It’s no secret I’ve favored Common Cause Analysis as a quick and easy tool for identifying key, recurring problems in a project management system. The methodology is simple: List a number of recent problematic projects (typically 10 – 15) For each project, list the causes that contributed to the projects’ problems Prioritize the contributory causes,… Read More »
Wednesday I spent the day at Vistage International’s annual All-City meeting in Seattle. The keynote speaker was noted futurist David Houle, author of The Shift Age (2006) and ShiftEd: A Call to Action for Transforming K-12 (2011). Houle’s presentation explored existing trends and extrapolated them into the near future. From these, projections of interest to… Read More »
A common question I hear among early stage entrepreneurs is “I need an infusion of money to get my project going. What are they (banks, private and angel investors, and venture capital funds) looking for?” At the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market tradeshow, the Outdoor Industry Association hosted a panel discussion of boutique investment bankers who… Read More »
Phase-Gate processes are in widespread use for the management of new product development efforts. I often hear questions about how to better and more effectively implement them. A recent inter-company survey sheds some interesting and objective light on the subject. I think you’ll find the results compelling—I certainly did. Here are the findings in a… Read More »
Graeme Newell’s keynote presentation at the Outdoor Industry Rendezvous in Portland last month was, hands down, the best presentation of the event. Every product and brand manager should know, understand and live his points about brand building and messaging—it isn’t about the product, it is about the customer, how the customer feels, and how the… Read More »
At the end of October I attended Product Management Consortium’s the 3rd ProductCamp Seattle. The event was developed by, and for, product managers, to increase skills and knowledge, build professional relationships, and provide greater recognition for the discipline. The most interesting part for me was how the content was developed and delivered: sourced from, and… Read More »
I am a big fan of simple and elegant dashboard tools. Jim Fowler, Interim VP of Business Development at Carbon Design Group, one of Seattle’s premier full-service product development consultancies, shared the method that they use for reporting actual-to-budget resource burn rates and mapping them to milestone delivery. With this tool, hours and expenses are… Read More »
David McCandless at Information is Beautiful collects some interesting visual displays of information. One of my favorites is The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions. I now clearly understand two things: (1) how to get more work done and (2) how perusing LinkedIn updates can result in aching fingers (yes—I’ve felt the laptop lid slam.)
Don’t you love it when mountains of complex data can be reduced to a simple visual tool? Ed Easterling of Crestmont Research did just that when he mapped return rates for investments made and withdrawn during all years between 1920 and 2010. Ed Tufte would love Easterling’s work. One can spend hours studying this matrix… Read More »
I collect visualization tools like the floor under my bed collects dust bunnies. I’d like to think I have a pretty good collection. Of visualization tools. This table was created by Ralph Lengler and Martin Eppler at the Visual-Literacy.org. Along with organizing the methods, the table shows examples of each by hovering over the method… Read More »
