12 Feb 2024

Your dev team deserves a trophy wall

Posted in Product, Work

Amidst a vast sea of product management templates and best practices, here’s something that doesn’t get enough love: team trophy walls.

21 Jul 2023

Product debt

Posted in Product, Work

What it is, why it matters, and why the product community needs it as a concept.

26 Apr 2023

Product shouldn’t own the “what”

Posted in Product, Work

Why the phrase “product owns the what; engineering owns the how” is a poor way of clarifying ownership in software development.

29 Jun 2021

More inclusive, impactful company hackathons

Posted in Product, Startups, Work

Seven ways to take your hackathons from ordinary to excellent—lessons learned from seven hackathons at Stitch Labs.

27 Nov 2019

The difference between vision and mission

Posted in Startups, Work

Most startups have an explicitly stated mission and/or vision. Unfortunately, these statements are usually of low quality and the two types are often conflated.

4 Nov 2019

My product principles

Posted in Product, Work

Principles should speak to tradeoffs and what makes you different—not just from strawmen but from other well-trained product thinkers.

18 May 2019

Two simple emoji worth adding to Slack

Posted in Startups, Work

Emoji for thank you and you’re welcome—and how to reap the benefits of low-friction work chat.

1 Feb 2018

Customers, Curiosity, and Context

Posted in Product, Work
Customers, Curiosity, and Context

How to think about and respond to customer requests.

28 Jan 2018

Cool

Posted in Startups, Work

Inspired by the Amazon.love memo

28 Dec 2017

KFC, Dave Thomas, and Focus

Posted in Product, Work

Too many products look like a bad takeout menu: so many choices, none of them compelling.

27 Dec 2017

Four Things I Learned From Customers This Year

Posted in Product, Work

What customers taught me about vision, focus, differentiation, and care.

10 Sep 2017

How to Hack It at a Startup

Posted in Startups, Work

I’d wager that most people at most startups don’t know what a startup is, which helps explain why most startups fail.

19 Aug 2017

The Journey is the Reward

Posted in Startups, Work

Let the goal be your yardstick, but don’t make it your organizing principle. Find joy in the grind and the results will come to you.

11 Jan 2016

My Gratitude Resume

Posted in Work

Inspired by Tony Stubblebine and Bijan Sabet, I mapped out my career based on the people who took a chance on me—those who gave me a shot when they in no way had to.

21 Nov 2015

10 Smart Ways to Say “I Don’t Know”

Posted in Work

In a moment of need, people want answers, but more importantly, they want honest, accurate information.