Tim, a C-Level leader, loves his skip-level meetings. He feels the meetings offer him a chance to connect with people he doesn’t normally see. They get to talk about whatever the other person wants. Sharon, a different C-Level leader, never conducts skip-level meetings. She feels that those meetings might cause her managers to feel unsafe, […]
Dave Prior interviewed me for his podcast, the Drunken PM. You can read and see the podcast on: Projectmanagement.com, in Dave’s Reluctant Agilist column. See Successful Independent Consulting with Johanna Rothman. Or watch it on YouTube. Or hear it on DrunkenPM Radio. While I use Overcast for my podcast subscriptions, you might like Soundcloud or
Several people have contacted me recently about “missing” articles on this site. They say, “Here’s a URL and why isn’t the article there?” The article isn’t there because I didn’t write it. Yet. But the people contact me because the LLMs (Large Language Models) claim I have written these articles. How did the LLMs do
In product development, we often use the words, “user” and “customer” interchangeably. But they mean different things depending on the type of product you create. I wonder if it’s time to stop talking about “customers” altogether. It’s time to clarify who we want to satisfy, so we can make better product decisions. Here are my
Here are several unsolicited offers I received in email and various messaging today: An unsolicited email explaining my site was slow and not high-ranking in SEO. Another unsolicited offer to totally redo my social media. And yet a third unsolicited offer to make my consulting business much more successful by allowing AI to write content
Very few writers—nonfiction or fiction—sell a lot of books. That means they don’t make money from their books alone. What’s a writer to do? Take a look at the 2023 Write Stuff bundle. The bundle will help you see where you might improve your craft and your business. Most of the books apply to all
Is your organization in search of business agility? If so, here’s one pragmatic tip: Reduce WIP (Work in Progress) everywhere. Start with the portfolio of everything you have to do. Ask the Zeroth Question, “Should we do this work at all?” Then, consider these questions, from One Quick Way to Start to Manage Your Project
Up until now, when thinking about risks, I defaulted to the risks in the project pyramid. That’s because each project offers different value over the product’s lifetime. (See Product Roles, Part 4: Product Orientation and the Role of Projects for images of why we want ever-increasing product value, but why we might space the projects
Many nonfiction writers start books with outlines. I’m not big on outlines because they shortcut the writer’s thinking. (Nonfiction writers think and learn as they write.) However, some writers go off on tangents without outlines. Or, some writers (raises hand) are prone to put everything she ever learned about this topic into one book. Either
I am thrilled to announce a book birthday: Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit. People often ask me how long it takes me to write a book. Every book takes the time it takes. But this one took much longer than I expected. Here’s the story of the consulting book. In the