Archive for the ‘Professional’ Category

Monday night I had the opportunity to attend an Agile Groupies meeting.  It’s a semi-regular gathering of folks (developers, business analysts, product managers, etc.) interested in a specific approach, Agile, toward software development.

For those of you not familiar, Agile development focuses on smaller development teams, working on smaller deliverables, in highly iterative, somewhat less structured approach.  Part of the thinking is that if you are delivering in smaller, more discrete ‘chunks’ of working product, that the overall process will be more ‘agile,’ more adaptive to ongoing change during a product’s overall life cycle. The idea is to move away from ‘heavy’ less flexible disciplines, and back toward lighter, freer, approaches. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pleased to let everyone know, March 17, I will be speaking at the It’s a Duesy II Manufacturing Revival Conference.  You’re encouraged to come.

Dennis Jeffrey of Tekni Consulting is the event’s organizer.  Heading into 2010, we begin to catch our breaths, having simply survived 2009.

Now, is the time for revival!  But, not revival just as a dictionary would describe it.  One definition is, ‘…restoration to use…’  We need not to simply revive, restore, or return to pre-‘09 conditions, we need to find ways to thrive, to strengthen ourselves and move forward positively.  With this in mind, I was happy to accept Dennis’ invitation to speak.

My discussion is part of the event’s Management track, focusing on Change.

The world around us continues to evolve; nothing new there.  But many organizations, even as they change what they look like, have largely stayed the same inside.  Social, technical, global evolution has now come so far organizations simply have no choice but to finally begin changing who they are inside.

Register Now! Early Bird Pricing until February 15th! Price is only $89/ person, group rates available.

For those of you who have followed my blog, you understand that my focus is on providing thoughtful business leadership.  Come listen as I discuss areas often neglected by leaders, allowed to fall by the wayside, which are increasingly important in today’s world—areas that need to change.

In preparation for this event, I am actively interviewing business leaders and soliciting input—including yours, dear reader.  I encourage you to provide your input regarding how businesses need to change in order to thrive, moving forward.  Feel free to Comment, or send me an email (results@jtpedersen.net).

In Seth’s latest book, Linchpin,  he spends a lot of time talking about maps and artists.  That being an artist means you create your own map, your own path.  And, that society is changing.  Rather than spending your life following a map someone else created, to be successful you’ll need to create your own map moving forward.

While I’ve not been an assembly line worker in a literal sense, it took me awhile (couple dozen reiterations) for what Seth was talking about to truly sink in…appreciating how much of it related to my own life.

Life was relatively easy, for a long time.  With a clear goal in front of me, I could move mountains to achieve it.  I would feel a sense of accomplishment, and life was grand.  So, for the first 3/4 of my life, this is how it worked.  Goal, after goal, after goal.  Going into the service, I bought a map out of the carousel, having chosen to go into aviation.  Once there, the Navy gave me a nice [flight] bag of additional maps to follow (exams, flight certifications, instructor certs, regular performance reviews, etc.).

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Had a good conversation with a friend today.  As we talked, we seemed to circle around a common thought that has been all too apparent to many of us these days.  We have increasingly become a nation of specialists.  The foremen (and women) have largely been sent packing.

Sometimes the essence of this thought comes to mind, even though you might not do so tangibly.  For instance, my family has had a spat of medical ‘things’ going on.  10 years ago, most of our time was spent with our general practitioner.  You know…the one doctor you went to for just about ‘everything.’  Now, the GP seems to simply be a glorified gatekeeper.  Skin your knee, see the GP.  If you need a band-aid they’ll set you right up.  Otherwise, you’re off to for visits to any number of point-practitioners.  Ok, I exaggerate a bit…‘just’ a bit.

This problem is also very evident in our professional lives as well.  Today I met with a number of folks in a regional networking group.  The group reflects what is already known about this recession…most of those effected are mid/senior careerists.  What seems unspoken though, is these are also the folks known to a different generation as foremen.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a topic I expect to revisit over time, likely more than once. Today’s trigger was a discussion with a friend considering a new leadership role.

Beyond the job description, she had already started looking at structural considerations, like compensation, reported corporate finances, and what she knew of the corporate culture. She just didn’t feel like she’d covered all the bases though. It helped I could relate some of my own lessons learned. There is a range of other, sometimes intangible, things to dig into.

Your personal network of colleagues, friends, and family, can provide invaluable feedback. In one past role, reaching out to folks in my LinkedIn network, I received a number of responses. Comments about past leadership successes, or failures, can arm you with poignant questions to ask hiring managers. Aside from making you look like you’re knowledgeable and prepared, it reminds them they need to sell themselves to you, as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the first part of this series, I discussed listening
to your market and understanding, ‘what keeps your customers up at night.’ The second part, discussed understanding who your customers are, as well as who they are not. For this last part of a high-level discussion, let’s look at why a plan is important.

Build a Plan

Do only a little digging, and you will find oceans of content (books, articles, courses, webinars, etc.) on why you need to develop a plan. The topic itself may make you want to simply hit the Back button in your browser.

To keep it simple, there are two real values to creating a plan. Understanding and keeping on track. Here’s what I mean…

The plan underlying your product should seek to answer some basic questions Read the rest of this entry »

Know Who Your Customers Are…Not

(see pt 1 here.)

For some reason, it always seems easier, working for Big Corp, to understand who your customers are. Product management, or product marketing depending on your organization, might describe your target customers like this: Product X’s typical customer makes $250M/yr in gross revenue, has 1,200 employees, and at least 5 different facilities, in one of these ‘three’ industries.

Seems simple. And, by default, since you know who your customers are it stands to reason that you know who your customers are not. We’ll come back to this.

As a small business or entrepreneur things do not seem quite so clear. You don’t have access to the latest market segmentation data; today’s primary focus is paying today’s bills so tomorrow the lights turn on; and, anything walking in the door (and can fog a mirror) is a target. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent presentation I felt it important to emphasize that market = customers. Sophisticated analysis firms (e.g. Daratech, Gartner, Forester, etc.) like to release studies in which ‘markets’ are described as under-served in certain areas; where a market is going;, or, how a market is segmented. The firms might have spoken to a thousand individuals (company or person) in order to produce statistically valid aggregated results. In the end, people become abstracted, reduced to something a smidgeon less generic than ‘they.’

In contrast, I have seen very smart business people read a market study and then meet with a number of customers. Later, back at the office, they debate, ‘…the ‘market’ is doing X. But I met with three customers this week that are doing Y. It’s as though market does not equal customer. The Market and Customer are one in the same. However the customers you may have just met with (you know, the ones that just spent time with you) are the ones that might write a check someday.

It is important as you nurture an idea into a viable product that you assign a proper perspective your input sources. Neither should necessarily trump one or the other though how you weight them may vary occasionally.

This past week I had the pleasure speaking with a group of (mostly) new entrepreneurs at an Ann Arbor SPARK event. The focus was to discuss, at a high level, those key things important when creating a new product. My comments apply whether the product in question is a tangible widget or an intangible service. In this post, I want to talk about the first segment of the discussion: Listening.

If I had but one over-arching suggestion to make, it would be to listen to your market. Odds are, listening to people describe their problems is how your first came up with your ‘idea.’ Listening cannot stop there though.

Only through listening can you uncover your customers’ problems. You should be asking yourself which ones you can help with. Can you do it well? Who else is doing what you might want to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so you have just read the title. You know what the article is about. Your expectations have been set. And, it has been pretty straight-forward thus far hasn’t it?

Over the past few months there have been a number of different articles debating whether we (in the US) are getting better or worse in our writing. The debate is often pretty black and white. One side cites examples of how Twittering (with its 140 character limits), SMS (phone texting with its 160 character limits), Instant Messaging, and the like are all promoting poor writing. The other side cites examples where people (particularly our younger generations) are incredibly effective at adjusting their messaging to suit the medium, and, how with all these new mediums—we are writing more than we ever have.

Regardless of Read the rest of this entry »