business
Articles, videos, and related content associated with all aspects of Business and the culture surrounding business.
Nearshore vs Offshore vs In-House: A CEO's Framework for Building Dev Capacity. AI-Generated.
Note: This story was written with AI assistance and edited by me. Every growing company hits the same wall. The roadmap is full and the engineering team is not big enough. You have three ways to add capacity. Here is how I decide between them.
By Ashkan Rajaee18 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: A Bahamas Event Plan Needs More Than One Route for Questions. AI-Generated.
A presenter can invite questions and still make asking one feel difficult. The invitation may arrive only at the end, when time is short and the room is preparing to leave. A participant may need a simple clarification much earlier or prefer not to interrupt the whole group. I think planning a useful session includes planning how questions can reach the right person.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Murphy: A Cambridge Business Chart Should Make Its Units Clear. AI-Generated.
A chart can make a report look finished before the underlying question has been explained. The colours are consistent, the labels are neatly arranged and the title sounds confident. A reader may still be unsure whether the values represent people, messages, requests or completed tasks. I think the first responsibility of a business chart is to make the thing being counted understandable.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: A UK Shared Inbox Needs Clear Responsibility for the Next Reply. AI-Generated.
A shared inbox makes a message visible to several people. It does not, by itself, tell them who is responsible for the reply. One colleague may assume another is handling it, while two others begin drafting different answers. I think the important design question is how the team identifies the next action and makes its owner visible.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Murphy: Cambridge Teams Can Retire an Old Checklist Without Losing Its Lessons. AI-Generated.
An old checklist can remain useful as a record of how a task once worked while becoming unsuitable as an instruction for the task today. Those two roles need to be separated. Otherwise, a team may keep an outdated document available for historical reasons and accidentally allow it to compete with the current version. I think retiring a checklist is a communication task as well as a filing task.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Murphy: A Cambridge Confirmation Message Should Say What Is Confirmed. AI-Generated.
A confirmation message often arrives at a moment when the reader wants to stop thinking about a task. They have submitted a request and are looking for a dependable account of what happens next. If the message uses a reassuring word without explaining its meaning, that relief can rest on a misunderstanding. I think a confirmation should name the event that has actually occurred.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
The Side Project That Became More Valuable Than the Business That Created It
In Mailchimp’s early days, Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius worked from a small office on the west side of Atlanta. Chestnut later remembered sketching possible logos while Kurzius sat nearby writing code and talking with customers. The company they were building was not yet the main business.
By Human Business Works19 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: UK Discovery Conversations Need Room for an Unexpected Answer. AI-Generated.
A discovery conversation can become a presentation in disguise. The speaker asks a question, recognises a familiar word in the answer and moves towards a prepared explanation. The other person's actual difficulty may remain partly understood. I think the value of an early commercial conversation lies in allowing the answer to change the direction of the discussion.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: A Bahamas Equipment Loan Needs Clear Return Instructions. AI-Generated.
Borrowing an item usually has an obvious beginning. Someone requests it, another person hands it over and the borrower takes it away. The return can receive less attention, even though the next person may depend on the equipment being available. I think a useful loan process should explain the end of the arrangement as clearly as the collection.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Murphy: A Cambridge Email Subject Should Help the Reader Choose. AI-Generated.
An email subject line is a small piece of working information. It helps the recipient decide whether to open the message immediately, return to it later or find it again after the conversation has moved on. I think its purpose is to describe the message accurately enough for those choices. A subject that attracts attention but conceals the request creates work before the first paragraph is read.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: A UK Business FAQ Should Answer Before It Explains. AI-Generated.
A frequently asked question can be easy to find and surprisingly difficult to answer. The heading matches what the reader wants to know, but the paragraph beneath it begins with the organisation's history, values or internal process. By the time the answer arrives, the person may have lost confidence that it is there. I prefer an FAQ that answers the question first and then supplies the explanation needed to use that answer.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
Shane Ian Murphy: Cambridge Product Copy Should Separate an Example from a Promise. AI-Generated.
An example can make a product easier to understand. It can also create an expectation the product team never intended. A sample time, a demonstration result or an illustrated sequence may look like a real offer when it appears beside a clear action button. I think product copy should explain the status of an example wherever a reader could reasonably mistake it for a confirmed fact.
By Shane Murphy19 days ago in Journal
