It's been a wild ride. I'm moving my infrequent link posting over to bsky.

A fantastic distillation of coaching from one of my favorite writers on the topic. buff.ly/3LDE3EF

If you want to train a monkey to stand on a stool and recite Shakespeare, you start by training the monkey, not building the stool. That is obvious, and yet it is so tempting to build the stool you know how to build, and you know you will need eventually. buff.ly/2MdVHlI

“What, So What, Now What”: a fantastically simple communication framework. buff.ly/48n5KuA

I’m tired of tech debt discussions mired in arguments for technical purity or undefined future productivity. Find opportunities for immediate productivity gains, support the work with data, tie the work to value delivery. We are running a business. buff.ly/47A8gOt

The heartbeat is a communication that looks back at the strategy, recaps the key points, and then shows how it has been implemented in the time since the last heartbeat. It's a chance to show how the strategy is living and relevant … buff.ly/3AKmr7o

You want to load the DICE in favor of success. Short Duration between milestone reviews, high Integrity of the team leading the initiative, strong Commitment from leadership and those affected, and low additional Effort from those affected. buff.ly/2IupIHs

H.E.R.O. as a framework for building Psychological Capital, both within yourself and your team. I’ve seen first hand how hard it is once you lose one more of these. It’s usually time to look for a new role at that point. buff.ly/4dZsHq8

An interesting take on org design: build lopsided org charts. Start with one monolithic team that is “the product” and only cleave off secondary teams when needed, keeping them small by comparison. buff.ly/3WASq16

I have had a weeknotes practice for a few years, starting in my upward 1:1 doc, and more recently expanding to public slack posts. It is always worth the time for my own reflection, for future reference, and for radiating intent. buff.ly/3Yxl0Tz

“Challenge your teams to innovate to focus on the objectives, and not churn out features. An outcome-​based Product Roadmap is a good way to begin that conversation.” buff.ly/2DrtZhl

“all products [ask] things of their customers … We are asking a lot from our customers. … To get people to say yes … we need to (1) offer them a reward big enough to justify their effort and (2) do an exceptional, near-​perfect job of execution.” buff.ly/4cfamFN

“a leader [has] two jobs: The first job is the job you were hired for. You have the results you are expected to deliver. … You also have a second job. The second job is to make things better around you, to make things easier for the next person.” buff.ly/3LIvN61

Focus on product outcomes … because: 1. Business outcomes are lagging indicators 2. Product outcomes measure human behavior 3. Product outcomes are within the influence of the team Start with … “What customer behaviors drive business results?” buff.ly/2zyWxEc

A great 2x2 for understanding customer behavior. Strive to understand what motivates a customer towards or away from both their current solution and the new solution you are offering. buff.ly/4eUEgQX

I love getting into the details of OKRs. Leadership maps objectives to teams, teams propose key results they can accomplish, if those results are insufficient for the business, then leadership provides more resources or removes secondary objectives. buff.ly/45Q9SmB

Pull-based approaches remain less common in product discovery. Each opportunity should answer these three important questions: - What problem are we trying to solve? - Who are we trying to solve this problem for? - How will we know if we succeed? buff.ly/4cLfAID

Don't underestimate customer inertia. Your product has to be wildly better, not just marginally better. “The vast majority of product efforts fail not because of demand, but because they can’t come up with a solution good enough to get people to switch.” buff.ly/3BaI5zT

Nervous about your DEI programs in the light of recent court cases? Never fear, these programs are alive and well with a few tweaks. buff.ly/4c74JsJ