Embrace problems worth solving. Cultivate leadership. Inspire others. #GiveFirst #Leadership
A Proof of Concept doesn’t create impact on its own. It creates impact when others believe in it. Without stakeholder buy-in, even the best experiment risks being dismissed as tech tinkering. The key is to frame early experiments as business stories anchored in goals, assumptions, solutions, and evidence.
Bold goals don’t fail because of lack of effort. They fail because assumptions go untested. A well-structured Proof of Concept (PoC) bridges that gap, turning uncertainty into clarity. Using a simple framework, you can design PoCs that validate the riskiest assumptions quickly, reduce wasted effort, and build the confidence your stakeholders need to move forward.
In 2011, I sent Brad Feld an email. It was in response to something personal and vulnerable he had posted, and a message I deeply resonated with. At the time, I was a founder, a little lost, and craving connection. I didn’t expect him to reply. He’s Brad Feld, after all. But he did. Not with a quick note or …
There are 3 main business flows of a technology company that have to be in tight alignment to each other in order to enable growth…
One Thursday in 2014, as I aimlessly scrolled through my Facebook feed, a post caught my attention. It was a plea for technical mentors to gather in Boulder, CO over the upcoming weekend. Little did I know that stumbling upon this one post would become a turning point in my career, setting me on a path of personal growth and building a deep network of mutually supporting relationships.
The progress we make in any area, work or personal, is a series of many decisions that add up to an outcome. If our initial decisions are faulty, then all the decisions that come after it are too. Sometimes we only get to positive outcomes after making 100s of decisions along the way.
For the last five years I’ve dismissed the idea of OKRs and SMART goals, and instead followed a different path. I call it GEMs. GEMs are clear and simple.
It’s highly likely that each of us wants to grow or improve in some way. Yet, when faced with an opportunity to step out of our comfort zone to grow, we freeze up, we create numerous excuses, or begin to blame others for creating mythical situations that supposedly prevent us from doing the work.
