Matt Schouten

Thoughts on building people, software, and systems.

Category: Management

  • Facilitation and Participation

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    I don’t have answers in this post. Or probably many words. I do have an observation. It’s difficult to be a facilitator while also being a participant. It’s even more difficult if you have strong opinions or key information about the topic. A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the term “neutral convener”1. That’s a…

  • Holding Handoffs

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    Ashley’s legs churned. Her feet flew across the asphalt. Ahead of her, Becky started into a slow jog, gradually picking up her pace, arm extended backwards. “Becky was so tan last fall,” Ashley mused, noticing how pale Becky’s arm was against the track, while another part of her brain noted what a strange thought that…

  • Putting on the Hat

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    If you’ve been in the business world for any length of time, you’ve probably heard someone talking about “putting on my __ hat”. It’s helpful phrasing to signal that you’re taking a certain perspective on a discussion. Someone might say, “putting on my manager hat, we need to get this done in two weeks, but…

  • “We’re ready for change!”

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    The team has just finished presenting their recommendations to their leadership. Leadership is happy about their plan for building the next part of the product. After a small adjustment, leadership is on-board with the sequencing, too. Before the meeting wraps up, the team points out the work would go more quickly, with less risk, more…

  • Overloaded systems and how maintenance fails interestingly

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    I’m married and have three kids in the elementary and middle school age ranges. They’re doing things that normal kids do: growing, learning, being active, participating in sports and other activities. My wife and I both work. Our baseline level of “busy” is relatively high, as it is for any family with three kids at…

  • Outcomes for Employees

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    This started as a blog post for the HI Digital Solutions blog, and never got posted for some reason. I’m pretty sure it had to do with it being drafted in April 2020. I think some things may have been happening around then. Anyway, I’m (re?) posting it here (which works out fine, because the…

  • Processes Through an Outcome Lens

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    [This article was originally posted in 2019 on the now-gone Digital Solutions blog.] Processes are vital to modern organizations. Imagine you were asked to help improve an organization, and found that it had zero defined processes. You’d almost certainly start by implementing a process or two, then by wondering how in the world they got…

  • The Policy Pendulum

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    I’ve been thinking a lot about policies lately. About how they’re sometimes necessary and sometimes not. About don’t scar on the first cut and about how organizational scar tissue can spread to cover related areas of the organization. I’ve been thinking about the freedom of young companies with no policies, and about the freedom of…

  • Running a Decent Intern Program

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    “The new intern shows up next week.” You feel excited and ready for that, right? I don’t know about most companies. I’m guessing most people are happy to have an extra worker around. And most probably don’t know exactly what they’re going to do with their new intern. Want to know what to do? Yeah,…

  • Resources for Transitioning to Agile

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    One of my former interns, an excellent engineer, is working at a company that is transitioning to agile. He asked for some readings and resources I’d recommend. This got a bit longer than a few links, so I decided to turn it into an article instead of a direct message. Without further ado, my recommended…