May 31, 2022
The list isn’t going anywhere, it’s not getting smaller, it’s only growing. That’s what lists do. They grow. And they keep growing. Until we start working on them. Until we start checking off the items on them and making progress towards them. They can be big, daunting, and insurmountable. Until we start working on that first item, and then the next, and then the one after that. Until they are all done.
May 30, 2022
What to do, what to do when you are only half completed the work in a story and you’re at the end of a Sprint. There are two schools of thought here. Move the Story to the next Sprint. Split the remaining work into the next sprint. I generally opt for Number 2, when you do Number 1, all you are doing is shoveling the work to a different corner of the room hoping it’s going to get down and not realizing what might be the problem, is that the work left to do isn’t the entire story. When you
May 29, 2022
There is a temptation to shift the duration of your sprint when it isn’t going as expected. Maybe more customer issues came in, maybe your estimates were off, or perhaps most of the team was out sick with the stomach flu, whatever the reason, the temptation to add a few days or weeks is always there so we can say that we finished work “within the sprint”. The problem with this approach is that your Sprint never ends, and once you do it once, it gets easier to do it again and again and again until you are on week
May 27, 2022
The most common mistake you can make in growing your team is assuming that people’s titles determine who they are as a Leader. Senior, Lead, Manager, Principal, Staff… pick your word and throw it against the wall, it doesn’t mean anything. The first thing you need to do before you start coaching a team is sit down with everyone and feel out who they are and what they are about. You might find out that the person that the team needs to lead them, isn’t the one with the fancy title.
May 26, 2022
The last few years have been a never-ending Overload. The last few days have been a literal electrical Overload. We all have those moments and the best advice I can offer; Take the moments to yourself, get your head on straight. Stay away from email/text/etc until you have had that moment to breathe. Generate that small win. Figure out what caused the overload and take steps to reduce it. If it’s never-ending, figure out why and what you need to do to change your path to get back to a steady-state where you are at your most productive.
