AgileNYC : Agile Day 2015 - Jeff Patton: How Doing the little things well make the big things...

Jeff [email protected]: @jeffpatton

You’re Making This Harder Than It Needs To be

How doing the little things well makes the big

things possible

Jeff Pa'on & Associates, jeff@jpa'onassociates.com, twi'er@jeffpa'on 3

I teach people techniques that help them build really cool

products

mailto:[email protected]



But, what I teach often doesn’t work.



Jeff Pa'on & Associates, jeff@jpa'onassociates.com, twi'er@jeffpa'on

This puzzles me

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“All those techniques are sort of useful, but...”




It’s the small things we do every day that matter most

(at least we should be doing them)

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9 simple things that make hard things

easierand everything else better

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1Jeff Pa'on & Associates, jeff@jpa'onassociates.com, twi'er@jeffpa'on

Show me what you’re thinking

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Naming the same customer, the same feature, or reading the same document, we form different ideas

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When we externalize our thinking with words and pictures, we detect differences

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When we combine and refine, we arrive at something be<er

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A>erwards, when we say the same thing, we actually mean it

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Shared understanding and alignment are the objecAves of collaboraAve work

✴ Credit for this illustraAon goes to ThoughtWorks’ Luke Barret. Jeff Pa<on drew these illustraAons based on Luke’s. Luke doesn’t recall where he first saw this cartoon.

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Shared documents aren’t shared understanding

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blah blah blahdy-blah b’blah blah blahdy-blah blah

blah blahdy-blah

b’blah blah blahdy-blah blah

blah blahdy-blah

b’blah blah blahdy-blah blah


This is a Scrum backlog grooming session

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Words and pictures help everyone build shared understanding

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Shared Understanding and collaboraAon at Atlassian

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What you record during conversaAons works like a vacaAon photo

Looking at it helps you remember details that aren’t in the photo

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!Jeff Pa'on & Associates, jeff@jpa'onassociates.com, twi'er@jeffpa'on

What you record during conversaAons works like a vacaAon photo

Looking at it helps you remember details that aren’t in the photo

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Agile User Stories have a simple lifecycle

ConversaAon* Ron Jeffries coined the 3 C’s in Extreme Programming Installed

!! !

?

Card ConfirmaAon




If you replace a conversaAon with a document, you’ve stopped using stories

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Effective story conversations build shared understanding

The best documents use words and pictures to help recall our

conversations, they don’t replace conversations

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The next time you have a conversation at

work move it to the whiteboard, or grab a stack of sticky notes

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Flare

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Not flair


Stanford’s Design Thinking Model




GameStorming’s diverge to converge diagram




A Design Studio approach helps the whole team Ideate

Design Studio Approachhttp://interaction08.ixda.org/Jeff_White%20and%20Jim%20Ungar.php

177



http://interaction08.ixda.org/Jeff_White%20and%20Jim%20Ungar.php

http://interaction08.ixda.org/Jeff_White%20and%20Jim%20Ungar.php


Sketch independently

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Sketch independently

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Everyone shares their results

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Everyone shares their results

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Find the best ideas (not the best arQst)

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Find the best ideas (not the best arQst)

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Google Design Sprints Have Flair

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h"ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgch"ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgch"ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgch"ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgc

h<ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgc



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgc





Deliberately widen your field of choices before making a

decisionWhen arguing, stop.

Take a few minutes to sketch your ideas, and the take time to

hear each other ideas

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Shut up

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Stop talking and let the model do the work

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Stop talking and let the model do the work

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Tom Wujec noQces talking doesn’t help

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h<ps://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_got_a_wicked_problem_first_tell_me_how_you_make_toast



https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_got_a_wicked_problem_first_tell_me_how_you_make_toast?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_got_a_wicked_problem_first_tell_me_how_you_make_toast?language=en


Talk lessReorganize simple models to

help describe your ideas without all the discussionReplace brainstorming out

loud with silent brainstorming

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Focus

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Set goals, then use pace-‐keeping signals to stay focused on them

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Save document creaAon and maintenance for later

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Save document creaAon and maintenance for later

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Focus on specific outcomes

Keep checking in on those outcomes and “time out” when the team drifts

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Time box

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Use the Pomodoro Technique to keep pace

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Time-box small and large activities

At the end of a time-box, stop, reflect, and

ask if you can satisfice

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Un-invite someone

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The ideal decision making group is dinner-‐conversaAon sized

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Use different strategies for different sized groups

2-‐4 people: set goals, ?me-‐box, and keep pace

5-‐11 people: add a facilitator and structure the workshop

A dozen or more: break into small groups, then integrate results

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Crowds don’t collaborateTo make decisions fast,

keep groups dinner-conversation-sized (2-5 people ideally)

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v

Get out more

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Imagine you’re Jane Goodall...

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do this don’t do this

www.jpa'onassociates.com

Ninety percent of life is just showing up.-‐-‐Woody Allen

http://www.jpattonassociates.com



Go where people work

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Watch them work

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Let them teach you how

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Don’t wait for permission

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NoAce the differences that make a difference

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It’s a conversaAon, not an interrogaAon

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People are happy to tell you about their challenges

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Get out of the building, way out of the building

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Make friends, because you won’t want to disappoint your friends

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Work together in small discovery teams

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www.jpa'onassociates.com

Ateeq has an epiphany

I’ve always been confident I can tell you precisely what users do.

But it’s not un9l today that I realize that I could never tell you why.




The best solutions come from passionate, motivated people

Empathy is the most powerful and positive

motivator I know

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v

Act

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Tom Chi from Google X

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Stop debaQng and act

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Thinking is overrated

Doing is the best kind of thinking

Tom Chi, Built UX Team for GoogleX Division of Google




JSTOR has a simple approach to process they’re trying to live by

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I saw this on a whiteboard as a reminder

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I saw this on a whiteboard as a reminder

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JFDI

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v

Take 5

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You’ll know it’s working when you feel exhausted. Take a break.

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If you’re doing it right, this stuff is really

exhaustingGet out, get coffee, close your eyes, and take 10

deep breaths

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Get back in there.

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It’s doing the simple things well that makes the tough

stuff possible

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Jeff [email protected]: @jeffpatton

You’re Making This Harder Than It Needs To be

How doing the little things well makes the big

things possible

AgileNYC : Agile Day 2015 - Jeff Patton: How Doing the little things well make the big things...

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Transcript of AgileNYC : Agile Day 2015 - Jeff Patton: How Doing the little things well make the big things...