Simon G's Blog

Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail, Michael S. Malone and Yuri Van Geest contains lots of useful information about how to give your organisation a chance of survival (be it a new one or an existing one of any size). It was repetitive at times and at points it felt like a Singularity University sales pitch but there was sufficient useful content for me to deem it a worthy read. My key takeaways: "Once any domain, discipline, technology or industry becomes information-enabled and powered by information flows, its price/performance begins doubling approximately annually."  Ray Kurzweil Rather than owning assets or workforces and incrementally seeing a return on those assets, Exponential Organisations (ExOs) leverage external resources (people, systems, machines etc.) to achieve their objectives. An exception to this is for scarce resources and assets. Maintaining a small core allows significant flexibility.  It also brings in fresh perspectives and expertise. E...

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 customers Build a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), gain quick feedback from customers, learn quickly and evolve as required Use 5 whys for root cause analysis and identifying what to target in terms of improvements

Sprint is a superb book that is very easy to read, with real world examples of how to apply the techniques discussed. I have taken some of the concepts discussed and am applying them to other activities beyond a 5 day Sprint process. Thoroughly recommended.