I just tried to join a virtual conference in a new-to-me distributed meeting product. It’s supposed to be “easy” and “smooth.” Not for me. I stumbled around for 15 minutes and then left, totally unsuccessful. All the participants are supposed to have avatars—but I never understood how to set mine. (I do have a Gravatar.
I keep seeing too much micromanagement in organizations. That’s where managers decide for the people they lead and serve, not with the people they lead and serve. Micromanagement creates several problems: People stop learning how to solve problems because the manager steps in to tell them what to do. That leads to much lower throughput,
Several times in the past few months I’ve looked for a specific book because of an article I read or a podcast I heard. (That’s a big thumbs up for marketing.) But the book was only available in hardcover or paperback. Why? Some indie authors say that potential readers can “search on my blog for
Several of my clients want to plan the product roadmap and then “work to the plan.” They think the roadmap is the long-term goal. But roadmaps aren’t goals. Instead, they are tactics for achieving a long-term goal. That means we need long-term goals based on both the corporate strategy and each product’s strategy. Those are two
Regardless of whether you work inside an organization or you work for yourself, the start of the new year allows all of us to reset and restart. That means too many of us think we need to “plan” for an entire year. Before you consider an entire year, reflect on last year: How much of
Product owners have many challenges: They need to keep at least two thoughts about the product: what it needs to be in the near future, and what the organization wants it to be in the (distant) future. Some product owners think they’re supposed to fill out a complete backlog, including all the UI designs for
We often think that finishing a story from the backlog is “just” tactical. However, the more often we deliver in short feedback loops, the more often we can make strategic decisions. Finishing a story creates a new decision point, for both the product and the corporate strategy. The more often we iterate strategically, the more
Technology gets old. While we know that intellectually, we might not know it as it pertains to us. Here’s a story about how technology changes one day at a time and everything is okay—until it’s not. (Don’t want the long sad story? Go to Here’s What You Missed.) A Short History of My Site I
Modern Management: Use Your Integrity Even if You Fear for Your Job Susan, the Platform Director, was worried about ProductA—still in development. The company received about 75% of its revenue from that one product. Worse, VeryImportantCustomer, VIC, accounted for half of that revenue. And from the demos, Susan could see the teams were not going to
More of my clients say they want business agility. (That’s a good thing.) Yet, we don’t share a common definition of business agility. My clients mostly discuss their mindset. Mindset might help people, but it’s not sufficient. Instead, let’s consider how to see management’s adaptable and resilient actions. Those actions show that managers change their