DPL Reading List – February 19, 2016
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
A Minimum Viable Product Is Not A Product, It’s A Process (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “When you build a product, you make many assumptions. You assume you know what users are looking for, how the design should work, what marketing strategy to use, what architecture will work most efficiently, which monetization strategy will make it sustainable, and which laws and regulations you have to comply with. No matter how good you are, some of your assumptions will be wrong. The problem is, you don’t know which ones.”
The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome – “The methods used to head off the set-up-to-fail syndrome do, admittedly, involve a great deal of emotional investment from bosses—just as interventions do. We believe, however, that this higher emotional involvement is the key to getting subordinates to work to their full potential. As with most things in life, you can only expect to get a lot back if you put a lot in. As a senior executive once said to us, “The respect you give is the respect you get.” We concur. If you want—indeed, need—the people in your organization to devote their whole hearts and minds to their work, then you must, too.”
This 30 Day Plan Is The Secret To Disrupting Yourself – “Trust me, after this exercise, you will never look at yourself or disruption in the same way again. You will view it as an ally and embrace your awareness of it as an opportunity to get closer to your personal and professional objectives, because you will have accepted that the choice to change, to innovate, to break free of the patterns that hold you back is always yours to make.”
Where To Place Your Accordion Menu Icons (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “Every accordion menu needs an affordance icon to tell users what happens when they click it. They should expect the menu to expand with more options. But where you place your icon and what icon you use can affect user task time and expectations.”
To Overcome the Fear of Failure, Fear This Instead (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “Ultimately, what we regret is not failure, but the failure to act. Knowing that is what propels people to become original. Leonardo Da Vinci wrote repeatedly in his notebook, “Tell me if anything was ever done.” He might have been afraid to fail, but he was more afraid that he would fail to accomplish anything of significance. That propelled him to keep painting, inventing, and designing to become the ultimate Renaissance Man.”
Make Your Values Mean Something (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “Too often, executives mistake other kinds of values for core values. The resulting hodgepodge bewilders employees and makes management seem out of touch. Companies, therefore, should establish some basic definitions to ensure that people know what they’re talking about and what they’re trying to accomplish. I’ve found it helpful to organize values into four categories.”
Impostor Syndrome: 5 Reasons You Should Have It (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “No one has all the answers. Although from our perspective, people in power and influence are perceived to know what they’re doing. The truth is, they are frauds from their own perspective. And that is actually their strength, not their weakness.”
