When battling the triple constraint of time, cost, and quality, projects often opt for faster or more cost-effective solutions to get things done. One of the consequences of this choice is technical debt — issues or suboptimal code that needs to...
Social loafing is the perceived psychological phenomenon that people do less work when they’re in a group setting. Think of the classic “school project”, where one or two high-achievers do 80% of the work while the rest of the team “loaf around...
Despite what we think, we’re actually terrible at estimating projects. Studies show that 91.5% of big projects go over budget, over schedule, or both. There needs to be a better way to estimate the work ahead of us. Story Points are a powerful...
Whether it’s people, materials, or cash, all projects need resources to succeed. But, resource management is consistently voted as one of the hardest project management disciplines to get right. When resources aren’t available, projects suffer...
Decision-making is highly inefficient. A recent McKinsey study found that 61% of business leaders confessed that their decision-making process was slowing them down, leaving them unable to take the quick action required to drive their organizations...
One of the worst things that can happen to a leader or founder is losing touch with your actual users. Unfortunately, a famous study from Bain & Co found that, while 80% of CEOs think they deliver a “superior experience” to their customers, only...
Being a designer is hard. Balancing the desire to design something remarkable against a project’s cost, time, and scope limitations requires equal doses of creativity, collaboration, and pure grit. Luckily, this is where a design brief can really...
Lack of consistency, frequent scope changes, and poor governance are three of the most common reasons that projects fail. If you recognize these challenges, a structured project methodology, such as the Stage Gate process, can help you overcome...
Great leaders build great companies. Unfortunately, a 2024 Gallup survey found that only 20% of employees have strong trust in their leaders. If you run a company, you want to be respected and trusted. But a lack of trust in our leaders does...
When life gets busy, it can feel counterproductive to step back and take the long view. Instead, most of us are used to putting our head down and focusing on the task at hand. But, without even realizing it, taking the short-term view is killing...