Month: August 2015

Agile transformations: Honor the past. Respect the future.

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I was going to write about UX and Agile – something I haven't written about in a while. However, I went to the Agile Leader's Network meetup in Dallas a few nights ago, and a conversation about Agile culture inspired me to take a different turn.

We were talking about cultural changes in Agile organizations – and the conversation covered the usual suspects:

  • How to reverse misconceptions about Agile
  • Why it's hard to be transparent and honest
  • How change can work (bottom-up vs. top-down)
  • Virtual teams

It was a great conversation! Especially talking about why people choose to change or not to change.

Often people have a hard time making changes that benefit them – even moving to Agile when it will clearly help an organization be more competitive and make more money. It's always intrigues me as to why people won't change when it benefits them to do so. I wonder, what about staying the same serves them? 

I have been exploring this in my own personal journey. There are times I will experience something that doesn't serve me anymore that I need to change. And when I ask myself that question, "why does it benefit me not to change?" I usually spark an immediate transformation within myself. Staying in situations that don't serve me usually are based on validating limiting beliefs – like staying in relationships because I don't feel I deserve better, or thinking that some situations are ok because there isn't a way to change it. I had a hard time going freelance because I had a belief that I couldn't make a living doing it. That was definitely false! 

Change is scary – especially making the leap to Agile! I didn't bring it up in the meeting, but being honest and transparent with colleagues is DAMN SCARY! You need to admit you don't know something, you can't do something, or you missed a deadline. You have to share information – and in some organizations, knowledge is power, and withholding information from a team can give someone an edge. In addition to being open and honest, Agile cultures require that the team isn't judgmental. That's hard to do. 

One of the guys there raised a great point about Agile change and how in some ways, we forget to respect the accomplishments of those who got a company where they are at now without Agile. And some of them feel that the change to Agile, depending on how it is presented, diminishes their accomplishments and contributions – the old way is "bad" and the new, Agile way is "good."

Such a great point! (I should have grabbed his card – my bad! Loved this perspective!)

Agile is a different way of seeing the world. Like waterfall – it's not good, it's not bad, it just is. Agile works well today because of the number of changes we are experiencing, and not just in technology, but in authenticity, collaboration, leaving hierarchical models. 

That's where Agile comes in! And it's not just about speed – it's about truth, honesty, transparency, trust, collaboration. Companies succeed when they are collaborative. 

It's hard to accept that past ways won't work because the world is different. 

The easiest transformations come from the top-down, but the most effective transformations come from the bottom-up. Agile didn't start from an executive order – it grew out of development cultures. In many companies, Agile transformations start in the development group and make their way to the business. The business needs to then think about their work in a different way. As does design.

We need to talk to people openly about the past and the future to bring them with us in Agile transformations. Some ideas how to do this:

  • Openly discuss how business is changing and how can we better respond to that change
  • Discuss how not changing allows us to maintain limiting beliefs about business (it provides us excuses, e.g., we can't enter new markets, we can't respond to competitors that quickly, we are too big to possibly be nimble)
  • Demonstrate the benefit of transparency through your own actions – hold nothing back and be open and honest. Encourage others to do the same. People will see the benefit of this behavior through experience.
  • Stop the blame game starting with yourself. There is accountability and blame – they are not the same. Blame brings a "you did this" attitude with it. Accountability is being responsible for contribution. We need to shift to encourage contributions and reduce work fear that comes with blame. 
  • Experiment with Agile in a group to demonstrate how it can work. Sometimes, people need to see and experience the benefits.

This discussion inspired me to reflect on why UX teams have such a hard time shifting how they work to an Agile paradigm. Designers had a lot of success in isolated communities, working towards a world of perfect design and interactions. Today we create software in a world focused on "good enough for today," based on enhancements and updates, iterative testing and updates. It's a shift in thinking about work, roles, and contributions.

The old ways served us in UX well and today, those approaches just aren't working. And it can be hard to let go.

I'll be posting more about this soon.

I'm curious how we can be more inclusive of development veterans who achieved incredible results without Agile, and how we can include them in transformations to new ways of approaching software development.

Look forward to reading your suggestions! 

 

Agile transformations: Honor the past. Respect the future.

Want to learn more about Cybersecurity? Take this course! (And yes, strong passwords are key!)

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If thoughts about keeping your devices secure from hackers and malware gets you on edge to the point where you don't like to think about it, ignore the problem, and know that by avoiding solving the problem you are creating a worse problem, try this: 

Free Cyber Security Course for Beginners from Heimdal Security

I'm into day 10 and so far, the course is great! It's sent to you daily for 21 days. It offers great advice and guidance for keeping your computer and devices secure – and it includes guidance for backups in case someone does take your device (and use the passwords and information on it).

I've been learning a bunch and am getting a refresher into what makes a secure system.

They present insights into how hackers do their thing – what they look for, how they think and what they do. It's great knowledge to have, especially at a time when pretty much any device that is connected to the Internet can be hackable (this is why the Internet of Things movement is so scary to many technologists – there are a number of devices out there that don't have any security support and are based on older technology that has many weaknesses to exploit. The healthcare industry is most at risk for this.).

 

But Security Still Has a User Component…

The biggest challenge I keep seeing with security is validating someone's identity online. This is difficult not just online – but offline – and I'm not sure will be resolved any time soon. Here's a longer piece where I discuss identity indepth.

We can't even validate someone's identity today offline today when we travel (ID cards don't count. They are really nothing more than a key or combination for a lock). There really isn't a model we can use, except:

  • Biometrics, which comes with its own risks (who owns that data)
  • Voice, which needs work
  • Gestures, which also needs a lot of work
  • (And maybe more – technology is getting more intriguing every day!)

Maintaining passwords for security is where security truly collapses and has one of the biggest holes. Hackers look for weaknesses – either in the code of a site itself or through access. Randomizers help with breaking into accounts – so the more complex a password, the safer you account is assumed to be. However, we are still depending on users to provide this.

Good security is based on someone having different passwords for different systems, but most of us can barely keep track of a single password, nevermind a different password per system. In come the stickies on the computer or a notebook of passwords.

These passwords may be secure online, but not secure if you happen to lose that piece of paper.

Given the number of devices we have today, the number of apps we use, and types of accounts we have, this practice can be overwhelming.

From a UX perspective, there has to be a better way.

We keep coming back to establishing identity online. Once we do that, many of these security issues will be resolved and based on software rather than the concept of a key – which has been a flawed security approach since it's first use.

But until then, prioritize security over usability (a good security UX in this case is keeping your info secure at all costs. The technology needs to get there).

Keep a complex password in mind for your systems that uses letters, numbers, and special characters, use virus protection.

Oh yeah, and take that course! It's awesome!

 

Want to learn more about Cybersecurity? Take this course! (And yes, strong passwords are key!)

Days 3, 4 and 5 of Agile 2015 – I learned so much!

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I'm back from Agile 2015 – and I miss it already!

What a great week! 

 

Agile Day 3

Individuals, Interactions and Improvization (Jessie Shternshus)

Improv and Agile are like chocolate and peanut butter – they just go together. Jessie founded Improv Effect to help businesses reach their full potential by means of interpersonal-communication skills training. She's an awesome presenter and has a knack to get everyone involved in the improv experience, not stress about doing things on the fly, have fun and learn how to collaborate better.

During the session, we did some improv exercises (many of which I can't wait to use in meetings!) – from dreaming up loser superheros and sidekicks to creating stories with a partner. (My partner was awesome! Diane and I can spin a good yarn!).

Waterfall processes are plan-heavy; plans create other plans. I'm not saying plans are bad – they aren't. A plan or a vision can unify a group of people to reach a goal. The problem I have with plans is that teams can sometimes get caught in infinite what-if scenarios that don't drive anyone in the team closer to making a decision or getting things done (Here's my series about Agile, belly dance and improv).

Improv allows everyone involved to think about what's happening at that moment and contribute a word, an action, something that will keep the story or performance moving forward.

Great improv comes out of being true to yourself, your character, and having the confidence in yourself to make a decision on the spot. I think confidence is what's really needed for an Agile team to succeed – the confidence each team member has in themselves and in the group.

 

No Dream Crushing: Human Centered Design Solutions using Design Thinking (Kathryn Kuhn, Skip Angel)

Great talk by Rally team! They had a challenging crowd – we were all amazingly punchy! Kathryn and Skip definitely had their hands full!

They presented a framework for us to leverage when designing our customer interviews for products and processes – what types of answers and responses are necessary to fully define the problem and create a true solution. It's a great method to gain solid insights and help people use tools and processes better.

The focus of the presentation was mainly for coaching purposes, but it could be used for customer product reviews as well (that's what I plan on using it for – can't wait to leverage it on my next project for usability reviews and testing). It's a super useful framework!

 

There was a talk I wanted to catch, but missed – Can you be remotely agile? (Mike Kilby) – take a peek if you get a chance!

 

Agile Day 4

I presented that day. I didn't attend a session because I was prepping (i.e., stressing). I think I ran through my talk 2-3 times.

It was titled UX practitioner? In an Agile virtual team? 6 ways to bridge the distance. 

Here are the slides. 

I wanted to catch Virginia Cagwin's talk on Enterprise UX. Here is a link to her talk and her slides.  She's awesome – I'm sure it was a great talk.

 

Agile Day 5

Well Begun is Half-way Done: "How to" guide for Organization Assessment Prior to Scaling (Michael Spayd)

I learned so much in this session about organizations, leadership styles, and ways teams can be self-managed.

During the talk I got distracted reflecting as to why I work better with some teams and not others and why I like Agile. Now that I'm launching Gearmark 2.0, I'm trying to figure out how I want to structure the company and how people collaborate in it. During the course of this talk, I realized that I want it to be a Teal company – not a place where people are contributing by role or hierarchical standing, but where they are adding value. I think everyone has something to contribute to the project, and sometimes what they have to contribute may be a little out of their role, but it may be a great insight others didn't see. I prefer to work on projects where the team members contribute what makes most sense for them, and when there is a need, either a team member steps up to help, or we find someone else outside the team to contribute. It's more about the value people bring to the table.

But I digress.

What I took away from this session is that not all companies are necessarily ready for Agile and the work style related to it – and that's ok. I learned what to look for in companies to see promise and hope for such changes, and when it's time to just walk away. You can't force Agile to work in an environment that isn't open to self-managed teams and open collaboration – a brutal reality, but a reality nevertheless. Great insights to help create change!

 

Final session: Want better collaboration? Don't be so defensive! (James Tamm)

We got a lesson about chickens. I didn't know that chickens can be very competitive. The "alpha" chickens (top egg producers) will make the lives of the other collaborative chickens horrible so that they maintain their position. Basically, they play dirty games to win.

If these competitive chickens are removed and the collaborative chickens are grouped together, the collaborative chickens increase their production over 250%. Yep, you read that right.

The competitive chickens will peck themselves bald and kill each other.

So, which type of work environment would you rather work in?

James presented amazing statistics about collaborative companies and how they over performed regarding profits and in the stock market. Our old notions of competitiveness are just wrong – it's far better for the team to collaborate to achieve a goal. Collaboration pays off.

However, with collaboration comes conflict. There are healthy conflicts and ones that make us nosedive into competitive defensiveness. 

I know when I get defensive, I become a rabid graduate student, defending my position like a goalie. And if I'm winning, I don't just win gracefully, I'll work to win until the other person almost screams mercy. Doesn't that sound awful? Well, he gave us strategies for how to stop ourselves from our primal defensive instincts like this and be more open to a collaborative environment in trying times (and how to always bring not just yourself, but the team back to that).

There is no reason to make everything a competition when collaboration brings better performance – and just makes us better people. 

 

Now I can't wait for Agile 2016! 

 

And if you are curious to hear more about Agile 2015, here are my experiences of days 1-2.

Days 3, 4 and 5 of Agile 2015 – I learned so much!

My Experience of Day 1 and Day 2 of Agile 2015

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I love going to the Agile conference every year because I learn so much in such a short time. There are so many people achieving tremendous results using Agile – so many people trying new things and sharing their knowledge. 
 
I wanted to originally share a blog post each day. Unfortunately, it has been so busy, I haven’t been able to do that. But here is a summary of the days so far. 
 
 
Agile Day 1
 
The conference kicked-off with the opening keynote by Luke Hohmann of Conteneo. Luke is always an inspiring speaker and sparkles when he talks about using games to solve problems.
 
He showed us how Agile thinking – especially collaborative games for learning – can be reworked slightly to achieve goals outside software development in areas like government, psychology/therapy, and more. 
 
He shared his experience with the City of San Jose and their annual games over the past 3-4 years and how they were able to involve more community member perspectives in budgeting decisions. He also talked about the Los Altos School District and their experience with games to make difficult decisions about over-crowded classrooms – and again, including more people into the decision.
 
He showed an app to help with collecting decisions and helping to come to consensus for large-scale games – multiple teams of 8. So many teams, there needs to be a heat map to help communicate trends.
 
At lunch I was talking with a new friend I met at the conference who mentioned that games like this could eventually be used by us to manage government and asked a radical, but true, question – Do we really need a legislature if we could accomplish something similar thru games?
 
Something to ponder. How awesome would that be if everyone were collaborating using games in that way!
 
 
Will presented a lot of theory and information about experimentation – how to define a good experiment, what to expect from it, and how to know if you succeeded. Lots of guidance for what to do or avoid. 
 
 
Then we had lunch.
 
 
After lunch, I learned a valuable lesson about Agile 2015: Get to your sessions early! They book up quick! I think I wandered to 4 different talks that were full until I gave up.  
 
So I decided to visit the vendors.
 
I saw the new Mingle demo. It was great to see how a program manager can have visibility into Agile projects from the top down and the team can view a project from the bottom up thru stories. There are more ways to help the teams have visibility into roadblocks or challenges, workloads, and understand what's happening where. They have done some great work with their app – I can't wait to play with the demo site!
 
I also visited Axosoft, which is a great tool that is a little like Trello. It also allows someone the ability to give bug tracking access to customers. This is great for custom app firms or even companies that are getting a product off the ground and value customer input. I want to get in and explore that tool a little more. It has a lot of functionality, but not overwhelming with features.
 
Leankit is a great for organizations that value quick visual summaries of their projects. If your company loves Kanban boards – this is for you! They support Agile and Waterfall, but they are about making the presentation super simple and straight-forward. I need to get a full demo when I get home.
 
Workfront is perfect for mixed waterfall and Agile environments. This seems to be the trend as enterprises are adopting Agile – change is hard, and it's hard to let go of the known process. I look forward to talking with them further.
 
I think it's great that the vendors are open to how enterprises and companies are using Agile. It's also wonderful to see such diversity for products – there are so many ways to work, and now there are many tools to support those different approaches and processes.
 
Flexibility is key for change, which leads me to the next talk by Esther Derby.
 
 
I attended Esther Derby's session – engaging and fascinating as always! 
 
Her perspective on change resonated with me and my experiences – change just can’t happen overnight, and Agile needs to be flexible enough to allow for iterated change. It's funny – organizations need to change but there are so many things happening that needs to be adjusted. 
 
And she communicated so much in just a handful of slides and 6 rules. I love her stories and how she integrates them into the session. It was wonderful!
 
 
 
Agile Day 2
 
I LOVED this session. I think it’s important for a product owner to have a strong vision about what the product should be, how the product will stand in the market, and be able to prioritize features and stories to that vision.
 
Alan presented a framework and tools for product owners to get that vision and have a way to help them prioritize their work. He also mapped how risk drives a lot of decisions in enterprises (something many Agile startups don’t face and have a hard time understanding). Some systems just can’t be integrated into an app development team because they are so central to the enterprise/business.
 
He also included a way for the business to create light personas to help define products. Sure, personas should be researched and validated with customers, but at least the business will start thinking about the users. It's a start – an important start – to include customer perspective and empathy.
 
I can’t wait to review the slides for this talk! It was stellar!
 
 
The premise of this session is that UX can actively contribute to project innovation in Agile environments – and it's easy to do. For the workshop, we spent some time interviewing each other and then sketching some solutions, being encouraged to think differently about a problem and solution. Mainly, we were being encouraged to get new ideas.
 
I enjoyed this speaker’s speaking style and what he was presenting. I also liked how he defined UX as creating something the users didn’t know they needed. That's true innovation.
 
 
This one shifted many of my perspectives of people and situations. Sure, we know about the primal brain, the emotional brain, and the executive brain, but how do you shift between them? And how can you – and your team – stay in the executive brain more often?
 
I often listen to spiritual masters discuss how to change behaviors and imprints and find a way to live in that executive brain. What I liked about Sarah's presentation was that she described a similar process outside of a spiritual context, which could help in work situations. The workshop during the session gave us hands-on experience using these methods. I feel I can use this now when working with anyone – as well as to help myself be in the executive brain area more frequently and not let certain circumstances or imprinted emotional responses get in my way of work. 
 
Fantastic session! Definitely get the slide deck. I hope someone recorded it.
 
 
After all of the mental inputs of the day, I wanted to shift the focus of my brain a little bit – so I decided to see how games could be used for learning. This was the perfect ending to the day! 
 
Some of what we learned through the games:
  • What makes a great manager/leader (hint: not micromanaging)
  • How change impacts people for the good or bad and what makes it easier to swallow
  • What are good stories/requirements
  • How changing requirements can be confusing – and difficult to process
 
It was all hands-on, activity-based, physical learning. I can’t wait to use some of this with clients!
 
I need to check out the tastycupcake.org site now for other methods like this. What a great icebreaker for a full-day meeting!
 
 
And now on the Day 3, 4 and 5. I can’t wait to uncover what will happen today!
 
My Experience of Day 1 and Day 2 of Agile 2015