2 days agoSome sketches about using User Stories to facilitate shared understanding: bad, better, best.Shared documents aren’t shared understanding. “Shared documents aren’t shared understanding.” User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton Bad (😞): Assuming shared documents is the same as shared understanding. Better (🤔): Using stories to facilitate conversation.User Stories3 min read
Jun 26Some thoughts on “5 Whys”The “5” is a reminder to avoid shallow attribution When faced with a problem, there’s a general tendency for people to only consider the immediate contributing factors. The “5” in “5 Whys” is a reminder to go beyond shallow attribution and keep exploring underlying causes.5 Whys4 min read
Jun 18Daily standups are a “daily build” to address drift in team product developmentWhen you work in teams, you will need to deal with drift. When you work in team-based product development, you will need to deal with drift. By drift, I mean an increasing mismatch in understanding about: the problem we’re trying to solve; the solution we’re attempting; each other and how to relate. Drift in shared understanding creates confusion, mistakes, and generally a…Daily Standup2 min read
Apr 16A guerilla guide to surviving large bets (aka large projects)Missing or shallow strategy? Fill the strategy gap yourself I like to call this “occupying the space”. Get a senior technical IC involved (early)Project Management2 min readA guerilla guide to surviving large bets (aka large projects)Missing or shallow strategy?Fill the strategy gap yourselfI like to call this “occupying the space”.1. Develop your own coherent strategy; 2. Be okay if the Bet pretends they came…Get a senior technical IC involved (early)----
Apr 3Guiding principle: the basic unit of product development is the team, not the individualGuiding principle in effective product development culture. Teams are not the same as groups of individuals Effective product development is not brilliant individuals working independently but rather people working together in teams and teams of teams. From The Wisdom of Teams, there are 5 factors that distinguish a “team” from just a group of individuals: shared purpose; shared definition…Team2 min read
Mar 13Guiding principle: consent over consensusGuiding principle in effective product development culture. Unilateral decisions lead to false progress. When decisions are made unilaterally, it tends to lead to false progress. You’re unlikely to have buy-in and you miss out on any perspective that the broader group might have had. Consensus leads to slow decision-making. When decisions are made by consensus, decisions can take a long time…Decision Making2 min read
Feb 21Lessons from re-organising a lot2 things that don’t work; 11 things that seem to work What doesn’t work but still keeps popping up (especially when new leaders join) Cargo culting FAANG Any variant of “this is how I did it at my last job at [insert FAANG or other tech firm]” without any other rationale. Going dark Managers do all the thinking about org design, workers just follow, because “we don’t want…Reorganization2 min read
Feb 20My preferred approach for re-organisationsBe transparent about re-org plans up front 4 bad reasons to not be transparent up-front: You don’t want to deal with it and would prefer to defer the pain; You assume the people are incompetent or immature (aka Theory X); You are (over)confident that you have all the expertise yourself; You don’t know what to do yet…Organisational Design3 min read
Feb 6The top 3 points you should have paid attention to in the Spotify Engineering Culture videos that aren’t Squads, Chapters, Tribes, GuildsMost of the time when someone mentions the “Spotify Model”, they only talk about structure: Squads, Chapters, Tribes, Guilds. When it comes to product development culture, structure is the last thing you should be worried about, not the first. Without even looking at specific contexts, I bet that there are…Spotify5 min read
Jan 16Core Belief: Sustainable, high performance comes from a playful, growth mindsetCore belief in effective product development culture. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence/talent/capability is something that is developed. Via the Farnham Street blog post on Mindset, Nigel Holmes created a nice graphical summary of the difference between a “fixed” vs “growth” mindset: A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence/talent/capability is both innate and static. This leads to the desire to…Organizational Culture2 min read
