Author name: Johanna

I help you identify and solve the problems that prevent you from releasing systems, hiring the right people, deciding which project to work on next. I take a pragmatic approach: what will work best for you, now? Some people call me a focuser. Some call me an accelerator. When I work with people, first we define our goal together. Typically, it's to get a better product out the door faster. I work with my clients to help managers figure out how to do the managing better, and how the technical contributors can contribute better, not to create a by-the-book system. I work with you, your staff, and your current product development practices. Together, we learn what works well for you and what doesn't. I believe in changing only what needs to be changed at the current time, to maximize your success. We work together to develop a blueprint for the future, and to build in capacity to recognize and implement change.

MPD, thinking

When to Speak and When to Be Quiet

  I’m in the middle of a new activity for me: visiting colleges with Daughter#1. (She’s a senior in high school, trying to decide where she wants to attend school next year.) When I was thinking about college (university to those of you across the pond), my father told me I could go up to

MPD

A Sometimes Useful Practice: One Automated Test per Feature

  Not every product has smoke tests (a series of tests you can run after each build to make sure the product works well enough to continue development and testing). Smoke tests provide early feedback to developers about their work. So, for the last several years, I’ve been suggesting to my clients that as they

HTP, job analysis

Assessing Candidates with New-to-You Skills

Let me pose a situation facing one of my clients now. Their business is expanding, and they’ve agreed to develop a product that’s tangential to their current product line. This new product requires a new piece. If you’re a software company, imagine it’s a piece of hardware. If you’re a hardware company, imagine it’s software.

MPD

Delegating Successfully

  We’re in the last stretch of finishing Behind Closed Doors, and now we’re fixing/regenerating pictures. When Esther and I made the pictures originally, we wrote them on flip charts and took pictures of them. (We were talking about information on flip charts — made sense to us.) Well, it turns out the pictures are

hiring strategy, HTP

Where is the Risk?

Auren Hoffman has an intriguing post, It is too risky not to take a risk, suggesting that people take what appears to be the “risky” job rather than the safe job.I see it differently. I don’t see jobs as risks, but as opportunities. I tried to select my jobs based on where I would learn

HTP, job analysis

Attracting Candidates to “Unattractive” Jobs

During a recent workshop, one of the hiring managers asked, “How do we attract people to unattractive jobs, such as contract or temporary positions?” The first thing is to change your mindset. This job might be unattractive to you, but it’s bound to be attractive to other people. This job is an opportunity to some

MPD

Manager or Lead?

  In the past few months, I’ve been teaching a variety of project management and hiring workshops. And (surprisingly to me), we’ve had discussions about whether someone is a manager or a lead. Some organizations have an aversion to calling people “managers.” Instead, they call them “leads.” One organization called their project managers “people lead.”

hiring strategy, HTP

I Don’t Hate HR

If you haven’t yet read Why We Hate HR, it’s time. The main points of the article are: HR should help find the best hires HR should nurture the stars HR should foster a productive work environment Keith Hammonds, the author, says HR should be joined to business strategy at the hip. Ahem. I disagree.

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