Selbst-Organisation meiner Masterarbeit

Ich habe kürzlich meine Masterarbeit beendet. …

Das ist gelogen, das ist 11 Jahre her, aber damals begann ich diesen Text. Nach Abschluss meiner Arbeit wollte ich meine Prozesse dokumentieren, die mir während der Zeit Struktur und Hilfe gegeben haben. Dann kam Leben dazwischen und ich schrieb es nicht zu Ende. Bis heute.
Manches mag inzwischen aus der Zeit gefallen sein, aber so kommt das nunmal. Ich habe kürzlich meine ADHS-Diagnose erhalten und seitdem wird mir noch bewusster, wieviel ich in meinem Leben ADHS mit Struktur kompensiert habe. Die Masterarbeit ist hier ein Paradebeispiel. Also, wir spulen zurück.

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The Weekly Dependency Chart

In the last 5 years I as Product Manager, I often found myself disliking the common ways on how to express project status and deadlines. They’d either hide important complexity or are a mess to keep up to date. Over time have grown a visualizations technique and meeting format I call the Weekly Dependency Chart. This helped me get structure and overview in projects I inherited, that were complex, late or required reliable schedules. I applied this in several private and professional contexts successfully. It was originally inspired by the Puzzle Dependency Charts used by Ron Gilbert in his adventure games.

The idea is to have a quick high level overview of timelines, to-dos, blockers all lined up in a weekly calendar view. Each item connected to the items it’s dependent upon.
Over time this graph evolved into a meeting structure, you can use to keep the overview up to date while synchronizing the status with the people involved.

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Kebus – Bus Ticket Apps Near You

Im Dezember war ich eine Woche in der nähe von Neapel unterwegs. Mehrmals kam es, dass ich aus dem Zug ausstieg, direkt in den nächsten lokalen Bus wollte und nicht gefunden habe, wo ich Bustickets kaufe. Es ist aktuell ein ziemliches Elend. ÖPNV-Unternehmen sind entweder gar nicht digital oder jedes hat seine eigene Ticket-App. Ich habe selbst 2021-2022 an der ÖPNV-App in Wien mitgewirkt und kenne die politischen Spiele, die dahinter stehen. Die Unternehmen wollen keine offenen Schnittstellen, sondern selber die Hand über dem Ticketverkauf haben, bauen gleichzeitig aber nicht die nötige Infrastruktur und Know-How auf um dies bequem anzubieten. Das Ergebnis ist, dass jede Stadt, jeder Landkreis, jedes Bundesland unterschiedliche und nicht-miteinander kompatible Apps verwenden. Als Reisender in dieses Trara reingeworfen zu werden ist Scheiße.

Nun war ich in Italien dieser Reisende und die Idee für Kebus kam auf.

Kebus ist eine kleine Web-App, die für deine aktuelle Position die verfügbaren Apps für den öffentlichen Personennahverkehr ausgibt. Derzeit sind etwa 50 Apps für über 60 Regionen enthalten. Das reicht von einzelnen Städten bis ganze Länder – hauptsächlich Europa. Derzeit ist es noch sehr kompakt, es spuckt nur die Apps für die aktuelle Position aus. Es gibt noch keine Suche und Ticketverkauf wird nie enthalten sein. Für mich war es mal wieder ein Pet-Projekt um einige Technologien zu testen. Der Aufwand liegt aber in der Pflege und das ist ohne lokales Wissen durchaus kompliziert. Wie es weitergeht hängt jetzt etwas davon ab, ob ich etwas Traction sehe.

Wenn in deiner Gegend noch keine App eingetragen ist, dann gerne Mail an mich – am Besten welche App für welche Region hinzugefügt werden soll.

From the reddits — PM Q&A #3 Transition into PM

A lonely bike on a beach in Myanmar.

Over the past year I’ve been spending some time in the subreddit r/ProductManagement and with my background of 10 years in Software Development and 3 years in Product Management, I’m happy to write where I can contribute. In this series, I’ll republish some of the responses I’ve written and maybe expand on them. This is part three, also checkout Part One on Team Culture and Two on Company Mergers.

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From the Reddits — PM Q&A #2 Mergers

A lonely parked scooter on a dusty road in the hilly outskirts of Shianoukville. The road is slightly sloped and the hills in the background have high green grases.

Over the past year I’ve been spending some time in the sub-reddit r/ProductManagement and with my background of 10 years in Software Development and 3 years in Product Management, I’m happy to write where I can contribute. In this series, I’ll republish some of the responses I’ve written and maybe expand on them. This is part two, also checkout Part One on Team Culture.

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Vital Parameter Monitoring Alternatives during a Crisis — A Feasibility Analysis in the Context of COVID-19

Written by Daniel Senff, Dennis Schmidt, Juan Dominguez-Moran, Severin Haemmerl & Walter Laurito — March 22, 2020

TL;DR

Italy, Spain, and other countries are already experiencing shortage of ventilators.

In Germany the crisis is getting worse by the day. Our doctors are already expressing their concerns about the lack of necessary equipment, including vital parameter monitors

Availability of vital parameters such as (peripheral) oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate, blood pressure is key in order to judge health status of patients and to keep an overview of all patients in a given ward

Medical doctors who are currently treating hundreds of Covid-19 patients in Northern Italy and Spain (including measures such as a strict triage to provide treatment only to patients with highest changes of improved/positive outcome and converting ORs into ICUs) assess their situation as follows:

  • Non-ICU setting: measuring vital parameters 3–5 times per day is sufficient in order to determine worsening health situation of patients; currently enough equipment; skeptical to use non-approved technology (e.g. vital parameters via mobile phone), only for stable patients in worst case scenario
  • ICU setting: continuous monitoring of vital parameters necessary; currently enough monitoring equipment, but shortage of ventilators; skepticism to use non-approved technology (e.g. vital parameters via mobile phone), only for patients with non-invasive ventilation in worst case scenario
  • Improvised ICU setting: see ICU setting, but: lack of compatibility / connectivity of monitoring equipment with / to central screens, nurses need to keep overview of all patient monitors
  • Generally: if the situation worsens, the major bottlenecks will be: sufficient numbers of ventilators, of ICU beds, and of trained ICU nurses
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The Not-Always-On Manager

Sunset over Etosha national park

When I started my first job I had a colleague who only worked 4 days a week and I knew, this is something I want to try too. So when I interviewed in my current company, a 36-hour workweek was one of the first conditions we agreed on. Working in Germany, this used to be a regular week length, but for over a decade 40 hours have become the norm. It was a agreed. As a developer, this never posed an issue. As I switched into Product and Project Management, I resisted the expectation to go full-time. What this decision meant for my work, I’d like to share with you.

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Words are the glue — Setting up cross-functional teams

In our company, we experimented the last year with various setups of Cross-functional teams. These teams consist of members from different departments for a limited time to implement a specific goal. They do not have to be IT-focused, but coming from an IT background my experience is from being in and leading IT- and Product-focused teams.

If you are reading this setup guide, chances are high that you want to set up a new Cross-functional team. Awesome! This guide should give you a hand in where to start and what the main questions you and your team should discuss are.

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