Productivity Tuesday | Hello Tech Pros

James Studdart is a full stack .NET developer, solutions architect and team leader based in the UK. He has experience in a wide range of markets from tropical fish and domestic services to international freight to the holiday industry, to name a few. James does a lot of commuting and fills that time with podcasts as much as possible. When he's not working he keeps and breeds tropical fish. James is on the committee for the British Cichlid Association and is the chairman of North Wales Aquarists Society. When he's not doing anything fishy he is also an active member of the Shock Team 6 airsoft team at Shock and Awe Airsoft in North Wales. James also has a young family, twin boys who recently turned one. James Studdart doesn't know the meaning of downtime and being unplugged. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/james-studdart-productivity/ Sponsors Minio Cloud Storage at minio.io - Written in Go for performance. Supported by a passionate Go developer community.

Against a friend's advice, I set a goal to publish 100 podcast episodes in 100 days. This is the story on how I did it (and how you can do it too). Show notes and challenge details at http://hellotechpros.com/100-podcast-episodes/

Nathan Johns has more than twenty years of experience in Business Strategy and Product Management at large tech companies like Creative Labs and Dell. He has managed eighteen product lines including designing go-to-market strategies, overseeing product transitions, and identifying opportunities to improve gross margin and unit growth. Nathan also has more than six years’ experience as a professional wedding and portrait photographer and regularly mentors others both personally and professionally. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/nathan-johns-productivity/ Sponsors Burdene - Like Evernote but through text messages. HelloTechBook.com - Get a free audio book from Audible.

This software development manager believes it is an utter waste of money to hire a programmer and not pair them with someone else. Llewellyn Falco is an independent agile coach. He discovered strong-style pair programming and is creator of the open source testing tool ApprovalTests. He spends most of his time programming in Java and C# specializing in improving legacy code. Llewellyn is also co-founder of TeachingKidsProgramming.org. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/llewellyn-falco-productivity/ Key Takeaways Kids aren't ready for "real" programming until they are ready to read, write and type It's a waste of money to hire a programmer and not pair them with another It's our differences that make us stronger When we work together with someone, we are in the zone together for longer periods of time It is easier to focus and you aren't distracted as much When someone is "watching" us work, or working with us, we are more inclined to use best-practices We feed off the other person, we bring good things

Stacey Ackerman recently implemented a scrum process in her household and her kids have bought in and help clean the house with minimal supervision. Stacey Ackerman is the Scrum Mom, an agile coach, writer, speaker, entrepreneur, wife and mom of three humans and four cats. She does it all by using Scrum as her personal and professional framework. She believes there is a better way to work (and parent) and discusses both on her site at scrummom.com. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/stacey-ackerman-productivity/ Key Takeaways The values of Scrum is more important than the implementation. In a retrospective, ask everyone about their cabbages and roses. That is, the things they didn't like and the things they did like about their day. Provide incentives that the team can buy into. Write down jobs that need to get done and allow the team (or kids) to pick from them. Allow the team to trade tasks so they don't get bored and feel pigeon-holed. 30-minute time-boxing daily gets a group making daily progress at

The best car mechanics are the ones who will take the time to do a thorough inspection and find the root cause before you rack up a huge bill in parts and labor. Ryan Ayres uses the same philosophy when inspecting his clients' business problems. The root problem is usually a process or personnel issue that needs to be addressed, not an expensive new tool to implement. Ryan Ayres is a business coach and consultant that has the privilege of working with companies of all sizes from Microsoft, Sports Illustrated and Time Inc. to hundreds of small businesses in the last 20 years. His business, Focus 53, is focused on Business Operations and helping business owners identify and solve opportunities and roadblocks with the people and processes in their company.  Ryan is also the host of the Focus 53 podcast. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/ryan-ayres-productivity/ Key Takeaways Treat business problems like a scientist - don't treat the symptoms, inspect for the root cause 9 times out of 10, the problem is wit

Eric Stroh is an experienced software developer and sports enthusiast. After teaching computer science for 15 years he joined the ranks of iOS developers at CapTech Consulting, building mobile apps for large financial institutions. When not mastering iOS Autolayout, Eric enjoys time on the lake and playing tennis. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/eric-stroh-productivity/ Key Takeaways AP Computer Science classes in high school were more procedural when they taught C and Pascal, but moved into object-oriented programming during a transition to Java and C++. Working on bug fixes are a great way to teach someone about a legacy system. We need more computer science classes in middle and high school. When the team is co-located in an office, you can have ad-hoc face-to-face meetings with analysts and QA. Working remotely, it's more difficult to communicate with the other team members because you can't just walk down the hall and say hi. Messenger, video conferencing and phone calls are critical for remote w

Since he hasn't had a boss, Christian's had to come up with his own ways of making sure he stays productive. Today he shares his 3-step productivity system that gives him perfect memory and allows him to always know what to do next. Christian Genco is a software micropreneur who hasn't HAD to work since September 2014 (two years after graduating college), when his internet side projects started making more money than he was spending. He and his wife are on track to financially retire before they turn 30. Show notes page at http://hellotechpros.com/christian-genco-productivity/ Key Takeaways The valuable things in life aren't stuff The real resource to maximize in life is time, so money exists to maximize your time Are you squandering your opportunities by wasting time? Christian's productivity system Consolidate all notes from all inboxes into a single system Inboxes = Email, calendar, todo list, reminders, Evernote, whiteboard, etc Whichever tool you like the best and will actually use Clarify the best

Would you love it or hate it if your boss said to turn off email and messenger programs all day? Stacy Eads believes that by only checking emails 3 times a day instead of constantly being distracted by  alerts, you can significantly increase productivity. Since implementing this policy, her team at Levant Technologies has increased the number of websites they've produce by 600%. Stacy Eads is the CEO of Levant Technologies. They've been voted the #1 Oklahoma Web Design company in the metro for the last 4 years in a row. After 13 years in business, Stacy helps Levant's team manage hundreds of website and mobile clients throughout our state. Mrs. Eads has won 4 executive leadership awards under the age of 40 from local newspapers and magazines. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/stacy-eads-productivity/ Key Takeaways Customers are stressing about their business, not your technology - solve their problems quickly Environments where everyone is constantly bombarded with chat messages, emails and notification

Glenn Hansen has over 25 years in software engineering, product development, information technology and consulting who drives a culture of innovation and excellence through servant leadership, transparency, collaboration and mentoring.  Glenn is a "Hands-on" leader who has helped teams develop award winning products and helped companies achieve multi-million dollar contracts with sustaining revenue streams.  His focus has been empowering individuals and encouraging "out of the box" thinking, even if some of those ideas fail as the road to success is paved with lots of failures along the way.  His mission is to grow successful servant leaders and get out of their way. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/glenn-hansen-productivity/ Key Takeaways Servant leadership is an inversion of the typical org structures Allows the teams to participate and drive the requirements Let's the engineers sit with the business and flesh out requirements Fewer gatekeepers means better understanding, instead of playing "Telep

When Joe Zack reflected upon a list of New Year's Resolutions very thoughtfully planned out and realized he had accomplished nothing throughout the year, he realized he didn't care about the goal but was rather looking forward to the notches in his belt. Yes, life gets in the way, but Joe now understands that a goal means nothing if you don't have your heart in it. Joe Zack has has been a professional programmer for the past 15 years, and is co-host of the Coding Blocks podcast. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/joe-zack-productivity/ Key Takeaways A goal without a plan is a wish Turn the process of working on your goal into a habit Temptation Bundling - combine something you want with something you want to accomplish Example 1: Lattes with coding challenge Example 2: Audio books on Audible with jogging Keep your saw sharp Automate routine tasks Keep your tools and workspace clean and organized Queue, routine and reward Example: 3:30 every day you get up from your desk and get cookies Instead, at 3:

As a software architect, David Walker looks for the "story" behind the software: what do the users need, how will they interact with technology and what will it help them accomplish. After being highly productive at work, David looks for ways to enhance productivity outside of work by taking the lessons learned from software development and applying them to everyday problems. David Walker is a software architect, mentor and blogger.  His never-ending mission is to improve user's lives with better software and developer's lives with better software development methods. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/david-walker-productivity/ Key Takeaways Everything is a story; find the beginning, middle and end of the tasks that the users are trying to accomplish Facilitators should make sure introverts get a chance to share their thoughts Adhere to meeting protocols such as start/stop times and clear objectives to cut out the time-wasting discussions Respect the people you work with (and live with), listen to them

When an organization was struggling with a lack of productivity and $2 million into a $5 million project with nothing to show, Frank Fuglestad was brought in as a consultant to set things right. He discovered that outsourcing the project sent a message to the internal employees that they did not have the expertise to get the job done and were expendable. By moving the work internally and resetting expectations, the organization delivered the project in half the budget and tremendously improved morale. Frank Fuglestad has over 25 years’ experience in IT and Organizational Development. A partner with Rhea Health, a one-stop shop for worker on-boarding in Oklahoma City, he helps companies promote a safe and healthy work environment and improve productivity.   Key Takeaways Different perspectives of productivity lead to complex interactions between them National economics, labor and total productivity Enterprise Organizational Personal The total of complementary factors on productivity are greater than the su

Working really, really hard and not getting anywhere... sound familiar? As a software development manager, Edward Fry struggled with rapidly changing business needs that resulted in meeting overload. Too much time in meetings meant that his day-to-day programming tasks were not getting finished. After stepping back and looking at the situation, he discovered that he could take control of the situation by managing the flood of meetings and emails. Edward Fry advises enterprises on ways to streamline their software development to drive business results. He has been working with IT for over 20 years and has been passionate about technology all his life. Edward lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, Linda, and 3 children. This episode is sponsored by: Hello Tech Pros. Want to be a guest on the show? Chad Bostick here, and I’m helping professionals who work with technology build a personal brand and get connected to an audience of thousands of technologists, entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors. Download m

In an intern position, Alan was faced with an uninspiring role and a deadline that extended many years past his internship. After fighting procrastination and low levels of productivity throughout the internship, Alan realized he needed to find roles which aligned to his level of interest and social needs. Alan LePera is a geophysicist with interests in the application of seismic visualization and interpretation for hydrocarbon exploration and development using geophysical tools and methods for in situ remediation efforts. He enjoys camping bowling horror movies and video games. This episode of Hello Tech Pros is sponsored by… ME, Chad Bostick. As an enterprise IT leader I’ve gotten the opportunity to solve a number of different business problems including field worker productivity, back-office process efficiencies, enterprise system integrations, big data analysis, resource management, and IT complexity reduction. Each project comes with it’s own unique challenge whether it be distributed teams, change manag

Assigned to a team that was over staffed, under utilized and without clear direction, Jeff and his peers struggled with productivity on a $1 million project. Things turned around when he decomposed the 100 page requirements document into a list of measurable tasks and reduced the team size. Jeff convinced the stakeholders to trim the project from 25 different people across many roles to 4 team members: two full stack software developers, one data analyst and one business analyst / subject matter expert. Jeff Maxwell is an application architect with experience in Fortune 100 corporations, a longtime software developer and lifelong Oklahoma State Cowboy alumnus. This episode is sponsored by: Hello Tech Pros. Want to be a guest on the show? Chad Bostick here, and I’m helping professionals who work with technology build a personal brand and get connected to an audience of thousands of technologists, entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors. Download my cheat-sheet of interview questions and apply to be a gue