Posts

Stop doing, start delegating

“Yeah, everyone thinks they’re a designer.”

Years ago, my company hired a branding agency. During one of our sessions I made a suggestion about a creative direction the firm could take.

I was quickly shut down by the owner of the firm with those words that have stuck with me all of those years later.

Massive list of the best macOS and iOS automation tools.

I've created a list of automation app for macOS and iOS based on recommendations in the Mac Automators podcast.

Hidden Omnifocus Settings

The definitive list of hidden preferences in Omnifocus.

Stay on task with macOS Shortcuts

macOS Shortcuts with Fantastical and HeyFocus keeps me on task.

Optimizing for Mediocrity

When you lose your best team members because of poor management you’re optimizing for mediocrity. Want to optimize for high performance?

New Stanford Marshmallow Test

Good scientists (and product managers) constantly test assumptions and change their minds based on new data.

I read a lot about Behavioral Psychology / Economics which is a fascinating subject area if you are a product manager.

One of the studies I will often find in books is the Marshmallow Test. If you’ve never heard of it the concept is easy to summarize.

When product veterans make rookie mistakes

Sometimes “veterans” make rookie mistakes.

This week was my turn, if you’re in #productmanagement come along and learn from my mistake.

When I coach product teams and they ask me to review their user stories or roadmap, I’ll always ask them “How will you know if you’re successful?” Often times teams will scratch their heads and say something vague like “they’ll use it.”

Why don't you just ...

If you have worked in product management for more than a few months someone has said this to you. It's deeply frustrating and can feel condescending.

Product managers should embrace constraints

Force constraints on yourself as a way to change your thinking.

I ♥ grocery shopping and am always looking for ways to make things more efficient.

In our most recent release of ClipDish I wanted to add support for sending ingredients to a shopping list. The obvious solution is to add a grocery list feature into ClipDish.

Upon reflection, I realized that would take longer than I wanted with no clear return on the time investment.

Instead, I ended up integrating ClipDish with Apple Reminders. This cut the implementation time from weeks to hours. It also added some additional features like Siri and shared lists that I wouldn’t have even thought to include in the first version of a feature built from the ground up.