What I learned about this week
Small Teams are Better
There’s science behind keeping teams small. Adding one person to a team doesn’t just add 1 more node, but n+1 connections in the team. It’s why adding people late to a project is a recipe for additional delay.
Here’s a visual —
Things get complicated fast. It’s why Bezos is famous for his 2 Pizza Rule. We limit our sprint at Sprintwell to 8 participants. There’s power in small teams.
Conversation > Documentation
This is one of the concepts that underpin agile (if you haven’t read the agile manifesto, though originally meant for software, you should).
Every few weeks I’ll hear someone say, “If we just clarified more upfront, then we’d avoid some messes.” The problem is that with unknown problems, you simply can’t get perfect clarity upfront. A habit of open dialogue can solve for the gaps that will exist even given the best documentation.
Why not to forget that relationships are living things
Dr. Sue Johnson was on The Knowledge Project Ep. #62 talking about fulfilling relationships. Some highlights include:
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Many people have no idea what they want
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We need connection
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Vulnerability shows who we love and who loves us
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Relationships are living things
It’s surprising how easy it is to forget to invest in the relationships that matter most.
What did you learn this week?
Ryan
What I published this week
No videos or articles this week (a few in the works for next week). That said, I’ve found a lot of wonderful conversation being move involved in product/agile conversation on twitter.
@mme_hammond @johncutlefish @berkun Expectations setting is powerful. I love the idea of being upfront about expectations.
I’d rather be on hold for an hour and be aware of how long it’s going to take, then have no idea and only wait 15 minutes. All about the expectation.
@rjs Amazing how many PMs get sucked into thinking overpromising and then trying to do it all is a path to success.
@christianhujer Being a scrum master should be like being a physical therapist. Done right, the team starts pushing themselves. A role that can easily be assumed by a lead dev or PM.
@Leadershipfreak So many creatives would be better if they could find the right partner.