WordPress Development KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a well established and important feature of many high performing teams. They are used to monitor significant metrics which can then provide leadership with valuable insights into the health of an organization or team. At each of my three most recent jobs, I’ve worked through a book called Traction by […]

My branded swag fulfillment and distribution process for a global team

tshirt with heat transfer decal

While running operations at Sandhills Development, one responsibility of mine was shipping things to our distributed team. Most of those things ended up being branded gear of one kind of another, or sometimes special gifts. For example, new hires generally received a “care package” which contained things like t-shirts, hats, and other items with our […]

How I built a compensation system for a distributed team from scratch

spreadsheet for calculating salaries

In 2019, I was handed responsibility for everything pertaining to employee compensation at the small distributed software company I was working for at the time. Prior to that point, compensation was managed solely by the company’s founder in a spreadsheet and there was no formal system governing pay. Everyone’s pay was negotiated between individual employees […]

I started a podcast about football

point after studio

I’ve done lots of podcasting in the past. Interview shows, topical education shows, advice shows, etc. Just a few weeks ago I started something new with a couple local friends and I’m absolutely loving it. The background: Last year (2020) two friends of mine and I started a group text in which we would talk […]

My 2020 Year In Review

Well that was a garbage filled burning train wreck. I almost dare not look back for fear of being Medusa’d by the wretched catastrophic turd buffet that was last year. I’ve never written a year in review post before. Why start now? Well a lot happened, that’s why. A lot that I haven’t talked about […]

How I used riddles to create a fun activity for a virtual team retreat

I run operations at a software company called Sandhills Development and one of my responsibilities is planning our occasional team retreats. I wrote about some of them before including our 2017 All Hands and our 2019 All Hands. For the past few years our fully distributed team has been getting together in-person at least once […]

George the orange cat

On August 29th, 2017, our daughter Abigail was born. We brought her home from the hospital a couple days later and, though I can’t recall the exact day, were very soon after surprised to discover a stray cat on our doorstep. Now, we’d been living in the same house here in Jackson for over eight […]