Agile comes with big expectations. Let’s look at why we shouldn’t expect transformation to be less complex, simply because we choose to be agile.
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Amazon’s shift from presentation culture to memo culture
When you look for innovators in the modern business world, you look to Amazon. The company has made innovation its goal in everything that it does. They have to be because they need to stay ahead of customer demands. As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos puts it: “Our customers are loyal to us right up until the second somebody offers them…
So what does a product owner actually do?
Does this scenario sound familiar? A new development team comes together to build the latest feature which is suddenly priority number #1. Grand visions are presented, slick prototypes produced, and graphs showing hockey-stick shaped growth begin to build excitement around what is to be delivered. The nicely ordered backlog is transferred from post-it notes to JIRA, and with a wave of enthusiasm…
Enabling business agility through organisational plasticity
We are living in a new economic and societal model characterised by fast-changing consumer demand and perpetual connectivity. In this model, businesses have to create highly individualised customer experiences and promote instant solutions for users’ problems in order to remain competitive. Because of this, more organisations are becoming aware of the necessity of adaptable processes, structures, behaviours and mindsets — that allows people to recognise and respond…
Better agile ways of working for non-software development teams
The most important question to ask when adopting a new way of working is also one of the most neglected: “is the way we work still working for us?”.
Ten commandments of user stories
After years of delivering software applications, with majority of them focussed on talking to people to understand the problems they are attempting to solve, I thought it would be worth summarising some of my experiences (more or less blissful) in a manner that may inspire those who share the passion of interpreting “user needs”. The recommendations I’m sharing are user…
The DevOps tools you need to change behaviour
If you are looking to develop behaviours like collaboration or continuous improvement, these types of DevOps tools may help.
3 Non-design challenges that have been solved by design
We tend to think of design as something visual; a logo or the shape of a chair. But the strategies designers use during the creative process – understanding the people you want to help and designing to suit their needs or solve their problems can be applied in a broader context. Design thinking1 has proved highly effective across numerous industries…
Common mistakes to avoid when you’re ‘doing Agile’
When an organisation makes the decision to go Agile, almost immediately people rush to restructure teams, change people’s job roles and coordinate daily stand-up meetings. However, while these features are important, they should not be the starting point. The first principle of the Agile manifesto is that individuals and interactions are more important than processes and tools. This means the…
How a DevOps culture supports digital business
The speed of new product delivery matters more than ever.
Learn how a DevOps culture can support your innovation and speed to market.
Six strategies to build a design culture
If you spent any time in the lab as a high school student you would have had the scientific method of problem solving drilled into you; come up with a hypothesis, run your experiments, and check your assumptions against the end results. But whether you were experimenting with plant growth, a baking soda volcano or the genetics of the fruit…
How Product-Pairing can grow the next generation of Product Managers
Being an Agile Consultant, I get a unique insight into digital product development in many organisations, and how teams are structured during their agile journey. I was inspired to write this blog to distil why two specific teams, in their first agile attempt, were so successful compared to others I’ve worked with. I discovered the secret ingredient: two product managers…