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I recently read a blog posting which linked over to Kelly Johnson’s 14 Rules of Management and I was intrigued by his principles of management and how they can relate to a design shop. I have been interested in Skunk Works ever since I had read a Popular Mechanics article on the organization just after the first Gulf War and learning of Kelly’s rules of management, I immediately been can to co-relate them to running a design shop. Below are Kelly’s rules of management with my thoughts on each and how they relate to design management immediately below. They are numbered SWD: Skunk Works Design.

1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.

• SWD 1. If the project has a manager, the manager must have control of the project.

1. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.

• SWD 2. Small, competent teams should be provided by all parts of the project (web, print, programming, etc.)

1. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).

• SWD 3. A project does not need everyone’s input, especially on the client side.

1. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.

• SWD 4. The project system should facilitate that changes be made easily.

1. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.

• SWD 5. The project system should not get in the way of the design process, although client documentation of approval must be recorded.

1. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. Don’t have the books ninety days late and don’t surprise the customer with sudden overruns.

• SWD 6. Project costs should be reviewed regularly by the team, any changes or projected changes in costs should be reported to the client immediately.

1. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.

• SWD 7. If you have to subcontract out, make it for less than you charge but that you are willing to take responsibility for the results

1. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t duplicate so much inspection.

• SWD 8. Basic proofing should be done well before the client sees the project. Proofing should be done by those who will directly approve the project.

1. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.

• SWD 9. The client should be kept up to date with thumbnails, sketches and rough ideas initially, if not you are designing it wrong.

1. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.

• SWD 10. Specifications for the project must be spelled out well in advance.

1. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn’t have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.

• SWD 11. Billing, invoicing or charging should be quick. Don’t leave the client guessing what the bill will be.

1. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor with very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.

• SWD 12. There must be trust between the project manager and the client. If daily updates are needed, they should be given to cut down on misunderstandings. If they are not needed, don’t do them.

1. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.

• SWD 13. Clients should not interact with the design team, they should interact with project managers. Maintain a sense of team security.

1. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay not based on the number of personnel supervised.

• SWD 14. Rewards should be based on performance, those who consistently hit the mark should be rewarded more.

What do think about these Skunk Work Design rules?

Last night I was watching Enterprise, yes, I know I’m a geek, and “Trip,” the chief engineer said something while dressed for shore leave. “You have to be seen to be noticed.” He was of course dressed in a loud and obnoxious Hawaiian shirt.

The funny thing is that he is completely right. I used to know a coworker who did very little to take credit when it is due to him and he essentially locked himself in his cubicle. Not only did he miss out on valuable social interactions that could have clued him in on office happenings and politics, he also missed out on appropriate opportunities to make his contributions known.

If you are the nail that sticks out furthest you’ll get hammered on, but if you never get seen, you’ll never get noticed never

I promised earlier this week that I would detail how I have built my personal productivity system. The short course will be here, a longer more detailed version will be available if you click the “more” link below.

The Short Course

I have become a disciple of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, it literally revolutionized my life almost two years ago.

David Allen’s system is a simple one with many complex iterations and sub sections. Essentially it is broken down into the following steps:

• Collect
• Process
• Organize
• Review
• Do

I don’t want to infringe on David Allen’s product or process, if you are interested, I would highly recommend spending the money to read it. Check it out at Amazon.

My first line of defense (or collection) is the nigh famous hipster PDA. A college professor used to joke about his PDA, literally ink on his palm, mine is slightly more refined, stack of index cards and a binder clip are the easiest way for me to capture every fleeting thought that I have. And that is the front end of my productivity system. Writing everything down.

I won’t lie. I scribble notes on lots of paper, but I always consolidate it to an index card as soon as possible.

I use iCal both at work and at home to manage my appointments. I have tried for years unsuccessfully to use a paper calendar, something about mucking up the pages when appointments are shifted. I share my calendars with each other via icalx.com, allowing me to see both home and work and the other location.

Unfortunately, I have not mastered David Allen’s recommended tickler file. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

I have worked in the last 6 months to stop living in my inbox. Having read Merlin Mann’s wonderful series entitled Inbox Zero, I have first of all realized all of the different inboxes I have and secondly worked to keep them at zero.

List of inboxes

• Email
• Personal
• Work
• Physical Inboxes
• Work (semi personal)
• Work (office mandated)
• Personal at home
• Mailbox
• Digital inboxes
• RSS feeds from google reader
• Twitter messages
• New Podcasts

A whole lot of inputs! I work to winnow down the total inputs and organize them into projects (contained on index cards) with support materials being added into manila folders.

I keep my address book electronically on my macbook and at work, occasionally syncing them (although my contacts are almost mutually exclusive).

This post is a living document. As I update my process, through kaizen, I will update this post, noting the changes below.

After beginning the discussion about a personal productivity system, a great concept in getting to a more productive life is the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. Kaizen’s English translation is “continuous improvement”.

The goals of kaizen include the elimination of waste (defined by [Joshua Isaac Walters] as “activities that add cost but do not add value”), just-in-time delivery, production load leveling of amount and types, standardized work, paced moving lines, right-sized equipment, etc. In this aspect it describes something very similar to the assembly line used in mass production. A closer definition of the Japanese usage of Kaizen is “to take it apart and put back together in a better way.” What is taken apart is usually a process, system, product, or service.

This is the perfect way to view the start of a personal productivity system, which may leave you wondering, what? “If I’m going to get all productive, shouldn’t it be a radical departure from my previous way of doing business?”

Importantly, kaizen must operate with three principles in place: process and results (not results-only); systemic thinking (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view); and non-judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful).

Kaizen is often a series of small steps, but “radical changes for the sake of goals” is perfectly okay. Make a big change to get yourself on track and then make small changes to get to the perfect system. The workers at Toyota rely on small experimental changes rather than large pre-planned command-and-control changes.

So in the discussion of personal productivity systems, remember incremental change can go a long way, especially after a large wholesale change. After all the psychic RAM can only take so many major paradigm shifts.

I have been trying to post regularly about my things happening in my life. Yesterday was a good example of why a personal productivity system is essential to maintain organization in your life.

Yesterday was a very hectic day, a lot of projects needing attention, more projects being created, plenty of hurdles to overcome. Almost a standard day, but without my productivity system, I would have probably gone to the corner, assumed the fetal position and wept. The sheer number of tasks that had to be accomplished yesterday was larger than normal and I was able to manage my stress because I knew what I had to do and broke it down into completable tasks.

• Take CD to Kinko’s
• Brainstorm postcard design
• Find and email photos to fellow designer

Before I found the joy of a personal productivity system, most of those tasks lived in my head, but related to the post on breadcrumbs and on a day like yesterday, the psychic RAM would have maxed out and the “least” important items would get dumped. The critical thing is that those “least” important items are still tasks that need to be done. They might be a lesser priority than the ones I have just been given, but they still need to get done.

If I weren’t writing down my tasks, the ones that get dumped could become lost forever, or until the person who wants the tasks completed calls me and asks where their widgets are. GULP. That’s never good.

Over the next week, I will be working on documenting my personal productivity system, to give you an idea of how I operate, but in the interim I highly recommend reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done. It is a system agnostic way of productivity. You can integrate it with Covey or any other system you have tried in the past and are comfortable with.

Before I babble on about that, I’m going to stop and let you think about your own personal productivity system and I’ll talk more about the specifics later this week.

The importance of a personal productivity system is a post in my attempt to find a better niche for this blog. Don’t worry, the personal stuff will continue.

A whole song devoted to Tom Cruise and how Tom Cruise Crazy he is! Fabulous

I particularly love the uke

Whoa. I’m not very good with math, nor am I very good with children and remembering what grade they are in at what age, etc. I just learned this wicked easy way to know a kids age or in the inverse, their grade.

To find age (when grade is known)

Age = Grade + 5

To find grade (when age is known)

Grade = Age — 5

Now I won’t feel like an idiot asking about kids grades and age and such.

Esther says I have an unhealthy obsession with Merlin Mann of 43folders, and for the most part she is probably right. Essentially I want to be Merlin Mann (although I don’t have as cool of a name). He is a productivity guru, even though he says he is the most productive procrastinator in the world.

Back to the point of this post.

About a week ago, I sent Merlin an email, it went a little something like this:

Merlin,

My wife says I have an unhealthy idolization of you as you end up being quoted in far too many of our conversations.

I do have a question that I think you might be able to glean some light on. I have a lot of applications in my Applications folder on my fancy new Macbook, but I don’t feel that they are organized enough. I normally use Quicksilver to launch my applications, but I have some orphans that I don’t use. Do I just delete them? Do I put them in a “Fallow Programs” folder and check it regularly? What would you suggest?

Thank you very much in advance, and if this email gets eaten by your email robots, I won’t take it personally. :)

Jered

He is just the guy that would be able to solve my issue. I really didn’t think I would get an email back, but low and behold, today, in my inbox I had a email from Merlin Mann. It read:

On 2006–12–11, at 10:51, Jered Benoit wrote:

My wife says I have an unhealthy idolization of you as you end up being quoted in far too many of our conversations.

Awesome! Everybody loves being quoted. My wife never quotes me, if it’s any consolation. She doesn’t even listen to my podcasts.

I do have a question that I think you might be able to glean some light on. I have a lot of applications in my Applications folder on my fancy new Macbook, but I don’t feel that they are organized enough. I normally use Quicksilver to launch my applications, but I have some orphans that I don’t use. Do I just delete them? Do I put them in a “Fallow Programs” folder and check it regularly? What would you suggest?

The big question is what would organizing them do for you? Like any kind of organizational thing, it’s smart to start with a desired result — good way to avoid accidental busy work. May not be much payoff for you futzing here.

Another thing to think about is that some (not all) Apps get confused if you change where they are located on your drive. This is increasingly not a problem on OS X (thank goodness), but it’s something to keep in mind.

And finally, as far as deleting, I would only delete the very large ones that you never use; they’re not doing you any harm, and you never know when you might need ‘em.

Thanks a million for the note and the kind words. May you and your wife have many happy healthy and organized years together.

all the best,

/m

Wow! A real email from my productivity idol.

It’s going to be a good week.

I love getting 419 scams. Maybe if you help me Mr. alija zongo will give you a cut of the money too!

Dear Friend,

 TOP SECRET

I am alija zongo, the director in charge of auditing and accounting

section of Africa Development Bank,Ouagadougou Burkina faso West Africa with

due respect and regard.I have decided to contact you on a business

transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the

transaction.

During our investigation and auditing in this bank , my department

came across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who

died on July 2000 in a plane crash and the fund has been dormant in his

account with this Bank with out any claim of the fund in our custody either

from his family or relation before our discovery to this developement.

The said amount was EIGHTHEEN MILLION united states

dollars.($18000.000.00)Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put the

claim over this fund as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased;get the

required approval and transfer this money to a foriegn account has been

put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to you

as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also

benefit your self to this great business opportunity.

Infact i could have done this deal alone but because of my position

in this country as a civil servant(A Banker),we are not allowed to

operate a foriegn account and would eventually raise an eye brow on my

side during the time of transfer becuase i work in this bank. This is the

reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward

claims as the next of kin to the bank and also present a foriegn

account where he will need the money to be retransferred into on his

request as it may be after due verification and clarification by the

correspondent branch of the bank where the money will be remitted from to

your own designation bank account.

I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk

free.On smooth conclusion of this transaction;you will be entitled to

30%of

the total sum as gratification;while5% will be set aside to take care of

expenses that may arise during the time of transfer and also

telephone bills; while65%will be for me.Please;you have been adviced to keep

top secret as i am still in service and intend to retire from service

after we conclude this deal with you.

I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you

confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your

country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages

previously indicated and further investment,either in your country or

any country you advice us to invest.All other necessary vital information

will be sent to you when i hear from you.

I look forward to receive your email .

Yours faithfully

alija zongo,

Saturday night, Esther and I went to the Mythbusters. They came to campus as part of our family weekend program and I was really excited. It was Kari and Grant and I really had no idea what was going to happen. As we drove the the venue, I was thinking: They can’t possibly bust a myth on stage. How would that work. They have to do hundreds of repetitions to ensure accuracy. If they aren’t going to do mythbusting, what are they going to do?

Ah! All was made clear once the lights dimmed. Kari and Grant came on stage, sat in two armchairs and proceeded to show the audience a blooper reel. While it was funny to hear them talk about NanoSiemens (get it seamens?), it was over in 15 minutes. It was definitely a rough cut, an odd voice over and sometime unintelligible dialogue took a little bit of the myth out of the experience. It might have just been my ears or an improperly calibrated sound system (I’m betting on the latter).

After the video they started with a canned Q&A session. The questioner, a student who I know, was mediocre at best in delivering the questions and in getting a better answer out of them. Being a super-fan of the show also took alot out of the answers. I knew everything that they were talking about, so their explanations held nothing new for me.

Esther and I ducked out just before the end. When the opened it up to questions, they went down hill really fast. I think the fact that young children were in the audience, lead to the type of questions: What’s the biggest explosion you’ve had on the show? How do you get your guns?

The oddest thing about the experience was the realization that it is a tv show. I know that it is a show on TV, but when Grant was talking about auditioning for the show and them discussing Scotty leaving for “personal reasons” (air quotes included), it really brought it back that it was a television show with all the some what slimey reality show editing involved.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I would say that the myth of Mythbusters… has been busted.