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Adam Kalsey

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

Management & Leadership Archives

Think Systems, not Symptoms December 15, 2024
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 December 13, 2024
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.

Micromanaging and competence July 2, 2024
Providing feedback or instruction can be seen as micromanagement unless you provide context.

My productivity operating system June 24, 2024
A framework for super-charging productivity on the things that matter.

Great product managers own the outcomes May 14, 2024
Being a product manager means never having to say, "that’s not my job."

The Dark Side of Input Metrics November 27, 2023
Using input metrics in the wrong way can cause unexpected behaviors, stifled creativity, and micromanagement.

Input metrics lead to outcomes September 1, 2023
An easy to understand example of using input metrics to track progress toward an outcome.

Lagging Outcomes August 22, 2023
Long-term things often end up off a team’s goals because they can’t see how to define measurable outcomes for them. Here’s how to solve that.

Tyranny of Outcomes August 19, 2023
An extreme focus on outcomes can have an undesired effect on product teams.

How to scale your product team from one product manager to an entire organization August 25, 2020
As your product management team scales, you’ll have issues around redundancy, communication, and consistency. Here’s now you might solve those.

Software engineering manager interview questions August 6, 2020
Here are some questions I like to use to get a sense of who an engineering manager is and how they work.

TV hosts as a guide for software managers May 10, 2020
Software managers can learn a lot from journalists or late night TV hosts and how they interview people.

The Improvement Flywheel April 29, 2020
An incredible flywheel for the improvement of a development team. Fix a few things, and everything starts getting better.

Managers and technical ability December 26, 2019
In technical fields, the closer you are to the actual work being done, the closer your skills need to resemble those of the people doing the work.

Dysfunctions of output-oriented software teams September 17, 2019
Whatever you call it, the symptom is that you’re measuring your progress by how much you build and deliver instead of measuring success by the amount of customer value you create.

Product Manager Career Ladder August 19, 2019
What are the steps along the product management career path?

Assumptions and project planning February 18, 2019
When your assumptions change, it’s reasonable that your project plans and needs change as well. But too many managers are afraid to go back and re-work a plan that they’ve already agreed to.

Encouraging 1:1s from other managers in your organization January 4, 2019
If you’re managing other managers, encourage them to hold their own 1:1s. It’s such an important tool for managing and leading that everyone needs to be holding them.

One on One Meetings - a collection of posts about 1:1s January 2, 2019
A collection of all my writing on 1:1s

Are 1:1s confidential? January 2, 2019
Is the discussion that occurs in a 1:1 confidential, even if no agreed in the meeting to keep it so?

Skip-level 1:1s are your hidden superpower January 1, 2019
Holding 1:1s with peers and with people far below you on the reporting chain will open your eyes up to what’s really going on in your business.

Do you need a 1:1 if you're regularly communicating with your team? December 28, 2018
You’re simply not having deep meaningful conversation about the process of work in hallway conversations or in your chat apps.

What agenda items should a manager bring to a 1:1? December 23, 2018
At least 80% of a 1:1 agenda should be driven by your report, but if you also to use this time to work on things with them, then you’ll have better meetings.

Handling "I don't have anything to talk about" in your 1:1s December 21, 2018
When someone says they have nothing to discuss, they’re almost always thinking too narrowly.

What should you talk about in a 1:1? December 19, 2018
Who sets the agenda? What should you discuss, and what should you avoid discussing?

One on One meetings for managers: Frequency and Duration November 28, 2018
How long should your 1:1s be? How often should you run them?

One on One meetings for managers November 26, 2018
A one on one meeting is one of the top ways you can build your managerial leverage

Networking as an entrepreneur October 23, 2018
Having a network is crazy important. Networking is not.

The birth of cubicle hell April 29, 2014
Where do cubicles come from?

Make the most of opportunities March 5, 2013
Often, part of success is being in the right place at the right time. What will you do with the opportunity when it happens?