InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Becoming Outcome Focused: Q&A with Jeff Patton
We need to become focused on outcomes and adapt our way of thinking and our processes to continuously release small changes to our products and services, argued Jeff Patton in the closing keynote at the Agile Greece Summit 2019.
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Leadership in an Agile Environment
We would like agile leaders to stop being in the fire fighting mode. They should be there to help and empower, instead of taking over, argued Leonoor Koomen at Experience Agile 2019. She suggested replacing traffic light reporting with Obeya and showed leaders how they can focus on the deltas instead of covering and wanting to know everything.
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Spotting and Calling Out Micro-Inequities
Micro inequities, small events based on subtle unintentional biases, are pervasive and can lead to discriminatory behaviour, both negative and positive, argued Coral Movasseli in her session at Women in Tech Dublin 2019. The good news is that behaviour containing micro-inequities is malleable through counter-stereotypic training, intergroup contact, and by taking the perspective of others.
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Creating an Online Platform for Refugees Using Lean Startup
What do you do if you want to reach a new user group whose complex needs you need to learn about quickly? At Agile Business Day 2019, Stephanie Gasche shared her experience using lean startup methods to create an online platform, without financial support, for the integration of refugees and asylum seekers.
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Highlights from JAFAC 2019 Day 2: Leadership, Cultural Readiness, Self Care and Growth Mindset
Continuing the coverage of JAFAC 2019 (Just Another F&#k!ng Agile Conference), the conference brings different voices to the fore and highlighting ways that agile ideas are being applied in a wide variety of contexts. Important themes that emerged on day two included cultural readiness for change, the importance of self care, and the need for a growth mindset at all levels of an organisation.
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What Tech for Good is and Why it Matters
Tech for Good groups provide opportunities to connect with people who share a positive vision of the future and look for ways to use technology in order to have a positive impact. Ellen Ward spoke about Tech for Good Dublin at Women in Tech Dublin 2019; she presented what Tech for Good looks like in reality, why it matters, and how people can get involved.
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Lessons from an Ex-Project Manager Turned Product Manager
To survive as a product manager, you need to put strategy first and be able to balance it alongside being heavily involved in delivery. All ideas need testing, and you need to truly listen to your customers to deeply understand their problems, said Emma Sephton. She shared her lessons learned from becoming a product manager at the Agile Greece Summit 2019.
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Lessons Learned from Innovating at Google: Frame the Problem, Use Data, and Define the MVP
The truly great, innovative, useful ideas come mostly from two sources: your target users, and people working in the organization - not necessarily those with a "product manager" hat. Experimentation can help us to materialize ideas into actual products and technology. Framing the problem, using data, and defining the MVP can help us to increase the chance of success in innovation.
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How Statistical Forecasting Can Help You Trust Your Data and Drive Business Agility
Statistical forecasting is a highly effective way to improve delivery predictions and avoid some traditional estimation problems. In a case study from AgileByExample 2018, by Piotr Leszczynski, he says it can also help you understand and trust your data more, and drive improvements in business agility.
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Google Software Engineering Culture
Several Google engineering practices have been largely adopted across the company until today and still contribute to the company's success. In 2017, a staff software engineer published some of these practices, not limited to software development. Today, Google fosters a team culture of creativity, autonomy, and innovation.
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Highlights from JAFAC 2019 - Day 1: Leadership, Disruption, Ethics, and Social Good
JAFAC (Just Another F&#k!ng Agile Conference) 2019 was held in Wellington, New Zealand on 5 and 6 September, 2019. The conference brings different voices to the fore, avoiding the usual suspects, and also highlighting ways that agile ideas are being applied in a wide variety of contexts. Important themes that emerged were leadership, disruption, ethics and the application of tech for social good
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Creating a Startup outside of Silicon Valley - Q&A with Rachel Carlson of Guild Education
Rachel Carlson spoke at Develop Denver about her decision to create a tech startup outside the expected location in San Francisco. Although the idea was initially met with resistance by her investors, she believes having the headquarters for Guild Education in Denver, Colorado, has provided many benefits.
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Effectiveness or Efficiency: Agile Shouldn't Feel Like a Fight
Have you ever felt like the “agile” you’re advocating for is completely different from the “agile” your organisation or managers wants? If so, you need to stop and reassess, argued Tony O'Halloran in his talk at Agile Business Day 2019. Having a mismatch in these fundamental goals causes stress and anxiety in change agents and can put you in an isolating and lonely place professionally.
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Using VR and AR for Pain Management
Immersive technologies have been used for the past 30 years to treat pain, PTSD, phobia, anxiety, and phantom limb syndrome. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Since we are visual by nature, we can use VR and AR in pain management.
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Changing How We Think about Work-Life Balance
The term “work-life balance” is outdated; what we now associate with work and life are not always the same as they were traditionally, said Jennifer Cox at Women in Tech Dublin 2019. In many cases they overlap or clash from time to time, making it even harder to mentally separate the two. “We have to shift our thinking more towards integration and alignment, than balance,” she argued.