INTRAPRENEUR PLAYBOOK: 3 STAGES TO ACHIEVING TRUE BUY-IN

One big difference between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs is that intrapreneurs must care about the infrastructure they are disturbing. For an intrapreneur, achieving buy-in for an idea is key.

In my experience, true buy-in is best achieved through 3 stages: form a team, find a champion, and achieving true buy-in from a decision maker.

Read the full article on Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-madden/intrapreneur-playbook-3-s_b_4987426.html

4 Ways Your Business Can Benefit from Agile Engineering Practices Today

Creating useful software is a craft. There is no black and white formula for success. Yet, there are certain Agile engineering practices that, if used thoughtfully, have shown to repeatedly add value to a business.  In this article, I’ll share 4 specific ways that your business can benefit today from Agile Engineering practices.

(If we use the basic formula of Scrum + Extreme Programming (XP) = Agile, I am referring to the XP piece of the equation when I say Agile Engineering Practices. Things like Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, & Continuous Integration.)

In a brilliantly simple blog post, James Shore claims:

"Scrum is easier and less threatening than XP(Extreme Programming), so I see a lot more people starting out with Scrum. On the downside, the teams that start with Scrum tend to struggle more than the teams that start with XP. The XP teams experience more pain starting out, but then get to a high performance state within the first year." 

Jim McCann’s Most Valuable Lesson About Life and Business

Tonight, I had the pleasure of attending an Inc Business Owner’s Council (IBOC) event in New York City. Jim McCann, the founder and CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com spoke with an intimate gathering of 30 entrepreneurs for about an hour.  

I’ve been a member of the IBOC for 5 years, and I’ve been fortunate to have a front row seat to some pretty amazing, small gatherings of various wildly successful people. But until tonight I’ve never met someone like Jim.

3 Recruiting Tactics You’re Probably Missing Out On

Whether you’re a startup looking for your first employee, or an established firm looking to scale, keeping on top of the best hiring practices is a key competitive advantage. Here are three recruiting tactics that are underutilized:

1. Gender-Neutral Hiring Practices

In 2013, a study published in the American Psychological Association by the authors Gaucher, Friesen, & Kay called, “Evidence That Gendered Wording inJob Advertisements Exists and Sustains Gender Inequality, ” concluded that certain masculine-themed words impacted the percentage of women that applied for jobs. 

Starting a New Company? Step 4: Create a Landing Page with KickoffLabs

After 10 years of growing a successful consulting company from the ground up, into a profitable, 50 person firm, I've sold the business and I’m launching a startup.

Launching a startup is exhilarating! There's so much to do, and it's definitely an adjustment from working at a 50 person company.  

Many things are different. For starters, the way I generate and process ideas is drastically different. I used to rely on collaboration with my co-workers. Now, I've taken inspiration from the movie"Akeelah and the Bee". Akeelah is studying for the big spelling bee, and he coach sets her free to study on her own. She's terrified and confides in her mom, who tells her "I bet if you just look around, you got 50,000 coaches."

Thanks to the outpouring of support from the NYC and Boston tech communities, I truly feel like I've got 50,000 coaches. 

With the combined advise of my coaches, here are the first 5 things I did.

What Would I do if I had One Month to be CEO?

Whether discussing it with our friends, seeing it as a topic on our favorite TV show, or just imagining it for ourselves, we are all familiar with the question “What would you do if you had one month to live?” And even though we’ve heard it a bunch of times before, this is not just some fantasy, throwaway question. If taken seriously, the “one month to live” question will challenge you to focus on the things that are truly important in your life, whether that be family, friends, career, or hobbies. It can also help you learn how to live life to the fullest in order to minimize and eliminate the regrets that many people have as they grow older.

Recently, I was thinking about a slightly different version of this common question. My version was related to work, and it was “What would I do if I only had one month to be CEO?” It started out innocently enough as a fleeting thought, but as soon as I took the question seriously, it spiraled into a long, well-thought-out exercise that was helpful to me, and I believe could be helpful to everyone. Some of the questions I asked myself were:

Want Your Startup to be Successful? Hire Intrapreneurs

Before I was named the CEO of Cyrus Innovation, I spent 9 great years working my way up at the company. I watched it grow from a small startup with big ideas, to the cutting-edge software development and consulting firm it is today. Before that, I spent 8 years at various other tech firms, most of which I began working with at the startup stage. And just like with every other person who chose to build their career around growing tech companies (or any type of company, for that matter), I have experienced my share of successes and failures. But from each of these experiences, I learned a valuable thing or two.

Looking back, there are some common traits that the successful companies I worked for all had in common. For one, everyone involved with these great companies, from the CEO on down to each software developer, had a passion for what the company stood for and was looking to accomplish. But that isn’t enough. At the startup stage especially, not only do you need people who are passionate, but you also need employees with a certain personality type. You need people who are willing to think outside the box to come up with great ideas, and who have the guts to pursue those ideas with a goal of putting them into play. What you need… is intrapreneurs.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring Programmers

No matter what type of business you are involved in, there is one element that clearly must be present in order for you to succeed. This vital element to success is TALENT, and as the CEO of software development consulting firm Cyrus Innovation, one of the most important areas I need to make sure to staff with high-level talent is our team of programmers. But picking out the right candidates who fit into our cutting-edge business model is not always easy. However, I have learned a lot of lessons over the

years that now allow me to minimize hiring mistakes.

 Here are a few common mistakes to avoid when hiring programmers:

1. Rushing to make a hire for a new project. 

Building a Company around Passion

For over 17 years, my business life has revolved around building and growing tech companies from startup through success. Doing this is a job, no doubt. But if that’s all that it was, there’s no way I would have been able to achieve the things I have throughout my career. Nor would I have enjoyed the past 17 years of my life nearly as much. No, tech entrepreneurship is more than just a job for me. It is a passion!

Before You Find a Technical Co-founder, Answer These 4 Questions

You’re an entrepreneur and your startup is based on an amazing business idea. You’ve struck “creative gold” and now you are ready for the next stage: developing your app.

One of the most important steps, maybe the most important step, is to find a great team: a team who shares your enthusiasm, and compliments your skillset. For many business-savvy entrepreneurs one of the first key hires is a technical co-founder.

MVP - When to Start Coding

Last week, I published a blog on the Cyrus Cylinder called "Minimum Viable Product - When to Start Coding".

In short, it provides a checklist that will help you identify when you are in that sweet spot: when you have just enough of a solid idea to use your development budget and start coding, yet you are still a teeny bit scared your idea sucks.

Happy reading.

Scrum vs XP - Which comes first?

When embarking on Agile, many teams start with Scrum.  Sooner or later, they inquire about XP.  Is there one 'right' way of implementing Scrum and XP? Do you 'have' to do both? 

This article by James Shore does a great job of summing it up. He says "Scrum is easier and less threatening than XP, so I see a lot more people starting out with Scrum. On the downside, the teams that start with Scrum tend to struggle more than the teams that start with XP. The XP teams experience more pain starting out, but then get to a high performance state within the first year." 

As Agile evolves, and as Lean Startup enters the picture, I am sure of only one thing, that people will continue to  debate this topic.  

For me, I can say that I have seen successes both small and large when a team implements either one of Scrum or XP, and also success when they implement both.  It's not so much that you go through the motions, but rather that you understand why you are going through them and make them meaningful for your team.

The Art of the Same Day Job Offer

To land the best developers in town, make a job offer the same day you bring the candidate on site.

I have spoken to hundreds of hiring managers over the last 16 years.  I often get asked: Where are all the good developers? How come I can’t manage to hire any of them?  When I dig into their recruiting process in the hopes of helping the hiring manager answer this question, I too often find that they are doing more things than they realize right, but are getting in their own way in the end zone. 

It often plays out like this: The company writes an engaging and fun job description and gets some interest. Company interviews a handful of developers.  Then….. thinks about who they like best. By the time the hiring managers decide who they want to make an offer to, they are often shocked to learn the developer has multiple offers or worse, has already accepted another job.

Please believe me when I tell you that developers are interviewing with more than just your company and often, the simple act of being the first to offer them a job puts you at an advantage. 

3 Tips: How to hire for motivation

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.” - Dee Hock , founder and former CEO of VISA

( http://www.fastcompany.com/online/05/dee2.html )

Last month, I wrote on how to hire for Integrity, which remains my number one most important quality. Now, we’ll chat about motivation.

So, how does one hire for “motivation”. What does this even mean?

3 Tips: How to Interview for Integrity

Lately, I’ve heard a lot of commotion about using technical exercises, brain teasers, problem solving tests, and the like as the basis for an interview process for developers, as well as for other members of Agile teams. However, in the quest to nab the top development talent in 2012, recruiters and tech managers alike may be sacrificing integrity for tech chops.

But, if you go into each interview prepared to interview for integrity, you can land yourself a top candidate that is both honest and extremely technically talented.

Here’s how:

3 Tips: How to achieve work/life balance

I am a working mom. I have two kids that I absolutely adore and a job that I absolutely love. Yet, for the past 7 years, I face the daily challenge that every working mom that I know faces - how to balance it all.  Here are 3 things I've learned along the way to help achieve work/life balance on a daily basis.

1. Be present.

Don't let great be the enemy of good

Or, how do I know if the developer I am interviewing for my team is good enough or if I should hold out for the perfect match? 

Over the years, as I've helped technical managers navigate the recruiting world, I often hear the following comment - "We found someone we like, but we don't want to make him an offer just yet, we want to see who else is out there." 

While these well-intentioned managers are debating, the candidate is busy interviewing with other companies.  This results in one of two scenarios: 1. The candidate accepts another job or 2. The candidate gets another offer which he then uses to get a better offer from you.

One of the most important things you can do for you interview process is: know up front what you are looking for, and when you find someone that meets the criteria, act on this immediately. 

Now, I don't mean loosen your criteria and jump on the first candidate that is decent. No, what I mean is, have an evaluation process in place. If the candidate passes, don't doubt this process, make them an offer today. 

Worst case, you are wrong and then you learn from the process and improve. Best case, the candidate is great. Most likely case, the candidate is very good and your evaluation process worked. 

How to Hire Developers in 2012

As we enter 2012, the outlook for tech in NYC is strong.  There are more start-ups here than there have been since 2007. And, from what I’ve seen, this time around folks are actually trying to make a profit rather than the way we all did it in 2000. Plus, Wall Street is now an attractive place to work again. And, several big guns like LinkedIn and Facebook have made NYC home to development teams.

What does that mean for those of us that need to hire developers this year? It means we are entering the year with a very marked 'Talent War' in NYC.   It's difficult to hire A-list developers, and even harder to retain them.

My advice – don’t settle and don’t panic.  Here’s a 3 step process to help start you off in the right direction.

First, identify what your success criteria are. Rather than focus on skills needed to create a job description, imagine what a successful developer in your organization will look like 3, 6 and 12 months from now.  Include all aspects of the job, from what this person should know technically, to how they will fit in culturally. Write these things down and use that as a basis for your job description.

Second, know what your company stands and what a successful employee in your organization looks like. Create an interview process that tests for each of these components. If developers that take criticism well tend to excel in your company, figure out a way to include analyzing this in your interview process.  (Note: Not all questions are considered ‘legal interview questions’, so do your homework and be sure to avoid illegal questions.)

Third, know that it’s going to take some time to find the right fit (thus, don’t panic). The saying “hire slowly, fire quickly” will be more valuable in 2012 than it’s ever been.  Evaluate your process and ensure you are making progress, but don’t rush. Making a bad hire quickly can take years to undo.

This Year I Resolve To... Tips on how to make your resolutions stick

Figure this being the first blog of the new year, I should write about all the great things I'm going to do this year.

First, let's back up a bit. My whole adult life, as long as I can remember, I've always made new year's resolutions. Some years because I thought it was fun, some years because I thought I ought to, some years because I felt I needed a direction.  Usually they lasted about 1 week. 

Then, about 3 years ago, I figured out how to do it right. This is going to sound silly, but I used Agile frame my new year's resolution creation.  Here's what I do each year:

1. Brainstorm. Find a quiet place and set aside some time. At least an hour, more if you can.  Think about all the things you'd like to do this year. Write each thing down, one idea per index card. Let the ideas flow, don't stop and think about if it's silly, unattainable, embarrassing.   Spend at least 15 minutes doing this, throw all index cards onto the table.


2. Prioritize. Take all of your index cards, put them into piles A (most important), B(great if you can achieve it this year), C( nice to achieve).

3. Clarify. For all the A's, turn each index card into a concrete, measurable, achievable goal (ideally a SMART goal, but at the very least, something you can read and have a clear picture of what it would look like complete).

4. Write Stories. For the A's that are now concrete, add the 'special sauce', as I once heard Jack Daly say. That is, what are you going to do each month, week, day, to implement this goal.   Each 'special sauce' is a Story, one per index card please.

5. Make Visible. Pick 3-4 A's to work on first. Hang them on the wall somewhere, along with the Stories for each one.

6. Review. Just like in Agile, have a weekly, biweekly, or monthly review of your achievements. Figure out how you progressed towards your goals. If you finish one, pull another one from the A pile, write Stories, hang it on the wall.  Don't move on to the B pile until all A's are finished.

7. Quarterly Kaizen. Every 3 months, pull out all goals, lay them out in one big pile. See how you are doing, adjust as needed. Repeat.

And now, to keep me honest, here's a glimpse of what I want to achieve in 2012:

1. Lose 10 pounds. These are suspiciously similar to the 10 I lost back in 2010, but they seemed to have found me and so I must shake them loose once again. My Stories: Life weights 2 times per week. Do cardio 4 times per week. Eat Clean every day, except for 1 day per week.

2. Get more sleep. My stories: Each weekend, plan the week ahead, ensure I get 8 hours of ZZZs per night by getting in bed 8 hours before I have to wake up.  So easy, yet soooooo hard.

3. Complete my ultimate organization plan. My stories: I already have tasks to achieve weekly, and I am staying on top of them. The problems are the ones that never seem to have to get done, which are often the things I find fun. My stories: Pick one fund task each week, leave about an hour to work towards it. Admit to the fact that many of my 'Someday, Maybe' tasks, like learning how to play the sax, are not going to get done this year. Files those away for 2013.

Happy 2012, and good luck with your goals!

5 Things to Avoid When Interviewing

I've seen tons of articles, speeches and emails on proper interviewing etiquette, do X, Y and Z and you magically land the job of your dreams. In my experience, which has unbelievably been 16 years of being involved in technical recruiting, a candidate can do all the right things, but do one thing wrong and not be able to overcome it. Reason being, interviewers are on the prowl for this, and feel when they see you do or say something negative they are seeing your true colors and this is often the tip of the iceberg to your true self. However true or false this may be, it's best to keep these 5 things in mind when interviewing:

1. Don't boss bash. We've all worked for someone that rubs us the wrong way, doesn't see our true potential, or is just simply difficult to work with for one reason or another. However, it's best to try to keep these sentiments to yourself, or somehow spin your experience into something either neutral or positive when discussing it at an interview.  For example, if your old boss thought it was his way or the highway, discuss how you came up with a really cool idea and worked in a grass-roots way to implement it and win his approval.

2. Don't lie. An interview is a sale. You are selling yourself so be sure to put your best foot forward. Just be sure the foot you choose is one of your own.  Nobody likes dishonesty and if you are caught in a lie you will likely not be able to overcome it regardless of how flawless you perform on the rest of the interview.

3. Don't ramble. If you are asked to talk about your current job, don't say "To help you get a full picture of my current job let me take you through my entire job history". Be prepared to enthusiastically discuss everything on your resume but be sure to listen closely to the question being asked and focus on answering this question only. If the interviewer wants to probe deeper he will.

4. Don't show up unprepared. I can't tell you how many times I've interviewed people, either on the phone or in person, and they've gotten the name of my company wrong. This is inexcusable. Or, my favorite is "I meant to check out your website but I haven't gotten around to it yet". This just chalks you up as failing #2, you've just lied to me.  Always be prepared. In today's age, this means knowing where you are interviewing and even knowing a bit about the folks that run the company, the team and their background.  In 10 minutes you can print out a company's LinkedIn, Facebook and home page and have a complete bio of all the executives and folks you are talking to by printing out their LinkedIn pages. Doesn't take much to show you've put in a little effort.

5. Don't settle. Know your bottom line before you send out your first email or have your first interview. Know the compensation, benefits, work environment, location, work hours and culture you need to be happy. Then, be sure to ask questions until you have a clear sense that your needs are going to be met.  If you settle for something less than what you need, you are the one that is going to lose out. A word to the wise, be realistic about needs vs wants. I need X to pay my mortgage and bills but I want Y to have a cushion. There's a difference.