Tag: Corporate Life
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Chaos, Control, and Team Bonding
Let’s do another quadrant: vertical axis is how chaotic the company is, horizontal axis is how bonded the teams are. Team bonding level is of course not a constant. The Tuckman model applies to all teams, and we human go through cyclical rhythms of togetherness and separation as we grow…
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How to Present a Product Proposal Executive Deck
I’ve been writing and presenting my entire career, so this set of learnings was definitely puzzling to acquire. But it turns out that you need a different deck for executive presentations than you do for conferences, sales, or product updates. First, a general note for technical or academic people. There’s…
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Building The Habitual Year
As a new Product Manager, you’ve got a huge increase of demands on your time. You’re now the person responsible for answers about the product, and if you’re selling it globally or developing it overseas, that means you’ve now got a never-ending day. Additionally, it’s not just those tactical questions…
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How to Run a Standing Team Call
A standing team call is any call where a group of people meet regularly. Every time you notice that it’s coming up, try to take a few minutes to do these things: Figure out what type of call it is, then ask, does this call still need to exist? Some…
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Mission Statements
A good mission statement is an aspirational goal that helps everyone move in roughly the correct direction. It is not strictly descriptive of what the organization is currently like, but it should reflect the best moments attained. An aspiration that is not grounded in the possible is easily ignored, or…
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Planning R&D Time
Granted that reality will disrupt the plan, I still find it useful to do a quarterly planning exercise. I’m fond of doing this with a zero based budget of person-time that has already had maintenance requirements removed. So you’ve got N full-time equivalent (FTE) people. They’re going to be sick…
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Internal Transfers
Role, tech stack, and culture. A new hire for a role must come up to speed on all three areas, and will be coming from behind on at least one. Some organizations are lucky enough to have a broadly common set of cultural or role expectations so that people can…
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Executive Dashboards
Executive dashboards go through the Tuckman model… like team members, they have to be understood before they are accepted. Forming: a need for a dashboard is recognized and that dashboard is introduced to the executive staff. It may or may not be challenged, but its place is not certain. Storming:…
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Gambling or Groceries?
Following on the post about sustaining software, here’s an opposing argument. Go big or go home. Deliver shocking value. Focus attention on exponential results instead of linear ones. Leverage your investment into the biggest possible return. All of those exciting phrases are exciting because they mean increasing risk. Some are…
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Total Compensation
Career decisions are complicated, but here are a few models to work with which might help. A salaried job is more than a simple exchange of your time for their money: you will be giving it some headspace in most of your waking moments. This conversation is not relevant to…
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