Baseball is a mesmerizing dance measured in increments of time & distance. In many ways, so is Agile. I’m truly enjoying watching the 2019 World Series. There are many reasons for my delight, but the biggest is watching the high-level of execution by both teams … while the players are having boatloads of fun. It makes…
Tag: Software Engineering
WTF is ProdOps, and why should I care?
The new buzz word in #prodMgmt is #prodOps. It’s a real thing. I want to share my views before it gets overly commoditized. ProdOps is short for Product Operations. But what does that actually mean? Is it some re-packaged and monetized mishmash of DevOps + MarTech + RevOps + SalesOps + Pragmatic Marketing? Is it…
5 Thing Product Managers can learn from Twitter’s latest UX Do-Over
TL;DR — Behold! A handful of free & valuable lessons product managers can glean from Twitter’s latest changes to their user experience. Thank goodness for ‘Jeff Bezos and Alexa buying Whole Foods by Accident’ memes. Without them, we might still have to endure the weeping and gnashing of teeth both from, and about the world’s grumpiest social…
The Convergence of Search & Machine Learning is already here.
TL;DR — In making search results more relevant & in detecting anomalies, ElasticSearch & Solr have baked-in machine learning features. The week before last I made a mistake … … I was attending a not-so hush-hush meetup of 25 Raleigh product managers, where no secret handshakes were exchanged, nor did there occur covert conversations about overthrowing our scrum…
Of course it’s okay to selectively incorporate SAFe® practices
TL;DR — As waterfall survivor I understand concerns over SAFe®. That said, I don’t think it’s necessary to toss the baby with the bathwater. I came up with the term ‘HyperScrumDamentalist’ a few years back in response to an overly-zealous scrum master who was more concerned over the letter of the law than the ‘Heart of Agile.’…
Of course it’s okay to split unfinished Product Backlog Items
TL;DR — The best refined stories of mice and men sometimes go awry. This includes dealing with stories sized with the best of intentions. I’m often intrigued — and sometimes amused — by broad and definitive proclamations made on behalf of the Agile manifesto. The following blog post showing up in my LinkedIn news feed being an example I’d like to…
Sometimes, a feature toggle may not be enough …
TL;DR — For immense apps with an equally girthy user base, you may want to support early adoption via a feature toggle + group rights combo. Let me state up-front and for the record, I am fully aware that feature toggles are primarily a developer tool to ease the pains of merge madness caused by branch extravaganzas….
6 Product Management Predictions for 2017
With a new year comes our one legitimate chance as product managers to plan waaaaay ahead into the future with our usual level of accuracy, but in behemoth batches, and without all those pesky KPIs to which we’re held accountable. Given this liberty, I offer for your edification and entertainment 6 product management predictions for…
A more Pedestrian Path to User-Centered Product Management
tl;dr: How not to be a stubborn jerk when behaviors reveal user paths you didn’t initially anticipate. User Story As an end-user, I want the software to work for me; not the other way around. Description The internet is replete with images of inefficient park and greenway designs where users have beaten their own, more…
When Cultures — and gym members — Collide.
My almost-daily reminder to consider culture when developing user personas. tl;dr: Neglecting to ‘bake-in’ i18n into our products is a bad idea. Failing to consider cultural practices could cook your goose. h1.User Story As an end-user, I want an application that takes into consideration my culture. h2.Description The W3C offers an easy-to-read and understand explanation…