Story Splitting Q&A
Bite-sized story splitting Q&A for when you don’t need the full "Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories" Read More
Agile
Agile CPG Innovation: Pharmavite case study
inQB8 team increases new-product throughput by 10x Executive Summary: 3 Key Differences and Benefits of Agile CPG Innovation 3 Key differences from traditional CPG: Cross-functional groups work as full-time dedicated teams. Rapid test and learn cycles. Focus on… Read More
Three Categories of Infrastructure Work (and why you don’t need it all right now)
I encourage my clients to find and focus on the core value of whatever they’re creating. What is it that doesn’t yet exist in the world but should? Go there first. Don’t defer that value. “But we need to create the infrastructure for that first, don’t we?” they often reply, by which they mean things like hardware, foundational technology layers, architecture, capabilities like user management, etc. Read More
Work Should Fit People
This week, we launched the Humanizing Work Show. In episode 1, we summarize what we mean by Humanizing Work and where the phrase came from. Humanizing Work… Read More
How to Give Clear Instructions When Facilitating
It's a classic facilitation blunder: You start giving instructions for an activity, and as you're talking, people begin the activity. You try to reel in those eager participants so you can get the rest of your instructions out. Then, as everyone starts, you realize you forgot something important and need to get the group back together for more instructions. The best facilitators are extremely deliberate about how they give instructions. Read More
Ask Humanizing Work: Long-running Stories
Hi Richard, My Scrum team has been working on a particular service for over a year. It's been 20+ Sprints. I'm concerned about the deliverables and the rate at which we deliver. I have just put together some material for my stakeholders. I am pasting those slides here for your review. Do you mind reviewing them and letting me know what you think? That would be very helpful. Read More
Making Info Visible for Better Decisions
A key part of the ScrumMaster's or Product Owner's job is making information visible.* Whether that's a product backlog, taskboard, cumulative flow diagram, or a one-off visual for a specific need, good visuals lead to better decisions. Here are four principles for doing it well... Read More
Talking About Our Feelings—Potentially Awkward, Definitely Important
Last week, I described how to do the observation step of Focused Conversation without having to talk about all the details. At this point, many facilitators would naturally want to guide the group through interpreting the data. But the Focused Conversation method prescribes another step in between: reflection. Read More
Ask Humanizing Work: When the Observation Part of Focused Conversation Gets Boring
The Focused Conversation method asks us to start with observations before assigning labels - good, bad, effective, worthwhile, motivating, etc. In real-life facilitation, it can feel a little slow to start a retrospective with a simple "What happened this sprint?" Read More
MMFs: What they are and why they matter
Suppose you have a headache. A bad headache. "I'll take Tylenol to make it go away," you think. So, you grab the Tylenol bottle and see that the directions indicate taking two pills. Would you take 20 pills in an attempt to make your headache go away 10 times faster? Read More