Less hectic, more impactful, on-time software

What is your team’s constraint?

A business has the constraints of supply and demand. This is common knowledge. These are fundamental. They are binary. If you decide what constraint the business has, the conversation is much more narrow. Not 10 constraints, but supply or demand.

If a business is constantly optimizing for supply or demand, what can the teams in the business optimize?

What are the fundamental constraints of a team?

Surprise! Just kidding. There are no surprises in the interviews I’ve done. I tell candidates exactly what’s coming. Why? Because I’m not testing their ability to handle surprises. I’m measuring their ability to prepare and transfer knowledge. The format:

1. Ice breaker
2. Share a passion
3. Teach me something

Knowing the format ahead of time doesn’t make it easier. It makes it harder.

Now they have to choose: What passion? What to teach? And then actually prepare.

A friend of mine, Dennis @ Lifeway, is launching a new SaaS plugin product this year. He’s been working on it since last year. I’ll save the details for the end, but I’ve been asking him about the progress and the launch date.

Today, I pressed if there was anything he could do to launch sooner or if he could start talking with potential customers.

Being the cool guy he is, he said I could share. Here is a bit of the conversation and some of the questions I asked him.