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Lighthouse Technologies CEO & President Jeff Van Fleet presented at Technology First’s 21st Annual Ohio Information Security Conference (OISC) in Dayton, Ohio. In his breakout session, Jeff shared how FOCUS, an app used to build successful and sustainable cultures for Athletic Teams across the country, is now tailorable for Business Teams. If you are looking to elevate your team’s game but were unable to attend Jeff’s presentation, read the summary of his demo below to learn how you can empower your employees with FOCUS.

It’s rapidly approaching Spring here in Ohio and this time of year often reminds me of high school track. I remember when the track season came around, those initial practices were hard. Even when I started running a couple of weeks before practice started, I was not in top shape. Honestly, the practices were hard for several weeks but eventually, they began to get easier. The actual workouts were not getting easier but I was getting stronger physically and mentally. After a couple of weeks, I could easily warm up with a 2-3 mile run, then run 440 yard repeats (Yea, I’m that old. We were still running yards, not meters.), with some 220s and 100s thrown in there just for fun. Daily practice prepared me for competition and helped me improve my personal bests. As I moved into my professional life, the idea of daily practice was different.

Here at Lighthouse, we are always talking about our ‘Culture of We’ and how important having fun is to our team. Don’t just take our word for it though – check out Mark Adams, our recently retired VP of Sales & Client Success, on National TV. Mark is currently in his 25th season with ESPN and has some exciting NCAA Men’s Basketball games coming up.

If your software team is spending more time fixing bugs than developing new features, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that poorly written requirements are likely a root cause of your never-ending rework. The good news? By shifting left, improving these requirements is not only easy, but the most effective way to reduce rework.

Similar to how resolutions outline our visions and goals for each year, requirements do the same for software projects. However, unlike your resolutions which are personal, requirements are read by an audience of individuals with a wide range of technical knowledge and understanding (business users, product managers, business analysts, UI/UX designers, developers, and testers) – this means leaving no room for interpretation is even more important.

After a 3-year hiatus due to Covid and staff turnover, the Miami University Middletown baseball program returned this fall and defied all expectations. How did the youngest college baseball team in the country, led by a coach with no prior experience coaching college baseball, achieve a 12-5 record – the best winning-percentage in program history and first winning-season since 2000? Focus.

From all of us here at Lighthouse, we want to thank you — our clients, partners, friends and family — for your continuous support throughout this year. Please take a moment to watch our special Thanksgiving video and reflect on what you are most grateful for. We wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy holiday season!

We had a blast sponsoring and speaking at Technology First’s Taste of IT conference earlier this month. From connecting with industry leading professionals, to presenting on how to lead software teams to proven success, to eating lots of homemade bread, it was a sweet time! If you were unable to attend our presentation at the event, read some of the highlights and key takeaways.

Just because it is Spooky Season doesn’t mean your current software project needs to be scary too. In the shadowy world of software development, the most frightening horror stories aren’t those about ghosts, zombies, and monsters – but rather, missed deadlines, overrun budgets, and never-ending quality issues. Zoinks!