Communications
There are two types of people in business: * Simplifiers: who make complex things simple * Complexifiers: who make simple things complex Quick joke: What does a complexifier call a simplifier? Answer: "Boss." Somewhere, somehow, some people decided that in business you need to make everything complicated and speak using
Management
One thing I try to teach all new (and many old) managers is the simple, somewhat counter-intuitive rule that conflict avoidance causes conflict. Example: a manager has problems with an under-performing employee, but doesn't tell them that their work is below expectations and they need to ship up.
Management
At Disney -- a company that is truly focused on customer experience -- every “cast member” (i.e., employee) gets six weeks of training before they see a “guest” (i.e., customer). "Face characters" (e.g., Snow White walking through the park) spend an additional 40 hours just
Career
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of big-company HR practices. I’m more of the First Break all the Rules type. Despite my general skepticism of many standard practices, we still do annual performance reviews at my company, though I’m thinking seriously of dropping them.
IPO
As we move into the third week of January, I figured it was “now or never” in terms of getting a set of predictions out for 2015. Before jumping into that, let’s take a quick review of how I did with my 2014 predictions and do some self-grading. 1.
Management
I get a fair number of emails and calls from former colleagues and friends asking for career advice. I'm always happy to provide it and the process of doing so is both thought-provoking and fun. I have a learned a lot from having these conversations and have noticed
Cloud
I love metrics. I live for metrics. Every week and every quarter I drown my team in metrics reviews. Why? Because metrics are the instrumentation -- the flight panel -- of our business. Good metrics provide clear insights. They cut through politics, spin, and haze. They spark amazing debates. They
Management
I have to admit I’m not a fan of succession planning in general, at startups in particular, and especially when the successee is involved in the process. Why? Because the process quickly ends up presumptuous and political. In my experience, the successee is more concerned with being a “good
CEO
One of the most awkward situations in business is trying to recruit someone who will work for to-be-hired (TBH). For example, say you’ve started a search for a director of product marketing, have a few great candidates in play, only to have your marketing VP suddenly quit the company
Management
I built a very successful marketing career based on a three-word mission statement that I picked up from Chris Greendale, back when I was a product marketer at Ingres. Chris always said that marketing exists to make sales easier. I loved those three words. I embraced that simple concept. I
Cloud
I'm a big fan of software-as-a-service (SaaS) metrics. I've authored very deep posts on SaaS renewals rates and customer acquisition costs. I also routinely point readers to other great posts on the topic, including: * David Skok's excellent posts on SaaS metrics * Bessemer's
CEO
While driver-based planning is a bit of an old buzzword (the first two Google hits date to 2009 and 2011 respectively), I am nevertheless a huge fan of driver-based planning not because the concept was sexy back in the day, but because it's incredibly useful. In this post,