"Have 2-3 wins each week" and a few other pearls of wisdom

By -
Photo credit: Jane Gianoutsos
A contractor recently gave me some simple pearls of wisdom that are relevant beyond a contracting role and can apply to working on any project:
  1. Have 2-3 wins each week.
  2. Don't overstay your welcome.
  3. Deliver what you say you are going to deliver.
  4. Manage your stakeholders.
I like the simplicity of these and the focus they drive.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solution: Getting macOS Messages to work with Google Chat / Talk / Hangouts in High Sierra

By -
Image
The Messages application wasn't working for me on macOS and I was wanting it to work with my Google Chat / Talk / Hangouts service. It appears that with macOS High Sierra a workaround is required.

After struggling to get it going I finally got it going after some searching on the Internet and trying a couple of supposed fixes. What ended up working for me were the instructions on https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gtalk-messages-solution-found-high-sierra.2073393/ with a couple of tweaks. The tweaks were required to support 2FA which is enabled on my account.

The instructions, repeated here so that I can find them again if required and to assist others having the same problem, are as follows:
Go to System Preferences / Internet Accounts and delete your google account.Open Terminal and run the following commands (Warning: This will delete your history!):find ~/Library/Preferences -name "*iChat*" -deleterm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Messagesrm -rf ~/Library/MessagesR…
Read more

Book Review: "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries

By -
Image
The Lean Startup is a book I have been meaning to read for years and never got around to. It contains lots of useful advice and good case studies explaining experiences of what has and hasn't work. The book is oriented towards software development startups (and software development innovation in general in any sized organisation) and could have easily been condensed into a third its size.

Key takeaways:
Build, Measure, Learn (go through this loop as fast as you can)Use validated learning and measure using actionable metrics, not vanity metrics. Use cohort analysis.Do split testing to measure what matters to customersBuild a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), gain quick feedback from customers, learn quickly and evolve as requiredUse 5 whys for root cause analysis and identifying what to target in terms of improvements
Read more

Book Review: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

By -
Image
Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono is a very easy read and provides a good simple approach for exploring ideas and problems through thinking from different perspectives in a structured manner. There are six hats, each of which have different characteristics:
White Hat: facts, figures, informationRed Hat: emotions and feelings, hunch and intuitionBlack Hat: devil's advocate, negative judgementYellow Hat: optimism, positivityGreen Hat: creativityBlue Hat: controlling of the hats and thinking, orchestration
The idea of the hat is that a person will put on or be asked to put on a hat and to express a view from that perspective. This gets people thinking in different ways and since it is play-acting people are more willing to express views from under the security of the hat that otherwise may be left unsaid.
Read more