Missing a feature - Is Your Mind Open to Your Creative Muse?

Without naming a software tooling I was recently using, I so surprised that it lacked a feature I wanted to use.  So surprised in fact, that I figured another user must have already entered it as a feature enhancement.    When I went to there enhancement request system, I could not find it.  I am active their forum and while I found an active discussion about the feature (and several proposed work-arounds), it is clearly not in the immediate future.  What was I to do?   Further, this was just one step along the way to solving a much larger problem.

After several days wondering what I would do and pondering the work-arounds discussed on the  forum, suddenly a solution to towards the larger problem emerged.   Strange, but I am convinced that if the original feature had existed, I would still be chasing the larger solution

What happened? Three key things that I can think of:

• I thought about more how my feature would have helped with with the larger problem.
• I collaborated with others on the forum to see their struggles and possible solutions.
• My mind continued the work the problem.

What can we theorize about this last point?   My spouse is a special education teacher and statistics show that a "practiced skill" must be repeated 27 times to completed with 80% accuracy.    I no doubt read about 2 dozen solutions on the forum/news group and I am sure my mind worked it at least that many times.

Stuck on a problem?  Seek out others, listen to them, think about what they are saying.   Then let your mind "riff" (27 times) on all of it.

Kanban It Is

Sometime ago, I posted that my team was using a "Wiki Version of a Kanban board".   We had been using this to track multiple code lines with status on builds, testing, and critical issues we had written up.    Re-reading that post now, I realized that a Kanban board would be for an individual release.   I had been using another Wiki page that was a Kanban page of sorts for over 5 years.    This allowed me to do *my* job during that tenure as it was exactly how *I* tracked the release.   As I showed more individuals, it became clear that not everyone thought like I did :-) 

I need a much simpler format (that actually looked like a Kanban board).   With the help of a colleague, we were able to quickly create a new Wiki page that actually is a Kanban board (pictured below).    There is no one that shows up at our daily stand up that is not able to understand "Considering", "Doing", and "Done".    This is  especially true of the release team -- they are much happier when they see everything in the "Done" column.

Is Your Mind Open for the Ridiculous?

A few weeks back, some colleagues of mine went on a visit to a customer.    This customer runs many of our existing products.    One of those colleagues and I had been recently discussing how we notify customers of our changes.    I was describing very excitedly sharing my belief that what I had been doing was some cutting edge/forward thinking on this topic. I was trying to paint a vision, and while this person remembered the vision, they did not know that it was *vision* and mentioned it to the customer as fact.  I got an e-mail as the meeting was taking place.   I was dumb founded that this colleague could not differentiate between fact and fiction -- what a ridiculous thought!

Just as I was thinking how ridiculous the idea was, I suddenly thought of a related idea that was not ridiculous at all.    This idea  did not have a huge fact/fiction delta and is something that we could deliver to our customers in fairly short order.    I would never have come up with this idea unless my colleague had not suggested such a "Ridiculous" idea.   Are you ready for ridiculous?  If not, try and move from a "Fixed Mindset" to a "Growth Mindset".

Old Tools, New Rules

My last few posts have been about relatively "old" technology.   Today I add one more -- the telephone, even if we are not using the "phone" in much different way: more teleconferences, iPhone, Bluetooth devices, etc.   

I have had two recent conference calls where it has become painfully obvious that the individuals have forgotten the polite use of the mute function on any device.    While it understandable that a short conference one can be excused for some background noise and a sigh or heavy breathing (yours truly has been guilty while walking up 12 flights of stairs), the most common offense is typing at a keyboard while having the phone close.   I recently attended a meeting where 75 attendees spent 34 minutes trying to get a conference-ed in attendee to mute their phone.  

Here is some simple advice for both Attendees and hosts:

Attendees:

• Desk phone - mute the phone and have visual a indicator of whether or not you are mute.   Better that you have headset.
• Mobile device -- a head set with a speaker is a *must*.   Mute as needed.
• Join the meeting on time, announce yourself.   If you are late, don't announce yourself.

Hosts:

• Start the meeting on time -- announce who is physically present, take a roll call of those conference-ed in.
• Ensure that physically attendees speak so those on the phone can hear.
• Provide a mobile friendly "1 touch dial" i.e. ",,," to pause where a pass code is required.
• If your attendees aren't "mute friendly", make sure you know how to mute them!

Are you "Dog-Fooding"?

If you are reading this, I am sure the title does not surprise you.     The term was first popularized by Microsoft in the mid 90's.     I had been using the term where I work and I was puzzled that the team thought it was odd.    I continued to use it and one team member posted on the wall the picture below.   I claim no allegiance to the brand depicted, I was just happy the concept had "gotten through").     This immediate feedback loop provided by using your own software has now been dubbed "dogfooding" and is used and understood in Agile circles without hesitation.

Are you dogfooding?   If not why not?   Perhaps it's because your software is not suited to the business that you are in.    However, if your organization can you use your software and you are not using it, what does that so to your customers? You should *find* a way to use your software and be your own customer.    If you start dogfooding, you will will begin to see the beneifits of the immediate feedback that it provides.     Eventually you will find yourself saying to yourself, "Kibbles & Bits, Kibbles & Bits, I'm going to get me some Kibbles & Bits"

From Evernote:

New Tools, Old Rules Part II

In my most recent post, I talked about new social tools and etiquette (read rules/norms).   In the last 24 hours I remembered a very old rule that my father taught me long ago -- first the background.
 My father spent nearly his entire professional life writing and never used anything higher tech that an electric typewriter.   He is pictured below, with even older technology, a manual typewriter cira 1950.   He had one "process rule" that he followed when it came to his writing -- "Write it, sleep on it, re-read it in the morning and make sure you still feel the same way". 

Last night, I read a work e-mail thread before going to bed.  I stayed up feeling the need to respond before going to bed.    I mentally drafted several responses, none of them felt right.   I went to bed and tried to clear my mind.   When I awoke in the morning, there were more messages in the thread (work is global and around the clock today).   I pulled out the iPhone and typed a short, upbeat response before leaving for the office.   It was much different than I had felt the previous night.    When I arrived in the office, the reply was "Great Thank you".    I know the response would have been much different had I sent what was swirling in my mind the night before.

I fear today's "24x7, always on" work mode does not allow us, makes us think we can't take the time, to be thoughtful and introspective. I doubt my father ever envisioned the speed at which e-mail, blogging, micro-blogging, social networks, and mobile devices would have us writing and sharing our thoughts.    I also don't think it would have mattered to him -- "Write, Sleep, Re-read, Send".

New Tools, New Rules -- Old Tools Still Can Be Used Poorly

In a previous post, I talked about the "Serendipitous Power of Social".   I noted that several of my colleagues referred to a new social tool by comparing it to e-mail -- "Oh, I would do this instead of sending you an e-mail".    Since that dialog, there was an interesting event e-mail event where I work.   

It all started innocently enough --- a single individual sending a note to a distribution list, "I am so and so, please add me to your list".    The list in question involved some 3000 employees.    The first several responses were "please remove me from the list".    After roughly half a dozen or so of those responses, came the "Please stop doing Reply-All"    I counted 46 of  those in a matter of 15 minutes.    The number grew so quickly because the folks asking (instructing) to not use "Reply All" did not realize that the distribution list was again being appended to the e-mail.    I  took the time to look up the list owner, and I *almost* forwarded the e-mail to him until I realized what was going on.   So instead I created to have a Help Desk ticket to have the IT department delete/disable the list.The whole event lasted only a few hours, but it was both universally irradiating and humorous. 

It had several folks remembering that a previous CEO had the "Reply All" functionality removed from our mail clients.    He was of course ridiculed for doing this, but most were missing his point -- e-mail has an etiquette.   Hitting "Reply All" and likely adding a few more folks the the ccList that will likely also hit "Reply All" is not good e-mail etiquette.   Is it any wonder we now have movements like #inboxzero and inboxzero.com?

Other tools have etiquette as well newsgroups, and forums politely expect that you will search for the answer to your question before posting and the moderators get irradiated when users don't follow this simple practice.   As more social like tools enter the workplace, Yammer, etc. there will be new rules of etiquette that will be expected as social norms.   Let's all hope that people can learn faster than we have e-mail -- it's only be around for about 2 decades :-)