Welcome to (a slightly delayed) February edition of the PlaniswareHub Monthly Brief!
WHAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION THIS MONTH
- How to pick the right automation project. When looking for place to apply intelligent automation, companies often fall into two common traps: chasing quick, easy wins that won't have much impact, or big, ambitious projects that will offer major strategic advantages. What they should focus on, however, is a third option: projects that build their capacity. (9 min read)
- To influence situations rather than use authority, ask questions. A challenge for any leader is to resist the temptation to say, “Do this” or “Do it because I'm the boss.” Mike Cohn offers five of his best "difficult" questions for influencing by asking questions. (4 min read)
- Defining teams for a product development organization. The way you set up your teams can have a massive impact on the success of your product development efforts. But how do you decide how to size teams, where to draw the lines between teams, and how to grow them? (8 min read)
- Three situations that require hard, honest conversations. Difficult situations are never fun, but many won't go away until you address them head on. Noa Ganot walks us through three of them: When strategy doesn't meet reality; When a disagreement becomes a deadlock; and When something doesn't work. (9 min read)
- Risks can be positive too. Very few stakeholders consider the upside of risks with their projects (in other words the opportunities that uncertainty might bring). It's time to change that. (2 min read)
- A product experience is about more than the core product — it requires more diversity in your teams. A few months ago, we featured the concept of "Fluid Teams". Willem-Jan Ageling returns to the topic with a practical example of how they help address the complete product experience. (6 min read)
- A visual glossary of tools to map behaviors in product design (but not only). Visualising the behaviors you want to influence is the first step to designing superior customer experiences. Christina Wodtke offers us a comprehensive guide to the key tools available. (6 min read)
- Seven product backlog mistakes to avoid. The product backlog is a simple yet powerful tool to capture and revise detailed product decisions and direct the work of the development team. Unfortunately, effectively using the backlog can be challenging. (9 min read)
- How you respond to your employees' frustrations is critical to ensuring negative emotions don't limit your effectiveness. Nihar Chhaya offer four recommendations to try: 1) Balance your emotions first before reacting to your team's frustration. 2) Lean into their anger with an intent to learn. 3) Redesign team goals together. 4) Build deeper trust by owning your part. (8 min read)
A QUOTE THAT MADE US THINK
The best — maybe the only? — real, direct measure of 'innovation' is change in human behaviour. In fact, it is useful to take this way of thinking as definitional: innovation is the sum of change across the whole system, not a thing which causes a change in how people behave. No small innovation ever caused a large shift in how people spend their time and no large one has ever failed to do so.
— Stewart Butterfield, founder of Slack, via James Clear
