A dear friend received bad health news. He can learn to manage his health challenges, but he will never return to his previous great health. Now that he has a diagnosis, he’s getting both the medication and various therapies to support his journey to becoming okay. However, some members of his family think that “being […]
What Meaning Do You Make When You Hear “Things Will Be Okay?” Read More »
For years, I’ve delivered talks or written articles for various outlets. I have a simple rule: If the outlet makes money from my speaking or writing, I should make money, too. That rule helps me decide which offers I take and which offers I decline. Recently, many outlets want me to deliver talks or write for
What Traps You Into Letting Others Take Advantage of You? Read More »
How often have people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? (Some of us have asked ourselves this question even though we’re supposedly grown up.) But that question hides a critical assumption: that what we want to be will give us the lives we want to have. Too often, I see people
Let’s Change the Question from What We Want to Be to the Lives We Want to Have Read More »
In the last decade of her life, my mother-in-law talked a lot about having a purpose. Not so much for herself, but that she wanted her children and grandchildren to all have a sense of purpose. She was convinced that our purpose would guide us to good decisions. I agree with her. But, for me,
How Can We Use Purpose and Meaning to Improve Our Adaptability? Read More »
I recently replied to a tweet, based on my assumption of what I read. Here’s the tweet: How do you describe product management to your mom? I jumped to the assumption that this question was one of those “mom” memes, where (mostly) young men ask a question that assumes that moms are not technical, incapable
Which Assumptions Do You Bring to What You Read? (& My Recent Experience) Read More »
I’m one of those voracious readers. Once I learned to read, I read everything. And other people can tell because there are words I say wrong, because I only read them, not heard them. (Which is sometimes hilarious!) My folks decided they wouldn’t censor what I read as long as I talked to them when
Who Do You Want to Decide What You Can Read, See, or Hear? Read More »
I listened to Tim Harford’s podcast, La La Land: Galileo’s Warning (Classic). Galileo warned that adding more layers of risk management does not prevent bad outcomes—and might create them. Yet, I’ve said I respect risk management. Not all risk management is created equal. We can use additional steps, sequential occurrences, to manage risks. Layers are the concurrent practices we might
How Many Layers Do You Add to Manage Risks? Read More »
I recently gave a talk about how we can rethink our roadmaps and how to portray them. (See the Roadmap Personas deck if you want to see what I said.) One of the audience members asked what tool I recommended. I said I didn’t recommend any tool—not yet—because I’d offered alternative ways to create the
What Triggers You to Change Your Approach or Trusted Solution? Read More »
Many years ago, when I was a director of something at a long-ago company, our Best Customer had an outage at 8 or 9 in the evening. The customer called our senior management, who called me. “We have a Big Problem that you need to fix Right Now.” I received that message loud and clear.
When Solving Problems, Do We Consider Sleep as One of the Steps? Read More »
I keep hearing this phrase in the news: “Out of an abundance of caution…” Then the newscaster explains certain actions. Why not just talk about risk management? What’s wrong with discussing risk? Here’s my theory: the words “abundance of caution,” means all of these things: We think there’s a potential problem, but you don’t have
Why Do We Say “An Abundance of Caution” Instead of Risk Management? Read More »