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.

agile, MPD

Creating Agile HR, Part 7: Agile Feedback and Coaching

What can we make more “agile” in HR? Aside from an agile approach to recruiting and hiring, we can make feedback and coaching much more iterative and incremental. Add in collaborative feedback and coaching, and appreciations, and it starts to look like an agile approach to “managing performance.” Performance “Management” is Really About Power In […]

agile, MPD

Creating Agile HR, Part 6: the Agile Compensation System

I wrote about career ladders in Creating Agile HR, Part 5: Performance Management, the Career Ladder. Once you have a career ladder, it’s easy for everyone to understand the criteria for a given level. That means you can use an “agile” approach to manage compensation. Compensation is part of career management. Career management includes: Recognition (what

MPD, program management

Agile Program Measurements to Visualize and Track Progress

Program sponsors and the teams themselves want to know where they are in the program. What’s started? What’s not? How much more remains? It’s tempting to measure “everything.” That creates another problem: You might spend too much time attempting to gather data that doesn’t provide enough information. You might even miss seeing the real progress

agile, MPD

Creating Agile HR, Part 5: Performance Management, the Career Ladder

One of the big roles of HR is to shepherd the assessment of people and their fit for their jobs. That’s called “managing performance.” Managing performance is about: Creating and curating a career ladder for all jobs. That’s exempt (salaried), non-exempt (hourly), and all management. Manage salary parity. HR might help a manager learn how to provide feedback and coaching. (I

hiring process, HTP

Creating Agile HR, Part 4: Agile Sourcing

Sourcing, how and where you recruit possible candidates is a great way to use small, safe-to-fail experiments. That’s because the recruiting landscape continues to change. A little history: in the past, we read newspapers—on paper! Before the Civil Rights Act, employers advertised for “Men Wanted” and “Women Wanted.” (I don’t remember if that was women

newsletter

The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2

The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2 In The Case for Stable Teams, Part 1 , I wrote about stable teams as a way to create jelled teams. My guideline was that the longer it took for people to be useful in the team, the more you needed a stable team. Otherwise, the cost of

hiring process, HTP

Creating Agile HR, Part 2: A Flow for Agile Hiring

This is part of an Agile HR series. The previous post is Creating Agile HR, Part 1: What HR Does This post is about creating a flow for agile hiring. Why flow? Very few people hire continuously. That means resumes don’t arrive at the every day, and certainly not at the same pace of arrival—or even

agile, MPD

Creating Agile HR, Part 1: What HR Does

One of the challenges as an organization becomes agile is what to do with HR and Finance. How can HR and Finance become more agile? In this series, I’ll address HR (Human Resources). (I’d actually started drafting this series a few months ago, but Diana Larsen pinged me with her note of Human Resources Is Dead.

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