I write about software development, tools, and people.
And how marketing makes it all better.
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Most of my favorite talks start with an excellent title. I have never been sure if the title drives a good talk, or if the talk thinking gels a good title. Some of both, probably. You have to admit, though,…
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Bar oil and tailored messaging
I just spent a paragraph explaining to you what bar oil is. It’s not because you’re dumber or smarter than professional woodsmen, it’s because a message only works if you know who the audience is and what they care about.…
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Guardrails and Plimsoll Lines
In an era where we have to assume that our data is being collected, and the data we collect, I think we need to get more nuanced about our guardrails. We need to think about what the worst possible outcome…
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Identify the problem, then offer the solution
You’ve got trouble, right here in River City It starts with P and that rhymes with T and that stands for trouble. The good people of River City were not dying to spend a lot of money on trombones and…
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How long has this been going on?
It’s easy to feel like AI* was the domain of science fiction and IBM moonshots until ChatGPT burst onto the public consciousness like Kool-Aid Man. It’s easy, but it’s not correct. What even is AI? LLMs have been around a…
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Brand and the Trust Thermocline
How do you feel about getting on a Boeing airplane right now, March of 2024? Maybe not as secure as you did last year, or before the 777 stories started appearing? 10 years ago, we never gave it a thought.…
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Pardon our dust: revamping a website
I am both intensely curious and a little lazy, and I am passionate about effective communication. It’s not such a bad thing to know about myself.
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Progressive Delivery and AI*
The year is 2024. A group of writers who thought they had a complete book proposal looks at the landscape of technology, curses, and starts outlining a chapter on AI. We all write about AI now, except for the bits…
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My spicy Product Marketing opinion
Product-led growth is important, but it can’t be the whole product marketing plan. Some differentiating features don’t work or can’t be shown in a freemium model. And in an economy that prizes efficiency over expansion, counting on developers to have…
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Book review: Kill It With Fire, by Marianne Belotti
I read this book slowly, not because it is long, or difficult, but because it is incredibly thought-provoking. Belotti has spent time doing the grinding work of upgrading the brownest of fields, and has managed to retain a sense of…