Clik here to view.
The Case for Detailed Time Tracking – Atomic’s Approach
I’ve rigorously tracked my time at Atomic for 13 years. Yet when I talk with other professionals, I’m frequently reminded that many companies, teams, and individuals don’t track their time. I believe...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Case for Detailed Time Tracking, Part 2 – Focus
How do you know your work focus and level of effort are staying on target for your individual, team, and company goals? Even if you are confident in your personal work focus, are you confident your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The how-can-we-help approach to sales is lean and effective
If there’s one aspect of business that I’ve found technical founders struggle with, it’s sales. A lot of us don’t like it, don’t feel comfortable doing it, and don’t think we do it well. We commonly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The case for detailed time tracking, part 3 – Fairness
Have you ever had a co-worker or employee share a feeling of unfairness about their efforts going unnoticed or unrewarded based on their fixed salary? Do you ever have clients question the fairness of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Understanding the seasonal impact of vacation time on revenue
We’ve long observed that Q4 tended to be a heavy-hitter on paid vacation time, but I was surprised by the distinct seasonality pattern I found in our data. In our software development consultancy, time...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The case for detailed time tracking, part 4 – Sustainability
Have you ever felt fatigued and found yourself telling others how much you are working or how a particular work responsibility is draining? Have you had a co-worker or key employee unexpectedly come to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bringing your whole self to work
Do your employees bring their whole selves to work? Can they? Can you? If not, you’re in a lose-lose-lose situation. The first loss is the employee’s—spending half your adult waking hours hiding or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The case for detailed time tracking, part 5 – Growth
How do you know the amount of work you can responsibly take on at the individual, team, or company level? Are you investing time in yourself and your company for growth in capacity and capabilities?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
[VIDEO] Bo Burlingham on Exiting Your Company Regret-Free
I’m a long time from leaving the company I started. There are problems to solve, things to learn, and new opportunities every day. Atomic Object is still very much my “hell, yeah”. But after reading Bo...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lessons learned from a decade of non-ESOP employee ownership
In 2007, when Atomic Object was six years old, I decided I wanted to broaden our ownership base to include employees. In 2009, we executed the first offering of the Atomic Plan, a homegrown approach....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atomic Ownership, Part 2: How the Atomic Plan & our ESPP work
This post is the second in a six-part series on Atomic Object’s ownership and the non-ESOP approach we took to gradually shift from a founder-owned to a broadly employee-owned company. The focus in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Elevating & distributing “glue work” flows out of our core principles
Glue work is stuff that needs doing, but falls outside of a job description. It can be critically important, but isn’t any specific person’s responsibility. Spending time on glue work has the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atomic’s purpose: to be a company where work matters
We’ve said for the last six years that Atomic’s vision is to be a 100-year-old firm. Our vision has helped us make decisions and invest for the long-term. It guides my work as CEO. It plays well when...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Showing hospitality during software development
According to Danny Meyer, hospitality is “the single most powerful business strategy that doesn’t get taught enough in business school.” While hospitality is obviously important to a great restaurant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why should Atomic exist for 100 years?
Atomic has the goal of being the first 100-year-old software consultancy. In a business environment where software consultancies are succumbing to the ebb and flow of industry demand, this is an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why we don’t “delight” our clients – and what we do instead
Every company knows how important a great customer experience is for success. And yet, there are still plenty of nightmare stories where customers are treated poorly—by airlines, cable providers, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atomic Ownership, Part 3: Valuation
Once you’ve decided to sell shares, the most practical question — and to everyone involved the most important — is that of valuation: What’s the company worth? I spent a year researching this question,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outgrowing our structure – How we navigated 6 phases of growth at Atomic
Things had been going extremely well. You’re growing, succeeding. But now… You can’t quite put your finger on what’s wrong. You’re feeling out of control. You had a grasp on things, but now you don’t....
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Infinite Game – How we schedule teams without losing our minds
A few years ago, when I was new to software consulting, I attended my first resource scheduling meeting. Resource scheduling is the act of assigning team members to start projects on a specific date....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atomic Ownership, Part 4: Financing employee ownership
Having decided to take the bold step of becoming an employee-owned company, written up a prospectus, determined a valuation, and heard “yes” from seven interested employees, I now had to figure out how...
View Article