Kate Williams

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@eolsencreative I feel like “toddler on board” would be more appropriate to signal to other drivers the chaos that is going on inside. Should be illegal to drive with one.

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@mcuban Check this out @mcuban …Written by former Republican, 15 years at CIA under Obama/Trump @CastelliMatt https://t.co/5aR2Ll1Xd6

[Matt Castelli @CastelliMatt]

“It’s time to turn the page on the archaic, sexist belief system that produced the phrase “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” instead of the office, the boardroom, or the Situation Room.”
https://t.co/8IA2T4RmoD

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@JustinWolfers Is there a way to take this poll to see where our beliefs lie without bias?

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

Nvidia CEO: Greatness does not come out of intelligence, it comes from character.

Character is not formed out of smart people: it is formed out of people who have suffered.

[West Lot Pirates @westlotpirates]

THIS. IS. UNREAL.

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@KiwiDenny Templates

[Denny Klisch @KiwiDenny]

14 templates covering topics such as product vision, strategy, roadmap.

I got them all.

Get your FREE copy!

Like + Retweet + Reply "Templates"
(Follow so I can send the link)

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

“Dates are an easy, but incorrect proxy for your teams' velocity, ambition, and energy.”

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

As a senior executive, you care a lot about your teams moving fast.

So when a team misses its committed launch date, you show great displeasure.

You demand more accountability.

You make an example out of this team.

Other teams see this.
They are not stupid.
So they learn.

And from now on, every single team hits their committed launch dates.

You are very happy.
I can see it.

But my friend, I am so sorry to tell you:

You are no longer moving as fast as you were before.

Plus, what you ship will no longer be as high quality as before.

And over time you start to see this too.
You are not stupid.

Even though everyone is hitting their launch dates, something has changed.

Things seem to be moving slower than before.

And you have no idea why.

So you call meetings.

You set up check-ins.

You set up processes.

But despite all your efforts, nothing changes.

That gnawing feeling that you are no longer moving fast persists.

That embarrassment of seeing your teams ship a shoddy experience is all too common now.

And you have no idea why.

The answer is right there.

You are no longer moving fast because of YOUR communication.

Instead of creating a culture where teams have intrinsic motivation to move fast — because they are energetic and they care — you started punishing the odd case where a team misses its aggressive target date.

And so, by doing that you sent a message to everyone: Don't be very ambitious, because the reward for ambition is punishment.

I know that isn't the message you wanted to send.

But by doing what you did, it is the only message you will send. 100 times out of 100.

What could you have done instead?

When that team missed its launch date, you could have sent a positive message instead of punishing the team's leaders.

You could have used this opportunity to build & maintain a culture of aggression and ambition.

You could have said:

"I understand why you missed the launch date.

I'd rather that you stay aggressive and sometimes miss the date than being conservative and always hitting the date.

I don't want you to stop being aggressive by default.

And we want more teams to be like you."

At this point, you are either seeing the value of this approach or you are trying to find reasons to reject it.

And your reasons are quite flimsy, such as: "But what about launches that have an external commitment?"

You are smart. You can figure that one out.

But okay, let me spell it out for you:

1. Most launch dates should not be committed externally. So don't commit dates for most launches.

2. A few launches need external commitments (to customers, or regulators, or partners...)

3. For the launches in # 2, sure, commit a conservative launch date that you are almost certain to hit.

4. But even for those, ask the team to devise an aggressive internal target date. It's okay if they slip this date. But it's important to have that aggressive internal target.

Why? Because remember Parkinson's Law:

Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

Have you ever noticed how teams always struggle to hit their launch date, no matter how conservatively they've set them?

Yes, that's because of Parkinson's Law.

Look, I know it's easy to have dogma around "always hitting dates".

Dates are an easy, but incorrect proxy for your teams' velocity, ambition, and energy.

Though if you still want to maintain your fascination with hitting all dates, I am not sure I can (or even want to at this point) convince you otherwise.

But then I also guarantee that you will spend your entire career managing teams that move slower than they really can and/or ship lower quality products than they really can, and you will spend your entire career setting up check-ins, processes, spreadsheets, and carrots/sticks trying & failing to solve a problem that you created in the first place.

Best of luck to you!

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@RobertMSterling @STLChrisH

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@Indus_Guy My point was more around how your “test” is not a good way of seeing how financially aware someone is.

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@michaelfiore @STLChrisH A lot of people spend a lot of time over tracking… they want to track everything even though they won’t take action them. It’s good to focus on a few that you know you can take action on to start and then evolve into more metrics. Otherwise you get the “so what” questions.

[WashU @WashU]

"No one should have to borrow money to obtain an undergraduate degree."

Starting fall 2024, we're taking a bold step to make higher education accessible with a "no-loan" financial aid policy, ensuring a debt-free WashU education for admitted students. https://t.co/15zP3TVdaj

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

Love that this is on a mid-season Wednesday night. I feel like I’ve seen this mostly for big games, NFL stadiums when you know it’ll be full. STLCity 👏🏻

[Taylor Twellman @TaylorTwellman]

Oh. My. @stlCITYsc 🤌🏼👌🏼 #AllForCITY

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

@Markansas90 Those last 15 were stressful!

[Kate Williams @kwdelph]

This is the last photo of my daughter on my camera roll. Open your phones and look at yours. Imagine the parents that lost their kids today and FIX this. EVERY child is affected by this. #everytown #GunControlLawsNOW @HawleyMO

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

Jamie Raskin is a national treasure.

[The Recount @therecount]

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) walks out of House hearing after apologizing to a Parkland parent who was taken into police custody for protesting gun violence:

“This has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with politics. And I won’t be listening to another second of it.”

[St Louis CITY SC @stlCITYsc]

This is more than our Inaugural Home Match.

This is a 𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜.

@stlCITYsc vs @CharlotteFC. March 4 at 7:30pm CT. Watch our first MLS home match with #MLSSeasonPass on the @AppleTV app: https://t.co/jmFTzkwVY4

[Andy Cohen @Andy]

Care is universal. We all need to depend on care @ some point in our lives but the U.S. lacks policies that ensure everyone has access to #PaidLeave, #ChildCare, and in-home supports and services. Join me in telling Congress that #CareCantWait: https://t.co/JJxUg67QiJ #YearOfCare