Elegant Solutions for Demanding Problems
Elegance: The quality of being pleasingly ingenious and simple; neatness —Oxford Dictionary Many businesses succeed by chasing after the next success. They grow organically—trying to follow markets and customer needs, branching into new lines of business, and...
Baking Security into Software
Today, in the best case, most software implements security and privacy as just one of many competing requirements along with functionality and usability. In the worst case, security and privacy are an after-thought—designed and installed to satisfy minimal regulatory requirements, user expectations, or avoid negative software reviews. That will all change—at least for software used within the European Union or for software or systems which stores the data of EU companies and citizens—by May 2018.
Value-Nets: Helping us Anticipate the Future
I suggest the sweet spot for any business is not to try to eat its competitor’s lunch today; it is to get an extra portion of its competitor’s lunch tomorrow. By scanning our value net for risks and opportunities, we can plot a trajectory to get there first.
Hiring for Performance not History
I’ve talked to a lot of managers over the years who lament at the “skills-gap.” They claim they’re just not able to find the qualified candidates they need to fill their jobs.
Why Team Members Can Drive Us Crazy
It’s almost a given now that, if we want to work with people, we need to know their personality traits. Most managers have been to some sort of personality “typing” workshop to help them understand how to get the most from their team members and get along with their own managers…I’ve completed many of these for myself and I’ve even administered and interpreted some of them to my clients during my career as a counselor. Some of their findings I resonate with; others I find to be a stretch. The problem isn’t in the testing; it’s how we treat people.
Estimating Projects using PERT and Fermi Tests
I once inherited a project that was 2 years late. The project had languished for so long that it was a pure challenge just to breathe new life into it. Everyone has given up on it and tossed into the corner of their "other duties as assigned" pile. It quickly became...
Decision Making
I once finished a engagement with a company that had a difficult time with decision-making. When employees would ask how a mandated change should be implemented, the manager might respond with, "I'm not a technical guy; be creative," and then walk away. I remember...
Demographics vs. Shared Values
I've lost count of the number of articles that have come across my feed with titles like, "Reaching out to Millennials", "Understanding your target market", or "What Boomers need." Traditional marketing models are based on carving up the universe of all potential...