Per a16z, 2024 is the year when enterprises are getting serious about putting generative AI in production. And as I learned a few months ago via an MIT Sloan publication, it’ll be the majority of enterprises. Indeed, according to their published survey results, only about 5% of companies had any sort of GenAI in production […]
How we got started on generative AI Read More »
This is squarely a humblebrag, but I feel compelled to give a shout-out to the JustAnswer R&D Innovators. So Proud CTO Alert (📢) out of the way, I want to shine a big spotlight on the JA R&D team for stunningly inventive demos during our 42nd quarterly hackathon. That’s right, 42! It’s a true testament
Innovation culture and hackathons Read More »
I like industry conferences. Recently, I participated in Agile 2016, held this year in Atlanta. As I reflect on this trip, I’m amazed at how much value I got out of it. I count at least five ways this trip was beneficial. This feeling is consistent with other events I’ve participated in, be it Agile
Why Go To Industry Conferences Read More »
Across all industries, there is a tremendous desire for more innovation. Sadly, companies frequently suffer from a cultural habit that stymies creativity: people play the role of Devil’s advocate in a non-constructive, unidimensional fashion. New ideas face a constant barrage of negativity, and promoting them becomes a Herculean task that discourages but the most intrepid innovator. With
Get More From Your Devil’s Advocate Read More »
All Agile coaches eventually face the stiff headwinds of resistance to change. Counter-intuitively, coaches themselves can trigger some of that resistance by inadvertently performing wide-scale identity theft. It is something I have done, and you may have too. This article explains what identity theft is, provides some concrete examples, and looks at a few approaches
Beware Of Identity Theft During Agile Coaching Read More »
This article is the second of a series of two on boosting the effectiveness of Agile rituals. The first article emphasizes increasing people participation while this article focuses on meeting preparation. Preparation is important because a lack of it can result in long, boring, clumsy, ineffective rituals. Among other things, I think this is partly
Agile Rituals Improved – Preparation Read More »
Let’s face it; many Agile teams are disappointed by how much time they spend in rituals. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it shouldn’t be that way. A team can take many actions to shrink the amount of time it spends in rituals while simultaneously increasing their effectiveness and fostering better
Agile Rituals Improved – Participation Read More »
A fear often associated with self-organizing teams is the potential loss of focus on quality. Indeed, how does an organization ensure it produces a satisfactory level of quality when that responsibility is distributed among teams rather than centralized? Many organizations solve this issue by crafting and abiding by a Definition Of Done, or DoD for
Definition Of Done Mindset Read More »
Executive support is often touted as one of the most important, if not the most important pre-condition for a successful organizational transformation, be it Agile or otherwise. I agree. However, the nature of that support is not frequently defined. Worse still, I believe it is for most part misunderstood, especially by the executives themselves. In
What Executive Support of Agile Means Read More »
Have you ever worked in an organization where there were so many goals and objectives that it was not clear how they should be traded-off against one another when there was a constraint? I have. In fact, most of the organizations I’ve worked in were like that. However, I don’t think it has to be
Visualizing The Goal To Create Alignment Read More »
