Weeknotes S4 E1 2021

Happy Friday! I’m attempting to get back into the weeknoting groove. To that end, I’m trying a condensed format to lower the barrier to pressing the publish button.

Good things

• Starting to see the use of user stories and prototypes being used in the team to better understand the work and challenge assumptions.
• Also encouraging to see the team challenging tech suppliers about the user centredness (or lack thereof) of their products. This has prompted some changes too which I’m chalking up as a win. More of this!
• I’ve recently done some training on coaching which I’ve found enjoyable. I don’t know if I’m a good coach, but I do enjoy listening to other people talk about their challenges and I’m generally curious, which seems to be a useful combination when applied here.

Learned things

• The double diamond is missing the crucial bit where you put the solution into practice.
• Small teams often need people who can wear multiple hats.
• When everything feels like it’s moving, introducing more structure (perhaps even constraints?) can be helpful.

Difficulties

• Hard things are hard. Which is logical, but I need a regular reminder.
• Too much work in progress is easy to spot, but not so easy to resolve.
• There may be a limit to the number of hats you can feasibly wear at the same time.

Stuff I’ve been reading / listening to / watching

• Agile Waste: Stop using story points. Now
  https://rigidity.medium.com/agile-waste-story-points-pt-1-a9df2572d0a3
• “Measure the Muttering…” Detecting ‘weak signals’
  https://whatsthepont.blog/2021/10/03/measure-the-muttering-detecting-weak-signals/
• Making Tech Better Podcast — Team topologies with Matthew Skelton
  https://pca.st/zph7c410
• Graceful degredation
  https://www.iterate.org.uk/2-graceful-degradation
• How to say ‘No’ after saying ‘Yes’
  https://hbr.org/2021/09/how-to-say-no-after-saying-yes

Tweets of note (that I noted)