Professional-PM Project Management - Soft Skills

Eric Schmidth on team size and self-motivation more

root — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 12:49:42 +0200

The webcast of Eric Schmidt the chief executive officer of Google actually goes to the technical audience and has a bit of the usual Google employing PR as usual...

People are allowed to spend 20% of their work time to build their own ideas and projects
this time is NOT managed, but tracked over the whole company
the innovation rate of Google is bigger than of any other competitor in the industry - because of this (and the nice workplace, team play, fun at work etc...)

BUT - the important points (quote E Schmidt)

this won't work with teams or companies that are used to being said what to do ... hence it only works with the great employee quality they hire from
this won't work in large teams - Google's initial idea was to have only teams of max. 3 people with one UTL (Uber Team Leader) as a speaker and 4-5 months... today they grew to 4-5 people but still try to keep it AS SMALL as possible
and again this won't work with the wrong people...

Googler's are self-motivated ( intrinsical motivated )

Apart from all the interesting points and stories Eric tells about Google (and I encourage you to watch at least the initial 60% of the show) the primary message we get from there again is - it's only about "PeopleWare"... just as Tom 'de Marco already wrote ten years ago... (have you read that classic book?)

Primary message:

People count - find the right ones - Google is spezialized on hiring only Phds from top universities ... see what some Googler's already published
Slack : people need their space to develop their ideas and self-motivation - see above - 20% of the time boosted Google with Google News, Froogle (Google product search), Google Search history, etc.etc...
if it doesn't work you have the wrong people - proceed to step 1

Nice to have confirmed again that the top performing teams are the teams of small size(3-5 people), the project durations of a few weeks or months and it all comes down to the inital ideas and project work practice in XP, Agile projects or simply iterative project models...

Google is a nice case study and public real-life example for that model to work.

This is the "peopleware" book I refered to above...

Cindy McCaffrey Marketing Guru leaving Google

root — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:33:49 +0100

Cindy McCaffrey, Google's vice president of corporate marketing, is leaving the technology company, the first top executive to depart after the IPO. McCaffrey has been chugging away at the P.R. business for 20 years, including gigs at Apple Computer, E*TRADE and the 3DO Company.

She's been at Google more than five years, which means that, post-IPO, she can comfortably go off and do nothing. And that's apparently what she intends to do for now.

McCaffrey shaped Google's low-key marketing approach, rejecting a high-profile campaign in the company's early years in favor of word-of-mouth marketing, colleague Matt Marshall says. "Remember, (then interim marketing V.P.) Scott Epstein brought in some high-powered advertising experts and proposed a massive advertising campaign in late 1999. McCaffrey, siding with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, rejected that approach, saying they'd rather spend their money on developing the best product, which would be the best way of generating publicity.

That was a significant step for two reasons.

1) because everyone else around them at the time was spending millions on ads.
2) because other search engines (think Excite, et al) had successfully pursued such ad strategies to get a leap ahead of the competition."

SiliconBeat: McCaffrey leaving Google

Salary Negotiation

root — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 00:47:19 +0200

The most important negotiating issue for most candidates is salary, asserts Maryanne L. Wegerbauer, consultant and formerly a compensation manager at Aetna Life & Casualty Co. Salary negotiation is a tricky business. Say the wrong thing, and you could be out thousands of dollars. The following story will give you tips and advice that can help you get the salary you want--and deserve.

Training for staffing your team - the Killer Quiz

root — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:25:23 +0100

maleProgramming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

Can you tell a coder from a cannibal? Try to work out which of the following spent their time hacking computers and which prerefferd hacking away at corpses instead...

Definately a funny but interesting game for all you project managers out there! Enjoy - and remember for your next staffing interview :-)

PowerPoint isn't evil. Mistrained people are.

root — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 12:44:35 +0200

Michael Gartenberg and Chris Sells blame the user, not the tool. Room enough for both, I think. There is always the question of doing the wrong thing more efficiently. Or using a tool as a crutch or substitute for presentation prep and delivery skills. (Phil)

yes! indeed.