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.

Traditions

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 16 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

What are your family Christmas traditions?

In addition to the obvious, like hanging lights outside and putting up a tree, we do a few things that are more unique to our family.

Each Christmas, every family member gets a new ornament for the tree. Often the kids get more than one each. The ornaments are dated and initialed so we can remember each year who they belong to and when we got them. In a few years when the boys move out on their own and get their own tree, they’ll take all their ornaments with them. Their first tree will be hung with ornaments they’ve had for their whole lives.

We have a party each year where we decorate the tree. We turn on some Christmas music and make finger foods and eat dinner as we put the ornaments up. Everybody puts up their own ornaments. Years ago when the boys were very little, after they went to bed, we’d re-arrange the ornaments to spread them out a bit from the toddler-height clusters they started on.

A few years ago we started going up the mountain to cut down our own tree at one of the dozens of family owned tree farms. We make a day of it, complete with a stop for coffee and hot chocolate. We always get a tree that’s just a little taller than we need. The bottom branches come off and are available for wreaths and decorations. The foot or two of extra trunk is cut off and stored for the next year. On Christmas morning we have a fire fueled by the bit of last year’s trunk.

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