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Speaking at Agile 2017: Develop better products by understanding jobs-to-be-done
I will be speaking at Agile 2017 in Orlando this year on how we can use jobs-to-be-done to improve the way we deliver products and services. Abstract: Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is an interview technique and way of thinking for revealing deeper insights into why people choose a product or service. Using JTBD helps…
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Agile Greece Summit 2016 #AGRS16
I recently presented at Agile Greece in September 2016. It was a great experience to finally travel to Greece – my neighbour country – and meet a lot of amazing people who are passionate about improving the way we delivery products and services. There were some great speakers from various organisations Spotify, King, Ericsson and others…
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How to Train your HIPPO #ACE2016
Have you noticed the impact when someone more senior in your organisation shares their opinion? Meet the HiPPO: the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. Sometimes it’s subtle and unintended. Other times it’s more direct and intentional. Either way, the HiPPO is a dangerous animal in Product Development. When we allow the HiPPO to drive decision-making we…
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#Agile2015
We’re coming to Washington D.C.! Serious teams, developers, managers and executives from over 40 countries are about to descend on an unsuspecting Washington D.C. There’ll be over 1,800 attendees exploring more than 240 talks and workshops from some world-class experts. We have been invited to run a workshop (details below) on Friday, August 7 (9:00 – 10:15). According to the…
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Apple Watch first impressions
I have never really been an early adopter of Apple products. I was gifted an iPod in 2008. My first MacBook was only in 2010. I went from an iPhone 3GS to 5S. But this time, peer pressure got the better of me, by which I mean that a friend begged me to get an…
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#LKFR15
Designing Better Experiments “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Josh Billings (not Mark Twain). The vast majority of software we develop is worthless – not because it was written poorly, but because we discover that nobody wants it. This…
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The secret power of Product Managers
Product development is all about making difficult choices. As Product Managers we are frequently faced with a series of difficult trade-off decisions. Should we build this extra feature or use the time to pay off some technical debt instead? Should we invest in building out a new upsell opportunity or use the time to improve the…
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Boost Creativity with Six Hats
Most of us tackle complex problems on a daily basis as part of our work, which require multiple people to collaborate and communicate. How often do you find yourself sitting in long meetings with no actionable outcomes and in an atmosphere that lacks creativity? If you’d like to increase effectiveness of your meeting and boos…
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Diverge or Converge?
When we use divergent thinking we can imagine any possibility, head off in any direction and deliberately diverge from the conventional. Criticism and judgment are temporarily suspended while we explore possibilities. When we use convergent thinking we are trying to narrow down options to one or more preferred choices. We use analysis, criticism, logic, argument…
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The Art of Design
“Good design is unobtrusive. Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.” — Dieter Rams One of the 10 principles of good design by Dieter Rams emphasises what separates “design” from “art”…