Mary O’Neill | Atomic Spin

Clueless Leadership

By Mary O'Neill | Published: May 4, 2012

Carl has written about the good, the bad and the ugly of transparency, but he has always stood by his conviction that a culture of openness is essential to sustainable business success. I believe in transparency as a philosophical basis from which to run a company. The resulting trust, loyalty, buy-in and contributions of your…

Posted in Company, Culture, Reviews | Tagged challenge, culture, leadership, sustainable, transparency | 2 Comments

Minimal Viable Product or Mediocre Value Prop?

By Mary O'Neill | Published: April 10, 2012

Scott Anthony highlights the importance of building a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) compelling enough to steer clear of becoming a mediocre value proposition: Sometimes, though, a Minimal Viable Product turns into a Mediocre Value Proposition. A company might introduce a product in the marketplace. A few customers find it interesting (you can always find a…

Posted in Business of Software, Company, Reviews, Startups, Uncategorized | Tagged customer development, customers, lean startup, minimal viable product | 1 Comment

Passion for the Work

By Mary O'Neill | Published: March 7, 2012

Carl has written about identifying the “why” of Atomic Object and Jason’s follow-up blog post captures his perspective on Atomic’s raison d’être: Everyone at AO has a passion for pushing boundaries and questioning assumptions in one realm or another. We challenge ourselves to improve everything we touch. And we enjoy building things, whether they are…

Posted in Company, Culture, Reviews, Workplace | Tagged character, competence, creativity, motivation, passion, problem-solving, talent, team | 1 Comment

Be Memorable. Everyday.

By Mary O'Neill | Published: February 13, 2012

This month I lost my dad. He was a wonderful, imperfect man who was lucky to have lived a long, full life. In my sadness, I’ve been pondering somber topics like my own mortality. I’ve been asking myself what I might want people to remember about me after I shuffle off this mortal coil. My…

Posted in Company, Reviews | Tagged culture | 2 Comments

Diversity – A Powerful Force for Innovation

By Mary O'Neill | Published: January 17, 2012

Steve Denning, author of The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century has published a succinct overview of Scott Page’s book The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies in Forbes this week. I found Denning’s review of Page’s perspectives on the potential for diversity fascinating. This…

Posted in Company, Culture, Reviews | Tagged complex tasks, diversity, innovation, management, poly-skilled teams, teams, teamwork | 1 Comment

In business, as in life, manners matter

By Mary O'Neill | Published: December 15, 2011

From a very young age, Montessori students learn grace and courtesy as an integral part of their life skills curriculum. The core of these teachings within the Montessori philosophy is respect, mutual respect between child and teacher, and among children. I’m convinced we adults need to occasionally challenge ourselves and re-examine our social competence, then…

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A process snapshot: Health insurance shopping

By Mary O'Neill | Published: December 8, 2011

The seemingly constant rate of change in health care laws, coverage types and cost drives us to do the challenging annual work of researching the best-fit health insurance offering for Atomic. So, every November a recurring to-do pops onto my task list: Shop — but not the fun kind of shopping. In my experience, the…

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Improve your business writing – break some rules

By Mary O'Neill | Published: November 9, 2011

According to Atomic’s very own Dave Crosby, “Technical qualifications are only the tip of the iceberg. To work at Atomic Object, you need excellent written and verbal communication skills, empathy, a strong work ethic, and passion for exploration, learning and teaching. You have to care – a lot – about your customers, co-workers and workplace.” Ragan.com…

Posted in Company, Culture, Reviews | Tagged hiring, writing | 1 Comment

“Desserts” spelled backward is “stressed”

By Mary O'Neill | Published: October 19, 2011

Life can be stressful. I definitely don’t make any claims to having mastered stress management in my own life, and I see it as personal work in progress. In school, we all receive intensive instruction in the three R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic), but the important life skills around stress management are largely ignored in…

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Workplaces: Designing for Interaction

By Mary O'Neill | Published: September 29, 2011

I’m a workplace designer by professional experience and education. As Atomic Object’s multi-tasking business manager, one of the many hats I wear is as its workplace planner and designer. Before joining Atomic Object, I researched and designed leading edge workplaces for Herman Miller. The Harvard Business Review is not my typical go-to source for insights…

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