I usually try to write up the books I read each year. This year I apparently read 250, […]
Drawing Books
Five Models for Making Sense of Complex Systems
In one of the classes I teach at CCA, students were confused by mental models, conceptual models, concept […]
Feedback for Teams
This is a write-up of a key learning from my fall class “The Creative Founder,” open to Juniors […]
Story Secrets for Understanding and Communicating
My Convey UX presentation is up! Live drawing, improv and heaps of storytelling! Learn how to incorporate story […]
Alphabets and Logographs
When I first got into Visual Thinking, I came across a core concept that no one agreed on: […]
One Big Idea
I was enjoying a sazerac with a old friend of mine at a local watering hole. And by […]
Block Your Talk
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. You’ve written a great talk, you’ve […]
Presenting is Performance
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. When the Game Developer’s Conference invited […]
Personal OKRs, Three Years Later
Don’t know anything about OKRs? Read The Art of the OKR first, and/or Personal OKRs. Also, personal OKRs are […]
For TinyLIpsum, with Love and Stories
I’ve been teaching storytelling for a couple of years now, and have discovered there is a particular shape that […]
How to Make a Concept Model
Originally published in Boxes and Arrows May 6th, 2014. I realized recently I never published this here, on my […]
The Three Jobs of Product Management
No matter how hard and long you work, there are only 24 hours in a day. If you […]
GUEST POST: A Map from Goals, Around Assumptions, Through Tasks, Towards Results
As I prepare for the fall semester, John has kindly agreed to a guest post, sharing some of […]
One Objective to Rule them All
@cwodtke Would you recommend that a company has only one top level objective? — Lukas Dryja (@nizm) August […]
A Joy Project
Last spring, a class I was going to teach got cancelled because of a scheduling mixup. I got […]
Why Key Results Need to Be Results
If you know nothing about OKRs, please start here: Art of the OKR. Or buy my book, Radical Focus. […]
Beyond the Slide
It’s 2006, and I’m sitting in the office of my pal Rasmi’s company, Uzanto. We’ve been chatting about […]
In Praise of Q&A
At a recent conference, I ran into the organizer at the first coffee break of the morning. She […]
NEW: Report on OKRs from O’Reilly
Introduction to OKRs is free on the O’Reilly site. If you’ve read my book and blog, much will […]
GUEST POST: OKR for Agile Teams
I’ve really excited to announce this guest post by Felipe Castro. One of the most common questions I […]
Product as Hero Storyboard
Long time readers know I am completely obsessed with story architecture, and use it in many things: writing (of […]
Tracking and Evaluating OKRs
Two weeks before the end of the quarter, it’s time to grade your OKRs, and plan for the […]
The Secret to a Great Presentation
The class I teach is called “Story,” and the first assignment was to give a “TEDette.” I defined […]
Why Use OKRs?
Ben Lamorte, coach at okrs.com, tells this story[i] “My mentor and advisor, Jeff Walker, the guy who introduced […]
The Only Silver Bullet
It’s a beautiful day on the baylands, and I’m walking along, looking at the tall golden grass and […]
Radical Focus is HERE
You Executioner’s Tale fans, OKR proponents and people trying so hard every day to make great things happen… […]
Getting Started with OKRs
Just like new technologies, methodologies can suffer from the hype cycle. OKRs are no exception; I’ve met a number of […]
A Library of Visual Thinking
Over the last two years, I’ve deeply committed to working visually. I’ve sketchnoted talks, used visual stories to […]
The Timing of OKRs
If you have looked over my radical focus OKR approach and are ready to put into place OKR’s, you’ll […]
A Meeting to Set OKRs
Setting OKRs is hard. It involves taking a hard look at your company, and it involves having a […]