Some advice from Jeff Bezos

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A number of years ago, Jeff Bezos stopped by our office and spent about 90 minutes with us talking product strategy. Before he left, he spent about 45 minutes taking general Q&A from everyone at the office. During one of his answers, he shared an enlightened observation about people who are “right a lot”. He… keep reading

Real Work vs. Imaginary Work

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Since we launched Hill Charts in Basecamp we’ve been fielding many interesting questions. One common question is: how do we catch more problems in the uphill phase so they don’t surprise us later? What happens is, people think a piece of work is downhill, and then all of a sudden a problem comes out of… keep reading

Stop being so nice all the time.

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“Being nice” can be a crutch to avoid hard choices and uncomfortable conversations. Don’t fall into this trap. Leaders, stop being so nice all the time. I don’t mean to sound like an asshole. But when it comes to leadership, it’s true: Prioritizing “being nice” keeps us from being good leaders. Now I’m not advocating for… keep reading

Teaching iteration

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I’ve written about the class I’d like to teach, but what I’ve been thinking about lately is the class I’d like to attend. Not necessarily now, but when I was growing up. In the 6th grade, let’s say. I don’t know why people ask me this, but I’m often polled for my opinion on the… keep reading

Nintendo Switch Does Multiple Accounts Right

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Multiple Accounts in a product is a difficult to design for. It’s not a typical thing, though. Most have just one Google, Apple, Instagram account. However, some might want to share an iPad or HomePod with family. Since those don’t support multiple accounts, the owner’s profile ends up overrun by someone else’s preferences. It’s an… keep reading