Weeknotes #4
#wotnoagile?
I started publishing some of my writing on Medium earlier in the year with the intention of sharing my knowledge and experience of all things agile and digital. I’ve wandered off that chart and have moved into broader territories. That’s ok but I don’t want to lose that initial focus and it’s something for me to think about.
It’s about the product
It was the first Sheffield Product Tank meeting last week and it was great to see names I recognised on the attendee list. Co-hosting Agile Sheffield and attending other events is increasingly showing me there is great community in my adopted home city.
Jamie Hinton, Razor CEO, spoke about his experiences of hiring people and how his company uses different approaches depending on the need — avoiding traditional or bland job ads. Sometimes the starting point is a person’s technical knowledge.
Other times the focus is to find someone with the right attitudes and drives. When Razor wanted to recruit a tester, the shout went round to find someone who wasn’t afraid to break things, was analytical and always asks, ‘what if..?’. They found the right person — a science graduate — and have trained and supported them to develop the additional skills needed for testing — specifically at Razor.
So that’s a good reminder — if you want different results, if you want to attract different people, you have to do something different.
Tejay White spoke about her approach to product management at Tribal Education and shared honest reflections about her (and I’m sure other people’s) initial drive to jump to solutions. She talked about the need to pause and take time to fully understand people, their motivations and problems. I’d only met Tejay online until last week so it was great to meet up in person so we can start plotting together.
Aidan Dunphy, product director at hedgehog lab, was next. He spoke about his product management career and his recent shift from working on a behemoth of product with thousands of features to joining a new organisation — creating interesting and smaller products (in feature size — not necessarily value). That triggered interesting reflections about the importance of working with the right people in the right environment and how, once you’ve enough to pay the bills, the salary level can become less important.
It’s all about people. Duh.
It was an evening about products and, not surprisingly, there was a massive overlay about people, our behaviours and attitudes.
I’m normally the one who says thanks to hosts and then quietly engineers a phantom exit. I must have been in a chipper mood with good company ‘cos I went to the pub afterwards. That’s not to say I don’t like the Sheffield Tap (it’s great!) — just my social pot is normally empty by this point of the evening.
My blogging backlog is minus one
I’ve written about why being open about mental health is important and why I’m not planning on being ‘fully open’ — whatever that means.
Why I talk but don’t talk about my mental health
What follows is the right openness for me.
medium.com
A few things I’ve read
If you run a meetup or intend to start one this is a useful read.
Sam talks about, ‘Make sure you’re solving a problem’ which chimes well with the Product Tank session.
Elizabeth writes in a positive and strong way about how to overcome difficulties with self-promotion. I particularly like the approach to,
‘Help each other out. Ask for help when you need it. Give it when you can’.
Other weeknoters have mentioned the next article (thanks) and it’s worth flagging again. I used to struggle with conflict (though who really loves it?) and want to work towards ‘an environment where people can withstand a fight and engage in friction as it arises’.
Disagreement, challenge and difference are good. They give spark to my day so I’d like to replace Scott’s use of ‘fight’ and ‘front-stabbing’ to positive words for me to use.
And finally — a shameless plug.
Agile Sheffield’s next meetup is ‘Dragons’ Den — Retro Retrospectives’. If you’ve got a favourite technique to help teams improve or found a way to help teams work through their challenges, then come along and make your pitch. Details on the meet-up page.
