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Category: Leadership and Management

  • The Evolution of the 50/25 Meeting Format: Why Starting Late is the New On-Time

    Introduction: An Updated Perspective on Time Management In a continuous quest to boost workplace effectiveness, it’s useful to revisit our approaches. Ten years ago, while working as CTO at The New York Times, I advocated the 50/25 Meeting Format. The premise was straightforward: shave off a few minutes from each meeting to enhance focus and…

  • An Executive’s Daily Routine for Productivity and Balance (Summer 2023)

    My friends occasionally ask how I keep a mostly even keel despite the pressures of an industry that needs to do more with less, and how I’ve managed to complete an intense workout every day for more than 1234 consecutive days.1 Juggling the myriad responsibilities of an executive role while still making time for personal…

  • Understanding the Role of Product in Media Companies and Tech Companies

    I enumerated the role of product management in my earlier article titled The Many Hats of Product Managers: Their Indispensable Hands-On Roles as Individual Contributors. I described the Roles and Responsibilities for Digital Product Development Teams to discuss the interplay of product management, software engineering, design & user research, data, and technology operations. One of…

  • Yale CEO Summit June 2023: The Intersection of AI and Leadership

    I’ve admired Jeff Sonnenfeld for more than a decade since I studied his book Firing Back and wrote a review. Having attended Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld’s Yale CEO Summit twice before, in 2014 and 2016 and finding the learnings there invaluable, I followed the news and insights from this year’s event with great interest, especially because…

  • Roles and Responsibilities for Digital Product Development Teams

    Roles and Responsibilities for Digital Product Development Teams

    I’m writing this article to share some insights on a topic that’s been crucial throughout my professional journey – Roles and Responsibilities in Digital Product Development. Over the years, I’ve been part of numerous product development processes in media companies and startups, which has helped me understand the integral role of structured processes and well-defined…

  • Project Estimation with T-Shirt Sizing & Evidence Based Scheduling Models for Scrum Teams

    Introduction Effective project estimation is crucial for successful project management. In the world of Agile software development, the T-shirt sizing model is a popular high-level estimation technique that helps predict project scope and resource allocation. In this blog post, I will discuss the T-shirt sizing model for Scrum teams, its limitations, and how it can…

  • The Many Hats of Product Managers: Their Indispensable Hands-On Roles as Individual Contributors

    Introduction Throughout my career at large companies and startups, I’ve worked closely with many talented product managers and leaders. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable in driving the success of our products at companies including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal where I worked as CTO and CTO & Chief Product…

  • My Personal and Professional Values: Keys to Collaborative Success

    Shared values and principles are the driving force behind any successful team. I hold certain values dear, not only in my professional life but also in my personal interactions. These are not attributes that I always embody perfectly, but they are principles that I constantly strive to uphold. 5 of My Values Victory Through Unity…

  • Importance of Mentorship Article by Yujin Kim, CTO of WorkMarket

    In his recent article about the importance of mentorship, Yujin Kim, Chief Technology Officer at WorkMarket (an ADP company) talks about what he learned from his mentors and how they helped shape his career and life. Yujin and I worked together for four years at Conde Nast and then for another four years at The…

  • Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes — A framework for your job

    This is a framework for understanding, describing, and performing your job duties, roles, and responsibilities. You can use this as a template to create a useful job description that you would actually use while you are in a job. It divides a job into three categories: activities, outputs, and outcomes. To be successful in your…

  • An Example of Respectfully Declining a Meeting at Work That is Already in Your Calendar

    Here is an example of how to respectfully decline a meeting to make time to work on a higher priority. We occasionally find ourselves in meetings when our time could be better spent doing something else of greater value. I previously wrote about how to respond to and politely decline meeting invitations. This post is about…

  • Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v3)

    In follow-up to earlier work on a) versions one and two of these technical and related career tracks, b) pathways for career development in product engineering, c) job titles, and d)  employee evaluation & career development, here is an updated version three of the career growth tracks. This version 3 includes software engineering & architecture,…