My latest article is out and focuses on improving effectiveness for presentations to customers and stakeholders. I was inspired to write on this topic by the recent passing of Amar Bose and a couple lessons I learned during a talk he gave at MIT in the late 1980's.

1. Before You Reach for the PowerPoint Icon, Pull Out a Pad of Paper. 
2. Tell a Story, Don’t Just Rely On Facts and Statistics.
3. Fewer Words Mean More Listening
4. Fewer Charts Mean More Time for Discussion
5. You Know Your Stuff: Have a Conversation
    

The latest edition of LiDAR News is out.  I contributed an article espousing some of the lessons learned from Eric Ries' bestseller The Lean Startup.  While the book's principles certainly lend themselves best to web-based software products, there is plenty that can be applied to those having significant hardware elements. The three best practices I highlight are: 

1. Deliberately define 'Leap of Faith' Assumptions.
2. Apply the Build-Measure-Learn construct with pre-planned Pivot meetings. 
3. Shrink your batch size to improve efficiency and extend the runway. 

See the article for more details.  Also please read Eric Ries' book and great blog for a myriad of other valuable insights.