Let’s play pretend. Pretend there is a team of people working on a web project together. The team has reached the very end of the build and is hoping to get it launched soon. Suddenly, one sector of the team decides they don’t like the way something looks and proposes a change. Making the change might make the product look nicer but it won’t affect the way it works. Nothing is broken – it’s just not pretty. With deadlines looming, do you make the change? Continue reading
Tag Archives: management
Painting The Foundation
One Summer, my friend T and I painted houses. After doing what had been my other job that Summer – selling encyclopedias door to door (and these weren’t Encarta discs, kids) – sweltering under the eaves wasn’t such a big deal. The woman whose house we were painting turned out to be a real pain – switching shades after we had done quite a bit, finding invisible missed spots, and, at the end, demanding we paint the foundation even though that hadn’t been part of the original job quote. It wasn’t so much the additional labor – only an extra day or so – but the fact that to do it right we had to rent a power washer to clean off the foundation so it could be painted as well as buy a lot of extra paint. Goodbye profits! Honest young men that we were, we bought what amounted to white-wash, threw it on to a foundation we had cleaned off with a hose, and prayed it wouldn’t rain until the check cleared. I’m still bothered by it 35+ years later. Continue reading
Filed under Growing up, Reality checks
Life Lines
I got a note last night from a reader who also happens to be my sister-in-law. She’s way more tuned in than am I to some areas of pop culture (I compensate by over-learning digital, I guess). I couldn’t tell you what’s happening on The View with a gun to my head – she’s actually gone to see them live. Anyway, she asked me a question that got me thinking. Continue reading
Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud
Consult Keith 