Tim's Weblog
Tim Strehle’s links and thoughts on Web apps, software development and Digital Asset Management, since 2002.
2013-04-18

Shanley Kane: How the Productivity Myth is Killing Your Startup

Shanley Kane – How the Productivity Myth is Killing Your Startup:

“You have to admire the insipid, dogged and naive devotion people have to believing they are going to get this huge of list of things done.

[…] All 10 projects are delivered late and half-assed. This is most sad for project number 4, which was the most important project of them all, and could have been completed and damn well if everyone had just worked on that.

[…] You are going to get way fewer things done than you think you’re going to get done. And those things will take you much longer than you plan for. Much as you must talk to teens about drinking, you must talk to your team about productivity.

[…] Create a culture of truthfulness about productivity by continually comparing plans, roadmaps, and strategies to their actual results — often the number of things that were cut, late, or done poorly will shock and awe. What would you have done differently if you knew what was actually possible from the onset?”