Since I’m running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book, I expect to record several videos about the myths and traps of public speaking. However, I never memorize my talks. These videos are not exactly presentations because I’m trying to keep them short, so people will watch them or read these blog posts. So […]
So far, this series has focused on smaller efforts, such as one or two products or one or two teams. But what if you have a larger effort, where several teams need to collaborate to deliver the business value? That’s a program. (I wrote Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization to
I’ve run the Free Your Inner Writer workshop since 2018. The writers who do the work tell me they find it helpful and a way to start their writing careers. (Regardless of how much they choose to write.) This Q1 2026 workshop will be the last workshop where I offer writers my personalized feedback. You can
I’m continuing my podcast this year. This week, it’s an excerpt from a science fiction mystery short story. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for January 2, 2026, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This is part
Many writers think they need to make a specific piece “perfect” before they can publish it. I do agree that checking your logic and removing typos makes any piece much easier to read. However, these writers trip themselves up on the “perfection” part. If a writer gets stuck on the perfection part, they stop themselves
This week’s podcast is part of a science fiction mystery story. Here’s a little behind-the-scenes: I cycle in my fiction, just as I do in my nonfiction. However, my fiction seems to require a whole lot more cycling at the start of the piece, to cement the setting. As I recorded this podcast, I realized
I reviewed where I was on that product value team post, the one that made me draw a picture. Yes, all 1200 words of it. That’s when I laughed out loud and decided to toss that post in the trash. That would allow me to start fresh. Why? I might be able to salvage the
I’m trying to finish my product value team series. I started what I thought was the next-to-last post. I’m still writing, almost 1200 words later. (1200 words!!) I’m stuck. Clearly not with the words. I got a lot of words. But with the ideas. I’m having trouble expressing what I mean. That’s when I realized
I started this series bemoaning the fact that we have too few product managers. That leads to no product leaders for a team. Worse, some teams have either strategic product thinkers or tactical thinkers—but not both. Instead, we can consider several possible product value teams to prevent insufficient product leadership. I already discussed the Vertical
Some of the writers who take my writing workshop tell me they have writer’s block. But they can write me long emails, so it’s not literally writer’s block. However, they are stuck on something—something that prevents them from writing something useful. So they call it writer’s block. Instead, I suspect they have project block, where