Most of my mentees’ stories are boring and confusing. In an interview they get nervous and aren’t able to show off their skills and experience. This is fixable. Like a comedian or an actor on a chat show you need a couple of compelling and clear stories you can use and adapt for lots of […]
Category: People
Lessons from 50 mentoring sessions
This week I did my 50th session mentoring designers and PMs with ADPList. So many of them are talented and creative people who don’t know how to shine on a resume or they lack the confidence to tell us how great they are. My job is to be very direct and help them spotlight their […]
A new way of thinking about product team roles
Teams need clear roles but people want to be heard and be creative. Teams need to balance collaboration and execution. Some teams have found this balance and others are stuck in debates about ownership and that is stopping them from getting things done. Some of the conflict we’re experiencing is because teams haven’t established roles […]
Who do you want to show up at your new job?
Whenever a friend, mentee or colleague tells me about a new job, after properly congratulating them, I ask them how they want to show up at this job differently. Maybe as someone who is more strategic, a better teammate, or someone who raises standards. A new job offers An environment where you can more easily […]
3 questions that will help you hire the right design leader
Attracting candidates, finding the right fit and helping your chosen design leader them launch successfully is hard and often ends badly. As a former consultant and the first design leader in an organization in more than one organization I’ve seen that companies fail when look for a magical being to solve all their problems. Instead […]
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 manage up. If you want to manage a CXO (CEO, CPO, CTO or one of the random other ones) and get […]
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, one is medium and one is massive. The leaders are frustrated with the lack of progress and the amount of friction […]
6 lessons from leading global 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 eight years working with people all around the world, and I’ve encountered many global teams that work together incredibly well and […]
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 to get lost on the path. It’s easy to get distracted from what we really want by status, money or comparisons […]
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 choice depending on the audience, venue, culture or objective. I encourage you to think about them before your next big event. […]