Dec 2, 2015 | Cardsmith, Productivity, Project management, Strategy, Work
Have you ever worked hard to design the ideal work process and then been disappointed when your team just doesn’t see things the way that you do? Perhaps they pretend to follow along when you describe how the process should work, but then you realize a few weeks later... 
Nov 24, 2015 | Cardsmith, Creativity, Portland, Productivity, Project management, Strategy, Thinking tools, Uncategorized, Work
The other day, I had lunch with a friend of mine, Kevin. Kevin had some bad news and some not-so-bad news to share. His tale demonstrates the value of visual tools — and yet another example of how sticky notes make people productivity rockstars. The bad news was... 
Nov 16, 2015 | Cardsmith, Creativity, Design, Portland, Productivity, Project management, Startups, Strategy, Thinking tools, Work
How are people using Cardsmith? We sat down with one particular user this week to find out her story. Ann Sanderson is a planning machine. As a small business owner and political activist, she needs to be able to keep all her projects organized and track their... 
Sep 21, 2015 | Cardsmith, Portland, Productivity, Project management, Startups, Strategy, Thinking tools, Uncategorized, Work
I’m a fan of a weekly meeting when working with a small team on a creative project that goes for many weeks or months. In a well-functioning team, a well-executed collaborative meeting of no more than one hour sets a kind of cadence that energizes and aligns the... 
Jun 25, 2015 | Productivity, Project management, Strategy, Work
If the world won’t be a better place once your project is completed, then your project isn’t worth doing. If the world will be improved when your project is done, then by all means, get it done as quickly as possible so the world can reap the benefits!... 
May 27, 2015 | Cardsmith, Creativity, Productivity, Strategy, Work
I love using pencils. There’s something about the feel of the graphite on a blank page. The pencil is a constantly changing writing device—both the width of the graphite path that follows, and the length of the pencil as it’s used. Most of the time it...