Clear Narratives Show Instead of Tell

April 29, 2018
Amazon Way, Clarity of Thought, Writing
1 Comment

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 I qualify it? Then, qualify it in your words. Tell (Bad): The BMW E28 M5 is a rare car. Show (Good): Of the 722,328 E28 5-series sedans BMW built between 1981 and 1987, only 2,191 …Continue reading →

Be a Great Reader

April 24, 2018
Amazon Way, Books, How To, Writing
3 Comments

When an organization has a culture where the written word is valued, being a great reader is just as important as being a great writer. Over time, I’ve tried to have a very high-bar for my own writing. I wrote a little about this in my post Details Matter. I’ve also learned the importance of being a great reader, and that’s the topic of this post. In the 2017 Amazon Shareholder letter Jeff Bezos wrote …Continue reading →

Customer, Business, Technology, Organization (CBTO)

April 21, 2018
Business, Career, Clarity of Thought, Customer & Product, Leadership, Organization & People, Technology & Execution
6 Comments

CBTO = Customer + Business + Technology + OrganizationContinue reading →

Details Matter in Presenting Narratives

April 18, 2018
Amazon Way, How To, Leadership, Writing
1 Comment

Narratives are written documents used to present clear thinking. Narratives enable readers to quickly understand the author’s ideas in order to drive robust conversations and decisive decision making. Details matter when it comes to printing narratives for others to read. Sloppy presentation of the written word detracts from content and shows the author lacks obsession about his or her customer (the reader). Authors must apply a very high standard for making it easy and pleasing …Continue reading →

Merit Badges – A Mental Model for Success

April 1, 2018
Career, Clarity of Thought, Leadership
6 Comments

The concept of a Merit Badge comes from the Boy Scouts. The idea is that a scout can only earn a particular merit badge (actually a patch that gets sewn onto a vest) by demonstrating mastery of the skill or ability defined by the badge. For example, a scout would only receive the “Firemanship” badge by clearly demonstrating, repeatedly, the ability to start fires without matches. Merit Badges can come in all sizes. A small …Continue reading →

My Apple ][ Tribute

April 17, 2017
Kindel
1 Comment

It’s safe to say that the Apple ][ personal computer had a great an impact on my life as any other factor, short of the fact that I was born. This is my tribute to the Apple ][ on it’s 40th birthday. In 1978 I spent a day at my cousin’s factory in Grand Rapids, MI. I was 11 years old. I had never touched a computer beyond the Atari Pong my family had. After …Continue reading →

What it Means to Be Great Product Manager

June 18, 2015
Customer & Product, Leadership
1 Comment

A Tweetstorm of mine from earlier in the week: https://twitter.com/natbro/timelines/611337333711843330 Piling on a comment @natbro made about PMs: Besides customers, there are two groups of people involved in building tech products: Engineers and everyone else. Only the engineers actually produce anything for the customer. The job of everyone else, especially PMs is to generate clarity and commitment to a purpose so that the engineers can create magic. Bad PMs don’t get this and think the …Continue reading →

Attention is the Currency of Leadership

January 24, 2015
Clarity of Thought, Leadership
2 Comments

Great leaders optimize how they spend their attention. They are skilled at turning up the heat to get others to focus their attention on the right things at the right times. Attention is the currency of leadership, and each person has a fixed amount of attention to spend. “Leaders have a fixed amount of attention units they can spend in a day, week, or year. Are you spending yours on the right things?” (A mentor …Continue reading →

Find Work That Does Not Feel Like Work

March 24, 2014
Career, Leadership
2 Comments

The first thing I ask people who are looking for a new job is “What work do you want to do in your ideal job?” It is interesting how few people answer this question. Almost everybody wants to answer different questions like “What do you want to work on?” or “What kind of work environment are you looking for?” They respond with answers like “I want to work on a small dynamic team with other …Continue reading →

Once I was Afraid

October 27, 2013
Leadership
2 Comments

Once I was afraid to ride a bike. Then I did it. Once I was afraid to program in BASIC. Then I did it. Once I was afraid of getting married. Then I married Julie. Once I was afraid of assembly language. Then I did it. Once I was afraid of printer drivers. Then I mastered them. Once I was afraid of having kids. Then I had two. Once I was afraid of network protocols. …Continue reading →

Iconic: Photos of Every Apple Product

October 6, 2013
Kindel, Platforms
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Last year Jonathan Zufi reached out to me asking if he could use a quote from my “Why Nobody Can Copy Apple” blog post in a book on Apple he was working on. I said sure, why not? I’m glad I did. Jonathan has released the book, Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation, and sent me a complimentary copy. Fittingly, I received it on the anniversary of Steve Job’s death. My quote is on …Continue reading →

Be Excellent At Saying No

September 11, 2013
Leadership, Startups
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Steven Sinofski has written another great post on his “Learning by Shipping” blog. In this one, titled “8 steps for engineering leaders to keep the peace” he focuses on things an engineering leader can do when his or her ‘manager’ asks for too much. Solid advice, but it only addresses half the problem (the engineering leader). #5 in his list of things is 1. As part of doing that, I’m going to sometimes feel like …Continue reading →

How to install a 2 port USB power adapter in an ‘87 BMW

April 21, 2013
Cars, How To
2 Comments

For some reason BMW forgot to put USB power sockets in my ’87 535is. In addition, while the JVC stereo the previous owner installed has a USB port, I use it for a memory card for music. Lastly, the cig lighter socket in these cars is “always on”. For these reasons I decided to do a little mod: Adding a 2 port USB power socket. This post explains how I did it and the parts …Continue reading →

Have a Plan

March 2, 2013
Clarity of Thought, How To, Startups
2 Comments

Yesterday someone asked me to share my thoughts on the secret to building excellent things. I summarized what I know as: “Put the customer first, have a plan, create a shared mission, get early victories, remove process, and make it fun.” – me, yesterday. This was the formula my cohorts that built the Windows Phone app platform used. It worked. This is what the small team that created www.milelogr.com did. “No battle was ever won …Continue reading →

Businesses Buy Differently

February 28, 2013
Business, Platforms
9 Comments

My post on Why Nobody Can Copy Apple has become one of the most read posts I’ve ever written (thanks @gruber). Commenters are asking me “Can you describe more what the behaviors are that are different when building for business vs. consumers?” There are many, but central is the sales motion: the approach and process an organization uses to sell product. The sales motion for businesses is diametrically different than the sales motion for consumers. …Continue reading →

"Write Once…" is Anti-Customer

February 21, 2013
Customer & Product, Mobile, Platforms, Technology & Execution
23 Comments

Just as in the ’90s, there’s a bunch of hype these days around solving the cross-platform development problem. Mobile platform fragmentation is killing developers, and if only every device supported some common language or technology engine we could all Write Once and Run Anywhere. If only. WORA was, is, and always will be, a fallacy. WORA reminds me of the mole in whack-a-mole. It just keeps popping up and the realities of competing platform vendors …Continue reading →

Bubbly Time: MileLogr has its first, real, paying customers!

February 19, 2013
Startups
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When we launched MileLogr (www.milelogr.com) yesterday we didn’t know how long it would be before the first real customer actually paid us for a report. It happened today! We have monies! It is time for a serious glass of champagne! We got some great press on the launch too.  Todd Bishop of Geekwire wrote: The service, called MileLogr, works in conjunction with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple calendars, creating a detailed mileage report based on the …Continue reading →

Why Nobody Can Copy Apple

February 19, 2013
Business, Customer & Product, Platforms
128 Comments

Horace Dediu has written another brilliant piece titled “Why doesn’t anybody copy Apple?”. As he points out, Apple is fairly unique in its command of vertical integration and many people point to that as the “why”. However, Horace also admits this can’t be the sole reason and he is unable to explain what that reason could be. I think I know. Tim Cook refers to integration and a great team as unique Apple advantages (but …Continue reading →

1929 Jennings ‘Dutch Boy’ Quarter Play Slot Machine

January 21, 2013
Kindel
2 Comments

In the ’50s my father & grandfather came across about a dozen slot machines that had been unearthed from a building excavation in Chicago. Out of the pile, they were able to restore a couple of them. I remember my grandfather’s at their house in Grand Rapids. It was a nickel based unit and he always had a jar of nickels next to it. We had a $.25 based machine. When I was a kid, …Continue reading →

Don’t Make Your Team Say No To You

January 9, 2013
Clarity of Thought, Leadership, Organization & People, Startups
4 Comments

Leaders are often visionary “idea people”. The difference between success and failure is how good these leaders are at training their teams to say No. Idea People often forget they are disrupting their own teams by voicing their ideas. If leaders don’t learn and practice skills for controlling the flow of ideas, their teams will fail. When I was building home networking for Windows at Microsoft, I learned getting a team to a focused plan, …Continue reading →