My entrepreneurship journey has been different than many others'. Here are 10 things I've learned in the last 10 years.
Blog
What is Agile?
Posted on January 3, 2022.You can laud the idea and still be critical of the implementation. That is the true spirit of Agile. Here’s how I came around to this idea.
3 Questions About OKRs
Posted on December 27, 2021.Can you practice OKRs in regulated environments, in multinational corporations and with leaders who don't give specfific goals. In short, yes.
UX and OKRs
Posted on December 20, 2021.Objectives and Key Results offer a new opportunity for user experience and design work to make a powerful impact on our products and services
What if your OKRs are wrong?
Posted on December 13, 2021.Your objectives and key results are assumptions. At times they will be wrong. Here's how to handle a situation where your goals aren't right.
Incentives vs The Right Behavior
Posted on December 6, 2021.Managing to outcomes works well if we're also monitoring negative behavior. If we're not, we risk real world negative consequences.
OKRs at Scale
Posted on November 29, 2021.Scaling OKRs can get messy quickly. Here's one quick trick to simplify OKRs at scale that also works for your scaled agile efforts.
Should we use OKRs for everything?
Posted on November 22, 2021.We use OKRs to set goals. Should all of our goals then use OKRs? This article discusses which goals make sense and which don't.
Why does planning require a “season?”
Posted on November 15, 2021.We spend a tremendous amount of time planning next year's work. We don't need an entire season to do this. Here's a better way to plan work.
OKR Tracking Tool (free template)
Posted on November 8, 2021.Here is a simple, free tool to track your objectives and key results. It's designed to help get your teams started with setting and tracking goals.
How to make okrs work with long cycle times
Posted on November 1, 2021.OKRs require fast learning but what if our cycle times are long. Here's how to reconcile OKRs with long cycle times.
Customer value and business value are the same thing
Posted on October 25, 2021.Successful businesses know that making the customer happy is their only concern. Here's why.
Planning work with OKRs
Posted on October 18, 2021.Planning work with OKRs exposes the uncertainty in software-driven business planning. Here's how to deal with it.
Creating OKRs with the Lean UX Canvas
Posted on October 11, 2021.The Lean UX canvas helps you create your objective and key result statements. Here's where to find them.
What’s new in the latest edition of lean ux?
Posted on October 4, 2021.Here are some of the big highlights from the new 3rd edition of the lean ux book, available now.
The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion
Posted on September 27, 2021.Every company makes decisions based on the highest paid person's opinion. It turns out it's just a hypothesis. Here's how to tame it.
Performance management criteria for OKRs
Posted on September 20, 2021.If we're going to set new goals with OKRs, we need to change how we measure the performance of our teams. Here are 6 ways to do that.
the relationship between okrs and strategy
Posted on September 13, 2021.Objectives and Key Results can do a lot of things. One thing they can't do is determine your strategy. Here's how to reconcile OKRs and strategy.
Fast food vs long-term nourishment: which digital transformation diet is right for you?
Posted on September 6, 2021.Your company’s digital transformation diet should consist of a mix of fast food type trainings and long-term transformation diets supported by coaches. Here’s why.
When is Amazon done?
Posted on August 30, 2021.Being done with digital work no longer makes sense. Here's why.
Planting Season vs Harvest Season
Posted on August 23, 2021.Businesses are cyclical. Thinking about when you're going to plant vs harvest ensures we've always got new ideas to try and grow.
Output, Outcomes, Impact and KPIs
Posted on August 16, 2021.There is a lot of confusion around the terms output, outcome, impact and KPI. Here is what each one means and how they relate to each other.
How to become a magnet for career opportunities
Posted on August 9, 2021.Why do you continue to climb the career ladder? Because you’ve been told to do so. To future proof your career you have to rethink how to attract career opportunities.
Inspect and adapt, with respect
Posted on August 2, 2021.We all know go to the gemba tell us to go and see and we inspect and adapt. But there’s another part to it — showing respect to the people we seek to improve. Here’s why.
How to prioritize hypotheses for testing
Posted on July 26, 2021.This short video explains how to use the hypothesis prioritization canvas to determine which hypotheses you should test.
Why you should build equity…in yourself
Posted on July 19, 2021.Every second you spend sharing your expertise you’re building equity in yourself and laying the foundation to becoming Forever Employable.
Bottom-up? Or Top-down? What’s the best way to set OKRs?
Posted on July 12, 2021.Don’t assume that telling your teams what their OKR goals should be is the best approach. Here’s a better way.
How-to: At what level should I write my OKRs?
Posted on July 5, 2021.Here's how to set the proper level for your Objectives & Key Results so you can set goals your team can achieve.
How to use the Lean UX Canvas
Posted on June 28, 2021.This short video explains how to use the Lean UX canvas.
How long do you have to live with that decision?
Posted on June 21, 2021.Decision making can cripple teams. Here’s how to unstick that process and get your ideas to market quicker.
The Work
Posted on June 14, 2021.There’s so much more to product development than writing code. Here is what The Work consists of and why you should make time to do it.
How losing a client helped me find better ones
Posted on June 7, 2021.Ensuring the right fit is key to an abundance mindset Last month’s blog post about the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe as it’s known) not being agile was a real barn burner. Across multiple platforms it’s reached over 100k views and continues to be the most popular thing on my blog in recent memory. I didn’t … Continue reading How losing a client helped me find better ones
3 ways writing online makes you forever employable
Posted on May 31, 2021.Online writing can change the flow of your career, attracting opportunities to you continuously. Here are 3 reasons why.
Why your scrum team needs a dedicated designer
Posted on May 24, 2021.Scrum teams fail without dedicated designers. Here’s why.
How to inspire creativity and innovation with one simple prompt
Posted on May 17, 2021.If you're not getting the kind of creativity and innovation you know your team can deliver, reframe your requests to them in this one simple way.
SAFe is Not Agile
Posted on May 10, 2021.SAFe - the scaled agile framework - attempts to bring agility and scrum to large enterprises. In my experience, it fails and is not agile.
Get paid what you’re worth: 2 simple tips from Pablo Picasso
Posted on May 3, 2021.Pablo Picasso had the right idea when it came to pricing his work. Here's what you can learn from him.
“Intuitive UI” is not a feature
Posted on April 26, 2021.Do the work to define what will make your user interfaces and experiences, intuitive, compelling and successful.
OKR FAQ: Top 10 Questions about Objectives and Key Results
Posted on April 19, 2021.Here are the top 10 questions asked in my recent masterclass on objectives and key results.
Humility is the key to agile culture
Posted on April 12, 2021.Humility is the key to leading and building agile teams and organizations. Here’s why.
Selling underwear: How developers learned to love talking to customers
Posted on April 5, 2021.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
Posted on March 29, 2021.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
Posted on March 24, 2021.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
Posted on March 22, 2021.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?
Posted on March 15, 2021.Do OKRs work with jobs to be done? They do. Here's how.
Los cinco pasos de Forever Employable (empleable para siempre)
Posted on March 14, 2021.Los cinco pasos para convertiros empleables para siempre. Forever Employable.
Experiment your way to a better career
Posted on March 8, 2021.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
Posted on March 1, 2021.Impostor syndrome never goes away. Here's how to mitigate it.
There are no victims in an agile transformation
Posted on February 22, 2021.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
Posted on February 15, 2021.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
Posted on February 8, 2021.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.
Posted on February 1, 2021.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
Posted on January 25, 2021.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
Posted on January 18, 2021.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
Posted on January 11, 2021.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
Posted on December 21, 2020.Give your teams the best tools to do their best job.
3 ways visualization drives collaboration, agility and inclusion
Posted on December 14, 2020.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
Posted on December 7, 2020.How to continuously reinvent yourself with Michael Bungay Stanier
Agile frameworks aren’t the destination. They are the starting points.
Posted on November 30, 2020.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
Posted on November 23, 2020.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
Posted on November 18, 2020.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
Posted on November 16, 2020.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
Posted on November 9, 2020.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
Posted on November 8, 2020.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.
Posted on November 2, 2020.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
Posted on October 26, 2020.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
Posted on October 19, 2020.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?
Posted on October 12, 2020.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
Posted on October 5, 2020.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
Posted on September 28, 2020.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.
Posted on September 21, 2020.“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?
Posted on September 14, 2020.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
Posted on September 8, 2020.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
Posted on September 1, 2020.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
Posted on August 27, 2020.Entrepreneur, educator, singer and youtuber Peter Hollens shares his Forever Employable career path and story
What is an OKR? Here are the basics.
Posted on August 20, 2020.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 the topic, … Continue reading What is an OKR? Here are the basics.
Ikigai – a formula for successful agile team leadership
Posted on July 14, 2020.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
Posted on June 29, 2020.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
Posted on June 22, 2020.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
Posted on June 16, 2020.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
Posted on June 10, 2020.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
Posted on June 3, 2020.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
Posted on May 28, 2020.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
Posted on May 11, 2020.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
Posted on May 6, 2020.Celebrity photographer Mathieu Bitton is forever employable. Read his story.
Forever Employable Stories: Joel Hoekstra, Guitarist for Whitesnake
Posted on April 22, 2020.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
Posted on April 6, 2020.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.
Posted on March 2, 2020.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?
Posted on January 12, 2020.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
Posted on December 13, 2019.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
Posted on November 8, 2019.How to prioritize your hypothesis so you know what to test first.
Velocity should be renamed “future tech debt”
Posted on October 23, 2019.(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
Posted on September 9, 2019.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?
Posted on July 18, 2019.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?
Posted on June 18, 2019.Truly agile teams enjoy the ability, desire and safety to respond to change over following a plan.
Episode 23 — Startups, Brands, and Community with Julia Lemberskiy
Posted on December 21, 2021.Julia Lemberskiy is co-founder and Managing Director at JJ Studio Agency, and Principal at Frontier Values. Ex-Uber executive turned investor and startup consultant, Julia helps startups of all sizes launch new products & markets, scale their operations, and acquire new users through world-class marketing & sales. Julia joins Jeff Gothelf to talk about her rapid … Continue reading Episode 23 — Startups, Brands, and Community with Julia Lemberskiy
Episode 22 — Incredible Content Creation with John Cutler
Posted on December 14, 2021.John Cutler is a product evangelist, coach, and Head of Product Education at Amplitude. As an accomplished writer, John has an amazing ability to create, record, and produce content at an incredible rate. He is passionate about wrangling complex problems and answering the why with qualitative and quantitative data. John joins Jeff Gothelf to share … Continue reading Episode 22 — Incredible Content Creation with John Cutler
Episode 21 — Building a Personal Brand with Jas Leverette
Posted on December 7, 2021.Jas Leverette is a Bay Area dog trainer and dog behavior expert at California K9 Solutions, also known as Cali K9. With 20 years of experience working with hundreds of K9s, he can recognize drive, temperament, and disposition in most breeds and truly optimize a dog’s potential. Jas is also the star of his own … Continue reading Episode 21 — Building a Personal Brand with Jas Leverette
Episode 20 — Forging Online Connections with DanikaXIX
Posted on November 30, 2021.DanikaXIX is a YouTube personality and adult model known for her commentaries on comics, films, books, and television shows. She has been featured in Cosmopolitan, TEDx, and various other online outlets. Despite coming from an entire town of engineers, Danika’s passions lay in art and media. She spread her wings when she was just 18 … Continue reading Episode 20 — Forging Online Connections with DanikaXIX