Currently Reading

Daily Reading from October 16, 2009

16 Oct 2009

Links to what I’ve been reading recently.

HornetQ — "A high performance, clusterable message queue written in Java "
Team WhiteBoarding with Twiddla - Painless Team Collaboration for the Web — "Twiddla is a free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Voice and Text chat too! "
Early Stage Hiring
A method for finding out if you have a painkiller or a vitamin | FLOW Ventures — "The more pitches I hear from startups the more I realize that entrepreneurs have a hard time figuring out if their startup is a painkiller or a vitamin. I "
Seth's Blog: Creating sustainable competitive advantage — "No successful web company (not eBay, Flickr, Amazon, Facebook...) succeeds because of a significant technological barrier to entry. It’s not insanely difficult to copy what they’ve done. Yet they win and the copycats don’t. Few organizations succeed in the long... "

Recently Written

Mar 18: Not all product leadership titles mean what they sound like. ‘Head of Product’ can mean anything from a senior PM to a true VP. Here’s how to tell the difference.

What branding can teach about culture

Jan 8: Culture is your company’s point of view in action—a framework guiding behavior, even in the unknown. You can’t copy it; it must reflect your unique perspective.

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.

Daily Reading from October 16, 2009

Recently Written

What I'm Reading