The Tools Don't Matter - Ken Norton

This resource first appeared in issue #67 on 26 Mar 2021 and has tags Becoming A Manager: Other

The Tools Don’t Matter - Ken Norton

Just a reminder that as technical folk, we tend to jump straight to tools when we’re starting to manage projects or teams for the first time. I’m flat out embarrassed by how long I spent choosing planning tools, processes, etc when I started out in my current job. It had the advantage of feeling like accomplishing something, but it was basically just stalling the harder work of managing projects, products or teams - communication.

Norton has a list of questions that should be asked differently which I’m just going to quote in their entirety:

• “What tools do you recommend for roadmaps?” → “How do you communicate what’s coming in the future to internal and external audiences?”
• “What tool do you use for product visions?” → “How do you motivate your team around a shared future vision?”
• “What’s the best tool for tracking OKRs?” → “How do you decide and communicate what’s important to the company and what’s not?”
• “Which do you recommend, Scrum or Kanban?” → “How do you decide what to build and what not to build?”
• “Can you recommend a wireframing tool for sharing concepts?” → “How do you communicate early product ideas?”