Francie Van Wirkus's Blog, page 19
January 29, 2018
Got Time?
In the past year, I gave met more exasperated, exhausted product owners and product managers than any other year. If you’re a product owner or manager, your mind is probably headed right to where that ridiculous the pressure comes from (senior leaders, executives, portfolio management gone wild!). If you’re a senior executive or portfolio leader, your mind probably goes right to the large…
January 24, 2018
Too Many Meetings
You’re in too many meetings.
You know they are not all valuable to you, so why not make a change?
How to begin? Your first step is to focus on value. Look at your calendar for just one day, and ask yourself…Where do I give value, and where do I get value?
Its liberating, and disturbing all at once.
January 17, 2018
I Said What I Meant
“I’ve always wanted to write a book, but…” “I’ve always wanted to train for a marathon, but…” “I’ve always wanted to start a YouTube channel, but…” Having accomplished these things, and having coached others to do the same, I’ve heard many rational reasons for people not doing what they’ve always wanted to do. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that the people who mean what they say are…
January 10, 2018
Handcrafted Paradox
“They took forever.” ”I had to wait five extra minutes.” We want a perfectly handcrafted drink from places like Starbucks, but we don’t want to wait for it. We want the paradox of fast food timing, delivered by a skilled barista. We are driving these teams into the ground, and missing the point of hand crafted. We want perfectly hand crafted software, but we don’t want to wait for that, either.…
January 8, 2018
Pile it On
It’s tempting to pile responsibility on top of agile and scaled agile roles. After all, you have some of your best and most productive people in these roles, and there is so much to do. Resist the temtptation to double down on your scrum masters, product owners, product managers, and release train engineers. These roles help create the environment your attention-deficit organization, and your…
January 3, 2018
Lead with Learning
When it doesn’t go well, should it all collapse in negativity, blame, and surrender? Of course not. Photo compliments of The Road Less Traveled travel chat on Twitter. Yet this is exactly what happens when things go awry on our teams, and in our organizations. It’s easier to throw up our hands than to take a moment, and learn from the situation. It takes guts, and trust in your teams. One…
December 27, 2017
Rollout, Adoption, or Both?
You decide.
If you pick both, you are on the right track. Why? Because no matter the type of change you want to make in your organization, there are no absolutes.
We want the recipe, the sure thing. It feels good, until we are backed into a corner and have no flexibility to get out.
December 25, 2017
Win by Giving
When you give of your talents and energy to others, it makes you stronger, better.
You don’t lose anything by helping someone else, other than (at the very least!) the opportunity to learn a new perspective.
Generosity wins.
Every.
Single.
Time.
December 20, 2017
2018 Backlog
Is your backlog looking more like a list of 2018 commitments than a representation of opportunities? Right or wrong, do the people you work with even understand what a backlog is?
It’s not too late to take a step back, and adjust. After all, you are agile.
December 18, 2017
Experiment Ending: Does it Matter?
The experiment that is 2017 is nearing an end, so…
It’s your work, your team, your organization.
You’ve spent hundreds of hours, and given your best ideas.
Now is a great time to reflect on your efforts, and the satisfaction you derived from them in 2017.
Stay where you are, or make a change?
