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<p>Hi, its me, your friendly neighborhood Jira whisperer.</p><p>After 15 years of working with teams across industries, I’ve seen it all: Jira projects so loaded with custom fields, tangled workflows, and automations that just opening a ticket feels like triggering a Rube Goldberg machine. If you've ever muttered “Jira is the worst” under your breath while updating a status field, this post is for you.</p><p>Let me be clear—<strong>I love Jira</strong>. I really do. I can make it dance. But just because Jira can do something doesn’t mean it should. And that's the trap so many teams fall into.</p><h3>&nbsp;The “More is More” Mindset</h3><p>When companies first roll out Jira, there’s often an impulse to use all the features. Complex workflows? Sure! Thirty different issue types? Why not! Custom fields for every possible edge case? Load 'em up! Someone in a meeting says, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could track the status of approvals for each task by department with color-coded transitions and a custom dropdown?” And suddenly, your ticket workflow has 12 statuses and 30 transitions… for a 6-person engineering team that works with one designer.<br><em>Spoiler: it doesn’t need to be this complicated.</em></p><h3>&nbsp;When Jira Becomes the Enemy</h3><p>I usually get called in when the team is burnt out—not from the work itself, but from navigating the maze Jira has become. No one knows what fields are actually required, updates get skipped because no one has time to fill out ten dropdowns, and team members are quietly (or not-so-quietly) keeping track of work elsewhere just to stay sane.</p><p>It’s not that Jira is broken. It’s that the setup doesn’t match the team’s actual needs.</p><h3>&nbsp;Start Simple</h3><p>If I could give one piece of advice to every team setting up Jira, it would be this: <strong>start simple.</strong></p><ul><li>Use workflows with just a few core statuses -&gt; and for the love of Taylor Swift, just set all status to "Allow all status to transition to this one."&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Automate the boring stuff—notifications, handoffs, close stale tickets.</li><li>Only add custom fields you’re actively using (and hide the ones you're not!)</li><li>Don’t design for every possible “what if”—design for how your team works right now.&nbsp;</li></ul><p>All of this simple setup can be changed later. If you <em>really </em>need more complex setup, Jira has the power to unleash it at any time. Think of Jira like a Swiss Army knife. Yes, it has a mini saw and a toothpick. That doesn’t mean you need them to open a bottle of wine.</p><h3>&nbsp;Jira Should Help, Not Hinder</h3><p>Jira is powerful—but power without purpose just creates noise. When configured thoughtfully and simply, it can be one of your team’s most valuable tools. When overloaded, it turns into a confusing, slow-moving beast that no one wants to deal with.&nbsp;</p><p>Let's face it, it's not a cheap tool. Get the most value out of it by setting it up in a way that ensures that your teams consistently use it and you can pull clear metrics out of it. You don’t need a bazooka for a spitball fight. Jira doesn’t have to be scary. And if you’re already knee-deep in a tangled mess, don’t worry—I love a good cleanup.</p><p>Let’s make Jira work for you—not the other way around. Want help simplifying your Jira setup? Let’s talk!</p>

Untangling the Jira Knot: Why More Isn't Always Better

<p><br><strong>Because great teams don’t happen by accident</strong></p><p>Let’s start with a simple truth: Project and Program Managers have a lot of jobs but it boils down to two primary objectives—<strong>Change Management and Communication Management</strong>. If you get those two right, you’re already way ahead of the game.</p><p>Now let’s zoom in on communication for a second—because, especially on remote teams, it’s where things most often fall apart.</p><h3>Communication Has Two Parts. (Yes, Two.)</h3><p>If you remember just one thing from this post, let it be this:<br><strong>- Communication is both giving AND receiving information.</strong></p><p>Most people only think about the giving part—sharing updates, sending emails, writing in Slack, dropping a comment in Jira. But if your message isn’t being received, if the person on the other side didn’t hear it, understand it, or even know it was meant for them, was that successful communication?</p><p><strong>That’s not communication. That’s just broadcasting.</strong></p><p>And here’s the kicker:<br>In remote teams, where we don’t have hallway conversations or spontaneous desk drop-bys, we need to be even more intentional about both sides of the communication equation.</p><h3>Your Responsibility Goes Both Ways</h3><p>In a remote team, communication isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s core infrastructure. And everyone—PMs, engineers, designers, leadership—has responsibilities on both sides of the line:</p><p><strong>When You’re Giving Information:</strong><br>If it’s not received or understood, don’t just throw up your hands. It’s your job to try again, try differently, or try more clearly. Frustration is normal—but your work isn’t done until the message lands.</p><p><strong>When You’re Receiving Information:</strong><br>If you’re confused or out of the loop, it’s not just “someone else’s fault.” Check your side. Are you reading updates? Asking clarifying questions? Blocking your own intake by multitasking through every meeting?</p><h3>So How Do You Get Better?</h3><p>You remember your ABCs:</p><p><strong>A – Acknowledge</strong><br>Let people know you received their message. A simple “Got it,” 👍, or follow-up question goes a long way in remote settings. Silence reads as “ignored” or worse as implied confirmation. (But don't 👍if you didn't actually read it!)</p><p><strong>B – Be Clear</strong><br>Keep your messages focused. What’s the action item? Who owns it? What’s the deadline? No one has time to decode your 12-paragraph thought stream.</p><p><strong>C – Contextualize</strong><br>Explain the “why,” not just the “what.” People work better when they understand how their work fits into the bigger picture. Don’t hoard context—share it up top!</p><h3>What’s the Real Problem?</h3><p>Remote teams stumble when conversations happen mostly asynchronously (and people miss them.) We forget that different teammates have different communication styles and individuals learn and receive information differently. Everyone assumes someone else is handling the updates. It’s easy to become a logjam—where information comes in, but doesn’t flow back out. Is there information that you should be sharing to your team but is stopping with you? Is there information that your team has shared with you and you should share up to leadership or another team?</p><h3>What Do We Do?</h3><p>We start by being more intentional, more frequent, and more open. Communication isn’t about covering your ass—it’s about contributing to an ecosystem of shared information. The goal isn’t just "Did I send it?"—it’s "Did it land, and can the team act on it?"</p><p>Async communication and different ways of working are both things that make your team stronger. The answer IS NOT to make everyone work on the same schedule or the same way. Instead, lean into those differences and learn to leverage them. Be resourceful about using the tools you have to share information and asking your teammates how they best receive information. Hit multiple learning styles with your communications, use built in automations already available to you, and explicitly define async communication touchpoints for your team. This will immediately improve your communication landscape. Experiment with currently held communication sacred cows. Is every standing meeting in the company really making things run better? Is it worth the cost? Try pausing a few of them for two weeks and replacing it with an async update, slack channel, or shared document to learn what impact it has.&nbsp;</p><p>Does your remote team struggle with communication?<br>Let’s fix that. I can help you build better habits, reduce the noise, and turn communication into your team’s superpower—not a stumbling block.</p>

Communication has TWO parts! Are you forgetting one?

POV down arm to young man climbing up a rock face

<p>In most companies, the goal is simple: deliver the products that your customers want, and do it fast. One of the most common obstacles to speed and efficiency is that your best people aren’t doing the jobs they were hired to do. Instead, they’re bogged down with other responsibilities—ones they don’t want, aren’t as skilled at, and will ultimately slow everything down.</p><h3>The A, B, and C Jobs Problem</h3><p>Think about it this way: every person on your team was hired for their <strong>A job</strong>—the thing they're trained for, most experienced in, and love doing. It’s what they do best, and it’s why you hired them in the first place. When they’re in their A job lane, they run the fastest.</p><p>Most jobs also come with a <strong>B job</strong>—a secondary responsibility that stretches a person's skills a bit. It’s something they can handle, but they’re not as experienced in, and they don’t love it. As long as a B job takes up no more than 15-20% of their time, it’s manageable.</p><p>Then there’s the <strong>C job</strong>. This is the work that no one was explicitly hired to do, but someone has to pick it up so things don’t fall apart. The problem? Your people aren’t skilled in it, they don’t enjoy it, and it’s incredibly draining. Trying to run in the C job lane is slow and inefficient, and worse, it keeps your best people from doing what they do best. C jobs tend to be execution-based—things like project management, stakeholder updates, and triaging issues.&nbsp;</p><p>Software engineers are creative, technical problem solvers. Product managers are strategic thinkers focused on market growth and vision. Neither group will be running at top speed while responsible for managing project timelines, coordinating cross-functional work, or making sure nothing falls through the cracks. Yet in so many organizations, they’re forced to pick up these responsibilities—spending 80% or more of their time on B and C jobs instead of excelling in their A jobs.</p><h3>The Solution: A Dedicated Project Manager</h3><p>If you want your team to move faster, give them the support to focus on their A jobs. That means having a dedicated resource whose entire job is to keep work moving forward, eliminate bottlenecks, and ensure execution stays on track.&nbsp;</p><p>As an experienced project and operations professional, I specialize in keeping software teams efficient, organized, and focused. I take on the project management workload so your engineers and product managers don’t have to—letting them get back to doing what they do best. And when your best people can focus on their best work, everyone wins.</p><p>Let’s talk about how I can help your team move faster and work smarter.</p>

Project Managers: The Support Your Delivery Team Deserves

Man on a ladder working on a wooden cottage with trees and mountains behind

<h2>Don't Hire a Full-Time Product Operations Leader <br>(And What to Do Instead)</h2><p>Let’s talk about something that happens all too often: a full-time Product Operations hire. Maybe you’re in the boardroom, and someone suggests hiring a Product Operations Leader because it sounds like the perfect solution to all your operational challenges. It makes sense on paper: they’re going to improve processes, fix inefficiencies, and get everyone shipping faster, right?</p><p>Well, here’s the truth. More often than not, that expensive hire turns into a frustrating situation for everyone. Why? Because that person won’t be the “human easy button” everyone was hoping for.</p><p>Here’s the reality: Product Operations isn’t a magic wand that can fix everything by itself. The success of a Product Operations Leader depends on the collaboration of the entire team. Every single improvement they suggest requires time and input from developers, designers, product managers—you name it. And guess what? That time and energy could have been spent actually building and shipping the product.</p><h3>Why Full-Time Product Ops Can Be a Challenge</h3><p>A Product Operations Leader can’t fix your processes in a vacuum. They need buy-in, collaboration, and engagement from the delivery team. And let’s be honest: when the pressure is on to hit a tight deadline, how much time do you think your team is going to spend reworking processes they already know are broken? None. They’ll be heads down, focused on shipping what’s already on their plate.</p><p>This creates a really awkward situation. Your shiny new hire is sitting there, eager to make changes, but no one has the bandwidth to work with them. What’s the result? You’ve just hired someone at a significant cost, and now they’re essentially sitting on the shelf waiting for their moment. Frustrating for them, frustrating for you.</p><p>I once had a CTO ask me, "What does a Product Operations Leader need to be successful?" My answer: “A collaborative team and leadership that’s fully supportive of their work.” Even if you have the most enthusiastic team in the world, if leadership is breathing down their necks to meet a deadline, the last thing they’re going to do is invest time in fixing broken processes or figuring out how to ship faster.</p><h3>So, What Should You Do Instead?</h3><p>Don’t hire one.</p><p>I know, it sounds crazy—I'm talking myself out of a job here. But hear me out. Instead of bringing on a full-time Product Operations Leader, hire a contractor. Hire someone like me, part-time, for specific projects.</p><p>Here’s why that works better: it’s like hiring an electrician or plumber for your house. You don’t have them on salary, but when something breaks or you need a major upgrade, you call them in, they fix it. Same goes for Product Operations. When you’re ready to commit time and resources to a specific project—maybe it’s fixing a long-standing issue or implementing a big process improvement—that’s when you bring us in.</p><p>We work with you to tackle that specific problem, and once the work is done, you’re free to move forward. No full-time salary, no benefits package, no sitting around waiting for the team to free up time. You need us again, we'll be there. It’s cost-effective and gets you the results you’re looking for, without the long-term commitment.</p><h3>Final Thoughts</h3><p>So, next time you’re tempted to make that full-time hire, think twice. Consider bringing on a part-time or project-based Product Operations Leader instead. You’ll save money, get the help you need, and avoid the frustration of having someone who can’t do their job because the team isn’t ready for the change.</p><p>Want to learn more about how this model works? <a data-mce-href="https://galwayconsulting.com/contact" href="https://galwayconsulting.com/contact">Let’s chat</a>. Sometimes, the best solution isn’t hiring full-time—it’s hiring smart.</p>

Don't Hire a Full-Time Product Operations Leader

Closeup of the landslide of a blocked road

<p>Let’s talk about results. Those ambitious goals your team sets out to accomplish but somehow keeps slipping. I’ve never even met your team or seen your operation, but after years of working with tech companies of all shapes and sizes, I bet I can predict some of the roadblocks you're facing. If you're struggling to get the results you want, there’s a good chance that you’re running into at least one (probably more) of these three common challenges.</p><h3>The Right People Aren't in the Right Roles</h3><p>Do you have the right people with the right skill sets for the current needs of your business? It’s possible you have too many people with overlapping responsibilities, resulting in duplicate work and inconsistent outcomes. Alternatively, your team may lack the specific skills necessary to effectively address today’s challenges. Team members who were essential last year may not have evolved to meet the business's needs today. When roles are not aligned with current goals, results can suffer.</p><p>Am I suggesting that the answer is a costly reorganization? Definitely not. Instead, begin by clearly and explicitly defining your organization's needs today. Next, look for ways to encourage growth within the team so that each person has a clear understanding of their role and a path for developing the necessary skills to meet the organization’s goals. Address duplication in roles and find the gaps that will need to be filled by training or in some cases a new hire. This approach means you can avoid unnecessary restructuring while prioritizing the opportunity for team members to grow, improving retention.<br></p><h3>Ambiguous Ownership and Responsibilities</h3><p>A lack of clear ownership can truly be one of the biggest roadblocks to getting the results you want for your business. If everyone is responsible, then no one is truly accountable. When roles and responsibilities aren’t well defined, it’s all too easy for tasks to fall through the cracks.&nbsp;</p><p>Your team needs clearly defined ownership, with each team member understanding not only their specific responsibilities but also how their work intersects with that of their peers. This collaboration is vital, but it requires a solid foundation of accountability and trust. When people know their specific lane—and the lanes of their teammates—it’s easier to stay on course and deliver results. Don’t leave it up to chance; set explicit expectations around roles and responsibilities so everyone can take ownership with confidence.</p><p>Doesn't putting someone in a specific lane put them in a silo and limit their ability to have influence? It's just the opposite. When no one is clear on who owns what then no one has any real voice. Everyone is just one of many. When individuals are empowered with ownership and autonomy in their domain, it provides them the platform from which to exert real influence as a member of the team. They are now the leading voice to speak for their specific area of ownership.<br></p><h3>A Lack of Empowered Decision-Makers</h3><p>Every team needs a decider—someone who can make clear calls to keep things moving. No kidding, right? It sounds like common sense but the truth is that many organizations are stumbling because they struggle to empower their teams and aren't able to build enough psychological safety to allow decisions to be made quickly and efficiently. Without a designated decision-maker, work can stall as people wait for approval or second-guess their choices. Everything stops shipping. Empowering team members to make decisions within their areas of responsibility doesn’t just speed up workflows; it also fosters a culture of trust and accountability where teams are more satisfied in their roles.</p><p>Imagine a workplace where the right person, with the exact skill set needed to meet your goals, has the authority to make necessary decisions to get the work done. That sounds like an organization that consistently delivers results.<br></p><h3>Bringing It All Together</h3><p>If you’re seeing these issues play out within your team, consider bringing in a strategic consultant (yes, like me!) to help your team realign roles, define clear ownership, and set up a decision-making structure that moves work forward. Imagine the difference when your organization runs on all cylinders, where each team member is empowered to take real ownership and you're finally seeing the results your business needs.</p>

Blog

Untangling the Jira Knot: Why More Isn't Always Better

Communication has TWO parts! Are you forgetting one?

Project Managers: The Support Your Delivery Team Deserves

Don't Hire a Full-Time Product Operations Leader

Roadblocks to Delivering Results (and How to Overcome Them)