I had a wonderful time discussing management myths, fake agility, and how to get to done with Kumar Dattatreyan. He runs the Agile Meridian podcast. You can also find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/live/_L4TnfDeQAs?si=SZs1oLuL6faYG7Bg Kumar was a terrific host—we had a delightful conversation. We discussed several of my books: The Modern Management Made Easy books (the […]
Since I am not traveling (!), my podcast returns this week. This is early in a romantic suspense story. Yes, there’s only the suspense right now. The romance part will arrive a little later. Maybe next week. We will see. Hope you enjoy this small glimpse of the story. The Podcast: The Transcript: This is
As far as I can tell, all organizations have the appetite for more work than they have people or time to do that work. It does not matter if the organization is one person or thousands. We all want to accomplish more than we have people. That’s why we need a product vision to drive
I started this series by saying a team can create a useful project charter in less time than you think. So what prevents teams from doing so? Too often, the project is not ready. The team might be ready, but the project is not. In effect, the project starts with scarcity. (I used to think
My podcast this week is an excerpt from a fantasy short story. I will finish it today, mostly because it’s due! Yes, I’m traveling. Yes, I agree, I look terrible. Too bad. I meet my deadlines. I promised you a (mostly) weekly peek into my writing. You get it. (I expect to miss next week’s
I am so pleased to announce I have a short launch video for Effective Public Speaking: How to Use Content Marketing With Stories to Show Your Value. Len Epp, from Leanpub, interviewed me. We both had a great time. While I love to speak about my books, I find doing a video like this challenging.
This is Johanna Rothman’s October 2025 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. I happened to see a recent review of Practical Ways to Manage Yourself that made me laugh. (I don’t normally read book reviews because once I put the book out into the world, that book is
Do you use schedule or tracking tools to predict the future? None of them can predict the future. Worse, too many of them hide the past, especially the recent past. A schedule or tracking tool can only predict one thing: the first possible date you cannot prove you cannot finish the project/story by. Let me
This week’s podcast is an excerpt from a romantic suspense spy story. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 24, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This is part of an espionage, spy, short story.
So far, I’ve addressed how a project charter can help a team start a project fast and well. That’s why the project charter must clarify product vision, the various project risks, and product risks. And, it’s equally important to know what done means. If the team does not know how little they can do to