Agile
Is tasking developers with creating detailed estimates a waste of company money? (via LinkedIn)
Project management techniques work best when the individual chunks of work are of known size and complexity. Having developers come up with estimates that are likely to be incorrect anyway is waste. Focus having people working on the highest priority items, ship often, get feedback frequently. The best way you can estimate is with historical data (e.g., how many devs did we use on previous projects?).
Rethinking the Daily Stand-up (via Software Lead Weekly)
There are so many points in this article that I agree with. Sure, if you’ve never done standups, the did/doing/blocked format is a safe place to start. Different groups need different things at different times, so don’t be beholden to that format. The purpose of this meeting is collaboration, not status updates.
Business
6 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Big Project (via Harvard Business Review)
- Has the project been done before?
- Is the project part of your core business and will it leverage your strengths? Or, will you be venturing into a completely new arena/technology/industry?
- Can you clearly define the scope? Do you know what the project will produce and look like when completed?
- What is the investment cost?
- Do you have buy-in from key leaders and the wider organization?
- What is the timeline?
Career
How to Work with a Leader Who Doesn’t Care About Details (via Harvard Business Review)
Visionary leaders who have big, creative ideas may not want to get in the weeds of the myriad of tasks/decisions required to be successful. Try reflecting their enthusiasm back to them while hearing them out: “That sounds exciting! Tell me how you see that working.” Don’t ask too many questions while an idea is still forming. Check in frequently and explain your progress.
Communication
Don’t Just Memorize Your Next Presentation — Know It Cold (via Harvard Business Review)
- Decide how you will craft your script
- Create natural sections
- Give yourself enough time
- Don’t only practice start to finish
- Have a plan for forgetfulness
Research: It Pays to Be Yourself (via Harvard Business Review)
- When we hide who we are from the person we want to impress, it’s cognitively and emotionally draining, which undermines performance
- We can’t know the preferences and expectations of those we’re trying to impress, which increases anxiety
Ethics
Research: The Downsides of Trying to Appear Ethical (via Harvard Business Review)
- Concern with honest reputation increases lying. If you had a contract for 500 hours and it came out to exactly 500 hours of work, what number would you report?
- Concern with appearing impartial leads to bias against friends. If someone was up for an award and you had final approval authority and that person was your friend, would you still choose them?
- Concern with appearing unfair leads to wasting resources. If you had a new laptop that could be given to equally deserving people, would you choose neither to avoid appearing biased?
- The solution is to delegate your decision to a neutral third party.
Leadership
Does Your Team Have an Accountability Problem? (via Harvard Business Review)
This article is about how to give someone critical feedback using servant leadership (e.g., “What can I do to help?” vs. “You need to work faster.”).
- Check in with yourself first.
- Create a safe environment for the other person
- Ensure that there is clarity and a mutual agreement on how to move forward.
- Commit to setting those you work with up for success.
- Regularly track and measure progress
The Elements of Good Judgment (via Harvard Business Review)
Managers must exercise judgment to form views and interpret ambiguous evidence to lead to a good decision. We often rely on a manager’s track record, which can be misleading. This article discusses six components that contribute to good judgment and how to improve them:
- Learning — listen attentively, read critically
- Trust — seek diversity, not validation
- Experience — make it relevant but not narrow
- Detachment — identify biases and challenge them
- Options — question the solution offered
- Delivery — factor in the feasibility of execution
Process
Taming Complexity (via Harvard Business Review)
Complexity affords the advantages of resilience, adaptability, coordination, and inimitability. However, that comes with decreased amounts of efficiency, understandability, and unpredictability with emergent properties in the mix as well. To strike a balance… create modular structures; use simple, common operating principles; embed a bias for change; relax control; let the market judge; optimize globally; fix, repair, and prune.
A Framework for Making Smarter Decisions and Fewer Errors (via Software Lead Weekly)
A well-written article about the importance of decision-making and that we enter the world a bit unprepared. There are links to several articles and books on what goes in to making decisions.
Observations on Product Management (via Software Lead Weekly)
If you are in product management (or considering it), these ten observations are worth reviewing.
The Unicorn Project – Part 4
Our book club talked about bad process and bad culture that’s slowing things down at Parts Unlimited.