If you use social media sites, you're probably familiar with email or push notifications when certain types of content are shared. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are setting a bad example when adding a new type of content. They introduce new notifications for the content - which defaults to ON. You'll normally find out about the new content when you start getting … [Read more...] about Notifications: don’t follow what social media giants do
Product management
Let’s talk about value, not priority
In one of the first posts on this blog, I wrote about How to prioritise when everything is a priority. In the post, I suggested picking out the risks, dependencies, and biggest stories to work on first. However, this is more of a practical approach to unblocking future work. Crucially, the post assumes you’ve already made sure that the stories belong on the backlog in the … [Read more...] about Let’s talk about value, not priority
Talk more about product, less about process
This blog has recently covered a series of tips on agile development, rather than product management tips. My view is that if you have a good understanding of agile ways of working, you’ll have a better appreciation of how you can work with a product team to get great results. If a product team starts talking about process a lot, this can be a sign that the process isn’t … [Read more...] about Talk more about product, less about process
Epics should be completable
An epic is sometimes described as a large user story which is too big to fit into a sprint. There’s also a similar definition: epics can span multiple sprints. But if an epic is just a big story (“it’s so big, it’s epic!”) and it can span many sprints, shouldn’t we break it down? Is it still a story? Shouldn’t we aim to complete all the stories by the end of the … [Read more...] about Epics should be completable
Why sprint goals matter
To keep a team interested and motivated in their work, you need to give them something to care about. If your backlog has enough stories to fill 10 sprints, it can be tempting to queue up all the work and ask the team to get started. But that’s treating the team like a feature factory. They may feel the only important thing is getting the job done, and it doesn’t matter … [Read more...] about Why sprint goals matter