Iterative development processes that champion prioritizing work and deciding what to do every two weeks can be just as disastrous as planning a year of work in advance. Sure, a business landscape can change in a year, but it rarely changes meaningfully in the span of two weeks. Set your objectives based on what’s worthwhile before you dive into a…
Timing can be revealing
Time is an often neglected aspect of project planning. Probably because too many people are used to hearing: “We need this yesterday.” When in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Perhaps, someone wants this, as of yesterday. But want is not need. It’s ok to start out with a simple question like when should we start. But never…
Chairs
Take a moment and scribble down on a piece of paper, define what characterizes a high quality chair. When it comes to an office chair, I like chairs that aren’t pleasant to sit in for long periods of time. I like a modest level of comfort for a short duration. I tend to not want comfortable arm rests either. To…
The subjectivity of judgement
What do all of these have in common? Valuable Quality Fair/equal/equitable/just versus unfair/inequality/unjust Moral/ethical/right/acceptable versus immoral/unethical/wrong/unacceptable Useful Normal versus abnormal Broken, needs to be repaired, needs to be fixed Pleasing versus disgusting When’s the last time you found yourself saying something like: I have no idea why someone would buy that, that’s worthless. That chair was really poor quality. I’ve…
Direction or speed?
Speed can only come after direction, and even then it’s usually inconsequential.
Direct communication isn’t what it seems
We’ve all played the game telephone as kids. We know when a messages is passed around a circle it comes out different, sometimes drastically different. It’s not hard to understand that indirect communication distorts a message. But where does that distortion come from? Indirect communication is nothing but a series of direct communications. Which means the problems with indirect communication…
The cheapest way possible is to understand the outcome
If someone asks me to perform a task, as cheaply as possible, there’s no way for me to be cheap. It’s going to cost whatever I decide I want for the task. If however, they describe a desired outcome, I’m free to chose the cheapest task possible to get there. Likewise if they want to maximize value, I can find…
8 things you can do right now to start making your customer successful
The best way to ensure your own success is to ensure your customer’s success. 1. Figure out who your customers are. Don’t take for granted that you know who your customer is. Especially if you work inside a large organization. What individuals and organizations do you serve? Get out a piece of paper and write down the various customers you…
How to revolutionize any industry
I can’t count the number of industries that are ripe for revolution. They’re just sitting there waiting to be transformed and nobody is doing it, or at least not enough people are doing it. Take gyms for example. It used to be enough to pay a monthly fee to access the gym. Now that monthly fee is like a cover…
Spring cleaning, throw out old ideas
If you’re like me, you amass a million stickies containing ideas that in the moment seemed so important you had to get out of bed, scramble for a piece of paper and jot them down. These pile up. Even if you’re diligent about collecting them, will you really go through them? And when you do, will you be able to…