The Pragmatic Manager: An Email Newsletter
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See all previous Pragmatic Manager Newsletters in reverse chronological order here.
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Previous Pragmatic Manager Newsletters by Topic
agile
- 3 Quick Project Portfolio Tips
- Agile Programs: Possible or a Pipe Dream?
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 1: Manage for Change
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 2: Emphasize Collaboration
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 3: Principles Over Practices
- Being An Agile Leader
- Build Your Agile Leadership
- Build Your Agile Tribe
- Building or Maintaining Agility in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Create Your Agile Culture: Embrace, Not Manage Change
- Creating Change That Lasts
- Define Your Agile Success
- Developing and Nurturing Respect in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey?
- Go Small to Gain Momentum
- Hours of Overlap, the First Principle of Successful Distributed Teams
- How Do You Change?
- How Do You Tell Your Agile Story?
- Is Your Agile Journey Based on Problems or Process?
- Knowing When an Agile Project is Done
- Knowledge, Risks and Guarantees
- Lead Your Agile Transition Through Influence
- Managing Timezones in Geographically Distributed Agile Teams
- Own Your Leadership, Part 1
- Own Your Leadership, Part 3
- Plan, Plan, Plan
- Reframe the “How Much” Conversation to “How Little”
- Scale Agile With Small-World Networks
- Scaling Agile and Lean to Programs
- See Your Agile Collaboration Traps
- See Your Agile Estimation Traps
- See Your Agile Measurement Traps
- Standup or Handoff?
- Three Collaboration Secrets to Create Your Agile Culture
- Three New Year's Tips to Ease Your Team's Agility
- Three Secrets for a Successful Job Search
- Three Secrets for Improvement by Subtraction
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
- Three Tips for Your Geographically Distributed Agile Teams
- Three Tips to Move from Agile in Name Only to Real Agility
- Time for a Decision
- Understand Your Project Interdependencies
- Use the Power of Your Rumor Mill
- Using Checkins to Create Transparency
- Want a Successful Agile Transformation? Invite Managers
- What Happened to the Beautiful Plans? (They Became Experiments)
- Why Do Iterations Have to be the Same Duration in Agile?
change
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 1: Manage for Change
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 2: Emphasize Collaboration
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 3: Principles Over Practices
- Build Your Agile Tribe
- Create Your Agile Culture: Embrace, Not Manage Change
- Creating Change That Lasts
- Emergent Projects: Managing the Unpredictable
- Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey?
- How Do You Change?
- Is Your Agile Journey Based on Problems or Process?
- Johanna's 2013 New Year's Tips
- Plan, Plan, Plan
- Prepare to Become More Influential
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 3, Shared Interests
- Three Tips for Artisanal Change
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Start with Yourself)
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Support Others)
- When Is It Time for a Change?
coaching
- Always Ask the Zeroth Question About Your Projects
- Are You Being Guilted Into Doing More?
- Are Your “Shoulds” Driving Your Decisions?
- Being An Agile Leader
- Building Rapport
- Explaining Options When You Coach
- Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey?
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- Johanna's 2013 New Year's Tips
- Own Your Leadership, Part 1
- Prepare to Become More Influential
- Take Advantage of Opportunities for Speed Coaching
- The Problem Statement is Not Always the Problem
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
collaboration
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 2: Emphasize Collaboration
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 3: Principles Over Practices
- Johanna's 2014 New Year's Tips
- See Your Agile Collaboration Traps
- Three Collaboration Secrets to Create Your Agile Culture
- Three New Year's Tips to Ease Your Team's Agility
- Three Secrets for Improvement by Subtraction
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 3, Shared Interests
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Support Others)
- Time for a Decision
culture or cultural fit
- Create Your Agile Culture: Embrace, Not Manage Change
- How Do We Treat Each Other?
- Providing Effective Correcting and Reinforcing Feedback
- Three Ways to Rethink Your Business
- What Does Your Organization Reward?
- What Happened to the Beautiful Plans? (They Became Experiments)
- Your Culture: What is Okay for You to Discuss?
- Great People Create Great Products
- How Do We Treat Each Other?
- Your Culture: What is Okay for You to Discuss?
done
- Look for Results, not Time
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 3
- Use Overtime as a Last Resort
- Who Decides What Done Means for a Program?
estimation
- Creating Trustworthy Estimates
- How to Avoid Three Big Estimation Traps
- Knowledge, Risks and Guarantees
- Three Parts of Estimation
- When You Need to Commit
facilitation
fault feedback ratio
- Define Your Agile Success
- Discovering and Maintaining Your Project's Heartbeat, Part 2
- Look for Results, not Time
remote or geographically distributed teams
- Building or Maintaining Agility in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Building Trust in Any Team
- Developing and Nurturing Respect in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Distributed? Yes. Alone? No.
- Hours of Overlap, the First Principle of Successful Distributed Teams
- How to Manage by “Walking Around” When You're Remote
- Lead Your Team's Transparency and Pervasive Communication
- Managing Timezones in Geographically Distributed Agile Teams
- Micromanagement is Not Transparency!
- Secrets to Catch Yourself Mind-Reading
- Standup or Handoff?
- Start Your Geographically Distributed Projects Right
- Three Ideas to Boost Your Productivity
- Three Predictions About the Future of Remote Work
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Start with Yourself)
- Three Tips for Your Geographically Distributed Agile Teams
- Timeboxes Help Multisite Teams
- Using Checkins to Create Transparency
- Work From Home? Three Ideas for Better Project Agility
Hiring Geeks That Fit
- Great People Create Great Products
- How Do We Treat Each Other?
- How Effective Are You?
- Small Steps, Frequent Deliverables Work
- The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2
- The Case For Stable Teams, Part 1
- What Does Your Organization Reward?
- Your Culture: What is Okay for You to Discuss?
hiring
- Great People Create Great Products
- How Do We Treat Each Other?
- More People Does Not Equal Better Projects
- What Does Your Organization Reward?
- Your Culture: What is Okay for You to Discuss?
inch-pebble
- A New Year's Tip: Start Small
- Discovering and Maintaining Your Project's Heartbeat, Part 1
- Look for Results, not Time
influence
- Being An Agile Leader
- Build Your Agile Leadership
- Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey?
- How Do You Tell Your Agile Story?
- Lead Your Agile Transition Through Influence
- Managing People: Using Influence
- Own Your Leadership, Part 1
- Prepare to Become More Influential
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 2, Trust
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 3, Shared Interests
- Want a Successful Agile Transformation? Invite Managers
interviewing
iteration
- Developing and Nurturing Respect in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Three Secrets for a Successful Job Search
job search
leadership or servant leadership
- Agile Transformation Secrets, Part 1: Manage for Change
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Discovering Your Leadership
- Do You Have an Abundance or Scarcity Mindset?
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- Do You Want More Productivity?
- How Do You Tell Your Agile Story?
- How to Manage by “Walking Around” When You're Remote
- How to Say, “I Don't Know” and Keep Your Job
- Johanna's 2014 New Year's Tips
- Lead Your Agile Transition Through Influence
- Own Your Leadership, Part 2
- Plan, Plan, Plan
- Productive vs. Busy
- Solve Problems With the Rule of Three
- Take Advantage of Opportunities for Speed Coaching
- Three Myths and Three Tips
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 3, Shared Interests
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Start with Yourself)
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
- Using One-on-Ones to Build Trust
- Being An Agile Leader
- Build Your Agile Leadership
- Build Your Agile Tribe
- Create Your Agile Culture: Embrace, Not Manage Change
- Create Your Peer Management Team for Fun and Profit (and to Solve Problems)
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Define Your Agile Success
- Do You Want More Productivity?
- Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey?
- How Do You Tell Your Agile Story?
- How to Manage by “Walking Around” When You're Remote
- Lead Your Team's Transparency and Pervasive Communication
- Make Better Decisions When You Have Too Much Ambiguity
- Manage “When” With a Parking Lot
- Own Your Leadership, Part 1
- Own Your Leadership, Part 2
- Own Your Leadership, Part 3
- Productive vs. Busy
- Secrets to Catch Yourself Mind-Reading
- The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2
- Three Predictions About the Future of Remote Work
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Support Others)
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
- Three Ways to Rethink Your Business
- Want a Successful Agile Transformation? Invite Managers
- What Happened to the Beautiful Plans? (They Became Experiments)
Manage Your Project Portfolio
- Always Ask the Zeroth Question About Your Projects
- Are You Being Guilted Into Doing More?
- Are Your “Shoulds” Driving Your Decisions?
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- Manage “When” With a Parking Lot
- Three Ideas to Boost Your Productivity
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
management
- Appreciations, Personalized Thank You's
- Choosing Facilitation
- Create Your Peer Management Team for Fun and Profit (and to Solve Problems)
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Do You Have an Abundance or Scarcity Mindset?
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- Do You Want More Productivity?
- Great People Create Great Products
- How Effective Are You?
- How to Manage by “Walking Around” When You're Remote
- How to Say, “I Don't Know” and Keep Your Job
- Johanna's 2014 New Year's Tips
- Lead Your Team's Transparency and Pervasive Communication
- Look for Results, not Time
- Make Better Decisions When You Have Too Much Ambiguity
- Plan Now For Your Next Time Out of the Office
- Productive vs. Busy
- Secrets to Catch Yourself Mind-Reading
- The Manager's Role in Creating Effective Teams, Part 3
- Three Myths and Three Tips
- Three Predictions About the Future of Remote Work
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
- Three Tips to Move from Agile in Name Only to Real Agility
- Using One-on-Ones to Build Trust
- Want a Successful Agile Transformation? Invite Managers
- What Happened to the Beautiful Plans? (They Became Experiments)
- When You're Having a Bad-Manager Day
- Who's In Charge of Quality?
metrics
- “What Does It Cost You To Fix A Defect?”
- Look for Results, not Time
- See Your Agile Collaboration Traps
- See Your Agile Measurement Traps
- Three Secrets for Improvement by Subtraction
- Three Tips to Move from Agile in Name Only to Real Agility
multitasking
- Always Ask the Zeroth Question About Your Projects
- Are You Being Guilted Into Doing More?
- Are Your “Shoulds” Driving Your Decisions?
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- Johanna's New Year's Tips
- Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game
- The Perils of Parallel Projects
- Three Ideas to Boost Your Productivity
- Use Overtime as a Last Resort
- Why Multitasking Doesn't Work
New Years tip
- A New Year's Tip: Start Small
- A Small New Year's Tip: Timebox, Not Scopebox
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- Johanna's 2013 New Year's Tips
- Johanna's 2014 New Year's Tips
- Johanna's New Year's Tips
- New Year's Tips for 2017
- Three New Year's Tips to Ease Your Team's Agility
one-on-one
problem solving
- “It Depends”
- Build Your Agile Tribe
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Define Your Agile Success
- Discovering Your Leadership
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- How to Manage by “Walking Around” When You're Remote
- How to Say, “I Don't Know” and Keep Your Job
- Is Your Agile Journey Based on Problems or Process?
- Lead Your Agile Transition Through Influence
- Secrets to Catch Yourself Mind-Reading
- Solve Problems With the Rule of Three
- Solving Problems
- Take Advantage of Opportunities for Speed Coaching
- The Problem Statement is Not Always the Problem
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 3, Shared Interests
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
- Three Ways to Rethink Your Business
product owner
- Developing and Nurturing Respect in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Own Your Leadership, Part 3
- Plan, Plan, Plan
- Reframe the “How Much” Conversation to “How Little”
program management
- Agile Programs: Possible or a Pipe Dream?
- Create an Environment of Delivery
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Go Small to Gain Momentum
- How to Avoid Three Big Estimation Traps
- Organizing Programs
- Program Management
- Scale Agile With Small-World Networks
- Scaling Agile and Lean to Programs
- Time for a Decision
- Timeboxes Help Multisite Teams
- When You Need to Commit
- Who Decides What Done Means for a Program?
project charter
project management tips
- Decreasing Project Completion Time, Part 1
- Decreasing Project Completion Time, Part 2
- Emergent Projects: Managing the Unpredictable
- How to Avoid Three Big Estimation Traps
- Is the Urgent Consuming You?
- Iterations and Increments: For Any Project
- New Year's Tips for 2017
- Three Secrets to Creating Your Focus Time
- When Is It Time for a Change?
project management
- “It's Just the First Slip”
- “What Does It Cost You To Fix A Defect?”
- Avoid Death Marches
- Building or Maintaining Agility in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Create an Environment of Delivery
- Create Successful Schedules: Three Tips to Rolling Wave Planning
- Creating an Environment of Leadership
- Creating Trustworthy Estimates
- Define Your Agile Success
- Discovering and Maintaining Your Project's Heartbeat, Part 1
- Discovering and Maintaining Your Project's Heartbeat, Part 2
- Distributed? Yes. Alone? No.
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- Do You Want More Productivity?
- Emergent Projects: Managing the Unpredictable
- Great People Create Great Products
- Hope is Not a Strategy
- How Effective Are You?
- How to Avoid Three Big Estimation Traps
- Is the Urgent Consuming You?
- Iterations and Increments: For Any Project
- Knowing When an Agile Project is Done
- Knowledge, Risks and Guarantees
- Look for Results, not Time
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 1
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 2
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 3
- Managing Timezones in Geographically Distributed Agile Teams
- Plan, Plan, Plan
- Productive vs. Busy
- Recognizing the Bring-me-a-Rock Schedule Game
- Refocusing: 90% Done is Not Almost Done
- Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game
- Release Criteria, or “Is it Ready to Ship?”
- See Your Agile Estimation Traps
- See Your Agile Measurement Traps
- Small Steps, Frequent Deliverables Work
- Standup or Handoff?
- Start Your Geographically Distributed Projects Right
- Steering vs. Repeatable
- The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2
- The Case For Stable Teams, Part 1
- The Perils of Parallel Projects
- The Value of Planning
- Three Myths and Three Tips
- Three Parts of Estimation
- Three Secrets for a Successful Job Search
- Use Overtime as a Last Resort
- Using Checkins to Create Transparency
- When Is It Time for a Change?
- When You Need to Commit
- Who's In Charge of Quality?
- Why a Project Charter Works
- Why Do Iterations Have to be the Same Duration in Agile?
- Work From Home? Three Ideas for Better Project Agility
project portfolio management
- Always Ask the Zeroth Question About Your Projects
- Are You Being Guilted Into Doing More?
- Are Your “Shoulds” Driving Your Decisions?
- Do You Have an Abundance or Scarcity Mindset?
- Do You Have Too Much to Do?
- Focus on One Thing at a Time
- How Effective Are You?
- How Many Emergency Projects Do You Have?
- Johanna's New Year's Tips
- Kill Canceled Projects
- Manage “When” With a Parking Lot
- New Year's Tips for 2017
- Park Projects You Can't Staff, For Now
- Productive vs. Busy
- Starting Strategic Planning
- Three Collaboration Secrets to Create Your Agile Culture
- Three Ideas to Boost Your Productivity
- Three Myths and Three Tips
- Three Secrets for Improvement by Subtraction
- Three Secrets to Creating Your Focus Time
- When Your Projects Are a Program
- Why Multitasking Doesn't Work
- You Can't Do All the Work. Now What?
quality
recruiting
reflection
release criteria
- Create an Environment of Delivery
- Knowing When an Agile Project is Done
- Release Criteria, or “Is it Ready to Ship?”
- See Your Agile Delivery Traps
- Use Overtime as a Last Resort
- Why a Project Charter Works
respect
risk management
- “It's Just the First Slip”
- Being An Agile Leader
- Create Your Agile Culture: Embrace, Not Manage Change
- Iterations and Increments: For Any Project
- Organizing Programs
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
- Three Ways to Rethink Your Business
- Time for a Decision
risk
- Being An Agile Leader
- Building or Maintaining Agility in Geographically Distributed Teams
- Iterations and Increments: For Any Project
- Time for a Decision
schedule game or schedule games
- Hope is Not a Strategy
- Refocusing: 90% Done is Not Almost Done
- Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game
strategic planning
teams
- Do You Want More Productivity?
- Hours of Overlap, the First Principle of Successful Distributed Teams
- Own Your Leadership, Part 2
- Own Your Leadership, Part 3
- Productive vs. Busy
- Providing Effective Correcting and Reinforcing Feedback
- See Your Agile Collaboration Traps
- The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2
- The Case For Stable Teams, Part 1
- The Manager's Role in Creating Effective Teams, Part 3
- Three Myths and Three Tips
- Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader
timebox
- A Small New Year's Tip: Timebox, Not Scopebox
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 1
- Making Waterfall (a Serial Lifecycle) Work For You, Part 3
- Three Secrets for a Successful Job Search
- Timeboxes Help Multisite Teams
- Work From Home? Three Ideas for Better Project Agility
trust
- Building Trust in Any Team
- Creating Trustworthy Estimates
- Do You Have an Abundance or Scarcity Mindset?
- Own Your Leadership, Part 3
- The Case Against Stable Teams, Part 2
- The Case For Stable Teams, Part 1
- Three Predictions About the Future of Remote Work
- Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 2, Trust
- Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Start with Yourself)
- Three Tips for Coping When You're Supposed to Lead
- Work From Home? Three Ideas for Better Project Agility