Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
When you’re starting off as a consultant, you might take the first one or two engagements a client offers. However, at some point, you’ll see an engagement that is wrong. It’s wrong for the client. It’s wrong for you. No one will see the results either of you wants. What should you do? I see …
Continue reading “Consultants: Clarify Engagements You Will and Will Not Take”
I delivered a Modern Management Made Easy talk and ranted about 100% utilization. One of the questions in the chat was: “Don’t consultants want 100% utilization? If you’re not working, you’re not billing.” Here’s how consultants create utilization-based billing: By the hour. Even worse, in 15-minute increments. Time and materials. I don’t do that. Why …
Continue reading “Consultants: Get Better Clients with Better Fees”
Back in January 2020, I led a Hudson Bay Start to create/build a consulting practice. I’m happy to say it was a success. Not because everyone became a consultant. However, the people who chose to consult found their ways to succeed. And, even more importantly, some people decided not to consult yet. Those folks continue …
Continue reading “Want to Work with Me to Build Your Consulting Practice?”
Steve, a software development manager, thought John was a “10x” developer. He explained that John could: Coded faster than anyone else. Write and release full applications over a weekend. “Mind-meld” with the users. No one else in Steve’s group could do this. Was I willing to support and coach the other people in Steve’s group …
Continue reading “Why Very Few (If Any) People Are “10x” Developers—Or Managers”
When Mark Kilby and I wrote From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams, we suggested teams add a text backchannel. Even when the backchannel is asynchronous, the information in it increases the value of all the team’s communication. The backchannel helps everyone see all the information. That helps all the team’s communication. Some of my …
Continue reading “Backchannel Discussions Might Create Serendipity”
My agile transformation clients struggle with this big question: How do we effectively reward managers? The more the organization wants or needs an agile transformation, the less the current reward structure works. How do you incent the managers? What makes sense for management compensation? Cindy, a director in a 500-person IT organization struggles with this—for …
Continue reading “Management Rewards: Doing Work vs Creating an Environment”
Your team says they use Scrum in two-week iterations. And, in order to “finish” everything inside the timebox, you don’t do any of these things: Refactor to simplify the code or the tests. Create automated tests. Use formal acceptance criteria on a story or for the iteration or the project. That means you have work …
I encourage managers to delegate work. When managers insert themselves into the middle of the work, these problems occur: Managers slow the team down. Managers prevent people from learning. Managers don’t do their management work. That environment creates problems for everyone. Then I read Elisabeth Hendrickson’s Delegation is Overrated. I realized two things: Some managers …
Continue reading “Delegate Problems and Outcomes, Not Tasks”
We’ve all heard of big organizations where the top management said, “No need to ever be back in the office. Work from home, as long as you want.” And, the Wall Street Journal has this article, Business Travel Won’t Be Taking Off Soon Amid Coronavirus (you might need to subscribe to see the article). (I …
I’ve worked with several managers and team leaders over the past few weeks as everyone is suddenly remote. Every single person in a leadership position struggles with (agile) team transparency. These leaders think the team members work alone. (I think they’re correct.) The leaders worry that the team won’t finish the team’s work. (Correct again.) …