Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I build high-craft software and the teams that build it. I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

Adam Kalsey

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Business & Strategy

My christmas deliveries

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 18 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

28 Dec 2005

Jeff Jarvis notes some Christmas delivery problems with missing and late packages. My son had saved up his money for months for an iPod Nano and by the time he’d saved enough it was a week before Christmas and all the stores were out. He ordered an engraved one from the Apple store and paid extra for faster delivery. He was tickled when the Fedex tracking revealed it had been shipped from China, but was a little concerned that it would take too long to get. Three days after ordering it we came home to see a Fedex truck driving away and a “we missed you” slip hanging on the front door. We chased the truck down and got the iPod.

For Christmas I bought my wife a 30gig iPod and a Klipsch iGroove speaker dock, both ordered from Amazon in early December. Amazon promised delivery by Dec 23 with standard ground shipping, but when they still showed as pending shipment a week before Christmas I started to get nervous. I got a note from Amazon on Tuesday saying shipping was delayed but the order would still arrive by Friday. Thursday morning brought a note that the speakers had shipped and were upgraded to UPS next day shipping. Late Thursday night I was informed that the iPod had also shipped UPS next day. Both items arrived sometime Friday afternoon as promised. I assume that I wasn’t the only one with a similar situation, so Amazon must have spent a bundle on upgraded shipping.

Recently Written

Building the Next Big Thing: A Framework for Your Second Product
Nov 19: You need a first product sooner than you think. Here's a framework for helping you identify a winner.
A Framework for Scaling product teams
Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup
Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features
Sep 4: Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.
Different roadmaps for different folks
Sep 2: The key to effective roadmapping? Different views for different needs.
Micromanaging and competence
Jul 2: Providing feedback or instruction can be seen as micromanagement unless you provide context.
My productivity operating system
Jun 24: A framework for super-charging productivity on the things that matter.
Great product managers own the outcomes
May 14: Being a product manager means never having to say, "that's not my job."

Older...

What I'm Reading