-
By day, I'm a product manager serving a group of fantastic engineers at Square.
By night, I fight crime and solve mysteries with a robot pal of my own creation.
By midday, I like a snack, generally a cookie.
Part of this biography isn't true (hint, I like cookies and engineering, I don't own a robot)
Author Archives: Chris Heisel
Avoid productivity cookies, schedule time for todos
For me, a successful day doesn’t end once I’ve gotten my priorities straightened out and emoji-fied in Things.app. The next step is to schedule time on my calendar for any todo that needs more than 5 minutes. I make an … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Management
5 Comments
Eisenhower and emoji: How I use Things.app to get focus
You know that anxiety you get when there’s something you need to do and you’re trying to keep it in your head? You write it down on your todo list and problem solved! Lather, rinse repeat over the course of … Continue reading
Posted in Kanban, Management, Uncategorized
2 Comments
The Heisel Test: Five questions for professional happiness
Five values to look for in job candidates and companies to lead to professional happiness.
1. Do you put customer value and experience first?
2. Do you move responsibly fast?
3. Are you genuinely curious and open to new information?
4. Do you empower your teams and teammates?
5. Do you respect and have empathy for people? Continue reading
Posted in Kanban, Management
1 Comment
Take notes in your 1:1 and share them
The most important meetings I have every week are on my one-on-ones with my engineering managers and the engineers on their teams. The agenda is the same every week – at least 15 minutes to talk about whatever they want … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Comments Off on Take notes in your 1:1 and share them
Docker standards at Kabbage
I also posted this over at our Kabbage Tech Blog In the five months my team’s been using Docker we’ve stolen adopted some standards to make our lives easier. 1. Build your own critical base images Our application images have … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Comments Off on Docker standards at Kabbage