The hottest Planning Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Methods and Outcomes

The Breaking Point • 159 implied HN points • 08 Oct 24
💼 Business Strategy Planning Management Sales Decision-making
  1. When making decisions, it's important to separate methods from outcomes. If you mix them up, it can lead to confusion and endless debates.
  2. You can plan in two ways: starting with methods to estimate outcomes or starting with outcomes to figure out the methods needed. Both ways can work depending on the situation.
  3. To empower your team, give them clear outcomes and let them choose their own methods. This way, they feel involved and motivated to succeed.

TBM 325: Skeptoptimism – Thinking Slow, Acting Fast

The Beautiful Mess • 952 implied HN points • 01 Dec 24
💼 Business Team Dynamics Planning Execution Leadership Risk management
  1. Thinking slowly helps in planning well and reducing risks. It's not sitting idle; it's about being active and experimenting with ideas.
  2. Being a skeptoptimist means balancing a belief in teams with a realistic view of challenges. It's important to express confidence in the team's ability to succeed while addressing risks.
  3. It's key to involve others in 'slow thinking' to ensure they understand and support the process. Sharing your thoughts can help bridge the gap between deep exploration and action.

Permission to Act: The Psychology of Effective Planning | LSW#59

The Leading Sapiens Weekly • 120 implied HN points • 12 Dec 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Strategy Psychology Planning
  1. Plans help us take action, even if they're not perfect. They give us the confidence to start exploring without needing everything to be figured out.
  2. Taking steps forward can bring clarity. Instead of waiting for a perfect plan, moving can help us learn and adjust along the way.
  3. Sometimes, acting on a not-so-accurate map can be better than seeking perfection. It allows us to move forward and learn from our experiences rather than staying stuck.
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I wish I started doing this on day 0 of my career as an engineer

High Growth Engineer • 1574 implied HN points • 18 Feb 24
💼 Business Productivity Career development Software Engineering Time management Planning
  1. Planning is crucial to avoid feeling unproductive and getting pulled in different directions throughout the day.
  2. By planning your day, you focus on what's important and maintain control over your daily tasks.
  3. Even a simple daily plan of one main goal can significantly improve your productivity and time management.

Mapping your company's year: how to sequence the big processes

Lessons • 255 implied HN points • 07 Apr 23
💼 Business Planning Budgeting Performance reviews Sequencing
  1. Sequencing big projects in your company efficiently can save time and streamline processes.
  2. Key company-wide activities to schedule include board meetings, business reviews, budgeting, and performance reviews.
  3. Being thoughtful about the timing of important processes like performance reviews can impact company productivity.

Points of failure

Chronicles and Meditations • 79 implied HN points • 01 Oct 23
🏝 Travel Life lessons Travel Stories Planning Adventures Cuisine
  1. It's important to identify points of failure in systems and in life to prevent things from going wrong or costing a lot to fix.
  2. Make a priority list focusing on crucial tasks first while not stressing over less important ones, which can save money and prevent chaos.
  3. Some plans in life have critical pitfalls, like forgetting a crucial document while traveling, which can disrupt the entire plan.

How to prepare your business for a new year ahead

The Ask Newsletter — by Ellen Donnelly • 5 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Business strategy Small business Planning Self-development
  1. Set high expectations for yourself, your business, and the world. This mindset helps drive personal and professional growth.
  2. Identify and overcome personal limitations like fear and knowledge gaps. Clarity is the first step toward overcoming these challenges.
  3. Use a tailored planning tool that aligns with your goals. This will help you track progress and make adjustments throughout the year.

3 areas to drive clarity for sustained high-performance in teams

Effective Software Leads • 39 implied HN points • 03 Jan 24
💼 Business Management Leadership Teamwork Planning Communication
  1. Driving clarity of purpose, direction, plan, roles, and boundaries leads to sustained high-performance in teams.
  2. Clarity of purpose is essential for motivating and guiding team members towards a common goal.
  3. Having a clear plan and understanding of roles and responsibilities are key for effective team performance.

How we increased execution by 10x at Coda | Oliver Heckmann - Head of Engineering at Coda

platocommunity • 39 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
💼 Business Management Productivity Execution Planning Tools
  1. Cutting down planning time to 10% allows for better focus and higher quality plans, leading to increased execution speed.
  2. Bridging the Planning-Execution Canyon by synchronizing OKRs in planning and execution documents improves insight, accountability, and progress tracking.
  3. Creating centralized Team Hubs with all important information in one place reduces information silos, fosters transparency, and promotes unified teamwork.

Chinese Ghost Cities

An Interpersonal Journal • 79 implied HN points • 07 Apr 23
🌍 World Politics Urbanization Population Planning Real Estate Development
  1. China builds 'ghost cities' as future urban solutions by planning ahead and constructing modern, connected environments before the need arises.
  2. Urban developments in China, like the infamous 'ghost cities', prioritize thoughtful planning, amenities, and interconnectedness with main cities to accommodate growing populations.
  3. Chinese 'ghost city' projects have yielded successes in addressing housing demands, but also face challenges like slow population growth and displacing existing communities.

12 Steps To Inner Rewilding

Creative Destruction • 53 implied HN points • 01 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Observation Connection Planning
  1. Start by taking time to do nothing for inner rewilding, giving yourself the space to observe and disconnect from things depleting your inner diversity.
  2. Conduct an inventory of your inner self, focusing on understanding your thoughts, feelings, connections, and overall ecosystem to initiate the process of inner rewilding.
  3. Seek guidance from individuals who are experienced in inner rewilding and reconnect with systems and people around you to develop a plan for reintroducing inner wildness.

How to beat the critical path

Wednesday Wisdom • 47 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Project management Planning
  1. To beat the critical path, the first step is to acknowledge its existence.
  2. Effective project planning, like utilizing the Critical Path Method (CPM), can prevent delays and ensure timely project completion.
  3. Maintaining a Directed Acyclic Graph of project activities with expected durations is crucial in project management to identify critical paths and manage dependencies effectively.

Conquering the Dreaded Annual Plan

Build To Scale • 39 implied HN points • 17 Oct 23
💼 Business Planning Management Team Dynamics Resources
  1. Annual planning is crucial but understand that it's a flexible roadmap, not a rigid rulebook for the year ahead
  2. Using SWOT analysis can help identify internal strengths, weaknesses, and external opportunities, threats to guide strategic initiatives
  3. Evaluate your team's readiness to scale, recognize their strengths, weaknesses, and consider bringing in new talent as needed

Insights from the Research Community: Plans for 2024 and Strategies for Implementation

Askwhy: UX Research, Product Management, Design & Careers • 33 implied HN points • 27 Feb 24
💼 Business Research Implementation Planning Strategy Product Management
  1. Avoid unnecessary research by understanding when it's not appropriate, like for problem-solving issues instead of validation.
  2. Prevent overcommitting by scoping projects well, building in time buffers, and looking at historical data to manage workload effectively.
  3. Enhance visibility for your UX research work by selecting the right method for your audience, sharing updates in product meetings, and knowing your stakeholders.

How to prioritize marketing activities & avoid random acts of marketing

MKT1 Newsletter • 4 implied HN points • 21 Oct 24
💼 Business Marketing Strategy Planning Operations Management
  1. Prioritize your marketing activities by balancing new ideas with proven strategies. This way, you can test new things while also focusing on what works.
  2. Use a structured process for organizing your marketing ideas, including categorizing them into big projects, core work, and operational tasks. This helps keep your efforts aligned with your goals.
  3. Spend time upfront on prioritization to prevent wasting time on unrelated tasks later. A clear roadmap will keep you focused and efficient throughout the year.

Strategy Is About Confident Decision-Making

The Strategy Deck • 19 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
💼 Business Strategy Investment Analysis Stakeholders Planning
  1. Strategy in business involves making confident decisions for success and profitability.
  2. Three fundamental elements of strategy are investment decisions, analysis and prioritization, and stakeholder involvement.
  3. Types of strategy work include business strategy, product strategy, and strategic planning, each with specific focuses and benefits.

Balancing your execution, re-planning the roadmap

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 19 implied HN points • 27 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Execution Planning
  1. The roadmap is crucial for tech organizations, requiring careful planning, estimations, and collaboration among departments.
  2. Addressing technical debt and support tickets is an important aspect of balancing execution and re-planning the roadmap.
  3. Subscribing to Crafting Tech Teams gives access to in-depth posts and a 7-day free trial for the full archive.

Punch It In

CTOrly • 19 implied HN points • 13 Sep 22
💼 Business Product Management Planning Leadership Strategy
  1. Having a plan is crucial, but it's essential to plan practically and realistically for today.
  2. Traditional roadmapping may give a false sense of accomplishment without delivering tangible benefits to customers or the market.
  3. Prioritize making plans based on the current reality rather than uncertain future projections.

The Pivotal Thing

CTOrly • 19 implied HN points • 25 Aug 22
💼 Business Product Management Leadership Planning Problem Solving Change Management
  1. Guard against unnecessary, preventable volatility in planning and focus on the quality of the problem rather than constantly changing solutions.
  2. Detangle desired outcomes from specific features in planning to enable pivoting on how to achieve goals while maintaining the constancy of overall objectives.
  3. Leaders should balance adapting to changes when necessary without causing unnecessary chaos by crying wolf with constant changes.

Sweating small stuff / Milestones & Estimates / We need to change how we interview TPMs

Building Rome(s) • 7 implied HN points • 13 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Management Planning Interviewing
  1. Sweating the small stuff is crucial in tech program management, focusing on minor details that can lead to major obstacles.
  2. Using milestones instead of estimates can improve project planning and organizing tasks effectively.
  3. There is a need to revamp the way Technical Program Managers (TPMs) are interviewed, with a more tailored approach to assess their skills.