One Friday, many years ago when I was working with a web agency, one of our designers sent round a company-wide email. This was before the days of Slack, and … Continue reading Toeing the line in public
Using experience
Over many years I’ve had the good fortune to work with a number of very experienced people, and more recently I’ve been working with senior leaders, each with a stong … Continue reading Using experience
Interviewing users you know
Sometimes I find myself joining a team and introducing the idea of user research, a part of product discovery. I urge my teams to speak to users in carefully-planned interviews, … Continue reading Interviewing users you know
Earn more by delivering earlier
Recently I’ve been thinking about choices in planning—what options do we have around how to structure the delivery of a piece of work, and which should we choose? Often when … Continue reading Earn more by delivering earlier
Limiting WIP is supposed to be painful
When software teams start thinking about delivering faster one of the techniques they often try is limiting work in progress (WIP). The idea is that for each stage the work … Continue reading Limiting WIP is supposed to be painful
Stop starting and start finishing
Earlier this year someone used a lovely phrase in conversation which was new to me, even though I should have known it, and even though I am a long-time advocate … Continue reading Stop starting and start finishing
Assuming the best intent
With more text-based communication as we work from home there is more room for misunderstanding and stress. Slack, Microsoft Teams, and the like allow communication without the subtleties of facial … Continue reading Assuming the best intent
Transformation as a game of chess
Last week I spoke to my friend Kevin Gohil, and he introduced me to the phrase “adaptive operating model”. Many people talk about a “target operating model”, which is what … Continue reading Transformation as a game of chess
Society inside companies
Last week the small but influential software company, Basecamp, made some internal policy changes. You can read their (much-amended) public announcement, as well as some well-informed background and a follow-up. … Continue reading Society inside companies
The relevance of psychological safety
I’ve never given too much thought to “psychological safety”. It’s something I’d read about, and did see as probably interesting, but many of my day to day concerns seemed to … Continue reading The relevance of psychological safety
