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).
RSS
Category Archives: Management
Platform Product Management in 2021 (Product School Talk)
Platforms build value through shared data and experiences, that’s also what makes them tough to build well.
Two of the many things that set platform product management apart are how you approach customers and interfaces. Continue reading
Things.app Eisenhower-matrix made easy
Learn how to use Things.app linking abilities to make planning your day and week easier! Continue reading
Posted in Business, Management
3 Comments
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
Leave a comment
RACI for new leaders
Understanding roles is a perennial issue, but especially as a company scales and small-group communication breaks down it becomes more and more of an issue…. Responsible. The people who do the actual work. Accountable. The one person on the hook. ‘The Decider’ … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Leave a comment
OKRs: Adopting Objectives and Key Results
I’ve been looking for a way to up my and my team’s game as competitive pressures, deadlines and customer demand increases. OKRs got their start and Intel and made their leap to Google, LinkedIn and other valley companies. In a nutshell: … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Leave a comment
Focus meetings just on decisions, wither understanding?
How Larry Page Changed Meetings At Google After Taking Over Last Spring Every meeting must have one clear decision maker. If there’s no decision maker — or no decision to be made — the meeting shouldn’t happen. No more than … Continue reading
Posted in Management
2 Comments
Applying “patches welcome” to management
Refactoring organizations to increase your impact: “So we changed the meetings to focus on proposals instead of problems. Stating and identifying problems is fine, and sometimes it’s all we can do when the solution eludes us. But proposals are the heavy … Continue reading
Posted in Management
1 Comment
Chris Heisel 