Life has a way of obstructing progress, at times. It’s not a nefarious scheme nature has against us individually. There are just times that things get in the way of us moving forward. The fourth quarter last year was rough on me — personally and professionally. Everything pulled me in uncomfortable directions. The process hurt, […]
Read more "When You Don’t Know What To Say"Failure is a scary word in our work today. While the startup culture has embraced failure as the best learning took in the market, the word still has chilling effects on today’s business leaders. An Amazon search reveals over 22,000 books include the word “failure” in some fashion. Another few thousand can be added on this […]
Read more "How To Set Your Failure Up To Succeed"“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison Whether you are a team of one, or one hundred, we are presented with the daily opportunity to introduce positive change into our work environments. Asking tough questions is a challenge, to say the least, but it is also imperative […]
Read more "Am I The Only One With This Problem?"Having prided myself on being well read on industry information, I thought I knew how to have an intelligent conversation on analytics. I’ve pitched A/B testing in previous jobs, explained value-stream mapping, and collected more than my fair share of metrics on team success. With all of the sites devoted to gathering and analyzing feedback, […]
Read more "Blog Post: What Analytics Are Teaching Me About Retrospectives"It’s startling when you know you’ve read the best book you’re going to buy all year…in January. It wasn’t because I am too cynical about the work of my fellow authors. I just new Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products was that good, and I detailed my thoughts of Nir Eyal’s brilliance here. If you are in […]
Read more "Blog Post: Never Assume Your Users Are In On The Joke"Regardless of how much I knew the material I wanted to present, and the supreme amount of support I had in the room, there’s always something about presenting to a large group that can make you a bit nervous. It was my third or fourth time presenting the same topic, but this time it was […]
Read more "Blog Post: When A Presentation Becomes More Than Just Slides"The best part of coaching is getting to listen and interact with co-workers about what problems they face on a daily basis. You don’t need a title to have this enviable role, just the desire to care about others around you and help. I was afforded one such occasion recently when I noticed a frustrated […]
Read more "Blog Post: Protecting a team sometimes means “from you”"Agile coaches, project and product managers all have their strengths. While the specifics tend to differ wildly, I can usually divide them into two camps: the immediate and the future. The immediate specialists are awesome day-to-day negotiators of roadblocks and issues that arise on the team. They love spending time with the team, keeping meetings […]
Read more "Blog Post: Are You Better At Focusing On The Future Or The Immediate?"Building for the sake of being first is a recipe for disaster. Only when we see the true value of the product can we see the tipping point towards behavior and purchases changing for good. Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Collins and Seth Godin made careers writing about that very subject. Apple has made billions with that […]
Read more "Blog Post: How Does Android Wear Improve Wearables?"Nothing makes you take a hard look at yourself like a 12-step program. While I am not finished yet, I am close enough to see the whole picture as it was meant to unfold. Having forced myself to look upon my past, and recognized what impact it had on who I am now, I can […]
Read more "Blog Post: What Can A 12-Step Program Teach You About Professional Growth?"
Chris Murman 