Photo by Nathan Aghelsefat Abatari on Unsplash So, you’re faced with the challenge of deciding between building your own software or buying something off the shelf. Your customers might need new features, your staff may need some help running a process specific to your business or investors might want to see the value of their investment […]
When to build and when to buy; on the lure of building software Read More »
Photo by Paul Zoetemeijer on Unsplash At a basic level, resilience is the ability for something to withstand disruption. Efficiency is the quest for optimal output with minimum waste. Resilience and efficiency are not in direct opposition, however focusing too much on one can have a negative impact on the other. For much of my career
Blending efficiency and resilience Read More »
This is the third article in my series on how to create a vision and a strategy, prioritise your work and create a roadmap for new and existing products. TLDR; The key is to move from high uncertainty to low uncertainty as quickly and cheaply as possible. There’s a sneaky problem with innovation: it always
There is perhaps no more critical capability for a company to develop than prioritisation. In my previous article, I wrote about the importance of establishing your vision — the overall long-term direction of the company. This vision is reflected in your strategy — the steps required to achieve your vision over the longer term. There are two important reasons
Now, Next, Future — a simple approach to delivering your strategy Read More »
This article represents ‘how’ to run prioritisation at a strategic level for a whole business or portfolio. For the ‘why’, please see my previous article: Now, Next, Future — a simple approach to delivering your strategy Prioritisation is an exercise in compromise and negotiation. Running a prioritisation session for an entire business requires that a cross-functional team
Running a prioritisation meeting Read More »
Many Post-It Notes died to bring you this photo Do you know just how bad the traditional interview is as a tool for choosing the right person for the job? In one research study, of students selected for medical school by an ‘unstructured’ interview (the type where someone sits across a table from you and asks
How I run tech and product interviews Read More »
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” — Sun Tzu The three steps to delivering your strategy Decide on your company’s goal; this is your purpose Determine the steps that lead towards your goal and communicate it clearly; this is your strategy Prioritise the work that you
The fairy tale approach to strategy; creating purpose and clarity Read More »
This was originally published on my blog in January 2016. It has been updated to the past tense. At reed.co.uk, we had been 64%* agile for many years. We had watched others, tried things ourselves, failed and picked ourselves up again. One of the most recent additions to our internal vernacular was that of ‘Bubble
How not to do Lean & Agile — a story from our experience of Squads, Chapters and Guilds Read More »
The importance of vision, strategy and clear objectives. “I’m concerned that we’re not delivering as fast as we should be”. Over the past few years, and in many businesses of different sizes, this is the concern I’ve heard from CEOs and board members. “It just doesn’t feel like we’re making progress with the things we
“We’re not going fast enough” Read More »
As an outrageous generalisation, there are two types of bosses in the world. Some managers make you feel more competent, more capable and more like the person you aspire to be when you’re around them. Conversely, some managers make you feel belittled, stupid and more like the person you’re worried you really are when you’re
How I became a bad boss Read More »