Learn how to be a wildly successful small business programmer

Tag: Effectiveness (Page 3 of 4)

How a Google experiment saved my ass

Let me tell you about the time a Google experiment saved my ass.

For those of you who don’t know, Google Analytics has an A/B testing feature. You can create multiple variants of a web page and then setup an experiment where Google Analytics directs your traffic to the different versions of your page. Google records how your visitors respond to the difference on some dimension that’s important to you like signups for your email list or purchases from your website. Google takes care of all the mechanics and statistics and tells you the winning variant or that it was too close to call.

Anyway, back to the story.

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How to be a wildly successful small business programmer

This is my final post in this series on how to be a wildly successful small business programmer. We’re going to do a quick review of everything I’ve talked about in this series. And then I’ll leave you with some parting words to help you continue your journey and show you where we’re going next.

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How to choose your first project

In my last post I showed you how to handle multiple possible constraints. Today I’m going to show you how to choose your first project.

If you have all the skills and influence you need to go straight after the constraint in your company, you should go for it. Overcoming your constraint is, by far, the most effective thing you can do for your company.

Unfortunately, unless you are an owner or a senior manager, attacking your constraint directly is probably impossible. You’ll need an indirect approach where you can improve your skills, influence, and understanding of your constraint. Almost everyone will need to go this route.

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How to handle multiple possible constraints

In my last post I talked about the importance of building your influence with the decision makers in your company. Today I’m going to show you how to handle multiple possible constraints.

If you’ve been following my advice, you’ve taken an interest in figuring out how your company actually works. You’ve probably found lots of things happening in your company that could be improved. Perhaps you’ve created a current reality tree or used the “5 whys” technique to drill down and find what you think might be the constraint in your company. Or maybe you drilled down and found a couple things that look like they might be the constraint but you’re not sure how to figure out which one is your actual constraint.

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Let’s talk about change

In my last post I encouraged you to learn more about your business and start looking for your constraint. It might take you a while to find your constraint company’s constraint so I’m going to let you continue that journey on your own and talk about change today. Why is change important to 10x programmers? Why do people resist it? What’s the best way to change yourself? What’s the best way to help others change?

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Where to look for the constraint in your company

In my last post I showed you the power of applying the Theory of Constraints to yourself to increase your individual effectiveness. Today, I’m going to show you where to look for the constraint in your company.

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Increase your effectiveness

In my last post I described the power of seeing your whole company as a single system and using the Theory of Constraints to zero in on the area that is most likely to benefit from improvement and focus your efforts there. This should be your ultimate goal. But you likely need new skills and practice with thinking in systems before you can operate at this level. So, in this post, I’m going to show you how to use the Theory of Constraints on yourself to increase your effectiveness.

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Theory of Constraints for 10x programmers

10x programmers aren’t necessarily faster or better programmers than their 1x colleagues. They just don’t waste their time doing things that don’t matter. They concentrate their effort on the ‘thing’ that is capable of producing the most positive impact. It took me years to figure this out. I’d tried all kinds of things to increase my impact with mixed results. But everything changed when I discovered the Theory of Constraints and applied it to my work.

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