blog.credera.com
Mistakes are Good … Really?
I have learned over the course of my career to really like mistakes. Really. I don’t intentionally try to create them, but I have found them to be very useful in the advancement of my career and in the growth and success of my teams and companies. Failures, on the other hand, are a completely [...]
Cultivating Teams: A Lesson from the Jungle Book
“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack…” a classic quote from Rudyard Kipling’s, The Jungle Book. As a former collegiate tennis player, this was one of our team’s mantras. In a successful team, each individual must be viewed as an asset and by relying [...]
What are your squirrels? Avoid Distraction and Enjoy the Journey
Went for a jog with Sweetie (my dog) this morning. She so badly wants to chase squirrels. They seem to be everywhere gathering nuts for winter. They like to mess with Sweetie. They jerk their tails around and try to agitate her. In our backyard they walk along the top of the fence and attempt [...]
Deliberate Practice and the Beauty of “Meeting Expectations”
I recently finished reading the book Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and found the book’s insights on deliberate practice particularly revealing. Deliberate practice is one of the central tenets thought to invoke high performance in individuals – which is often mistaken by the world to be “God-given abilities” or innate talent. Deliberate practice is [...]
The Failure of the Agile Model: Technology
“I love technology, but not as much as you, you see. But I still love technology. Always and forever.” –Kip Dynamite (‘Napoleon Dynamite’) Much like Kip, the first value of the Agile Manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” But make no mistake – Agile gives no excuse for a lack of effective [...]
The Failure of the Agile Model: Process
Now that we’ve covered the need for a clear Product Owner role and appropriately delineated responsibility between the two, what about larger organizations which could have multiple roles across multiple projects and products? In keeping with Agile Manifesto, the team should “prioritize individuals and interactions over processes and tools,” as well as “customer collaboration over [...]
The Failure of the Agile Model: People
Have you ever found yourself in a sprint planning session where the Product Manager is out of touch with the technical prioritization requirements based on business needs? Or has your scrum master turned your daily standup into a by-the-book sound off of ‘the pigs’ with no input before or after the meeting from ‘the chickens’? [...]
The Failure of the Agile Model: Accountability
Accountability around direct management is obvious, but being within your power or control to do something implies accountability beyond the bullets of a job description. And it’s in the cross-functional, collaborative and transparent morning discussions where the Agile methodology shines…or else utterly fails.
The UXD Stack: Kick Start Your UXD Project
Many people in our profession use different kinds of “briefs” when they get started on a project. A brief is a short paper defining the background and preliminary understanding for a project. Some of these documents are called “Strategic Briefs” or “Creative Briefs”. We work on a wide variety of projects. Most of our work [...]
PMO Packing List: A Letter to Myself
Dear Anna Lubinsky, For the next twenty-one months you will be working as a member of the Program Management Office for an industry leading client. You will be in charge of tracking over 20 million dollars and 75 employees on a strategic program composed of 8 projects. You will oversee the documentation and approval of [...]