**Scattered across almost any consultant's PowerPoint decks will be several quotes. There's the infamous, "If we asked what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse," and "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth," and the one I'll...

**Scattered across almost any consultant's PowerPoint decks will be several quotes. There's the infamous, "If we asked what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse," and "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth," and the one I'll...

I was talking with some friends the other day about the state of our industry, as we often do, and someone mentioned various problematic metaphors that people use. In particular, the metaphor that software teams should work like a surgical team led b...

An article just surfaced on CNN where the top executives of SolarWinds essentially shifted the responsibility of a password leak to an intern. This infuriates me, but I think it serves as an excellent reminder of some hard truths about working for a...

One of the golden rules of negotiation is whoever speaks first loses. What are the other rules that exist that, if you use them well, will lead to at least a ten percent increase in your salary? There are a few, but before jumping into those, can you...

The other day someone reached out to me with a question I get somewhat regularly, but I never really thought to write down my answer much. The question was, "How do you come up to speed quickly on new languages and technology?" Quick for me is produc...

A question I get asked a lot by the people I coach is, “Should I go back to school?” They often ask this as they struggle to navigate the ridiculous interviews companies put them through. So, should they go back? No. Before I end the article right th...

There is enough written about effective and more so ineffective stand-ups. This time I want to explore the idea of what happens after a stand-up is over. Specifically, the moment stand-up ends, what happens right after. There are two styles I want to...

A client told me that they had recently tasked one of their subordinates to help someone else in the group. They were a little concerned with my uncharacteristic silence. After they asked why I was quiet, we talked about some of my concerns and what...

Saucy title aside, I was thinking of various projects I’ve been on that had that extra bit of pressure on them. The kind where someone might lose their job if it fails. That led me to the topic of performance, not in the team sense, but instead of t...