(2021-03-11) Norton The Tools Don't Matter

Ken Norton: The Tools Don't Matter. Anyone who’s done anything at a certain level for a reasonable amount of time will inevitably get asked about the tools they use. It’s probably in the top five questions I get over email and after conference talks

People are often disappointed with my answers, which usually come down to “whatever your team already uses” and “Google Docs.”

if I engage you in this conversation, I’m lending credence to the misguided belief that PM tools matter more than other fuzzier things that truly are important

helps the tool appeal to the broadest audience of potential customers. Here’s Marty Cagan: "if you believe as I do that this is exactly the wrong approach to coming up with winning products, then a team forced to use a tool like this will have to fight the tool in order to try to do good work"". (2018-07-28) Cagan Tools And Processes

I’ve seen this recently with software for managing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Most OKR tools have all sorts of fiddly ways to nest objectives... But if you’ve learned as I have that OKRs are doomed to fail when you (1) have more than 3-5 of them, (2) rank certain OKRs ahead of others, (3) attempt to monitor progress too frequently, and (4) cram OKRs down to the individual level, then you’ll know that this tool is actively causing harm. The wrong tool is worse than no tool at all. (opinionated)

it turns out something like Google Docs was already the perfect tool for describing a small handful of company-level OKRs and sharing them with the team.

Yet another mistake companies make: obtaining a tool but not giving everyone access to the tool.

The proper tool can streamline collaboration, improve documentation, and make us individually more productive. I’ve seen products such as Coda, Miro, Github, Figma, Slack, and Notion supercharge already high-functioning teams. (collaborationware)

If tools can’t make us better PMs, how can we learn from others? Try asking different questions: “What tools do you recommend for roadmaps?” → “How do you communicate what’s coming in the future to internal and external audiences?”