#49 - Let's Meet in Person + No Plan is worth spending too much time on
Having gone from working in large global companies, to small (< 30 people) to slightly bigger (< 75) to mid-size(<400), I am starting to explore how we can speed up the decision-making process and keep the team on the right track. These challenges have led me to think about how we get quickly get things done to achieve consensus and drive decision-making.
I have even got into the perfectionist trap, asking for tools to use when I just needed permanent markers, stickies, a whiteboard and a decent camera.
Would definitely recommend understanding Affinity Mapping & this blog on how to identify your top priorities
Also, let’s meet in person @ the YSYS Brunch on 12th May
Let's Build Great Products
An intro to user story mapping
I am sure that you have a shared vision of the positive impact your product is set to have that and ‘Why’ it exists. Moving on its time to think about the 'How’, the more tactical stuff. A really cool way to think about this is, “What are the major steps of using the product?”
From there we can start fleshing things out :)
Sunday Reads
No plan is ever worth busting your arse over
I have worked in a lot of companies that believe they can master planning…they all go over budget and spend longer than they planned. Human beings are painfully difficult to plan around.
Try this though instead. Next time you think you have a plan, call it a “business guess”
Basecamp CoFounder explains it in this 5 min video
Why Planning Wastes Time - YouTube
Here Jason Fried talks about his journey from being a web desiger as a freelancer and how he interviewed at bigger web design firms and met his Co-Founders of 37 Signals.
They were the kind of team that just got shit done rather than thinking about alll the big changes.
His advice is, the best work you will ever do, will be spending tyime solving a need you have yourself.
As Apple says:
“We Love It, We Hope You Like It Too”
Helpful Tool(s)
Affinity Mapping
This solves the problem of helping to generate all the ideas that everyone is thinking about, and tidy up your thinking when we need to come to a consensus.
When would you use it?
After observing from customers; you or your team may use it to help draw out common themes
After conducting interviews you could use it to detect areas where users are frustrated with their current process
The fact is there are many ways to use it, just try it out as a tool and I would love to hear your feedback on how it worked.