Vision: What does success look like? Humanity: What do you need to succeed? Process: How do we ensure everyone gets what they need?
Agile as Organizational Therapy
Agile is a meaningless buzzword for many because it is perceived as an answer in search of a question. Too often, Agile is "cargo-culted" into an organization as an imposed process without first developing a deep understanding of what problems need to be solved. True progress only happens when the solution is aligned with the problems people actually... Continue Reading →
Best Practices for Design in Agile
A Bibliography, mostly discussing UX Design but a little on the related issue of Architectural Design. A List Apart: Getting Real about Agile Design The uneasy relationships between design and agile SPARC: What an Agile Design Process looks like Thought Works: Just Enough Design Martin Fowler: Is Design Dead? Design Spikes Enough Design Up Front Overcoming Why Designers Resist Agile Agile... Continue Reading →
Ten Universally Useful Skills
In no particular order Financial Management Public Performance Writing Design Programming Sales Fitness Training Research Listening Self-Awareness Did I miss anything?
How to Fund Growth
Most organizations' financial structures are designed for predictability rather than explosive growth. To change that, we must: Invest Constructively in Passion Specifically: 1. Align Incentives Learn what people deeply want. Articulate how they can pursue that by contributing to the organization's mission 2. Unleash Talent Learn where people are the happiest and most productive. Build support systems that allow them to maximize... Continue Reading →
D.R.I.P.: Platform Thinking for Lean Startups
Define Terms, flows, roles, success criteria, open questions Research Characterize and identify Customer Zero Implement Enable Customer Zero to deploy a minimally viable app Productize Deliver a coherent and sustainable ecosystem
Transforming the Bay with Christ: A Platform Analysis
My series of four articles (plus a postscript) analyzing the regional spiritual renewal initiative Transforming the Bay with Christ: A Platform for Regional Transformation? From Platforms to Governance Trading Control for Authority The Process for Products TBC Postscript: A Missional Creed
TBC Postscript: A Missional Creed
I believe the mission of Transforming the Bay with Christ is to: Mobilize, Unify, and Grow the Body of Christ To Bless the San Francisco Bay Area Through the Transforming Power of the Cross
TBC 4: The Process for Products
One of the key insights about entrepreneurship in the last decade is that a startup is not just a small version of a established business. Rather, a startup is an organization formed to search for a business model, rather than execute one. In particular, this implies that startups should be designed to maximize learning by exploiting surprises. This is the exact opposite of a traditional business, which attempts to increase predictability by avoiding surprises. To get the optimal structure, we need to be clear on: Which things we need to learn (the problem) How we are going to learn them (the process) Who will own the learning (the people) What will prove we have learned the right lessons (the product)
TBC 3: Trading Control for Authority
...every organization's health is driven by three flows: Money (resources) Power (actions) Ideas (data) Over time, as the organization matures, all three flows more closely aligned with each other and the structure of the organization. Just like the blood, muscles, and nerves of a human body. But when building a platform, we have to reverse that process by giving up control over those flows...
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