Why I read (listened to) it Disclaimer: My brother-in-law’s sister-in-law is the acclaimed Angela Duckworth. I have met her a few times and she is a wonderful person. Grit is a growth mindset demonstrated by successful people to persevere and achieve their goals. The author narrates the audio version of…
<- previous post in this series on planning My favorite ritual is the retrospective. The retro is a look back on the previous sprint with a specific focus on actions to take in the future. What I enjoy so much about retro is that it aims to give every person…
<- previous post in this series on refinement In theory, the planning ritual could be automated. Look at everyone’s calendar for the upcoming sprint, estimate velocity and grab the things from the backlog that will fit. In the middle of a well-known project, it may be that simple and only…
<- previous post in this series on stand-ups While refinement may not be in the handbook of scrum rituals, it is still a prescribed practice. Argue if you want, but I am taking the liberty of calling it a ritual for this series. It took me years to accept…
Stand-up is a microcosm of your team. Show me your team’s stand-up and I can diagnose the effectiveness of your team. While there are plenty of articles on how a stand-up should be run, this post is about how you, as an individual, should represent yourself in stand-up. Be on…
Why I read (listened to) it Written in 1937, this is book is a classic. Still referenced today by many successful folks like Warren Buffet. Yet, yours truly, had never heard of it until recently. I listened to the audio version read by Andrew MacMillan. Andrew MacMillan’s voice brought to…
A new job, new role, new team, new boss or a new framework..they can cause a lot of anxiety. Impostor syndrome can sneak up on the most confident of people. If you are less than confident, you might feel.. Why is something new so hard? The simple answer is…
Bear with me while I dabble in religion for a second… When God created everything, God saw what God had made and said it was very good. When a developer looks at a few lines of code they think, “This could be done better!” The developer then jumps down the…
Based on the children’s book, “If you give a mouse a cookie.” For all of the product and design folks I have worked with, this is written with love and good humor. I look forward to the “If you give an engineer a muffin” retort. If you give Product a…
There is no time like the present to meet with your manager to set expectations. Ideally, this is within your first couple of days on the job or moving to a new manager. Every manager is different and what they value could be very different from your previous experience or…
