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.

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

Cold Spot

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.

We’re at a soccer tournament this weekend in Santa Cruz and all the hotels are booked. So half the team is staying in cabins at the KOA campground. I was hoping to find a wifi point somewhere nearby, so imagine my delight when the office/store at the campground advertised free Wifi. I’d already tried looking for a connection in my cabin (or Kabin, as the KOA folks call them) with no luck. So I asked one of the three elderly ladies at the front desk where the wifi point was, expecting to be told it was in the dining hall, or the game room, or something.

When she told me that it was all over the campground and should work at any campsite, I mentioned that I hadn’t been able to get a signal from my cabin. "Oh," she said. "It’s probably just because it’s so slow today. The internet was real slow when I was at home this morning." Smiling, I told her that may be true, but I wasn’t even able to find a signal from an access point, so apparently the wifi wasn’t everywhere in the campground. "Well, they’re hot spots, and sometimes they cool down. So just move around a little until you find one that’s still warm."

Recently Written

Think Systems, not Symptoms
Dec 15: Piecemeal process creation frustrates teams and slows work. Stop patching problems and start solving systems. Adopting a systems thinking approach helps you design processes that are efficient, aligned with goals, and truly add value.
Your Policies Aren’t Your Culture
Dec 13: Policies guide behavior, but culture is the lived norms and values of your team. Policies reflect culture -- they don’t define it. Netflix’s parental leave shift didn’t change its culture of freedom and responsibility. It clarified how to live it.
Lighten Your Process Burden
Dec 7: Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Product Add-Ons Are An Expansion Myth
Dec 1: Add-ons can enhance your product’s appeal but won’t drive significant market growth. To expand your customer base, focus on developing standalone products.
Protecting your Product Soul when the Same Product meets New People.
Nov 23: Expand into new markets while preserving your product’s core value. Discover how to adapt and grow without losing your product’s soul.
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.

Older...

What I'm Reading