Some writers don’t believe the promise of my Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer book. They don’t believe writing can be fun. Or that writing can free your mind to think of more ideas as you write. They tell me writing is a slog, that they hate it. And they can’t wait to finish the piece. […]
Do you feel as if you are always behind on your project? That someone—or several someones—started before you or your team started this project? It’s not your imagination. They did. At the very least, a product leader or someone on the portfolio team said, “If we created a project to do A thing for B
My podcast this week is from the Effective Public Speaking book. I’m in the midst of rewriting the introduction and Chapter 1. So I alternate between them and reorganize them. Yes, this is perfectly normal for me. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for April
My podcast this week is from the Effective Public Speaking book. Yes, I’m rewriting the introduction to make it more relevant. I suspect I will also find a new chapter title when I’m done writing. Again, this is totally normal for me and how I write books. The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds
In several recent conversations, new nonfiction authors and consultants asked how to best use their time to promote their book or consulting business. Some people asked if they should run ads or otherwise promote their books. (Promotion works differently for fiction. This post is just for nonfiction.) That’s when I asked if they knew the
My podcast this week is from Effective Public Speaking. He said the book was good as it was (it helped the ideal reader, etc.). However, it didn’t specifically speak to my intended audience: writers and consultants who realize they are entrepreneurs. Face palm!! So I’m cycling back through the book and threading those ideas into
If you plan to add a feature or create a new product, there is one overall guideline that might make your efforts more useful. That is this: Know who this feature or product is for. What does that user want to do? How does your product support that user in solving their problem(s)? If you
My podcast this week is from a short story I expect to finish today. I am sure the title will change. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for March 14, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
In my first post, Why We Have Too Much Pressure and Planning & Too Little Delivery, I discussed the issue of too much planning and how that reduced delivery. In this post, I’ll address how to increase delivery by planning less. (I have a draft post of the system view of how too much planning reduces
I work with many teams that have extensive product backlogs. Each iteration has a backlog of more items than the team can typically finish. Worse, some organizations want many quarters’ worth of backlogs, as in the image in this post. There are several problems with long and extensive backlogs: They tend to be wishlists of