Management

Secret Titles

What do you do? Seriously, on your business card there is a title. Say it out loud. “Senior Manager of Engineering” “Industrial Data Analyst” “Human Factors Specialist” Is that what you actually do? Try this: think about the last four hours of your job and give yourself a title. Mine would be “Sr. Meeting Wrangler”… more

July 25, 2006 8 Comments

Deconstructing Managers (Day #6)

Ed: The last day of Deconstructing Managers week. It all started on Day #1. What happens when they lose their shit? Pride and panic. The two delicious ends of the management spectrum. Pride is when it’s going swimmingly. Great product release, selling well. Hired that phenomenal guy from the other group who is going to… more

June 13, 2006 9 Comments

Deconstructing Managers (Day #5)

Ed: Day #5 of the Deconstructing Managers week. Day #1 is where this whole piece begins. Back at Netscape, Internet Explorer was threatening, but we were under the illusion the sky was not falling. We were merrily planning the next release of the browser under the assumption that Microsoft was going to somehow screw-up their… more

June 12, 2006

Deconstructing Managers (Day #4)

Ed: Day #4 of the Deconstructing Managers week. Day #1 sets the stage and is a good place to begin. How does your manager talk to you? My first piece of advice to all new managers is “Schedule 1:1s, keep them on the same day and time, never cancel them.” With this mind, some of… more

June 9, 2006 1 Comment

Deconstructing Managers (Day #3)

Ed: Day #3 of the Deconstructing Managers week. If you haven’t a clue what is going, I’d suggest starting with Day #1. How are they compensating for their blind spots? Now we’re going to pick on your favorite manager. Tell me about him. Probably a great communicator, funny guy, charismatic, you say? He probably inspired… more

June 8, 2006 1 Comment

Deconstructing Managers (Day #2)

Ed: This is Day #2 of the Deconstructing Manager’s piece. Day #1 might help you figure out what is going on here. I am not going to explain what your manager does all day. Sorry. I am going to hand you six critical questions that you need to answer in order to figure out if… more

June 7, 2006 4 Comments

Deconstructing Managers (Day #1)

Ed: This piece is long. Really long. Like 16 pages long. For the original publishing, I’ll be serializing this piece into six days of management deconstruction. Enjoy. Back in February, I asked the question “Who is the worst person you worked for?” If you print out the responses in a smallish font, you end up… more

June 6, 2006 5 Comments

Managers Are Not Evil, Pt. 1

“What, exactly, do you do?” Slack. Jawed. Amazement. This question is coming from someone I trust. A trusted employee who has been working in my group at the start-up for years. This guy always tells me the straight dope and now he’s asking me what I do with my day because he honestly does not… more

February 17, 2006 44 Comments

Reinventing the Hallway

Tony passes me the hallway at lunch, basketball in hand, and the conversation goes like this: Me: “Hey Tony, how was basketball?” Tony: “It’s good. I was playing with Phil and he mentioned his team was working on Gimbleflibbits.” Me: “Gimbleflibbits? That sounds a whole lot like our effort on Trimbleflibbits. Did you mention we… more

February 10, 2006 10 Comments

Remotely

Anyone who’s worked with me has stumbled on my policy on remote employees. The short answer is, “No”. The longer answer is, “The team is moving far too fast for you to miss the various hallway conversations which randomly point us in different directions.” Software is art. It’s team art. When the team collectively decides… more

January 27, 2006 35 Comments