Brian de Haaff's Blog, page 2
March 17, 2020
The Founder’s Paradox: How to Make Clear Decisions When the Future Is So Cloudy
I never imagined that I would talk with our company about a pandemic. But for many leaders, last week brought the unimaginable. It did for me on Wednesday, which I typically set aside for deep introspection and strategy. I spent that afternoon going through my own assumptions about the potential impact of coronavirus on the world, our company, our customers, and our team. Those reflections were the basis for a heartfelt conversation with the entire Aha! team last Friday.
Business as usual...
March 12, 2020
Forbes Names Aha! to America’s Best Startups List
We have been really busy in 2020. We introduced new workspaces for IT, project management, services, and business teams in January. Since then, we have continued to deliver major new features to our customers on a weekly basis. Others have clearly noticed our efforts as well. I was reminded of how hard work can be rewarded when I saw a notification about Aha! in the news.
I am honored to share that Aha! was featured on Forbes inaugural list of Americas best startups for 2020.
Forbes...
March 5, 2020
The Founder’s Paradox: How to Make Difficult Work Desirable
Difficult work gets a bad rap. Tough to scope, complex to explain, and hard to deliver — I am sure you can think of some projects that would fit this description. When you are deep in it, the effort to break through can be tortuous. But I would wager that these projects are also some of the most impactful too. Either because of what you achieved or what you learned.
Difficult work is often avoided, when it should be eagerly sought out.
As a founder, you not only pursue difficult work but...
March 2, 2020
Agile vs. Roadmaps
Have you ever tried to follow a complicated recipe? Exotic ingredients, specialty cookware, and professional techniques — it takes more than instructions to cook a delicious meal. Depending on culinary experience and access to tools, a dozen people following the same recipe could end up with dramatically different results. The same is true for building products. I think this is why a lot of teams focus on how they will get work done. For many, this means “going agile.”
There is comfort in...
February 25, 2020
6 Commonly Confused Product and Project Management Titles
Mad Libs was invented in 1953. I bet you played this fill-in-the-blank game as a kid — maybe on a long car trip. And even though the concept is more than 60 years old, hearing someone read off a wacky story with random words stuffed into sentences still elicits a laugh. But there is an important truth here. Just because a word fits a category (such as an adjective or noun) does not mean that it will hold meaning if used incorrectly or out of context.
This is especially true if you work in ...
February 24, 2020
Roadmaps Make Strategy Work
Putting strategy into action can be difficult. That is because too many teams jump straight to the “how” before they agree on the “why” and the “what.” Typically this leap happens because there is a lack of clarity and transparency across the organization, especially as it relates to strategy. And inevitably, poor planning tools are in the mix. But the move-first mentality is unfortunately all too common.
Many organizations repeat the same mistake – talking about methodology before they...
February 19, 2020
The Program Manager vs. the Project Manager
“Program is to a project as product line is to a product.” One of our Customer Success teammates at Aha! made this analogy recently during a customer call. I believe her comparison perfectly encapsulates an important similarity between product and project management. Much like a product line is a grouping of individual products, a program is a collection of projects. And you need someone to own each —the totality and the individual.
This is where both a program manager and project manager...
February 18, 2020
Why Your Boss’s Tiny Actions Have a Huge Effect
We are all connected. Our actions have profound consequences on the people and communities around us. This is especially true at work, where we spend the majority of our time. Your actions — good and bad — directly impact your teammates and affect how much the collective group is able to accomplish. Think about your own boss’s words and actions. Even tiny actions can feel huge. This is the ripple effect.
...There is a powerful responsibility in knowing your decisions and deeds impact others.
February 7, 2020
Why You Should Never Call Yourself a Guru
Have you met any gurus recently? I know I have received quite a few connection requests from self-anointed ninjas, trailblazers, and pioneers. Recently I asked folks on LinkedIn to share their encounters with other “buzzword bingo” job titles. The responses did not disappoint — disruptor, change agent, influencer, and (yes) guru. Unless someone is an actual ninja, I have to wonder what people are hoping to communicate with these terms.
Buzzy descriptors may sound impressive —but despite...
February 4, 2020
Product Strategy vs. Go-to-Market Strategy
Have you heard of cognitive dissonance theory? In psychology, it refers to the tension that results when you attempt to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time. We all balance ideas that are often quite different. This is especially true for product managers and product marketing managers. Building and launching brilliant products requires that you can understand and harmonize an internal focus (the build) with an external focus (the launch).
To do this well, you need to know the why...
