Category: wow
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SAFe Waves Reach the Gulf
I spoke about our transformation on this webinar. You can watch a recording here.
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Start With Why
It’s too easy to lead with the what and not the why when talking about transformation… This Simon Sinek video gets shared a lot. We even use the Golden Circle when we’re teaching Product Management, too. “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” But what about how we motivate change?…
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Agile as an Empirical Process
Agile is not a project management framework and it’s easy to tie oneself in knots trying to understand it through that lens. Instead, try this: Agile is the scientific method applied to product development. We start with observation of the customer, their problems & how they use our product, we then formulate a hypothesis about…
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Agile Atrophy
In my experience, when new ways of working (like agile) atrophy it is with a regression towards old ways of working not a descent into chaos. We guard against the threat of chaos by applying sticking plaster fixes when issues occur rather than tackling root causes which often means changing mindsets and having hard conversations.…
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Are You Hunting Field Mice?
“Am I hunting antelope or field mice?” is one of Tim Ferriss’ 17 Questions That Changed My Life. The point being that… “a lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion…
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Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria
I find we get lots of questions about Definition of Done vs Acceptance Criteria. The blog post below from scrum.org nails the answer to a lot of these questions… It’s quality vs scope. “Definition of Done focuses on quality.” e.g. “Code must be reviewed and approved by at least one other team member.” “Acceptance Criteria…
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Discipline Equals Freedom
There is a great book called Discipline Equals Freedom by a former Navy Seal Commander called Jocko Willink. In it, Jocko argues, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, that to have certain freedoms we need to have discipline. For example… Discipline in financial matters equals freedom to do what you want to do, like take a holiday. Discipline…
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Design Thinking Lean Startup Agile
I’ve seen a lot of diagrams joining Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile and I’ve drawn a fair few variants myself. It certainly doesn’t help that there are so many different ways of visualizing the design thinking process – but that’s for another day. This is my favorite way of visualizing the relationship between these…
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If No Mistake You Have Made
If no mistake you have made, losing you are. A different game you should play. – Master Yoda Everyone is always very enthusiastic when we talk about the idea that innovation IS experimentation and some experiments fail, that that is the process. Everyone is similarly enthusiastic about the idea that failing fast and pivoting is…
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The Scrum Guide
Agile people! When did you last read the Scrum Guide from start to finish? It’s about 3,500 words. It will probably take you 20 minutes. Yes, Agile is not necessarily Scrum but many teams do use Scrum and many other practices are derived from or inspired by it. Try reading it again. You will read…