My Blogs & Vlogs
Whiteboards Rule
I find it very disruptive and unproductive to try and type issues, risks, status, and other information into Jira, atTask, or whatever tool teams are using during standup. Frequently, it’s just an excuse for a Scrum Master to look like they are adding value by futzing with the technology on a big screen. I often […]
Bad Smells
Once I put a take-home container of Chinese food under the front seat of the van I was travelling in with my rock band in the 80s. After about a hot day-and-a-half, we couldn’t figure out where the bad smell was coming from. When our lead singer Trish finally found it under the seat (next […]
Estimates Aren’t Dead
Yesterday, at a high-level executive meeting, one of the participants said , “I can’t evaluate that if I don’t know the team’s velocity and the points for that story.” Wow. How times have changed. I didn’t even know the executive had ever heard of Agile or Scrum, let alone points or velocity. Maybe he was […]
Just because you’re agile, doesn’t mean you don’t have to think forward.
“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to unthinkable disaster.” Jerry Weinberg I’m currently working on a large integrated marketing project that will launch with a Super Bowl TV commercial. The campaign is fully stocked with expensive TV commercials, a web app, web sites, banners, you name it. All driving folks to our web […]
Goals v. Systems
http://jamesclear.com/goals-systems This article struck a chord in me, if a slightly negative one. I’m an insane planner, To Do list maker, and end-of-year Goal Setting Workshop kind of a guy. The idea of giving up all of that for just a daily process sounded a little too unfocused and against everything I believed. Then again, […]
On Call Nurse
This week, from last Monday morning until next Monday morning, I’m “On Call.” That means I’m signed up to received robo-calls at all times of the day or night if any of 100 triggers go off on one of our sites, including one java server out of 100 going silent for a second, or the […]
Don’t Forget Release Planning!
One of the odd behaviors with the current rage for Agile and Lean Startup is an aversion to plan further than 2 or 3 weeks out. The current thinking is to get something out there as fast as possible and “lean in” to a quick user or A/B test. [Editor’s note: I recognize it’s a […]
Programmatic Ad Placement
<http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2293623/Why-Real-Time-Bidding-is-Set-to-Become-Huge I find programmatic ad placement fascinating. If it works as planned, what will happen to the ad buying department at ad agencies? Seems like they might become superfluous. What would really interest me is when your whole page (either web or mobile) is 'on the auction block', where you could make bids on the content, placement, navigation, etc, then sit back and watch the fireworks. Analytics and multi-variant tests provide this 'auction' after the fact, of course. But designers, IAs, and content strategists seem so much slower on the recognizing success than marketers. I dream of some day having an easy-to-use dashboard that allows teams to set up many different page, content, and navigation configurations with a filter for audience targeting. The templates would respond to what's working and clearly chart what's not. It might be out there already, I just haven't seen development teams responding to it like marketers are responding to programmatic ad placement.
Local Search
Still feels like local search is as dis-aggregated as web search was in the early 90s. The fact I can easily find out what online stores sells a specific hammer (and for how much) but can’t search for which bakeries on my street sell cinnamon buns is weird. Seems like a business ready for innovation. […]
Agile Estimation
http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-estimation-techniques The above article is a good overview of the Agile Estimation process. I would disagree on one important point, however. And it’s a point most agilists would disagree with me on: I believe the ‘planning poker’ approach to estimating works best in the early inception phases of a project, and again for release planning. […]
Catch Someone
