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Another reason working in silos is wasteful and inefficient
We had some tradesmen in our apartment building this week to renovate the stairwell. It was a bit depressed looking and the old carpet was a bit naff; so time for a refresh. So the first tradesmen on the scene were the ‘stairs guys’. These guys pulled the old carpet and re-laid some new stuff,…
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Better scrum user stories: Split stories horizontally, not vertically
Teams often run into trouble in a sprint when they’re trying to work with poorly split stories. Stories that are too big, too small, confusing or that mix the problem with the solution… We should split stories into small, discreet chunks of functionality. A single story should generally be the smallest discreet piece of functionality…
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Get it over with
I recently wrote about the Satir change curve, which is a model for describing the impact of new processes on the performance/velocity of a team or organisation. In short, your velocity is going to go down before it goes up. Understanding this curve, and having the courage to stick it out, is the key to…
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Stick it out
You can’t change your shoes while you’re running. Have you ever heard the expression “it’s gonna get worse before it gets better?” If you’re talking about improving processes or ways of working in your organisation, then chances are this expression’s probably true. Any new process or change in ways of working has a wearing in…
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Copywriting is interface design
Your product’s user interface is its window to the world. It’s how your users interact with you, and how you interact with your users. The words on your interface are central to the user experience, and crafting perfect copy is every bit ‘User Experience Design’ as designing the user flows, choosing colours and designing screen…
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Don’t be evil (product designers)
Today, for the first time in what seems like ages, my PC caught the flu. This time it was a particularly annoying piece of malware called HDD Low; one of those fake system config utilities that spams you with fake warnings about your hard drive or memory until you give in and buy their special…
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How to remove HDD Low malware without paying for Anti-Spyware software or installing anything
For the first time in what seems like ages I somehow managed to catch a virus… this time a very annoying one called HDD Low. It’s one of those fake system optimisation utilities that keeps spamming you with false alerts about your system (low memory, hard drive error, etc) until you give in and buy…
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Analytics, data and product innovation
It’s important to understand what your users do, how they use your product… but remember: data never paints the whole picture. User research, user testing, usability studies, behavioural analysis, usage statistice: it’s all important – understanding and making sense of this data is crucial for your product’s development – but this data doesn’t exist in…
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Better scrum user stories: save the solution for the spec
In the world of Scrum the user stories are at the heart of everything that’s added to the software: it’s how you break down the product strategy and requirements into discreet, develop-able chunks. We build software for our users, so it makes sense that everything that’s added to or taken away from the software is…
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A good scrum sprint demo
The Sprint Demo is one of the most important meetings on the sprint calendar. So why are so many sprint demos so poor? Firstly, why is the Sprint Demo so important? I think for several reasons: It makes the progress (or, where applicable, lack thereof) of the team transparent (to management, to other teams, to…