Reading List Picks of 2022
Every year I put together one of these lists, of things I read that gave me ideas, crystallised my thinking or changed my mind. The tally of things I read dropped compared to previous years and I found myself hunting out articles based on need, rather than just working through my list of saved things. So there’s more on product management and digital delivery, fewer diverse topics than previous years.
- Product management & design
- Digital teams
- Internet ways of being
- Working in the open
- Divided Kingdom
- Just good pieces
Product management & design
Don’t confuse these 12 shortcuts with iteration
Over the last 2 years I’ve been using the phrase ‘scope hammer’ a lot, which is when I’m looking to reduce the amount of effort we put in to building something, working down to the irreducible core. That’s because I’ve been working in 0-to-1 situations, getting something off the ground, when moving fast helps. These principles on iteration from GitLab are really helpful in not shaving off the wrong kinds of work.
Read Don’t confuse these 12 shortcuts with iteration, 6 mins
How to be a trusted agitator
When you become more senior in your role, you start interacting with the management and leadership layers of an organisation more. The way I work is like an agitator, or a catalyst, and the tactics that worked in teams don’t always suit the leaders. So I’m working on how to be a more trusted character. This piece from Laura Yarrow is a corker.
Read How to be a trusted agitator, 4 mins
On Principles
I’ve long thought that a good set of principles can carry you very far. Principles inspire action, help you make decisions, set boundaries and guide you. When I was head of product at a startup, I wrote a set of principles for the team, which were referred to often. James Boardwell has written about how he created some principles on a team at Ministry of Justice.
Read On Principles, 3 mins
Products deliver outputs, services deliver outcomes
If you orient your work around meeting users’ needs and improving their experience, the semantic debate over what is a service and what is a product feels like a moot point. A product mindset and the tenets of user-centred service design are the same. But for organisations going through digital transformation and not fully understanding all the lingo, definitions can help. This definition from Tero Väänänen is really useful, and the diagram helped me explain our service to technology-minded stakeholders at NHS Digital. (I also like the idea of platforms as enabling services.)
Read Products deliver outputs, services deliver outcomes, 7 mins
10 good design reads that aren’t written by white men
Does what it says on the tin.
Read 10 good design reads that aren’t written by white men, 10 mins
List of inclusive design books
A similar list from Benjy Stanton that’s all about doing design inclusively.
Read List of inclusive design books, 2 mins
Why Figma is selling to Adobe for $20 billion
This is a great, in-depth interview with Figma’s CEO. Their sale to Adobe is almost beside the point, or at least it doesn’t seem to be the focus of Dylan Field. He cares more about building a product to meet its vision and enabling an organisation around that. If you’re interested in product strategy, jobs-to-be-done as a lens for growth, and web standards at the heart of a product, I reckon you’ll get a kick out of this.
Read Why Figma is selling to Adobe for $20 billion, 53 mins
Digital teams
What Do We Know About Time Pressure in Software Development?
Some times you’ll need to work to a strict deadline when shipping software. Launching an MVP, for example, or meeting a regulatory change. The problem with deadline-driven development is that it makes people think that deadlines are a good thing, that you’ll always ship great software when working under time pressure. This literature review shows how though time pressure can be useful, it is negative in the long run.
Read What Do We Know About Time Pressure in Software Development?, 10 mins
Shipping Great Work
Being the first product manager at a startup basically means you’re the delivery manager too. Although I think I’ve got a really good grasp of the role and how to deliver software, there’s an added pressure when you’re doing all the product thinking, the design and you’re looking after delivery. This was a great resource covering many of the activities that go in to shipping great software beyond adopting something like Scrum or Kanban.
Read Shipping Great Work, 30 mins
How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum
Most teams I’ve worked on have used Scrum or Scrumban, and though it was all the rage over a decade ago, times have changed. At the startup I had the opportunity to weigh up different approaches, and this piece provided a really useful input, helping me see how other teams ship good software quickly. (Hot take: I think that mature digital teams in the public sector should drop Scrum.)
Read How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum, 23 mins
How to disappoint people
The idea that ‘every project starts with a fixed amount of disappointment’ was a real mind-blown moment for me. Too often I’ve kidded myself into thinking we’ll pull it off. This is a more realistic framing, one that works particularly well on teams with low strategic autonomy. If you’re handed some ideas to build or very specific goals to reach, this set of posts from Neil Vass will likely be helpful. (The links go to the Web Archive as Neil’s site seems to be broken at the moment.)
Read part 1 (5 mins), part 2 (6 mins) and part 3 (11 mins)
Levelling Up When You Can’t Get Headcount
Startups and the British public sector faced similar problems this year: a reduction in the number of people they could hire. This post has some good tips on how to make progress when you’re in a hiring freeze.
Read Levelling Up When You Can’t Get Headcount, 3 mins
Internet ways of being
lowercase magic
This popped up in my RSS feed after I’d started experimenting with writing in lowercase on Twitter. It probably goes way overboard on the power of dropping conformity and perfection, but it was good to see how unshackling oneself had helped someone else.
Read lowercase magic, 9 mins
Workplace serendipity, invention, and lessons from Prohibition 1920-1933
Although I thought a lot of creating serendipity in 2020 and 2021, when I was working fully remote, I hadn’t thought much about it this year. Then Matt Webb comes out with this post about creating ‘water-cooler moments’ online, using the Prohibition as inspiration. Something to share with anyone thinking about hybrid working culture.
Read Workplace serendipity, invention, and lessons from Prohibition 1920-1933, 3 mins
Complex Personhood
This is all about how people’s lives aren’t as straightforward as they think. It’s about the culture wars, although it’s really about how that’s too simple a definition. What I took from it is that no matter how much you (or another person) try to define yourself, your personhood, things are much more complicated.
Read Complex Personhood, 3 mins
The old internet
Oddly found this a couple of weeks before everyone started migrating from Twitter over to Mastodon. It talks about the old internet, how centralised services weren’t the norm, and is a call for people to create their own websites.
Read The old internet, 2 mins
Working in the open
Generating Agency Through Blogging
A good piece on how blogging regularly can help you find better career prospects through networking, and generally have more agency in the work you do. Something I wholeheartedly support!
Read Generating Agency Through Blogging, 4 mins
Why we should work in the open
This piece from the Co-op Digital blog, written by the excellent Amy McNichol, sums up 7 years of working in the open at the organisation. Most blog posts (including my own) give point-in-time reasonings for talking about your work, but this one condenses a long stint in the game.
Read Why we should work in the open, 6 mins
Zombie Christmas
One of the highlights of my RSS feed has been any new post from Russell, and this one is exciting. He’s going to be writing a book about sharing ideas in public, and points to some other people who do the same. (Might this inspire you to do the same?)
Read Zombie Christmas, 2 mins
Divided Kingdom
Wealth is the Missing Piece
This is a North American piece about how wealth affords privilege to different groups. It’s interesting because it’s ostensibly about class, which isn’t something Americans really talk about, but it breaks it down very well.
Read Wealth is the Missing Piece, 22 mins
Young People Are Lonelier Than Ever
Alarming statistics from across the UK that young people are lacking human connection. Contains good links to services that can help you meet new people.
Read Young People Are Lonelier Than Ever, 7 mins
Fleeing Twitter
This article discusses the implications of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the potential increase in trolling and hate speech on the platform. It draws attention to the fact that the majority of people leaving or threatening to leave the platform are white liberals, contrasting with the fact that it will be disproportionately not white people who will bear the brunt of the toxicity.
Read Fleeing Twitter, 6 mins
Britain’s winter of discontent is the inevitable result of austerity
More excellent data journalism from John Burn-Murdoch. Reminds me of seeing a chart tracking the bank base rate over several decades in the UK and its impact on GDP. Memories of A-level macroeconomics. There is a distinct difference between the economic policies of the two main parties and its impact on our country.
Read Britain’s winter of discontent is the inevitable result of austerity (no paywall), 4 mins
Just good pieces
Dominic Cummings: “I don’t like parties”
I find Dominic Cummings a fascinating character, so this rare interview is a chance to look inside his brain a bit. This came out before all the Conservative party turmoil in the summer, and he does point to Truss potentially getting in because Rishi had ruined himself. Not saying he can predict world events, but his concept of politics being totally ruined might not be far from the truth.
Read Dominic Cummings: “I don’t like parties”, 20 mins
Inside the Pain Cave
How to visualise discomfort and pain to work through it, while running or doing something else. This is an interview with Courtney Dauwalter, who’s a cool ultra-runner who pretty much came out of nowhere. Overnight ordinary superhero.
Read Inside the Pain Cave, 18 mins
(Tele)pathy
The little essays that Boot Boyz write to go with their new garms are great, they always teach me something or land me upon a new source. Super interesting reading. This one fired off all sorts of thoughts about Zen which I wrote about.
Read (Tele)pathy, 13 mins
Dear male ego
Amy Hupe’s a fantastic writer and I hope she’ll start writing about other topics, because this piece about perceiving the male ego as a woman, and its impact, was pretty powerful.
Read Dear male ego, 5 mins
Could Consciousness Be a Memory System? New Theory Says Yes
Everything we perceive could actually be a memory. Mind-blowing new theory.
Read Could Consciousness Be a Memory System? New Theory Says Yes, 6 mins