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Five Whys, Socratic Method, and Dependent Arising
Root cause analysis—jargon for managers in lean startups and Agile dev shops. In plain language, isn’t it “Well, I hear what you’re saying, but what’s really going on?” I feel a rambling, messy first draft coming on. Why in the world do we need jargon for such a common line of reasoning? This is every […]
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UX STRAT conference, day 2
I just wrapped up the day by having dinner with Simon of Bristol (okay, Simon Norris of Nomensa) and Bob Royce and Dan Klyn of The Understanding Group. A relaxed conversation with three brilliant gentlemen—an excellent end to the day. So, the conference. First, I was glad to have met Josh Seiden in person so […]
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UX STRAT conference, day 1
The first day of the UX STRAT firehose of talks is over. At the Barrelhouse, a nearby bar, there no doubt are still a few gathered after happy hour. I think Paul Bryan, the organizer, can count this first UX STRAT a success already. I’m not a huge fan of crowds, so instead of happy […]
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UX STRAT conference, workshops
I’m at the UX STRAT conference in Atlanta, Georgia, having just finished a couple of half-day workshops. Here are a few observations. From what I overheard, attendees mostly have job titles including “manager,” “director,” “lead,” and “senior.” Oh, and owners of agencies/consulting firms. In spite of that (cough), like most UX people, they are interesting […]
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How to write better personal work goals
As managers, we require our employees to set goals, and then we measure them against those goals during annual performance reviews. While this is common and sounds reasonable, the goals often end up disconnected from real performance. This is a waste. (Managers: it’s okay to nod your head in grim agreement.) Why does goal-setting fail, […]
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Attitude-adjusting pointers for professionals
Over the years, others have shared a few attitude-adjusting pointers with me about work. They’ve stood the test of time for me in a number of different jobs. Here they are. 1. Remember, you don’t need this job. You need a job, but not this one. In my first full-time, salaried position, my boss shared […]
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UX and Project Mangement cross-over article from Interactions magazine
A Taxonomy of Models Used in the Design Process by Joanne Mendel in the Jan + Feb 2012 edition of Interactions magazine is pretty interesting. At Covenant Eyes we’re continually in the churn of Agile development, and integrating user experience work can be challenging. We’re figuring it out, and have definitely made some breakthroughs, but […]
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Does Kanban hurt Agile teams by decreasing iterative development?
Kanban is a balm now being used by some Agile development teams to soothe the pain caused by timeboxed development cycles. Jeff Patton’s statement, “Short timeboxes herniate,” sums up that pain (from his excellent post “Kanban development oversimplified”). As a Product Owner with a team that started out using Scrum and has gradually drifted to […]
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Addendum to “Getting More From Analysis” by Lewandoswki and Dilworth
UX Magazine published Getting More From Analysis by Jared Lewandowski and John Dilworth on Dec 16, 2010. The authors provide a summary of analysis as part of three design activities: Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Diagramming these activities They also provide some models for conceiving of these three activities, from linear to finally advising on a traditional […]
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How to seek and destroy organizational silos
After I was put in charge of a newly created user experience department, a young professional gravely warned me about silos. He had argued against the new department because it would just create another silo in the company. The passion of the warning gave the impression that this silo threat was real, imminent, and inescapable […]