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The Power of a Single Question in Understanding Customer Needs People tend to see their circumstances as more unusual, difficult, or troublesome than anyone else’s. As a result, by asking about their problem, priorities, or responsibilities, you can gain important information about their situation and how they perceive it. Here's one question to learn a lot about your customers. |
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Mob Programming: Working Well Together Mob programming is a whole-team approach to creating software where everyone works together on the same thing at the same computer. It's not a bunch of people watching one person write code, but rather everyone thinking, discussing, designing, and collaborating. Sound crazy? Here's how it improves the quality of code. |
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Thinking Inside the Box before Venturing Outside It In their rush to solve a problem, teams often overlook conventional methods in favor of out-of-the-box ideas. But sometimes, the old standbys—thinking first, reviewing criteria, and asking questions—work the best. Before jumping to creative tactics, start by examining the possibilities readily available inside the box. |
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Analyzing the Software Team Generalist There's a recent trend in having generalists on the software team—there are no developers or testers, only "team members." The idea of the two roles learning from each other is a good one, but it's usually a one-way street: Testers learn to write production code or test tooling, but no one focuses on deep testing. |
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Things Managers Should Never Say Managers have to communicate regularly with the people they're managing. However, managers also need to try harder to be mindful of what they are saying, instead of speaking before they think. Here are some things a manager should never say—avoid these lines and people will be more likely to follow your lead. |
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5 Pitfalls Agile Coaches Must Avoid Successful agile teams often have a coach driving continuous improvement. While some coaches are effective initially, many eventually succumb to pitfalls that inhibit their team’s growth and fail to compel any lasting changes. Here are five common pitfalls of agile coaches in most projects that fail to improve. |
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Why Laughter Is a Sign of Creative, Productive Teams Laughter is a sign that people feel relaxed and safe. In a workplace, safety leads to environments that enable more idea generation and innovation, so one approach to improving teammates' creativity and connection is to encourage laughter. But how can you do that so it doesn't feel forced? Steve Berczuk has some ideas. |
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4 Impediments to Nurturing a Feedback-Rich Culture Being able to have open, candid conversations that fuel learning, growth, and improvement is critical to a team’s success, so it is important to look out for impediments that can get in the way of having a feedback-rich culture. Here are four common impediments to watch for, as well as behaviors you should nurture. |
