The John Poelstra Show

In this episode I share a super easy way to take attendance at meetings–don’t! Instead have attendees take do their own check-in by adding themselves to the minutes (in a shared document).     My meeting agendas are a shared document (which everyone at the meeting has access to) which morph into the minutes in real time as the meeting progresses. At the beginning of the meeting I remind...

This episode examines the process I use and suggest to decide who to invite to specific meetings. People to Invite In general, the best people to invite are those who can: Make decisions Give valuable input and insights Move things forward People Not to Invite Inviting the wrong people often drags the meeting down, makes it difficult to facilitate, and make decisions. I do not invite people to my...

In this episode of the podcast my friend Charlie and I talk about the frustration of status meetings. Do you like status meetings? The post 6: Status Meeting Morass appeared first on John Poelstra .

A wise person I work with made this profound statement today. You can release on time and still fail There’s a notion out there that project managers only care about making the schedule.  While it’s easy to get fixated on it, the more I work on product releases the less I find myself caring about “the schedule.” This doesn’t mean it’s not important to meet the dates we’ve committed to. If a releas...

Not too long ago I was in a situation with a very limited amount of time and energy and had to make sure I used every minute and ounce of energy on the right things. Prioritization with Post-it notes and a Sharpie was the solution! Credits Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Sax, Rock, and Roll by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under  Creative Commons The post 4: Ruthless Prioritization appeared first o...

This episode is a conversation with my friend Charlie about how meetings drain our energy and what we can do to minimize it.   Credits Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Sax, Rock, and Roll by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under  Creative Commons The post 3: Avoiding Energy Drain from Meetings appeared first on John Poelstra .

Here are my thoughts and experiences on how to deal with worries (without solutions) introduced at software project meetings.     Credits Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Sax, Rock, and Roll by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under  Creative Commons The post 2: Dealing with Worry at Software Project Meetings appeared first on John Poelstra .

This kicks off the first episode of the John Poelstra Show. I talk about my goals and motivations for doing this new podcast and what I hope comes of it. Links mentioned in this episode: Fizzle.co Jocko Podcast Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Credits Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Sax, Rock, and Roll by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under  Creative Commons The post 1: Introducing...