Rules to Lead by from the Man Who Defined Google’s Product Strategy
firstround.com
firstround.com
Anyone who's worked for a larger organization knows that you'll have weekly team meetings hammering on the developers to get project X out the door on time. Then the developers will walk out of that meeting and spend three weeks trying to get the tools and equipment they need from IT with zero backup from leadership.
Also, 42 rules? Would of been nicer to have just the few important ones perhaps.
Heh, I was going to comment on that as well. I think this shows something about the merit of taking advice at "face value" and not applying your own discretion and judgment to its application.
I also disagree to some extent with #10 and #13. What he calls "bustling" and "energetic" I call "distracting" and "annoying". And while I'm a big believer in the value of face-to-face communication, I think working-from-home has a role to play as well. The problem, in my mind (and I don't pretend to have a definite answer to this) is how to find the right balance between expecting people to be in the office, and allowing them the flexibility to work from home.
Great leaders are great teachers. And great teachers are great storytellers. “Narrative is how we learn. If you want to be a leader, you will teach and tell stories. The two are inseparable.”
When I hear this I can't help but think, narrative fallacy. Narrative may have traditionally been "how we learn", but recent research into biases and heuristics (Kahneman & Taversky especially) suggests it's not entirely reliable.
This bit of advice doesn't go into much detail on how telling stories is essential to leadership. Anyone have any experience on just what is meant here, and whether narrative fallacy is a concern?
I hope his definition of specialist is wrong considering that he himself is a specialist. Perhaps what he means is "hire people who can learn and adapt." After all, you won't get anywhere without people who have deep knowledge in particular areas.
Seems google has gotten away from that. The Nexus 4 has a couple of very bad bugs that have gone unfixed for a long time. I feel really bad that I recommended a good friend get it, because these bugs have really damaged his enjoyment of the phone.
It doesn't sound like it was ever very high on their list to begin with.
So who wouldn't be a customer? a. Google Reader user (and similar products) b. YouTube or Hangout user not willing to migrate towards G+ c. User not willing to migrate towards centralized, single identity
So the long version of #31 might read "consider the long-term, strategically important (to Google's future) customer"
Overall, this is a great list though.
I couldn't say I agree. It flat out dismisses companies that do perfectly well while having remote teams. I guess it depends on if you have a company that focuses on discussion more than say building something.
#43 Start with something that works and then iterate often to improve.
#44 If your project involves engineering then involve the engineers in the product specifications, don't trust marketing or MBAs to do it alone.
#45 Simplify as much as possible.