I am planning to organize two events: 1. In-person meeting just for fun and to help facilitate people meeting together - That might be right at the end of July. 2. Workshop on deploying AI Agents for managers. A few of you were interested in my setup and I would like to share it with you. Summer is a hard time to run this community, as when the weather is nice, and it is vacation time, few of us think about improving out manageril skills and grow as leaders. But I think that is what separate us from others, we grow continuesly.

Canada Day was on Wednesday, so I stretched it into a proper long weekend. No work, no screens, no AI, nothing. I needed a break. But it is Monday, so I am back at it. Well, when I say "I am" what I really mean is that my agents are. A few weeks back, I met an old friend who now works for a robotics company, which was a shock to me, as he does not have a background in engineering. He got the job due to his skills in AI. Which got me thinking - how can I position myself in the job market as a competent and capable PM in these modern days? And the answer was AI Adoption via edge computing -> covers AI plus hardware integrations. Now, I am not a developer, so I am vibe-coding, but all I need to build is a working demo to have in my portfolio. The next workshop will be about that exactly - how to use AI Agents to build something useful. I will cover the actual setup, what works, and how to start delegating to them.

This Thursday, June 25th at 4pm PT We'll be talking about how to lead upwards - influencing your manager, shaping decisions, and building a relationship that actually works for both of you. Link -> meet.google.com/uyz-vhff-uys See you there.

This year, Canada Day is Wednesday, and the 4th of July - the USA Independence Day is on Saturday, but most companies give people Friday off. That immediately creates a vacation scheduling issue. This time of year is always the same challenge - everyone wants time off at the same time, and you can't just say yes to everyone. Customers still need support, projects don't pause, and someone has to be available. So you build a schedule and you try to be fair, but it is never perfect. What's your approach to managing vacation coverage during peak season - and how do you handle it when someone really needs time off but the timing is terrible?

I volunteer at a car club and part of my role is working with sponsors. What I've learned i that when you're talking to successful people, price is never the real objection. Value is. If the value is clear, the conversation is easy. If it's not, no price will fix that. I had to earn those sponsors. I had no authority over them, no leverage. Just a clear case for why working together was worth their time and money. Some of them now come back and bring prizes for our events. That's influence. Not a title, not authority. Just making the value obvious. What's a situation where you had to influence someone who had no reason to listen to you?