A periodic review of articles, newsletters, and podcasts that I found interesting, inspiring, or otherwise worth remembering.
Podcasts
Michael Kennedy, host. Talk Python to Me. Episode 327: Little Automation Tools in Python (July 30, 2021)
Melissa Perri (host), Product Thinking. Episode 32: Prioritizing Accessibility with Dave Dame (September 7, 2021)
Melissa Perri (host), Product Thinking. Episode 31: Dear Melissa - Answering Questions About Democratizing User Research, Product Team Visions, and Too Many Features (September 1, 2021)
Newsletters
Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker. The Honky-Tonk Nun of Ethiopia (September 15, 2021)
Perhaps that explains the most salient quality of her work. If I had to come up with a single word to describe it, I would call attention to its serenity. That’s a rarity in every genre, which despite their differences, almost always convey a sense of striving and forward motion. How many artists really capture a blissful attitude of peaceful centering in the act of creative expression? That’s the aspect that draws me again and again to the music of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. While others seem to be chasing after that elusive something that musicians always seek, she sounds like she’s already arrived.
Articles
Patrick Juchli. Stay Calm and Learn This (September, 2021)
How about this: There is nothing simple, everything is learned. Everyone has to understand a software product and learn how to use it. They have to remember what they have learned, will forget things and relearn them. “Learning is work,” you will hear, “that sounds like stress, I have too much to do.” This is something we can work with. We need to reduce the amount of learning.
Hailey Mensik, Healthcare Dive. Pandemic special enrollment period led to record number of ACA enrollees (September 16, 2021)
More than 2.8 million... Americans signed up for new health coverage through HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces during the SEP, and there are now a record 12.2 million people enrolled in the federal and state marketplaces, according to HHS.
Rebecca Pifer, Healthcare Dive. Insurers to disclose relationships with brokers, agents in new CMS proposed rule (September 13, 2021)
The proposed rules from HHS aim to increase transparency by requiring issuers offering individual health insurance coverage or short-term, limited-duration plans to disclose to consumers — before they select a plan, and when they confirm enrollment — the commission rates and compensation structure paid by the issuer to any agent or broker associated with enrolling that person.
Maximilian Stroh. I failed to transform the enterprise (September 17, 2021)
At least, my thoughts at this time were something like this. This is what peak achievement must be like. But in reality, this was where I failed badly with every single decision.
Establishing a dedicated business unit from scratch is hard. Being a "digital" business unit is even harder, since it is basically an overlap with all other units, without having a clearly owned thing on its own. This screams identity crisis.
Other executives were afraid of the new VP. Not because he was inherently evil, quite the contrary, but the pure existence of his new role meant intermeddling with their own topics to them. Something executives tend to dislike.
Without any real support from any other executive, our poor VP was tasked the impossible: digitalize the enterprise... but without any decision making power outside of his own department. How would you replace old things other use, when they really do not want your help (or even are afraid to lose their job due to "automatization")?