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Popular Posts
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Friday was my last day at Amazon
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I’m Betting on Control4
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I sincerely tried, but I still hate Linux
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STOP 0xC2 aka BAD_POOL_CALLER Blue Screen and bad memory
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Why Nobody Can Copy Apple
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Customer, Business, Technology, Organization (CBTO)
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Retail Pricing, Markup, and Margins
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You are Thinking of Your Career Trajectory Wrong
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Merit Badges – A Mental Model for Success
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The 5 Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor
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Windows Phone is Superior; Why Hasn’t it Taken Off?
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The Job Decision Matrix
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Be a Great Reader
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Paying Developers is A Bad Idea
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Tools to Achieve Clarity of Thought
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Category Archives: Leadership
Taxonomy and Lexicon
How many times have you been in a heated discussion only to find out that the two sides were talking past each other because they were reading from two different dictionaries? I bet you can also remember situations where just …Continue reading
One-Way and Two-Way Doors
June 27, 2019
Effective decision making starts with understanding, in the long-term, very, very few things actually matter. The vast majority of the decisions made day-to-day are either minutia or easily reversible and can be made quickly. However, a small number of things (about …Continue reading
Mental Models
You’ve probably noticed people you work with who are effective at leading can frame complex ideas simply. They’ll lead conversations like this: “Well, I think there are three things we should focus on, not 15, and they are…” “Folks, I …Continue reading
Lead Without Authority
There are two forms of influence in the world: Influence by authority Influence without authority When a ‘boss’ (a manager or someone with a big title) attempts to influence change or drive action using only their authority, it is rarely …Continue reading
Focusing on users is not Customer Obsession
Let’s talk Customer Obsession and how it is different than user obsession. My definitions: Customer: An individual (or entity) that pays you, directly or indirectly, for value you provide. User: An individual that is forced to use something you provide. Users fall …Continue reading
Debate Tenets
If you read my ancient blog post “the 5Ps” (Purpose, Principles, Priorities, People, Plan) you’ll see I’ve long thought having a set of guiding principles for any project is important. At Amazon I learned there was a synonym to the word principle: …Continue reading
The Tension is Intentional
It is no accident many of the Amazon Leadership Principles seemingly contradict each other: they were carefully selected and crafted to encourage leaders to be thoughtful about the gray area. Bias for Action vs. Think Big represent favorite example of …Continue reading
Good Intentions are Never Enough
May 9, 2019
Everyone has good intentions… Everyone WANTS to do the right thing (e.g. read the doc sent out by email the night before). But good intentions are never enough. Stuff doesn’t get done based solely on people’s good intentions. Change can’t …Continue reading
Have Strong Opinions, Weakly Held
This week’s tip relates to the Are right, A Lot leadership Amazon Leadership Principle: Leaders are right a lot. They have strong business judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. A great mnemonic …Continue reading
Everyone’s a Leader
The word leader is defined as: leader noun a person or thing that leads. The word leader is not a synonym of manager. Everyone is a leader. It’s entirely possible for a people manager to be a poor leader (which …Continue reading
Have a Plan (With Dates)
I’ve written a lot on the importance of having a plan. This week’s Leadership Principle tip doubles-down on that. Consider a status update: Bad: “The team will investigate the issue.” Good: “The team will complete the investigation of the issue …Continue reading
How Meeting/Not-Meeting Goals relates to Earn Trust and Insist on Highest Standards
This week’s Leadership Principle tip is about how setting goals, and holding yourself accountable, relates to Earn Trust and Insist on Highest Standards.Continue reading
Dive Deep != Micromanaging
You’ve said it. You’ve heard others say it. You are not quite sure how you feel about it. “So-and-so is a micro-manager. He/she’s always in my shorts and doesn’t let me just do my job.” This week’s Leadership Principle tip …Continue reading
Just Right Porridge and Leadership Principles
Last week I wrote about Have Backbone, Disagree and Commit. This week the topic is about how to get the balance right when living Leadership Principles. Just as it is possible to not live a leadership principle (under-index), it is …Continue reading
Have Backbone, Disagree and Commit
March 13, 2019
We’ve decided to adopt Amazon’s Leadership Principles at Control4. For a while we debated creating our own, or modifying Amazon’s, but in the end we decided just running with Amazon’s as-is would work best. Last week I sent a mail …Continue reading
Kindel’s Law
I’m not sure how this law thing works. But I’m jealous of folks like Moore, Atwood, and Shannon. I think everyone should have a law named after them. In 2013, when I was tasked with build Amazon’s equivalent of ApplePay …Continue reading
Tools to Achieve Clarity of Thought
July 8, 2018
This post inventories the tools I use from my toolbox when I need to drive clear thinking in product development. I was inspired to write this based on a Twitter conversation in March: The more details you know, the better …Continue reading
Ownership
A strong bias towards ownership is important in org culture. The problem is, folks often over index on ‘I own this area, so I’m going to nail it!’ vs. ‘I am an owner on behalf of the entire company and …Continue reading
Clear Narratives Show Instead of Tell
This is yet-another-post on the topic of Amazon-style “six-page memos”, aka Narratives. This post focuses on the mantra: “Great narratives show, they don’t tell.” When writing things you believe to be facts, ask yourself: How do I know? How can …Continue reading
Customer, Business, Technology, Organization (CBTO)
April 21, 2018
CBTO = Customer + Business + Technology + OrganizationContinue reading
