Hallway Studio

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 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 about this alleged breach of contract. Where does a big project like this go so wrong it ends up in a […]

How to plot your next career move

Child looking at rocks in Zion National Park

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. […]

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 ratios of UX designers to engineers. My team serves about 30 clients with User Experience and we typically run at ratios […]

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 a trend. An outcome in this context is a result of something the team has done. Ideally the result is favorable […]

Rebooting our UX and Product Management career path

Sketch with colorful lines

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 of the main concerns we heard from the team was the career path wasn’t clear so we got right to work […]

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 the metric for the amount and effort a customer needed to put in to make a purchase. After doing some work […]

How the orange juice test can teach you how to manage a tough situation

Market in Barcelona

I’m a huge fan of the content Intercom puts out and through them I discovered Gerald M. Weinberg’s The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully. It’s full of amusing and good advice. One of the best bits is about the orange juice test and it’s something I’ve used to teach my team how […]

How to Manage Up

Lights from a building at night from a train creating a abstract view

Everyone has a boss. Even a CEO needs to manage their board or important customers. Knowing how to manage leaders in your organization or your client’s is a pretty important skill and one I did not come by naturally.  I’ve been luckily enough to have people knock sense into me. Know how your boss works  […]