When researching 11 companies that suddenly went from average to outstanding, Jobs found that the single binding factor between them was the shift in exactly how big decisions were made. The strategy became what not to do rather than what to do.
Kent Beck came up with his four rules of simple design while he was developing ExtremeProgramming in the late 1990’s. I express them like this.
- Passes the tests
- Reveals intention
- No duplication
- Fewest elements
The best way to manage marketing calendars is to set your marketing hype cycle one cycle behind your development cycle.
Market only finished products: No missed deadlines. No cut corners. No exploding products. No bad press.
How do you answer “When will it ship?” “When it’s done.”
Instead of “When will it ship?” the new questions are “what did we ship this week, and how do we want to market it?” Do you hold the new features behind a feature flag system and wait for a marketing calendar event to roll them out to the masses? Do you enable the features right away?
Just send them an email already