The Cranky PM Guides

These comprehensive guides cut through the dysfunction that's destroying your team's effectiveness. No fluff, no synergy, no best practices that work in theory but fail in practice. Just brutal honesty about what's broken and practical solutions that actually work.

Strategy and Process Guides

Team Communication and Coordination

How to Communicate Like a Competent Adult in a Corporate Environment
Stop the communication theater that creates more confusion than clarity. Master stakeholder management, executive updates, and team coordination without the corporate BS. Replace alignment sessions with actual communication skills.

Product Strategy and Execution

Product Management for People Who Want to Ship Things That Matter
Cut through product management theater and focus on building products users actually want. Stop managing roadmaps and start managing outcomes. Turn feature factories into value-creation machines.

Agile and Team Effectiveness

Fix Your Broken Agile Process
Your Agile implementation is expensive theater. Stop performing productivity and start delivering value. Eliminate ceremony overhead and focus on shipping features that solve real problems.

Goal Setting and Strategic Alignment

Goal Setting That Actually Works (Unlike Your Current OKRs)
Stop the quarterly planning theater that produces beautiful documentation nobody follows. Set objectives that guide daily decisions instead of just looking strategic in executive reviews.

Process Optimization and Efficiency

Process Optimization for People Who Actually Want to Get Shit Done
Eliminate the bureaucratic overhead that's suffocating your team's productivity. Apply the bullshit-to-value ratio to identify which processes create value vs. just create work.

Project Management and Delivery

The Complete Guide to Fixing Broken Project Management Processes
Stop managing project management and start delivering projects. Replace status update novels with communication that drives decisions. Focus on constraints, not predictions.

What Makes These Guides Different

No Academic Theory - Every framework is battle-tested in dysfunctional organizations where perfect processes don't exist.

No Diplomatic Language - Calls out the specific dysfunction you're dealing with instead of pretending everything can be solved with better collaboration.

No Silver Bullets - Honest about what works, what doesn't, and why most "best practices" fail when they meet organizational reality.

Practical Implementation - Designed for teams trapped in broken systems who need to improve effectiveness without permission to redesign everything.

Who These Guides Are For

Frustrated Product Managers dealing with feature factories, stakeholder politics, and roadmaps that get ignored.

Burnt-Out Project Managers drowning in ceremony overhead while actual work falls behind schedule.

Team Leads caught between executive expectations and team reality, trying to deliver results despite broken processes.

Anyone Tired of Process Theater who wants to focus on work that actually moves the business forward.

Start Here

Not sure where to begin? Start with the guide that matches your biggest current frustration:

• Communication problems? → Workplace Communication Guide

• Agile dysfunction? → Fix Your Broken Agile Process

• Product strategy confusion? → Product Management Guide

• Project delivery issues? → Project Management Guide

• Goal-setting theater? → Goal Setting Guide

• Process bureaucracy? → Process Optimization Guide

Each guide includes practical frameworks, diagnostic tools, and reality-based solutions you can implement immediately.

Want weekly doses of reality about what actually works in product development and team management? Subscribe to The Cranky PM Newsletter for frameworks that focus on results, not theater.