Richard Reynolds

A messy or complicated product backlog is tough to prioritize, nearly impossible to track, and slows down your team like sneakers in muck. To make matters worse, your product vision can get lost, rendering your roadmap almost useless.
Trying to manage things like this isn’t just a massive waste of time (because there are so many good templates to use) but also very costly. As a product manager, you need a backlog that simplifies your work rather than one that adds to the chaos.
A well-crafted...

Imagine you’re a candidate applying for a new position.
With every step of the process, you’re introduced to a new recruitment agent who you’ve never met and who knows nothing about you. You haven’t built rapport with anyone, and the company is, as far as you’re aware, represented by a collage of unfamiliar names. Frustrating, right?
Now, consider whether candidates applying to your company have a similar experience. Full cycle recruiting guarantees this isn’t an issue by offering candidates ...

As an agency project manager, you’ve probably experienced the agony of a project going over budget or missing deadlines because of poor project resource planning.
But let’s face it—creating a resource management plan while balancing a project’s requirements, budget, and schedule can be a real pain. Even the thought of identifying all the required resources, assigning them, and creating a detailed schedule is enough to give you a headache.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
This article will show...

There are many frameworks, ideas, and concepts online about how to estimate software development time. A quick Google search for the best methods to do just that will leave you with many conflicting ideas and questions. Should I top-down, bottom-up, T-shirt size that, planning poker this, or just pull these numbers from the abyss and hope for the best?
But ask yourself: Can you trust these methods with such vital responsibility? Failure to estimate the right way means you might deliver late o...

A Trust in the Workplace survey found that most employees (79%) had more trust in their peers than in their leaders.[1]
This lack of trust often stems from poor communication, which can lead to a toxic work environment and weak organizational culture – driving your best talent away from your company.
However, you can avoid this outcome by actively utilizing leadership communication as a talent retention strategy.
Strong leadership communication helps you to:
Improve employee engagement
Boost ...

The fate of business ventures and complex projects often hinges on the collective effort of the group working on it.
Ask any business owner, entrepreneur, or project manager about the driving force that propelled them to success, and most would say that it’s a high-performing, collaborative team.
Trying to go it alone rather than using the collective skills of your team is an uphill slog and rarely leads to growth, which is why successful team management is essential.
This piece will cover th...

UX design can make or break a company’s success. Oftentimes it’s the key factor between a company crashing and burning or taking off to reach new heights.
For example, Amazon made one UX design change—the elimination of the requirement to register before making a purchase—which resulted in an extra $300 million in sales.
However, there are many other companies that have lost tons of money (and customers) because of bad UX design changes.
As UX design becomes more critical, its intricacy is al...

As a CPO, product manager, or project manager, you’re probably familiar with the prioritization struggle. Are you focusing on real value? Will the product have the impact you need? Is this going to backfire? How do you justify your choices?
The RICE framework is one answer to the perennial question of how to prioritize the products and features for your product roadmap.
In this article, you’ll not only learn what the RICE framework is but how to apply it to up your product management skills.
...

2020 taught us many lessons, but most importantly, it taught us that change is inevitable—whether you like it or not.
People, businesses, and economies are still adapting to the changes that COVID-19 brought about. Some of the changes are good, some bad, but most are necessary.
While it’s impossible to plan for the “unplannable,” a change management strategy to help navigate these changes would help.
A change management process helps you implement changes to ease your business (and employees)...

Employees are always looking for the opportunity to expand their careers, with 86% of employees saying they’d switch jobs for one with more chances to grow.[1]
This number reflects the cost of not investing in employees' needs, which is backed up by research that shows ​companies that invest in employee development see a 58% increase in employee retention rates.[2]
If your employees feel that they are not valued or able to grow, you risk losing them.
One way you can help them develop is throu...

Daily planning is more than organizing tasks.
For most business owners (and project managers), that means managing appointments, scheduling meetings, and ensuring scheduling conflicts don't derail your day. Never mind the constant last-minute changes.
Suppose you also have to juggle an entire team and several time zones, manage multiple projects, and do some heads-down work. In that case, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not using scheduling software.
Artificial intelligence (AI) ...

Managing work items, sprint planning sessions, and tasks to meet roadmap goals and product requirements is no small feat. The process starts with one or two brilliant ideas, and as time goes on, these ideas turn into features, which then begin to pile up. The challenge (as you well know) is how to work towards these features to make ideas come to life.
What you need is a product backlog and sprint backlogs to help you breathe life and order into the development lifecycle.
Product backlog vs. ...

Project expense tracking is critical for any business that delivers client projects. But many businesses struggle to track project expenses accurately.
In this guide, we’ll show you to track project expenses accurately and a couple of tools you can use to make project expense tracking a breeze.
What project expenses should you track?
Before you begin tracking costs, defining a project expense is essential. This will help you monitor and record the right project expenses — helping you to calcu...

Companies with engaged employees yield 21% higher profits, and highly engaged employees are 17% more productive.[1]
However, only 36% of US workers are currently showing engagement at work, and globally, just 20% of employees are engaged.[2]
This means that an employee engagement strategy isn't an option you can skim past anymore – it’s a must.
Although employee engagement doesn’t solve everything, it can bring about some incredible results, for example:
Improving employee retention rates
Inc...