My Mission

Seizing Opportunities and Scaling Product Development The startup ecosystem in San Diego witnessed a meteoric rise when ClickUp, a productivity platform, burst onto the scene.

The Road from Game Design to Employee Satisfaction The journey of a tech professional often begins with passion, as seen in the gaming industry. However,

As the digital world continuously expands, programming languages come and go, shaping the way we interact with technology. But amid the constant evolution, one language

As we enter a recession, the tech industry is in turmoil. Term sheets have been pulled, valuations cut, and founders scramble to reduce their burn

During heavy growth phases, we can sometimes spin up multiple new teams each month. We may try to onboard and organize those teams consistently, but more often they form organically, take on their own identity and culture, and mutate significantly from the teams you managed when your company was small.

Being able to quickly spin up effective teams is not only necessary to grow, it’s an existential imperative. After reaching product-market fit, the #1 reason growth stage companies fail is due to mismanaged growth.

Whether you know it or not, talent is your #1 problem right now. The COVID-19 lockdown has accelerated the Digitization of Everything. Every human interaction has gone online, so the demand for software engineers has exploded. With the transition to remote work, Big Tech has eaten up all the great talent.

If I had to pick one thing that every product team should do that would unlock the most inspiration, insight, and growth, it would be customer interviews. When clients ask me what they should be doing to build better products, I always tell them “Just start talking to customers!” Once they do, it becomes a wellspring of enlightenment, inspiration, and innovation.

I’m a voracious reader. When I approach any challenge with my teams or clients, I always look for a book or framework that helps frame the problem and guide me to the best solution. Here is my essential list of books for every agile practitioner.

In this case study, I’ll show you how I coached a large, over-burdened engineering organization to take ownership of and improve their leadership, teamwork, process, and operations.

In this case study, I’ll show you how I coached a fast-growing marketing automation platform to overcome three key existential crises at once.

At the end of every year, I spend the holidays reflecting on my year, what went well, what didn’t go well, and what I can do in the next year to be a better version of myself. I take all of my coaching clients through this process as well. This year, I decided to open-source my Personal Retrospective Guide so that everyone can benefit.

I’ve been leading and coaching software development teams for fifteen years, and there is one problem that has surfaced in some form in every single team I’ve ever worked with. The problem begins when the Product Owner asks the engineers to work on a vague story with very little context and no acceptance criteria. This is called Requirements Churn.