This week James is distracted by “Doom Reading”, Tyler considers taking up running, Garret’s perfect podcast voice and Darin takes full blame for 2020. All of that and the guys discuss what they came up with in 2021 Annual Planning.

00:00:00 - Pre Show

James hears robots

“Please take over the company, just leave our democracy alone”

00:01:36 - Show Start

00:01:59 - Follow-Ups 

How to pronounce JIRA with Tyler Samples

Garret has a perfect podcast voice

“To match his podcast look”

Final rock update for 2020

00:05:22 - The Headlines

Darin

Vacation didn’t work

Tyler

Good calm Christmas and New Years

Quiet week back at work

Wrapping up the late to get started, extra long sprint

Engineering LTM had a lot of “on hold” feelings

Garret

Finished the year in a daze

Planning started rough

Was ready to kill James

James

No headlines, let's get into the topic

00:10:50 - Topic 2 (1) What’s the plan - featuring James as the “Dark Cloud of Doom” (Take 1)

...wait, James does have a headline

Distracted with “doom reading” about the attempted coup in Washington D. C.

00:13:25 - Topic 2 (1) What’s the plan - featuring James as the “Dark Cloud of Doom” (Take 2)

James, Darin, and Garret take a 3 headed approach to 2021 planning - What are the results?

3 days coming in excited and immediately hit by the “Dark Cloud of Doom”

See 2 big shifts needed for 2021

Getting back product first

How do we get there?

Siloed departments leave everyone “at the effect of” others

(dynamite drop in by Garret throws off James’ flow)

“Aww people are sad, so we just aren’t going to do our job well”

Garret’s ready to throw a computer through a wall

Getting all the ideas and thoughts into writing

Cross functional teams with a singular focus

Garret gets defensive about his ability to “hero” through

What one thing do we want to accomplish this year?

3 variations of the same answer as its always been

We can’t “try harder” this year

Are our core beliefs valid?

In case you’ve been under a rock - Darin loves creating, designing, building and using software

Darin tries to take full blame for 2020; quickly countering with a solid brag

Is investing heavily in people working?

“I want customers to be thankful, Darin wants them to love us, and Garret wants...something.”

Would an unlimited number of Tyler’s in support make our customers successful?

Tyler’s “outsider” opinion

Likes what he’s heard so far

Gonna pick up running and white boards

Excited to be a part moving forward

“The name is the hardest part”

Darin gets 5 Thumbs Up

00:53:15 - Questions and Long Answers 

From listener Becca - What's a 5 year plan for a product and how do you scale when organized by product teams and not function?

Initial answer - “Becca please join our podcast because I don’t know”

00:57:32 - End of Show 

Show notes come with a Joy and Happiness guarantee

Send us feedback for a two handed written reply from Darin himself

00:58:58 - Aftershow  

What does each at home office setup look like?

What are the must haves?

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott