Category: Leadership
Finding Joy in the Work and in What Comes Next
This month, I am stepping away from daily operations as Managing Partner at Don’t Panic Labs. Over the past 15 years at Nebraska Global and Don’t Panic Labs, I have been engaged every day doing challenging work that I love. I focused on building companies, engineering solutions for our partners, and evangelizing for our ecosystem…
Read more…
Beyond the Booth: How We Talk About Coaching and Growth in Engineering (and Everywhere)
What have your experiences been with conference vendor booths? When I ask myself that question, do you know what happens? My mind goes blank; they all blur together – none of them stand out. Why? (Channeling my 5-year-old daughter) In my opinion, most booths are trying to project out vs finding a way to take…
Read more…
What Military Intelligence Taught Me About Business Intelligence
The world of business intelligence came as second nature to me. Transitioning from the public to the private sector, I LOVED doing competitor analysis and analyzing the market, so much so that I didn’t understand why it wasn’t like that for everyone. As a product manager at the time, it just made sense. Talking with…
Read more…
Don’t Panic Labs – The First 15 Years
April 2025 marks the 15th anniversary of the founding of Don’t Panic Labs. We are a software product development and innovation company in Nebraska that focuses on providing the necessary support, experience, and product development capacity to innovation groups and entrepreneurs to bring their innovative vision to life. In this blog post, I will be…
Read more…
What Makes a Successful Developer Lead? A Guide for Aspiring and New Team Leads
Becoming a developer lead is an exciting step in your career. It’s a role that blends technical expertise with leadership and mentorship, making you the glue that holds your team together. Whether you’re stepping into this position for the first time or looking to refine your approach, here’s a guide to help you navigate the…
Read more…
The 8 Cs of a Software Architect
How do you think about roles and how people fit into roles? This question often arises when evaluating how someone fits into a particular role. No one is perfect or a perfect fit for any role. But the right people will fit most of a given role. It is valuable to have consistent ways to…
Read more…
How Readability Reduces Errors in Judgment
No small number of keystrokes have been spent enumerating the whys and hows of writing readable code. Readability improves the developer experience and makes seeing potential issues much easier. We might even say that by writing readable code, we reduce errors in judgment. To illustrate the point, let’s consider the following example of using the…
Read more…
The Life of the Product Owner
Life is a funny thing; I fell into a product manager role several years ago and, in the process, inherited the role of product owner (PO). As of late, I have found myself providing guidance on what it means to be a product owner to various organizations of different sizes and products. The common theme…
Read more…
Experimentation: In Support of “Be the Change You Seek”
At Don’t Panic Labs, we regularly lean into our four core values: Change has, and always will be, a constant. There is immense power when we can channel that force. To that end, I initiated a “meta experiment” around defining a process to track, check in on, and amplify the effects of improvements at Don’t…
Read more…
Have You Ever Jumped Out of a Plane?
In 2016, I was in Colorado attending a wedding. While at the wedding, my wife’s cousin mentioned he planned to go skydiving in the morning and invited any family members who wanted to join him. Without hesitation, I said, “I’m in!” The next morning, I found myself in a car heading to the Mile-Hi skydiving…
Read more…