I worked for each of these humans. They either hired or promoted me. I worked for them for many years. As is my way, I’ve vastly altered the details of each human, but the core issue I describe is the core issue. Also, each of these humans is very smart. No dummies. Here are their… more
If you work for a company that builds primarily consumer software, there are, hopefully, three groups of humans who believe they are accountable for the product. They are: Engineering. They build the product. Design. No, they build the product. Product Management. No, really… they build the product. Do you see the issue? You have three… more
When it was five of you sitting in the same room, it was easy. When someone needed to know something, they stood in the middle of the room and asked, “Who broke the build?” When a decision needed to be made, you looked up at Phil and said, “Phil, this needs to scale from day… more
My introduction to Scott Berkun was his amazing talk at Webstock 2008 on the Myths of Innovation, based on one of the three books he’s published in the last decade. I remember his talk not only because of the compelling content, but because he eschewed the traditional get-to-know-you slides in his presentation – he jumped… more
There’s a meeting going on right now. It’s a cross-functional meeting, which means that not only are multiple departments in the organization represented, but multiple expertise types, attitudes, and agendas as well. The cross-functional nature of this meeting means a program manager is present and they are likely serving in their role as translator. See,… more
Cabel Sasser of Panic dropped a shirt off with me shortly before my first presentation at WWDC. For those of you still using Lynx, the shirt reads, “Hi, I make macintosh software.” While Jimmy Eats World was ripping the tunes at the WWDC campus bash, I proudly wore the aforementioned shirt all over the campus.… more
I hate meetings. Everyone hates them because we’ve all been to so many that have sucked so badly that we now walk into a conference room, sit down… arms folded, and think, “Ok, how long until this one is going to suck?” And then it does. Time is wasted. Hot air is created. Silent frustrations… more
