Humility is the key to leading and building agile teams and organizations. Here’s why.
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Selling underwear: How developers learned to love talking to customers
Not everyone wants to do product discovery but everybody should. Here's a story about one way I convinced a group of reluctant developers to meet their users.
How to get executive buy-in for Agile using two popular product development approaches
One of the most common complaints from teams going through an agile transformation is that their bosses don’t get it. The teams are asked to change how they work but the demands coming from stakeholders and executives continue to demand fixed time and scope commitments. The vocabulary changes but the language stays the same. In … Continue reading How to get executive buy-in for Agile using two popular product development approaches
Becoming Forever Employable: Demo Day 1
How do you plant your flag and start telling compelling stories that cement your position of expertise in the market? Here’s how four folks did it.
Forever Employable Stories: Simon Majumdar, chef, writer, podcaster, television personality
Simon Mujamdar, writer, chef, podcaster and tv personality, shares his Forever Employable story on career change in your 40’s.
Do OKRs work with Jobs to Be Done?
Do OKRs work with jobs to be done? They do. Here's how.
Los cinco pasos de Forever Employable (empleable para siempre)
Los cinco pasos para convertiros empleables para siempre. Forever Employable.
Experiment your way to a better career
Your next career move doesn't have to be risky. You can experiment your way to the best next move. Here's how.
Overcoming impostor syndrome to build your online presence
Impostor syndrome never goes away. Here's how to mitigate it.
There are no victims in an agile transformation
Leading with negativity -- as a victim of your agile transformation -- is a sure fire recipe for it failing.
OKR anti-pattern: reverse engineering key results to match your backlog
I work with teams around the world every day helping them implement objectives and key results. I’ve written about OKR here a lot over the last few years and now, as the goal-setting framework is catching on broadly, the anti-patterns have become increasingly obvious. One such anti-pattern I’ve noticed recently is teams reverse engineering their … Continue reading OKR anti-pattern: reverse engineering key results to match your backlog
10 fun web-based timers for your next agile zoom collaboration
One of the most powerful agile tactics is timeboxing. With remote teams it's hard to coordinate time keeping. These 10 fun web-based timers can help with that.
Hiring and retention is not HR’s responsibility. It’s yours.
It's easy to blame HR for your team's shortfalls. In the end though, it's your fault and responsibilty.
Volkswagen’s electric car ambitions: a Sense & Respond case study
Volkswagen's electric vehicle ambitions reveal how their manufacturing history gets in the way of their technological success.
Constraints are the hidden source of innovation
There are always excuses for why our teams can’t innovate or be agile. Constraints shouldn’t be one of them. In fact, they can be the source of these desired qualities. Here’s why.
How I built a professional community to grow my business
Finding the right community to help grow your career isn’t always easy. Sometimes the better path is to build your own community. Here’s how I did it.
Give your teams the gift of collaboration this holiday season
Give your teams the best tools to do their best job.
3 ways visualization drives collaboration, agility and inclusion
Visualizing a system is the fastest way to build shared understanding. Here's why.
Forever Employable Stories: Michael Bungay Stanier, best-selling author of The Coaching Habit
How to continuously reinvent yourself with Michael Bungay Stanier
Agile frameworks aren’t the destination. They are the starting points.
Following recipes is the beginning of your agile transformation. To reach true agility you must become a chef.
Forever Employable Webinar: Lessons learned with Katie Saindon and David O’Malley
Katie Saindon and David O'Malley took the ideas in Forever Employable and put them into action immediately.
Forever Employable Webinar: Storytelling as a competitive advantage with Bill Smartt, elite speaking coach
Elite speaking coach Bill Smartt and I spend an hour discussing how to tell a compelling story, even from your home office.
Forever Employable Stories: Lindsey Pollak, NYT best-selling author and multi-generational work expert
Just ask for what you want. It sounds simple and straightforward and yet so few of us actually do it. It's something I've had to practice doing, shushing the voice in my head, "you're just going to bother that already-busy person, leave them alone." Well, it turns out just asking pays off. That's how I … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Lindsey Pollak, NYT best-selling author and multi-generational work expert
Racing for the bronze: how to redefine goals for agile teams
If your team is struggling to deliver top-notch work, you'll need to revisit your definition of done.
Forever Employable Stories: Alisa Cohn, #1 Startup Coach in the World
I was lucky enough to meet Alisa Cohn by chance. Dorie Clark, who wrote the forward for Forever Employable, invited me to a virtual cocktail party a few months ago where Alisa was the co-host. We kept in touch over the subsequent months and recently I had a chance to catch up with Alisa one-on-one … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Alisa Cohn, #1 Startup Coach in the World
Outsource the work you hate. It shows.
The work you do that you don't love to do is obvious to your customers and clients. Here's what to do about it.
Increase your team’s agility with radical transparency
The success of your org's agility isn't solely dependent on your executives. Teams have their part to do as well.
Optimize your process for decision-making, not dogma
Just because it's part of The Process doesn't mean it's the best way to do things. Earlier this year I held a webinar panel with Sense & Respond Press author Randy Silver about his new book, What do we do now?. On that panel was my former colleague Selena Hadzibabic who, today, is the vice … Continue reading Optimize your process for decision-making, not dogma
What problem do you help people solve?
Your core value is the thing that won't change in 10 or even 20 years. How you deliver on that core value will evolve with the times, your career and your personal choices.
How to use OKRs to set goals for your professional and personal development
Image credit: https://greatist.com/ A few weeks ago I shared with you the most basic description of Objectives and Key Results -- the goal-setting trend sweeping the business world -- I could come up with. The basic idea is that you set aspirational qualitative goals for your teams, products or business (objectives) and measure whether you’ve … Continue reading How to use OKRs to set goals for your professional and personal development
12+ Icebreakers to kick off your next zoom meeting
One of the critical pieces of getting a team in the right frame of mind and comfortable with the tools available to them is kicking off the meeting with a proper icebreaker technique. I’ve put together a list below of icebreakers I’ve crowdsourced, participated in and used myself to help you get your distributed collaboration sessions off on the right foot.
Are product managers really the CEO’s of their product? 5 product leaders weigh in.
“Unless you’re the founder and the product manager at the same time, you are not the CEO of anything.”
There are infinite ways to solve your business problems. Which one is right?
The team works for multiple weeks, sometimes months. And we launch, fingers crossed, looking daily (sometimes hourly) to see if our predictions were correct. But the customers don’t come at the level we predicted, and the numbers don’t move quite in the directions we’d hoped.
Forever Employable Stories: Danny Thompson, software developer and community leader
I stumbled across Danny Thompson’s twitter account not too long ago. Immediately I noticed that this was no ordinary software developer. Not only was he humbly sharing his learning journey online with his followers, he was giving back to them by helping them get hired in the software industry. In the meantime he’d grown his … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Danny Thompson, software developer and community leader
Without psychological safety there is no learning and there is no agility
If teams don’t feel safe sharing what they’ve learned, they’ll never be agile. Psychological safety ensures teams doing discovery can implement the feedback they learn in the process anda truly be agile.
Forever Employable Stories: Peter Hollens, entrepreneur, singer, youtuber
Entrepreneur, educator, singer and youtuber Peter Hollens shares his Forever Employable career path and story
What is an OKR? Here are the basics.
Objectives and Key Results. Ask around and you’ll hear a level of adoption across industries and domains similar to the big wave of Agile adoption in the late 00’s into the 10’s. For a 40 year old goal-setting framework, OKRs are having quite an impact on the business world. There are increasingly more books on … Continue reading What is an OKR? Here are the basics.
Ikigai – a formula for successful agile team leadership
There's more to team leadership than just shipping it. What's your team's reason for being?
Forever Employable Stories: Jared Kirby, Traditional fencing master and fight director
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. In this episode, I speak with Jared Kirby, traditional fencing master and fight director. An amazing teacher … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Jared Kirby, Traditional fencing master and fight director
Forever Employable Stories: Tara Schuster, former VP of Talent and Development at Comedy Central and Author of Buy Yourself the Fucking Lillies
Writer, author and talent developer Tara Schuster shares how she built her platform and became Forever Employable.
Forever Employable Stories: Nir Eyal, best-selling author of Hooked and Indistractable
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. In this episode, I speak with Nir Eyal, best-selling author of Hooked and Indistractable. The cake is … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Nir Eyal, best-selling author of Hooked and Indistractable
Forever Employable Stories: Stephen Shedletzky, Brand Director and Igniter at Simon Sinek
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. In this episode, I speak with Stephen Shedletzky, brand director and igniter at Simon Sinek. We succeed … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Stephen Shedletzky, Brand Director and Igniter at Simon Sinek
Forever Employable Stories: Tendayi Viki, innovation consultant, author and professor
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. In this episode, I speak with Tendayi Viki, an academic turned innovation consultant and author. Leading with … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Tendayi Viki, innovation consultant, author and professor
Forever Employable Stories: Alden Mills, ex-Navy Seal, entrepreneur, author & speaker
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. In this episode, I speak with Alden Mills, ex-Navy Seal, entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker. Nobody defines … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Alden Mills, ex-Navy Seal, entrepreneur, author & speaker
Your next agile project: your career
Agile is great for product development. It can be great for your career as well. Here's how.
Forever Employable Stories: Mathieu Bitton, celebrity photographer and designer
Celebrity photographer Mathieu Bitton is forever employable. Read his story.
Forever Employable Stories: Joel Hoekstra, Guitarist for Whitesnake
In anticipation of the launch of my new book, Forever Employable, I'll be sharing a series of interviews and stories from people from all different professions who have created a platform for themselves to make them forever employable. I couldn't be more thrilled that the first one of these is with guitarist extraordinaire Joel Hoekstra, … Continue reading Forever Employable Stories: Joel Hoekstra, Guitarist for Whitesnake
How are businesses pivoting in the pandemic? Here are 3 inspirational examples
I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy. A month ago I was sitting in a restaurant in London with a group of friends enjoying dinner, catching up on what we’ve been up to and taking turns holding one friend’s new baby. It was a ton of fun and we were … Continue reading How are businesses pivoting in the pandemic? Here are 3 inspirational examples
There’s no guarantee your product strategy will work. Here’s how to de-risk it.
Recently, a long-term client of mine sent me an email with the question below (scrubbed for anonymity) after we’d spent close to a year together building a set of objectives and key results (OKRs) for the entire organization along with, what I believed to be, a clear sense of how to at least start working … Continue reading There’s no guarantee your product strategy will work. Here’s how to de-risk it.
If we're managing to outcomes, how do we know we're doing a good job?
Part of the reason organisations struggle to switch to managing to outcomes is that its difficult to measure employee performance. Once that becomes difficult, how do we know someone did a good job? How do we know if that person should receive a raise? A promotion?
Metrics Mountain: A realistic visualisation of any customer lifecycle metrics
For as long as I've been working professionally the visual metaphor for moving customers through an experience has been The Funnel. The idea being that we have the most amount of people engaged at the beginning of an experience and as the experience goes on, fewer and fewer people are still participating in it. You've … Continue reading Metrics Mountain: A realistic visualisation of any customer lifecycle metrics
The Hypothesis Prioritization Canvas
How to prioritize your hypothesis so you know what to test first.
Velocity should be renamed “future tech debt”
(Want to get this article in your inbox? I publish one article a month and share it in my newsletter first. You can sign up here and join 14k other subscribers.) Hey folks - Two weeks ago I found myself at the center of a debate with a client about the benefits and drawbacks of … Continue reading Velocity should be renamed “future tech debt”
Lean UX Canvas V2
It's been 3 years since the Lean UX Canvas was published. It was time for an update.
Do HR, Finance and Legal make products?
Teams that don't make customer facing work still work on "products" and have "customers." This article explains how to think about this kind of work - from HR, Legal, Finance et al - in a new light.
Why does every project have to be Agile these days?
Truly agile teams enjoy the ability, desire and safety to respond to change over following a plan.