Shipulski On Design

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Efficiency is a simple measurement – output divided by resources needed to achieve it. How much did you get done and how many people did you need to do it? What was the return on the investment? How much money did you make relative to how much you had to invest? We have efficiency measurements […]

We live in a resource constrained world where there’s always more work than time.  Resources are always tighter than tight and tough choices must be made. The first choice is to figure out what change you want to make in the world. How do you want put a dent in the universe? What injustice do […]

If you want people to work together, give them a reason.  Tell them why it’s important to the company and their careers. If you want people to change things, change how they interact.  Eliminate leaders from some, or all, of the meetings.  Demand they set the approach. Give them control over their destiny. Make them […]

Do the project right or do the right project – which would you choose? If you improve time to market, the only thing that improves is time to market.  How do you feel about that? Customers pay for things that make their lives easier.  Time to market doesn’t do that. There’s no partial credit with […]

With projects, there is no partial credit.  They’re done or they’re not. Solve the toughest problems first.  When do you want to learn the problem is not solvable? Sometimes slower is faster. Problems aren’t problems until you realize you have them.  Before that, they’re problematic. If you can’t put it on one page, you don’t […]

Show customers what’s possible. Then listen. The best projects are small until they’re not. Today’s location before tomorrow’s destination. The best idea requires the least effort. Ready, fire, aim is better than ready, aim, aim, aim. Be certain about the uncertainty. Do so you can discuss. Put it on one page. Fail often, but call […]

If there’s one superpower to develop, it’s to learn how to assess a project and get a good feel for when it will launch. When you want to know how long a project will take, ask this simple question: ‘What must the project team learn before the project can launch?”  By starting with this single […]

If you’re asked to be faster, choose to be more effective.  There’s nothing slower than being fast at something that doesn’t matter. If you’re given a goal to be more productive, instead, improve effectiveness. There’s nothing less productive than making the wrong thing. If you’re measured on efficiency, focus on effectiveness. Customers don’t care about […]

  When it’s time to make meaningful change, there’s no time for consensus. When the worn path of success must be violated, use a small team. When it’s time for new thinking, create an unreasonable deadline, and get out of the way. The best people don’t want the credit, they want to be stretched just […]

If you want things to change, you have two options. You can incentivize change or you can move things out of the way that block change. The first way doesn’t work and the second one does.  For more details, click this link at it will take you to a post that describes Danny Kahneman’s thoughts […]

If you’re trying to innovate within a successful company, I have one word for you: Don’t. You can’t compete with the successful business teams that pay the bills because paying the bills is too important.  No one in their right mind should get in the way of paying them.  And if you do put yourself […]