agile PM blog
This blog captures Luke Hohmann’s freshest thoughts about Agile, product management, building great software, and the many events/meetings that he is invited to. For those who have not met Luke in person, here’s a sample of what you can expect. Or contract him at lhohmann (at) enthiosys (dot) com.
- The METS Center — A great place to host events in Cincinnati
Last week (4/26/07) I taught a two-day class on Innovation Games® at the METS Center in Erlanger, KY. Serving the greater Cincinnati area, I found the METS center one of the finest facilities I’ve ever used for a training and/or game. The staff was friendly—and helpful. The food was excellent. Most importantly, the facilities were tremendous...
- OOP 2007 Conference Feedback
OOP 2007 Conference Feedback – I gave a tutorial and a keynote at the SIGS-DATACOMM OOP Conference in January. I was really honored to be asked to speak at this conference, as it was my first ever invitation to speak in Europe. The trip was a bit challenging because of the terrible weather, but the German people were so warm and inviting that I felt right at home...
- ONE MORE TIME: You’ve Got To Talk With Customers
I was visiting a client of Enthiosys to discuss Agile Software Development practices and during the meeting my client mentioned that her company had recently created a New Product Development / Ideation group. I looked at the wall and noticed an ideation process map and asked if that map was how this group intended to work...
- Weekly Project Tracking in Agile Projects
One of the great virtues of agile methods is that they provide near real-time feedback into the status of the project. At the end of the iteration (or sprint) you know exactly where you stand, and you know which items from your iteration / release backlog have reached the “Done, Done” status of potentially releasable software...
- Agile 2006 Conference Feedback
Here is the feedback I received from the Agile 2006 Conference. This is the entire email I received. ———————————————————————————————- Dear Luke, Please find below the feedback on your tutorial at Agile2006...
- QRCA 2006 Conference Feedback
A few posts ago I advocated open evaluation of conference speakers. Since then, I’ve received more evaluation forms from conferences where I’ve been a speaker. Here is the first, from the QRCA Conference. I had a great time at this conference, and really do hope that I can attend and speak again in 2007. I received the evaluation in the mail and scanned the entire document here
- The Zen of Agile Product Development
One of the phrases that Enthiosys consultants use is “The Zen of Agile”. Although the meaning of Zen is associated with Buddhism, we don’t mean this to mean someone who has become a “religious” convert or zealot for Agile Product Development...
- Market Maturity and Business Model Choices
The maturity of your target market is one of the strongest influences on the selection and management of a given business model. In the early phases of a given market, business models should be chosen so that they can be quickly and easily understood, primarily because you may not be certain of the best way to structure them...
- Innovation Games at JavaRanch
Innovation Games® is being discussed at in the Agile and Other Processes forum at JavaRanch. There are some interesting posts—come join the fun
- Open Evaluation of Conference Speakers
I speak at a lot of conferences. Part of my job. For quite some time I’ve been promoting the idea that conferences should provide open rating systems of the speakers. This way you could have the prior feedback of other conference participants to help you decide if you should listen to someone speak. Of course, the idea isn’t perfect or foolproof...
- Ikea and a Stunning Example of Confusing and Poor Service
In a few weeks Enthiosys is going to be conducting several Innovation Games at the PDMA National Conference (you’re coming, right?). We’ve got a 10×20 booth at the conference, and a great wall space for playing games. The challenge that we’re facing is creating our first booth...
- QRCA 2006 Conference
I attended the annual QRCA conference last week. I was referred to the QRCA by Susan Abbott, an earlier reviewer of Innovation Games and a member of the QRCA. She suggested that I submit a talk. I did, and it was accepted. I was both thrilled, and frankly, a little anxious...
- Get Your Team in the Room
One of the debates that people engaging in market research have is whether or not the research team should be in the room with customers during the research or behind the glass in a specially designed focus group facility. This is one of the classic cases of “it depends”...
- Doug Englebart and Slashdot
Saw a post on slashdot about Doug Englebart’s Hyperscope being launched. If you haven’t ever watched the original videos of Doug demonstrating his work in 1968, you should. It is pretty amazing stuff. Don Nielson from SRI presented them at our 2005 Enthiosys Customer Appreciation Day. You can see them at http://www.enthiosys.com/evt-ecad2005.php. Very cool.Â
- LinkedIn email Blasts and The Danger and Opportunity of Using Cool Features in Unintended Ways
A few days ago I received an email from a friend announcing his new job as CTO of a startup company . Except the email didn’t come from my friend. It came from LinkedIn, via a feature that allows LinkedIn users to announce new jobs. Very cool, and very useful...
- Invention, Innovation, and Creating Great Products
My new book, Innovation Games, hits store shelves on Sept 1st. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about the publication of the book and encouraged by ongoing debates about the source of invention, innovation, and how these are harnessed to create great products. Let’s start with two recent posts about Innovation...
- Better Software Conference Keynote
Yesterday I gave my first keynote at the Better Software Conference. The topic was “The Complete Developer”. As you might expect, I used Innovation Games to help me prepare for the talk. It was a fun experience, and the conference was held in Vegas, which means that there is pretty much something for everyone. I’ll post more about the conference soon
- Systems That Explain Their Behavior Are Better For Users
It happened again. Wells Fargo, my bank, put an inexplicable hold on a check I deposited from a client. And I’m pretty frustrated by the whole experience precisely because of a single word in that last sentence. Inexplicable. Sometimes the hold is placed on a check. Sometimes it isn’t...
- dcamp and Innovation Games
Stacie Hibino and Rashmi Sinha invited me to attend (and sponsor, which Enthiosys did dcamp, the unconference on design and user experience. Everyone was quite gracious and let me talk about Innovation Games the first thing in the morning. It was a well attended session, and several people had a lot of fun playing the Innovation Gamesm Product Box...
- MIT Still Uses Chalk!
For those of you reading my blog, sorry for the long delay. We moved the blog from enthiosys.com to lukehohmann.com, and had some technical challenges in the process. I appear to be back online. My wife and I were talking about chalkboards a few weeks ago, and discussing the pros/cons of the large scale conversion to whiteboards...
- Wells Fargo, CRUD, and Road Maps in Agile Development
I’ve been a Wells Fargo customer since 2003, more than three years since the writing of this post, and generally, I’m satisfied with their online banking services. But, there are a few things that they get really wrong that just irk me...
- Role of the The Software Architect
A client in the process of adopting Agile / IID development practices recently asked me to meet with them to discuss the role of the architect. The concern is that some Agile approaches appear to devalue the role of the traditional architect...
- Wooden on Leadership & The Name Enthiosys
Everyone at Enthiosys is eventually asked about our name. “Where does the name ‘Enthiosys’ come from? What does it mean?” We respond by telling them that the name comes from the Greek word “enthios”, which means ‘motivated by the spirit within’. Enthios is also the root for the word enthusiasm...
- Do Agile Teams Need Maintenance Organizations?
I’ve been helping some clients grapple with the role of the maintenance team in Agile-IID. I’m finding it a very fascinating topic, because it is allowing me to challenge many of my deeply held beliefs about creating effective software. To help me consider this topic better I thought I’d blog about it...
- Handshakes and Contracts
I recently read an article (I think in Fast Company) quoting Penn of Penn & Teller that he never does business with anyone he can’t trust with a handshake. I really agree with this. I just closed a deal for some additional work with an executive of a division of Emerson Electric via an email handshake...