Simplifying Decisions: The Drop, Defer, Delegate Method
Discover how the 'Drop, Defer, Delegate' method can transform your decision-making process. Learn to prioritize effectively and boost productivity in fast-paced environments.
Hey, I'm Kurt.
I'm a formerly incarcerated tech leader, photographer, creator, and advocate for second chances. (lately I've been getting into democratizing AI)
Latest Writings
Balancing Execution and Communication in Long-Term Product Initiatives
Learn how to balance execution and communication in long-term product initiatives. Insights from some my work on Slack's web presence unification project reveal strategies for maintaining momentum and support throughout multi-phase projects.
The Keystone Paradox: When Being Essential Becomes a Liability
Discover the perils of 'Keystoning' in tech teams, where knowledge hoarding creates single points of failure. Learn to identify keystones, dismantle knowledge silos, and build more resilient, collaborative teams. Essential reading for managers and team members alike.
The Developer Advocate's Guides
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Metrics and Reporting
As developer advocates, avoid becoming extensions of other teams by closely learning metrics: the different types you'll encounter and when to use them, which are trusted and untrusted, and how to build them effectively to support your team's goals.
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Addressing Product Friction
Over the last three months, we've been developing a framework at Apollo called DX Audits to help us identify, document, report, and address product friction. It was getting difficult to scale this part of developer advocacy so we came up with a framework and this post covers our experience with it a...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Content Creation
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of having to create that next blog post or YouTube video? Do you find yourself unable to finish things because you're not quite sure when to call it done? Are you adjusting your outlines or talking points on the fly? Learn how to create content more effecti...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Getting Buy-In
Getting buy-in as a developer advocate is a unique challenge. We usually are not the owners or even direct contributors to what we're trying to change. Instead, we represent this bizarre ephemeral thing called a "community." In this post, I'll cover what buy-in is, how it applies to developer advoca...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Asking for Things
Whether we're trying to get buy-in internally or working on collaborations externally, we're generally in the business of asking. Learn how to get better results from your requests by rethinking the nature of relationships and following the three Rs of asking for things: Recognition, Request, and Re...