Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
I published my most recent newsletter, Creating Trustworthy Estimates, this past week. I also noted on Twitter that one person said his estimates created trust in his organization. (He was responding to a #noestimate post that I had retweeted.) Sometimes, estimates do create trust. They provide a comfortable feeling to many people that you have …
There’s a twitter discussion of what people “should” do in certain situations. One of the participants believes that people “should” want to learn on their own time and work more than 40 hours per week. I believe in learning. I don’t believe in expecting people to work more than 40 hours/week. My experience is that …
As more of my clients transition to agile, many of them have a fascinating question: How do I assess who is doing what on my team? When I ask why they want to know, they say it’s all related to reviews, rewards, and general compensation. They are still discussing individual compensation, not team compensation. When …
Continue reading “Trust, Accountability, and Where Does the Time Go?”
This post is continued from Cost, Value & Investment: How Much Will This Project Cost, Part 1 We’ve established that you need to know how much this project will cost. I’m assuming you have more than a small project. If you have to estimate a project, please read the series starting at Estimating the Unknown: …
Continue reading “Cost, Value & Investment: How Much Will This Project Cost? Part 2”
Workshop Objective: We use influence all the time at work. If you have tried and not been as successful as you like, it’s time to take the next step and learn to discover your personal power and use your influence to accomplish all that you can. Workshop Overview: There is a limit to what we …
Continue reading “Workshop: Influence and Authority: Using Your Personal Power to Get Things Done”
I once worked for a manager who thought everyone should bow down and kiss his feet. Okay, I’m not sure if he actually thought that, but that’s how it felt to me. He regularly canceled his one-on-ones with me. He interrupted me when I spoke at meetings. He tried to tell the people in my …
I’m shopping for furniture for our new house. I need a chair or a sofa for our family room, lights, all kinds of things. I was on Facebook, and there was an ad that looked interesting. I thought, “Should I click?” I clicked anyway. The site wants my email address. I can’t see anything without …
Bill popped his head into Jan’s office as he was leaving for the evening. “Jan, do you have a minute? I have to do performance reviews tonight. I was going to drink Scotch and work my way through all of them.” Jan laughed and said, “Sure. Scotch might make you feel good, but it will …
Continue reading “Management Myth 25: Performance Reviews Are Useful”
Sharon poked her head into Heath’s cubicle. “Hey, Heath, are you done yet with that fix?” Heath turned around. “Sharon, you asked me that less than an hour ago. I’m not done yet.” “Well, I need to know when you will be done. Oh, and I need to know if you’re using the design we …
Continue reading “Management Myth 26: It’s Fine to Micromanage”
I had a boss who was great at saying, “Terri did this. Jen did that. JR did this other thing.” We all knew who had learned about different areas of the system, who had succeeded at which parts of testing or development or project management. It was great. She didn’t just tell us. Nope, our …