general

Eliminating Waste from Product Development

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 01-26-21

Waste is insidious. No matter what plateau of performance we are able to reach, waste creeps back into our work in often imperceptible ways. It’s not just that waste hurts our productivity and our profits, but it squeezes out good work, whether value-adding work or other worthwhile endeavors such as

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Create whitespace (Jamie’s Short Course on a Purposeful and Productive Life)

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 01-22-21

Episode 3 in the Series – As many people start their new year, they seek ways to lead a more purposeful and productive life. There are many big solutions out there – coaches, books, courses, and more. But through my own coaching, I find there are many nuggets, each of

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Introduction to the Short Course on Purposeful and Productive Life

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 01-08-21

Episode 1 in the Series –   As many people start their new year, they seek ways to lead a more purposeful and productive life. There are many big solutions out there – coaches, books, courses, and more. But through my own coaching, I find there are many nuggets, each

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The Value of Transparency in Product Development

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-10-20

We’ve already covered the value of both granularity and cadence. Along with that must come transparency, as, without it, all the information flow, connections, and ability to problem-solve has less value.    First, transparency is a precursor to trust (or is trust required to have transparency? Well, it works both

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The Value of Cadence in Product Development

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-03-20

Previously we explored the benefits of making the work more granular in product development. One thing that this enables is the ability to plan, manage, execute, and monitor the work at a higher cadence. Well, why would you want that? First, it allows us to treat the work as something

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The Value of Building Granularity into Product Development

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-24-20

I suspect first we will have to define what is meant by granularity. This means that we plan, manage, execute our work at a more granular or detailed level. This applies to the work itself; it’s not just “execute test” but design the test, plan the test, execute the test,

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A Wider View of Innovation

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-17-20

Innovation means different things to different people. It also unfortunately means different things to different organizations. Organizations can get trapped in their traditional views on innovation, and it is time to adopt a wider view of what innovation can and should be.      

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Change at the Right Level

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-10-20

Many, if not all organizations (including governments and non-profits) are having to change to deal with the multiple crises of 2020. Some of those changes are positive, some negative, and some a matter of life and death. But, are you trying to change at the right level? Many are only

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Lessons from The Map of Knowledge

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-05-20

This will certainly read a little different from my typical blog posts, and even my typical book reviews. It’s not even a business or leadership book (or is it?). I recently read The Map of Knowledge, and there are some important perspectives to take away from a book such as

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Why should you have a Chief Engineer? 

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 10-27-20

I’ve had conversations with numerous advisory clients this year about the role of the Chief Engineer. To be clear, I don’t generally advocate that an organization install this role. It is heralded in the lean product development community as a key aspect of such a transformation. Other than having clear

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