For most of my career, your impact grew as you increased your team's headcount. If you wanted to do more, you had to manage more. Senior meant managing people who managed people. The org chart was the …
The Peter Principle: The Structural Problem Your Performance Review Won’t Solve
Laurence Peter proposed his principle in 1969 as satire. Fifty-six years later, most organisations are still running on the exact system he was mocking. The Peter Principle: “In a hierarchy, …
Brooks’ Law: Why Hiring Won’t Fix Your Delivery Problem
In 1975, Fred Brooks published The Mythical Man-Month. Fifty years later, it remains the most consistently ignored book in software engineering. Brooks’ Law: “Adding manpower to a late …
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Goodhart’s Law: Why Your Metrics Are Lying to You
Charles Goodhart was a British economist. In 1975, he observed something about monetary policy that turned out to apply to almost everything in management. Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure …
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Conway’s Law: Why Your Org Chart Is Your Product Architecture
In 1967, Mel Conway published a paper that nobody in management has read — but that explains more about why products fail than any product management framework I know. Conway’s Law: “Any …
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