Get Started With Development and Product Metrics

There is so much heartburn when picking and implementing some metrics. So in this article, I want to give a pretty quick overview of my approach and some ideas to start with. But before I get too far into it, I want to start with a message:

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Jun 20, 2022
Thinking on Theory of Constraints

About a decade ago, a book called The Phoenix Project swept through the IT community. It is an incredibly relatable bit of fiction about a software shop that ultimately redeems itself.

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Jun 16, 2022
When You’re Asked to Help Someone

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...

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May 09, 2022
Get People on the Same Page in Under a Minute

We often have to explain an idea in a way that gets people to share the same context quickly. Without that shared context, people spend quite a lot of time asking questions to fill in mental gaps instead of working on the issue.

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Apr 25, 2022
Reflecting on 2021

The past few years have been weird for most of us, mine included. Still, I thought I’d write a few thoughts down about what 2021 was for me and what I’m considering for 2022.

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Jan 31, 2022
The One Remote Person

Often consultants bring a fantasy of co-located teams to their clients. This is a fantasy because companies have been using remote workforces for the entirety of my career, so thinking that will change is silly. In this particular article, I want to...

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Nov 03, 2021
Bringing Conversation to a Point Using ORID

We’ve all been in meetings that wandered around topics without ever really landing on a defined point or decision. This leaves many people frustrated that there isn’t closure, and when the meeting is over, nobody is sure what they should take from th...

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Nov 01, 2021
How to Introduce an Activity as a Facilitator

At some point in one’s career in tech, you’ll wind up leading a meeting and need people to take part in some facilitation activity. That might be a retrospective or an activity where you hold a vote. If you’ve ever felt awkward introducing the activi...

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Oct 05, 2021