it started pouring with rain. I don’t know if Ozzy is capable of magic, but that day made me a believer.

On what he likes to forage around London

I spend a lot of time in green space. My happy day would be getting coffee and then going out foraging. I learnt how to forage as a Boy Scout, but I got really into it during the pandemic because my partner lives near Hampstead Heath. I forage for a lot of herbs – one of my favourites is goosegrass. It makes an amazing pesto, but it’s also just a nice garnish if you fry it in oil. Nettles are a great spinach alternative, too.

On inheriting his love of Dutch trance

I grew up without much access to music. My dad had to leave his record collection behind when he moved to mainland China [from Germany], so we didn’t have much music in the house when I was growing up. Eventually, during the days of Napster, my dad would find old songs that he used to listen to, and he’d play those around the house. But then he got big into techno in the late ’90s and early 2000s, so I listened to loads of Dutch trance with him. It still occupies a special place in my heart.

On never planning with zero margins

I’m as organised as I can be with work, but I’m getting better at not planning my personal life down to a tee. A great thing that I’ve learnt recently is the concept of error budgets, which is something my friend taught me. Don’t plan stuff with zero margins: always have a 10% buffer with your time, with the amount of effort you put into something, because you will always burn up that budget. When I’m meeting people now, I always budget a 10% leeway. The worst thing that can happen is that you show up 10 minutes early. 

On what excites him about his job

I remember when I was 10 years old in Shanghai, unable to go to shows because they literally didn’t exist, and then how excited I was going to my first show in the UK – I saw The Hives at Alexandra Palace. It has interesting acoustics, and it’s just a really cool venue for a massive show. I just want everyone to have that joy. I know we’re not doing rocket science, but if we can make rocket scientists happier because they saw a great show over the weekend, maybe they can build those rockets faster.