This is Johanna Rothman’s September 2025 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Humans excel at seeing problem signals—the signs that we have a problem. However, we often have blind spots about the root causes of those problems. Our beliefs and/or insufficient or irrelevant data reinforce those blind spots. […]
Does your team have an overarching goal for its work—a product vision? Too many teams do not. The whole point of a project is to deliver a useful product that satisfies its customers. I like to think about projects as a container of some product value. That means that a given release does not need
This week’s podcast is from the Effective Public Speaking book. The cover people are working on a back cover, which means I’m close, close, close to the end of the publication work. Yay! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for September 19, 2025, where I read
Does your team have a project charter so they know what to do for this project? I see too many teams try to start work without one. That leads to feature factories, apparently random work that does not add value, or worse, a product that’s partly done in too many areas. Teams start without project
Are you trying to change people’s minds? Data can help. But data is not enough. We all need stories to make that human connection. That’s the point of the podcast I recorded with Sam Taggart: Storytelling is Problem Solving. (That’s the link to the podcast for audio listening.) That page also has a link to
As I wait for the back cover and all the other pieces for Effective Public Speaking, I can finally write some fiction. (Yay!) This week’s podcast is the opening of a caper, a form of mystery story. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for September
I’ve been quieter than usual on all the socials and in my writing because I’m deep into finishing the Effective Public Speaking book. (I’m proofing that book today.) That’s because I’m stuck between the tension of finishing this project and starting a new project. I love starting projects. Once I decide to start a project
This week, the podcast is from the Effective Public Speaking book. I am in the midst of the final proofing before I go to print. (Thank goodness!) Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for September 4, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a
I’ve been working with several supposedly “agile” teams and their managers. Everyone knows their project is in trouble. And they have no idea what to do about it. The team members say, “We’re on a death march. We have no predictability. Everything takes longer than we think it will.” The managers say, “We have no
This week’s podcast is from the Effective Public Speaking book. I finished the index and am about to get the various print layouts ready. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for August 29, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some