Jess Brock

Jim wrote it eloquently this morning. We hope you'll share your thoughts on the State of the Development Profession survey. --- How We Can Be More Helpful to You “We” is Louis Diez and me. Many of you have said you find our posts helpful, informative and reassuring. Thank you. But we think we can more do with your help. We’ve designed a “State of the Development Profession” survey that will allow us to take a closer look at the barriers and gateways to fundraising success in the short, mid and long-term. The more of you who respond to this survey, the more we can: Accurately depict the state of development across the globe Advocate and tell the truth on your behalf Show which barriers are the most persistent and discouraging Demonstrate how barriers can be converted to gateways Point out where training and various tools would make a greater difference Design more responsive and relevant training materials and programs Built a stronger community of shared purposes among ourselves The survey takes no more than 15 minutes to complete but gives you ways to take more time, if you choose, to express your opinions on issues that affect you most deeply. The link is below. Please participate. Share this post or share the link. If you're a supervisor, encourage your staff to participate. You will benefit from the comparative analysis. The survey has been designed and will be interpreted by seasoned, accomplished advancement professionals. It will speak for you. Imagine the impact we can have if we develop a broader consensus around what fundraising is and isn’t. https://lnkd.in/eC9WQZUK

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As someone who values agile and lean principles, I find it problematic to rely solely on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach, especially when it means rushing features to market without thorough testing. This morning's experience was a stark reminder. While attempting to upgrade our G-Suite through a reseller, I faced multiple issues: the site was unresponsive, blinked repeatedly, and then went completely blank. Unexpectedly, this led to the suspension of my Gmail and other services. I hadn’t made any changes to my payment plan, yet it seems an error on their part triggered these disruptions. Now, I'm without working email, and my documents are inaccessible. After nearly a decade of using this service, to say I’m disappointed is an understatement. While I understand that bugs and errors can occur, issues of this scale are unacceptable. This incident underscores the critical need for robust testing before product releases. In the drive to innovate quickly, we must not undermine the reliability that users depend on. It’s a balancing act that requires attention and care. Has anyone else navigated similar disruptions? How did you manage, and what lessons did you learn?

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Have you heard the news? Our team at Pendo.io is excited to be offering our Product-Led Certification Course for free! The course covers the fundamentals of being product-led and provides actionable product-led strategies to drive growth for your organization. Register now while it's still free to take the course and earn your certification! ⬇️ #ProductManagement #ProductInnovation #BusinessLeaders #Product

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💡 What happens when miscommunication errors are not resolved? This technology company spent two years and millions of dollars rearchitecting a product because their VPs had different interpretations of "Agile." The result? Unnecessary cost, lost opportunities, and stalled progress. 😣 🎯 Curious disagreement can be a powerful tool. By digging deeper into their definitions and aligning their understanding, the team finally released a product in just three months. Clear communication is key to accelerating development and winning deals. 🚀 Learn how to avoid costly miscommunications and align your team for success on our blog: https://loom.ly/F9P0Fy4 #AgileDevelopment #TeamAlignment #Leadership #ProductManagement #Ci2Advisors

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Have you reduced overhead by 99% on any meaningful back office task since the launch of AI? Well, why not? Apparently, Amazon has. The interesting thing about this new technology is that it shows the jobs most at risk are things like coding, where there is a clear, quantifiable feedback loop between action and result. But adoption is going to be the challenge. Honestly, a lot of small businesses don't even know how to do basic things like mail merge. Even my peers at large companies with better-than-average technical skills have barely used these AI tools. So far, I've reduced several back office tasks by 80% through the at least partial use of AI. It's amazing how powerful this technology can be.

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it is the default setup that software is judged by not what it can do but what it does from the start.

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This is a great article on why customer user testing is critical to product development- especially in EdTech! ✅ Students catch things that technical audits miss. ✅ Real users involved in early in product development, catch issues before they become expensive problems. The question isn’t whether you’ve met the technical requirements. The question is: Can customer actually use your digital solution? Work Simplr is used by EdTech companies to gather student feedback throughout the development process- from idea, to prototype, to beta, to final product. Whether it's a focus group, survey, one-on-one interview, click throughs of apps/websites, or complete assessments, we can connect you to any number of students and any demographic (age, major, location, background, etc.) quickly! How can we help you develop better EdTech products? https://lnkd.in/gtWRhCpU #edtech #worksimplr #usertesting #userfeedback Jodi McPherson Eric Severson Eric Stano #magicedtech David Kokorowski Jeanette Koskinas Tom Darling Tim Flem

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Good article from John Cutler on dependencies and tech debt: “The further you are from the work, the most it seems like an excuse. The closer you are to the work, the more it looks like a reality you’re tired of describing and explaining.”

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In my latest conversation on The Daily CTO, I sat down with Arnaud Lucas to dive into a fundamental shift that every CTO should consider: moving from feedback to proactive input in tech leadership. It’s not just about asking for feedback after the plan is made. The real impact comes when you gather input before the planning begins, building a foundation for alignment, avoiding costly missteps, and delivering solutions that resonate across teams and customers alike. In this episode, Arnaud shares: Why timing matters when gathering stakeholder input. How a structured input-gathering system can transform alignment. Steps for implementing this approach in your own organization. Check out the episode here: https://lnkd.in/gwUTAwcm #CTO #TechLeadership #StakeholderEngagement #TheDailyCTO #CustomerExperience #Wayfair #Leadership #Innovation

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One common pain point in software development? Scope creep. Projects start with a clear vision, but as new ideas and requirements come up, it’s easy for scope to expand—and timelines to stretch. While some flexibility is essential, uncontrolled scope creep can lead to budget issues, delays, and frustration across teams. The key is managing expectations early and often. Setting clear boundaries, revisiting priorities regularly, and creating checkpoints for any changes help keep things on track without losing momentum. It’s all about balancing ambition with practicality. How do you handle scope creep in your projects? #SoftwareDevelopment #ScopeCreep #ProjectManagement #TechStrategy #TeamCollaboration #Agile

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🎧 New podcast interview! How can compassion help with legacy code? I really enjoyed this conversation with Robby Russell on Maintainable, and I hope you do too! We cover: - Navigating technical debt without resentment or fear - Empathy in code reviews and tradeoff conversations - Effective technical leadership - Is the Big Rewrite ever a good idea? - Community service and compassion beyond the code Let me know what you think! Compassionate Coding

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I’m honored to kick off this series with none other than Barry Jones a fractional CTO with 22+ years of experience, to tackle a topic that so many teams struggle with: Why software estimation is broken. Episode: https://lnkd.in/gF5H29Sb In this episode, Barry breaks down: Why story points often do more harm than good The confusion and misalignment they create between teams and stakeholders A smarter way to approach estimation by focusing on task breakdowns and measuring queues instead. If you’re a CTO, developer, or product manager, you’ll benefit from Barry’s practical tips for improving your development process and avoiding the common pitfalls of traditional estimation methods. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

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A product leader that I'm coaching shared some real progress applying my "count the digits" approach (https://lnkd.in/gd2Zierz) with a varied set of internal stakeholder... With 200+ requests/demands from assorted GTM groups, they did some quick spreadsheet math for order-of-magnitude revenue, strategic fit, and grouping-by-theme. That helped sort the 5-digit opportunities ($10k's) from the 7-digit opportunities ($1M's) so that the group could put real thought and energy into the top 20-ish items. One tool of many tools to get us out of the "let's review every backlog item in detail" slog, and spending time where it matters. [NDA, can't reveal company name. But happy to chat about *your* situation.]

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Leadership interview with Kirby Rice. You won't want to miss the insights from a senior Technical Program Manager on how to communicate to stakeholders effectively and how to run projects effectively. A summary of the conversation can be found at https://lnkd.in/d9iqsUib. The link to the full interview is https://lnkd.in/dwwrb74T. I hope you enjoy listening and watching it as much as I did creating it with Kirby Rice.

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There's a new feature called Project in Chat GPT. It's great! Because now I can organize all my chat history, and apparently I only need 9 folders to organize all of my important chats 😄 There's more powerful ways to use it. You can add files and images to the project. So you can use multiple chats to process your files how over you want, without worrying about context & continuity. Some minor notes: - I can't seem choose the model (I want to use o1). It seems project chats are based on the 4o model. - Since I'm moving my chats manually from the newest to the oldest. The chat in the project is organized in reverse, from the oldest at the top, to the newest in the bottom. You can hack it by creating a dumb prompt so it will move from the bottom to the top, but it's time consuming. I'm just going to leave it like this for now. It still easier to access old chat with this than before. another note: apparently you can create a chat outside of project using O1, then add to the project, it seems it still uses o1 instead of 4o #ChatGPT #AI #LLM #Projects

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🚀 Navigating the Sweet Spot in Software Development I've come to realize that clients mostly care about outcomes like fast deployment, happy customers, and fewer deployment hiccups. They don’t mind how I get there as long as I do. Results like increased deployment frequency, customer satisfaction, and decreased lead times matter. To achieve these, I use a mix of strategies – 1-1 interviews, pair/mob programming, design workshops, training seminars… you name it. But all of this is secondary. The real foundation? Our culture and attitude towards our work. As managers, we can't force attitude shifts, but we can change behaviors. Here are some behaviors that make a massive difference: - Test-driven development - Relentless refactoring - Probing until we nail the "done" definition - Frequent deployments - Continuous integration These behaviors not only lead to the stellar results we aim for but also foster a more collaborative and generative culture. In short: Change behaviors, and the attitudes (and results) will follow. Here’s to hitting that sweet middle ground where software just flourishes! 👉 How do you tackle the challenge of shifting team behaviors in your organization? Share your thoughts below! PS: bonus cat pic bellow! 🐱

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Couldn’t agree more! More often than not, the best path is to enable a smaller team to focus on solving a specific problem, and empower them with decision making rights, rather than burden them with the task of solving unnecessarily complex problems. I often ask myself, “why is it human nature to seek short cuts to problem solving by taking the longest route possible?”

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