One of the things that I get asked a lot at work is to create a reports, run an analysis, or get some data so we can get visibility on XYZ, normally as a result of a question asked by a HiPPO (highest paid person in the office) because they were "curious". To these people... Continue Reading →
Tit for Tat
Pleasantries exchanged, we got down to business. Rather new to each other, we moved deliberately. The context of the meeting was potentially explosive. It had all the makings of "your word against mine" scenario. But it started out well. Facts, or perspectives of the facts, were exchanged, and these facts turned out to be decently... Continue Reading →
How to save time
Try one of the following: Learn how to programme the TV recorder in the quickest way. Two buttons, three steps. Take four minutes, not five. Use a TV recorder to save your favourite TV shows and skip through the ads. Save 30 minutes every two hours. Or... stop watching the damn TV. Save two hours... Continue Reading →
Anticipation, proactivity, and the Invisibles
Just read an article via Slashdot on this thing called "Tab Warming" that the Mozilla team is testing for the Firefox Web Browser. I won't go into the details, but in essence what Tab Warming does is that it anticipates whether or not you'll click on a link, and if it does it "paints" the page... Continue Reading →
The problem with running a team at full capacity
I shared this earlier on LinkedIn, but thought that it was worth sharing it here too as a reminder to myself: Six Myths of Product Development I came across the article above while researching why a team that traditionally does great work may sometimes stumble (yes, mine). The past few weeks had been a whirlwind... Continue Reading →
What’s Sales Reporting Governance got to do with Bribery?
I lead a Sales Operations team, and one of our objectives for this year is to establish a "sales reporting governance structure": to ensure that the right reports/tools get developed, with the right specifications, at the right time; and, perhaps most importantly, with the buy-in by the right people. Essentially this governance structure looks at controlling the reporting... Continue Reading →
Long vs. Short-term: Doing what needs to be done
There is a huge difference in working with a team that you know will be with you for only a single project and a team that you know will be with you for still many more. When you're working with a team that you know will be with you for a long time, you may... Continue Reading →
On Planning and Project Management
"So how long," he asks, "do you think you'll take to complete the project?" "Two weeks," I say. Three weeks later, I'm still two weeks away from completion. What happened? It's not like this hasn't happened before. It's happened many times before. Rolf Dobelli says it beautifully in his excellent book The Art of Thinking... Continue Reading →
Shipping like there’s no tomorrow
The concept of shipping as per Seth Godin is a beautiful thing. In essence it relates to the idea of getting something out (i.e. "creative output"; a "product") without the need to achieve perfection before getting that something out. Ship, get feedback, improve; then ship again, get more feedback, and improve once more. Do this... Continue Reading →
Business vs. IT
I felt like a lawyer. The call was in less than 12 hours, and I was busy preparing my case, consolidating evidence and building my story. To be honest, I wasn't 100% behind the argument I was preparing to put across, but I didn’t really have much of a choice. I had to believe -- how... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 