Jonathan Austin

VP Engagement & Growth @springernature | Product Manager @bbcnews @bbcpolitics | Research @bbcrd @icr_london. Views my own.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Spoke too soon @SouthernRailUK , there’s no bus at TBD.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Poor service from @SouthernRailUK tonight. Rail replacement bus services are not what you need after a long day at work.

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

CEOs / Executives:
When you freak out about a team missing their launch date by a week or a few weeks, you should know that freaking out (or punishing this team) will not actually achieve the outcome you want.

This also applies if you appreciate a team very publicly mainly for hitting their committed date.

I know you want a culture of speed, sense of urgency, execution discipline, set an example, etc. etc. but in practice you will almost certainly get the opposite of that if you do these things.

Why?
Unintended consequences.

From now on, every team — wanting to avoid punishment & seeking your appreciation — will start padding their schedules and creating a perception of greater complexity to justify the schedules.

This in turn will slow things down a lot more, company-wide.

Plus, despite heavily padding the schedule, it’s not like these teams are going sometimes launch a project early. Because of Parkinson’s Law (“work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion”), these teams will still struggle to barely hit the padded date they committed to.

This is not intuitive to some executives. They have forgotten how first-level & mid-level managers will respond to incentives and disincentives set by the execs and the CEO.

What to do?
You must learn to see the odd missed date as an acceptable cost of setting ambitious goals and aggressive deadlines. If you want teams to move as fast as they can, you must be tolerant of the occasional missed date.

(it is a different matter if there is an external customer / partner / regulator / analyst / Wall Street commitment for a given launch date — in most companies, for most launches, this is not the case)

[Sarah Tavel @sarahtavel]

New blog post: Don't fall into the trap of taking the wrong lesson from other companies' success.

https://t.co/XkcIjbSuHP

See this all the time so wrote up a quick note.

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

Top 10 books for product leaders:
Working Backwards
Amp It Up
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
Competing Against Luck
The Mom Test
7 Powers
Understanding Michael Porter
Never Split the Difference
Thinking in Bets
Are Your Lights On?

Bonus:
Alchemy
Principles
High Output Management

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Thank you @peterkyle for coming to Horsham tonight! It was inspiring to hear stories about how Labour win in Sussex. Good luck in Northern Ireland tomorrow. It is refreshing to hear such a positive approach. Much appreciated.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

@SouthernRailUK two trains passing through Billingshurst this morning despite cancellation. Not good. Clearly not much care for commuters in the Arun line. Just ticking target boxes.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

@jimjollings @r4isstatic @Sianz Welcome to the ex BBC election club. An august alumni that experiences strange inexplicable pangs of tension and this time of year.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

@SouthernRailUK first full commute week back, guess what! A rail replacement bus. Talk about how to make a bad first impression.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

@robinpembrooke @EricGuibert Congratulations, much love to you both.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Remember the day I withdrew all my post office savings to buy a 16k ZX Spectrum. My first step in a fascinating journey in computing that continues to unfold. It wouldn’t have been possible or affordable without Clive Sinclair.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

@dwppressoffice @DWP Truly appalling service on your phone line. Simply tried to update address details for fathers state pension after entry into care home , on hold for 40mins, then operator or recording talked over me, giving me incorrect Humber and hung up.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Morning walk.

[Anna Berserk 🆎️ @BerserkAnna]

Wishing Jonathan the tortoise a very happy 188th birthday. He is the oldest known living terrestrial animal in the world🥳

[BBC Politics @BBCPolitics]

“It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say”

Andrew Neil issues a challenge for Boris Johnson to commit to an interview with him, to face questions on why people have “deemed him to be untrustworthy”

https://t.co/daHLxEYn4r

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

Joy to join @robinpembrooke, @jimjollings @tomhousden and @BBCNews team to celebrate @zygotic leaving drinks. End of an era. We had such fun and built some important things together.

[Brian Cox @ProfBrianCox]

This is the simplest and most lucid explanation I’ve heard from any politician from any party of what trading with the world on WTO terms actually means. Intellectual clarity is a rare commodity amongst the current crop of politicians.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

But some oldies are goodies.

[Jonathan Austin @austinjc]

It really is bad.

[Femi @Femi_sorry]

Did you vote to be poorer for 30 years?
This Brexit Party Candidate thinks you did.
#EuropeanElections2019