Helping a CXO let go
I’ve seen CEOs who are deeply involved in color schemes, CTOs who want to control every architecture decision and product leaders who are very particular about agile rituals. I’ve written before about how to...
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Mysteries of Product-Engineering Disfunction
I’ve seen a similar pattern pop up in three different companies and I’m writing this to see if anyone else has seen it too. Each company is in a different industry. One is small,...
6 lessons from leading global product teams
For years technology leaders have emphasized the importance of their teams working face to face, but the rise of remote and global teams is making that increasingly harder to do. I’ve spent the last...
How to avoid a $32M flop: Inside the Hertz-Accenture Lawsuit
Last week, Hertz sued former marketing partner Accenture LLP for failing to deliver a promised redesign of their website and mobile apps. While the complaint is still in dispute, companies can learn from what we know...
How to plot your next career move
I’ve spent my career wandering. When the path seemed interesting and scary, I followed it. If I needed a skill I didn’t have, I chose a path where I could learn it. It’s easy...
How to be more convincing in your next big meeting
One of my crew is giving a presentation to the sales team and as we we’re prepping I used a bunch of my go to tips. These may or may not be the best...
So what does an ideal UX team look like?
Last week the head of product for a small company asked me what the right size, skills and make up was for his UX team. Across the industry we’ve seen a trend towards smaller...
What is an “outcome” and why does it matter?
Outcomes are the new hotness in product development and it’s pissing me off. I’ve been talking about them for years and now more prominent people are doing it so it looks like I’m following...
Rebooting our UX and Product Management career path
Last year we merged our Product Management and UX teams. We operate as a single team now with shared management so some of our PMs have managers who are UXers and vice versa. One...
The product development leadership gap
A few weeks ago I met with the product and design team members from a big company. I asked them what they were driving towards. Their first answer was to say they need reduce...
