Author: Chris Kluis
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Empower Your SMEs
I have recently been discussing my product philosophy with a few people and I’ve crystalized a few things into my personal product philosophy. TL;DR: Most organizations don’t empower their SMEs enough and require the dev team to be part of the solution. I think this is a major mistake. SMEs should be able to impact…
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One Prompt to Rule Them All
As a fractional-exec – I get to do some fun exercises. One of my clients asked me to do an introductory training session on chatGPT for them. As part of that project, I decided to try and write a prompt that could be copy-pasted for easy use, but also one that trained the end-users on…
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The Art of “Editing, Not Authoring” – A Guide to Effective Problem Solving and Communication w/ ChatGPT
One of the most important pieces of advice that I give to people I mentor: Your boss is overwhelmed. Do not go to your boss with just a problem. You are going to add more pain to your boss. Instead, bring 3 potential solutions to your boss and let them “EDIT NOT AUTHOR.” It turns…
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a data-led framework for reporting & organizational alignment
TLDR: This is a framework that I have deployed in the past. By embedding thoughtful dashboards & data directly into employee’s day-to-day activities it allows for a unified organizational understanding and informed decision making. the two types of dashboards: informational & research-analytical It’s important to understand that dashboards can serve two distinct purposes. When I structure embedded informational dashboards,…
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no-code & low-code hierarchical data views
A brief intro. I transitioned into fractional c-level consulting earlier this year. It’s allowed for some really interesting opportunities. Part of this story: Not part of this story: If the stage setting doesn’t excite you – skip to the epiphany. Magic Button Labs I’ve been helping Magic Button Labs on two fronts: It is a rigorous…
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Buy, Borrow, or Build
TLDR You should always ask, “should we buy this, should we borrow this, or should we build this?” Let’s look at a (super abridged) hypothetical situation: Customer: we need this {data} grid that has some excel like functionality Let’s evaluate how 3 different product managers might approach this: I choose this solution because data grids are terribly…
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Building a marketing process through a checklist
Years ago I did a presentation on The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande. I bought 100 (or so) copies of the book and gave them away to audience members. It is tied for my most recommended book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN2NJ0_u_TwChecklists for Maintenance One of my clients asked me to focus on helping them create a marketing process for…
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Are daily standups dead? A relic of in-person organizations
TLDR: Yes. Well mostly. Most people consider daily standups as part of being agile. Except, they really are not. I posit that they do not scale well and most organizations do them poorly. Daily standups are bad Why? Simple: A remote friendly alternative Recreate the daily standup in your teams chat or project management system. I…
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Kilofeet sells experience. How do you value experience?
Warning: This post will be less informational than the average blog post. I recently started Kilofeet primarily to help small software businesses that lack some product/marketing experience. Why? There are many decisions/tradeoffs that companies have to make. Moving fast is a small companies biggest advantages. When Alpine Software Group purchased Transcendent; they brought in new blood, but bolstered it…
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MoSCoW: A Product Prioritization Methodology
The MoSCoW prioritization methodology may be one of the simplest prioritization techniques which makes it extremely effective for bringing disparate parties together and determine a rough direction. Warning: Unlike some of the frameworks – you would not be able to start estimating a delivery schedule, releases, or even plan your work upon completing it. You will…