00:00:00.000
ready for takeoff
00:00:16.920
all right so I think we can go ahead and
00:00:19.260
get started um people might trickle in
00:00:22.740
um I want to thank you all for joining
00:00:24.600
me for this talk today my name is Stacy
00:00:28.019
and I'm a full stack developer and the
00:00:31.199
US product team lead at workforce.com so
00:00:34.500
it's kind of in the name but we build
00:00:36.600
workforce management software uh
00:00:39.420
focusing on shift-based workplaces and
00:00:42.420
we do that primarily using Ruby on Rails
00:00:44.579
as our framework
00:00:45.960
so I work out of our Chicago office
00:00:49.020
and I'm really excited to be here in the
00:00:52.200
warm weather of Houston this week I'm
00:00:54.120
just getting the chance to meet other
00:00:55.140
people in the Ruby community
00:00:59.219
so this is Chicago
00:01:02.699
um
00:01:03.780
and I want to get started today with uh
00:01:07.500
two premises that I think we are going
00:01:09.479
to share in common one is that we all
00:01:12.780
want to ship products and features
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efficiently they're going to deliver
00:01:17.640
value to our users and then two we would
00:01:22.200
love to do that while also providing a
00:01:23.820
great working experience both for
00:01:25.200
ourselves and the teams that we're a
00:01:27.000
part of
00:01:28.560
so these are pretty simple like
00:01:31.680
straightforward goals but they can be
00:01:33.659
hard to achieve there are a lot of
00:01:35.759
external factors that are working
00:01:37.200
against us but we can also end up
00:01:39.659
working against ourselves in particular
00:01:42.479
the processes that we're using to manage
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our workflows
00:01:46.500
um if left unexamined can actually slow
00:01:49.380
us down and prevent us from delivering
00:01:52.799
as much value as we could so the
00:01:56.159
question then is how can we design our
00:01:58.259
processes to both improve customer
00:02:00.780
outcomes and make for a better
00:02:03.240
day-to-day work experience
00:02:05.340
so I'm of the opinion that good
00:02:08.039
processes are like good design when you
00:02:11.700
have really good processes in place you
00:02:13.319
don't really notice them because they
00:02:14.640
are meeting your needs so well
00:02:18.060
um
00:02:18.780
and the processes at that point are not
00:02:20.819
the focus they are the background
00:02:22.319
structure that helps your team achieve
00:02:24.239
its potential
00:02:25.620
so just for today though we are going to
00:02:27.599
bring the processes to the Forefront and
00:02:30.180
I'm going to share what's worked well
00:02:31.440
for the team that I'm a part of and
00:02:34.440
highlight specific aspects of our
00:02:36.239
workflow that help us deliver value and
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make for a happier working environment
00:02:40.800
so across the company we use a project
00:02:43.200
management process called shape up for
00:02:45.959
our Feature work so Shape Up works
00:02:48.180
really well for our team but another
00:02:50.760
framework or methodology might be better
00:02:52.860
for the way that your team operates so
00:02:56.280
um instead of pitching an entire
00:02:57.599
overhaul of your current way of working
00:02:59.220
today we're going to explore three
00:03:01.980
common challenges that Dev teams face
00:03:03.980
and the types of processes that have
00:03:06.900
helped us solve them so as I share about
00:03:09.900
the solutions that have worked well for
00:03:11.640
us at workforce.com I invite you to
00:03:14.400
think about your own team processes and
00:03:17.040
consider how they either support or
00:03:18.900
detract from the goals that we're
00:03:20.340
talking about
00:03:21.360
so specifically we are going to be
00:03:23.760
talking about these three challenges so
00:03:27.239
one how can we move quickly as a team
00:03:30.180
whether we're a smaller team or a larger
00:03:32.879
distributed team
00:03:34.560
two how can we make um work more
00:03:37.800
engaging and provide growth
00:03:40.140
opportunities
00:03:41.340
and then three how can we deliver the
00:03:44.159
most value and know that our work is
00:03:46.080
having an impact
00:03:48.060
so
00:03:49.560
um as I mentioned our team uses the
00:03:52.080
shape up methodology for project
00:03:53.459
management Shape Up was developed by the
00:03:56.519
team at a company called Basecamp and it
00:03:59.580
was built to help their remote team
00:04:01.680
continue moving quickly as it quadrupled
00:04:04.680
in size so if you're really interested
00:04:07.280
in what you hear today I would recommend
00:04:10.500
you check out the free shape up guide
00:04:13.920
that was written by Ryan Singer it's
00:04:15.840
available at that URL on basecamp's
00:04:18.299
website but for now we're just going to
00:04:20.579
focus on the core aspects that of the
00:04:22.740
framework that we use at workforce.com
00:04:24.360
and I'm going to share some additional
00:04:26.520
processes that we've implemented that
00:04:29.580
are going to be unique to our context
00:04:31.860
so
00:04:33.240
um that context is we have three offices
00:04:36.300
spread across three continents
00:04:38.880
we work in six week Cycles followed by a
00:04:43.020
two week cool down period and each each
00:04:46.080
six week cycle is set aside for
00:04:48.360
something called shaped work
00:04:51.120
so shaped work starts as a document
00:04:54.479
called a pitch
00:04:56.220
so a pitch includes several key sections
00:04:59.520
a pitch always starts with a problem
00:05:02.540
having a really clearly defined problem
00:05:05.160
is going to make it easier to evaluate
00:05:07.259
the likely effectiveness of different
00:05:09.960
solutions
00:05:11.240
we at this point typically Define who we
00:05:14.759
are solving the problem for in terms of
00:05:16.800
users because that makes it easier to
00:05:19.080
compare the impact that addressing
00:05:21.060
different problems is going to have
00:05:23.000
from here it's really tempting to jump
00:05:25.560
straight into a solution
00:05:28.220
but we instead next to find something
00:05:31.320
called an appetite
00:05:32.940
so the appetite essentially replaces a
00:05:37.259
time estimate for the problem instead of
00:05:40.560
coming up with a solution and then
00:05:43.919
trying to figure out how long it'll take
00:05:45.780
us to build that solution we determine
00:05:48.479
how long we are willing to dedicate to
00:05:51.360
solving a particular problem
00:05:53.360
the really great thing about appetite is
00:05:56.759
that it provides some boundaries for you
00:05:58.740
as you think about Solutions because if
00:06:01.860
you're only willing to dedicate like two
00:06:03.539
weeks to solving a particular problem
00:06:05.340
Your solution is going to look a lot
00:06:07.199
different than if you're willing to
00:06:08.400
dedicate a full six-week cycle
00:06:10.860
so then comes the solution
00:06:13.320
the main details of the solution are
00:06:16.580
considered and outlined in the pitch but
00:06:20.520
there is still room for the designers
00:06:22.800
and developers actually building it to
00:06:25.139
apply their own expertise
00:06:27.600
so the two elements of the shape up
00:06:29.940
process that help you come up with a
00:06:32.460
viable but not too like concrete
00:06:35.880
solution are fat marker sketches and
00:06:39.300
Tech scoping
00:06:40.800
so in a pitch instead of including a
00:06:43.919
high fidelity mock-up of what we want to
00:06:46.319
build we will include a sketch of the UI
00:06:50.400
drawn with a marker have you ever drawn
00:06:52.500
with a marker you know there's only so
00:06:54.120
much detail that you can get in there
00:06:56.300
and that is what's going to allow that
00:06:58.860
flexibility for your designers and your
00:07:00.780
developers to figure out what this
00:07:03.479
solution could look like once they get
00:07:04.979
into the code
00:07:07.139
um and then with fat marker sketches you
00:07:09.000
also avoid the situation in which you
00:07:11.699
might have a really beautiful High
00:07:13.380
Fidelity mock-up but it's not achievable
00:07:16.139
in the time frame that you're working
00:07:18.419
with
00:07:19.680
so once a solution has been outlined
00:07:23.039
um we have a member of the dev team Tech
00:07:25.440
scope it and that means they're going to
00:07:27.780
take some time to consider the
00:07:29.160
feasibility of the solution from a
00:07:31.199
coding perspective they're going to
00:07:33.720
address questions like is this
00:07:35.639
achievable within a given time frame are
00:07:38.639
there a lot of unknowns that we have or
00:07:41.280
is it pretty clear-cut
00:07:43.080
so once the pages are created
00:07:45.900
they move into something called the
00:07:48.539
betting table so the betting table is
00:07:50.819
made up of the team leads from all of
00:07:53.340
our teams in the office so that's going
00:07:54.840
to be your product team sales
00:07:57.139
implementation for us and they gather
00:08:00.300
about two weeks before our new cycle
00:08:02.099
starts
00:08:03.120
so everyone has had the chance to review
00:08:05.039
the current pitches so we're on the same
00:08:07.020
page and we will talk through how to
00:08:09.840
prioritize the work and which pitches we
00:08:12.960
want to set aside so it's kind of in the
00:08:16.020
name of the talk but when we set aside
00:08:17.880
those pitches they don't go into a
00:08:19.800
backlog and we're going to talk more
00:08:21.780
about why that is in a bit
00:08:24.060
so from here the selected pitches go
00:08:27.300
through a process called handoff this is
00:08:29.280
usually like a one day or a half day
00:08:31.199
activity uh when the dev team members
00:08:34.320
who will actually be working on the
00:08:36.060
pitch get the chance to read through it
00:08:38.520
start exploring the related code
00:08:42.020
outlining steps that they know they're
00:08:44.219
going to need to take to actually build
00:08:45.899
it and then have a chance to chat with a
00:08:48.839
product manager or whoever was working
00:08:50.700
on the pitch to answer any
00:08:53.580
um any questions that might have come up
00:08:55.620
for them
00:08:58.200
so uh then the building starts and will
00:09:03.240
continue for the next six weeks we do
00:09:06.180
not wait for a release date at the end
00:09:08.339
of the cycle we are shipping
00:09:09.720
continuously during the six week period
00:09:12.660
and after the six weeks we move into
00:09:14.940
that cool down period which is mostly a
00:09:17.760
self-directed time for developers and
00:09:20.519
we're going to talk more about that as
00:09:22.500
well
00:09:24.180
so now that we've run through the core
00:09:26.459
elements of the shape up process we're
00:09:27.959
going to go back to those three
00:09:28.980
questions that we started with
00:09:30.959
um beginning with how can our processes
00:09:33.360
help us move more quickly
00:09:35.820
so to be successful in the market we
00:09:39.660
have to move at a pretty steady pace and
00:09:41.880
this can be challenging for smaller
00:09:43.680
teams that are competing against much
00:09:45.600
larger teams and for larger teams that
00:09:48.420
are trying to coordinate maybe across
00:09:49.920
different time zones or different ways
00:09:51.480
of working
00:09:52.740
so we encounter both of those challenges
00:09:55.860
at workforce.com so we need a way of
00:09:59.100
working that's going to let us amplify
00:10:00.720
our work both as a smaller team and as a
00:10:03.480
larger team working across in different
00:10:06.300
countries
00:10:07.440
so for context we have seven developers
00:10:11.220
in our us team one is a hybrid designer
00:10:15.180
developer and then we also have a US
00:10:18.000
product manager so I say we're a smaller
00:10:21.480
team but size is relative you might be a
00:10:25.980
smaller team with 30 people if you are
00:10:28.500
competing against other players in the
00:10:30.300
industry who have maybe two or three
00:10:31.980
times at many staff but regardless of
00:10:35.459
the size of our team we all want to make
00:10:36.899
the most of our resources and the time
00:10:39.180
that we have
00:10:40.320
so one way that we have found to make
00:10:44.279
the most of that time is by carving out
00:10:46.860
these larger chunks of undistracted
00:10:49.320
really focused time for Developers
00:10:52.500
so one of my favorite books that I've
00:10:55.680
read recently is called Deep work it is
00:10:58.019
by Cal Newport he's a Georgetown a
00:11:01.920
computer science professor and in the
00:11:04.800
book he describes the value of being
00:11:07.860
able to focus on a cognitively demanding
00:11:11.160
task
00:11:12.440
for a longer period of time without
00:11:16.019
distractions so he argues that this type
00:11:19.800
of deep work is not only going to boost
00:11:22.440
your productivity but it's actually
00:11:24.360
going to energize you which can make the
00:11:27.360
work experience a lot more meaningful
00:11:29.040
and fulfilling
00:11:30.480
so there are three things that we've
00:11:33.060
found provide more space for deep work
00:11:37.560
one is that we've established the
00:11:39.839
understanding with other teams in the
00:11:41.640
office that once a Cycle's work is
00:11:43.800
selected that's what the dev team is
00:11:45.660
going to be working on
00:11:47.339
so together we have agreed that this is
00:11:50.279
the most important work the team can be
00:11:53.160
doing and we don't want to distract them
00:11:55.019
from it we can always change course
00:11:57.300
again in six weeks and this cross-team
00:12:00.660
agreement is a benefit that comes out of
00:12:03.480
the betting table
00:12:05.040
so being able to focus exclusively on a
00:12:08.519
specific project sounds great but in
00:12:11.820
reality there's going to be unexpected
00:12:13.320
things that come up during that time so
00:12:15.959
we need a way to handle those
00:12:18.240
a lot of teams that use shape up uh also
00:12:22.260
you implement something called a
00:12:24.000
reactive team and this team is
00:12:26.519
responding to those unexpected
00:12:28.320
opportunities and needs so at
00:12:31.800
workforce.com we have one to two team
00:12:34.500
members rotate through this reactive
00:12:36.540
team so that the rest of the team can
00:12:40.140
have that really focused time on the
00:12:42.180
planned work and we found this to work
00:12:44.459
really well
00:12:46.440
so uh third way we look for ways to
00:12:50.399
reduce standing meetings so this is the
00:12:52.980
calendar of one of my co-workers it is
00:12:55.200
pretty typical for our individual
00:12:56.940
contributors
00:12:58.800
um the team is mostly self-directed in
00:13:01.800
setting their own meetings and for some
00:13:04.320
projects it is more useful to have those
00:13:07.800
regular meetings with your stakeholders
00:13:09.360
but oftentimes meetings can be
00:13:11.459
asynchronous Communications
00:13:14.160
um but then when you introduce async
00:13:16.200
Communications there are a lot of
00:13:17.700
different platforms that you can do that
00:13:18.959
on so you might have email you might
00:13:21.240
have gr tickets you might have like
00:13:23.880
direct messaging and it can require
00:13:26.279
frequent context switching to move
00:13:28.440
between those platforms so to try and
00:13:31.740
limit the context switching that our
00:13:33.779
team and especially our Dev team members
00:13:35.940
have to do members of other teams at our
00:13:39.180
company so product management
00:13:41.120
implementation have learned to use
00:13:43.500
GitHub so that they can comment directly
00:13:46.139
on the relevant PRS and so that has the
00:13:50.519
added benefit of we have most of the
00:13:52.560
information around a particular feature
00:13:55.079
in one spot for future reference
00:13:59.160
so um that is kind of like how a small
00:14:03.000
smaller team operates
00:14:05.100
um but what do you do when you're a
00:14:06.959
larger distributed team
00:14:09.600
uh because you when you're working
00:14:13.440
um with a larger distributed team like
00:14:15.360
you might run into merge conflicts and
00:14:17.519
people have different ways of operating
00:14:19.680
so how can you find alignment with that
00:14:22.380
so there are two things that we have
00:14:25.440
found helpful
00:14:27.000
uh one is having that predictable start
00:14:31.139
and end dates to the shape Cycles allows
00:14:33.540
us to align our schedules across our
00:14:35.639
offices and this is especially valuable
00:14:38.279
as we are choosing what we want to work
00:14:40.500
on so that we don't end up making
00:14:43.139
significant changes to the same area of
00:14:45.839
the code base
00:14:47.100
and then two we have that shared rhythm
00:14:50.339
of six weeks of shaped work two weeks of
00:14:53.040
cool down uh but the way that the
00:14:56.160
individual teams use that time is left
00:14:58.980
up to the individual offices and then
00:15:01.800
project teams within those offices so
00:15:04.500
that people have flexibility in choosing
00:15:06.899
a way of working that really suits them
00:15:12.060
so if you're starting from a point where
00:15:14.639
team members have these larger chunks of
00:15:17.040
undistracted Time how do you make that
00:15:19.440
time really engaging and productive
00:15:22.040
you've probably heard of the term Flow
00:15:24.660
State it refers to times when you're
00:15:27.600
really when you're fully immersed in a
00:15:29.820
task you're not struggling
00:15:32.160
um to focus on the task at hand you're
00:15:34.320
not struggling against self-referential
00:15:36.480
thoughts
00:15:38.100
um you're just really focused and if
00:15:39.959
you've experienced this uh type of Flow
00:15:43.199
State you know that it's a really
00:15:44.579
productive sometimes even fun place to
00:15:47.519
be in and it ties back to that idea of
00:15:50.220
deep work that we are talking about
00:15:52.279
where your work is really engaging
00:15:55.260
so for me achieving a flow State can be
00:15:59.160
difficult so I want to set myself up to
00:16:01.500
focus as best I can
00:16:03.360
in learning about Flow State I came
00:16:05.699
across the author Stephen Cotler who is
00:16:09.540
known for his research into Human
00:16:11.220
Performance and the factors involved in
00:16:14.160
achieving this Flow State
00:16:16.380
so he says that we are more likely to
00:16:18.480
experience a high level of focus and
00:16:21.000
engagement when the task that we are
00:16:22.980
working on is just a touch harder and
00:16:26.760
more challenging than our current skill
00:16:28.500
level
00:16:29.220
so that's our ideal state but in reality
00:16:32.519
we're often tackling work that we've
00:16:34.800
never done before that stretches us a
00:16:37.560
lot further than our current skill level
00:16:40.259
so this can be particularly true for
00:16:42.420
people who are just starting out in
00:16:44.339
their software development career or
00:16:46.980
just joining a new team
00:16:49.440
at workforce.com we have hired people
00:16:52.980
who are fresh out of boot camp and fresh
00:16:55.139
out of computer science programs we are
00:16:57.720
also a growing team which means we've
00:16:59.820
onboarded a number of new people in the
00:17:02.279
past year so we are often working on
00:17:05.160
projects that stretch us and we need a
00:17:07.799
way to try and close this skill to
00:17:09.839
challenge ratio so that the team is
00:17:12.120
going to feel engaged and is making
00:17:13.799
progress and they're not feeling stuck
00:17:15.959
and like they're just spinning their
00:17:17.220
wheels so we can't typically make a task
00:17:20.280
any easier but we can help the team
00:17:23.220
level up their skills
00:17:26.459
so one way that we've done this at
00:17:28.439
workforce.com is to build an
00:17:30.299
opportunities to work in pairs in small
00:17:32.580
groups this is going to provide you with
00:17:34.740
that context or provide you with someone
00:17:37.620
else who has the same context as you
00:17:39.539
which is going to be really valuable
00:17:41.760
when you need to bounce ideas off
00:17:43.740
someone
00:17:44.700
and as you're working closely with other
00:17:46.500
people you are learning other ways of
00:17:49.260
solving problems you are learning how to
00:17:52.320
communicate more challenging technical
00:17:54.960
Concepts and ask really precise
00:17:57.179
questions which is going to be a skill
00:17:59.220
that benefits you at any level
00:18:02.820
um and this type of paired working has
00:18:05.340
been especially helpful as we've
00:18:08.160
onboarded new team members every member
00:18:11.340
of your team regardless of their skill
00:18:13.020
level is going to have more experience
00:18:14.880
with your processes and your code base
00:18:17.100
than someone who's coming in fresh so
00:18:20.039
they can really help newcomers ramp up
00:18:23.100
we've found that working in at least
00:18:26.220
pairs on our shaped work has the added
00:18:28.919
benefit of making it easier to get
00:18:30.900
timely code review because you have
00:18:33.660
someone else who has the same contacts
00:18:35.520
so they can offer that relevant feedback
00:18:37.380
more easily and they have an equal
00:18:39.480
investment in moving the work forward
00:18:42.539
so along with Hands-On learning we've
00:18:45.240
found it valuable to set up
00:18:47.760
a set aside specific times for skill
00:18:51.360
building as I mentioned earlier the last
00:18:54.240
few weeks of every cycle uh are our
00:18:58.260
cooldown period and the cooldown period
00:19:01.500
as I mentioned is
00:19:03.240
um
00:19:03.780
more developer driven meaning that team
00:19:06.480
members can choose how they spend that
00:19:08.820
time and for newer does it can be an
00:19:12.059
opportunity to build skills and
00:19:15.179
knowledge that are that they know they
00:19:16.860
will need for the next cycle maybe take
00:19:19.260
a course pick up a bug fix that's going
00:19:21.539
to expose them to a new area of the code
00:19:23.700
base and then for the more experienced
00:19:26.340
members of the team it offers a chance
00:19:28.919
to work on projects that they find
00:19:31.140
personally interesting and exciting and
00:19:34.679
I really enjoy seeing what people take
00:19:36.419
on during cooldown a lot of team members
00:19:39.720
will experiment with like proofs of
00:19:41.760
concept for like new ways of doing
00:19:43.320
things someone built a QA tool recently
00:19:46.799
that is benefiting both our product and
00:19:48.720
our implementation team
00:19:51.600
and the results of this South German
00:19:54.840
learning can then be Amplified when we
00:19:57.299
share what we learn with the team and
00:19:59.460
there are a couple ways that we do that
00:20:00.840
one is that the US product team will
00:20:03.419
take two Retreats every year we treat
00:20:06.059
these kind of as many conferences so
00:20:08.940
everyone on the team will prepare a
00:20:11.940
lightning talk of around like 10 minutes
00:20:13.940
on a topic related to our Tech stack so
00:20:17.820
they are getting the chance to kind of
00:20:19.140
dive in deep and then they're sharing
00:20:20.760
that with their co-workers
00:20:23.400
and it's a really great way to highlight
00:20:25.559
the value that everyone brings to the
00:20:27.419
team because we all have our different
00:20:29.160
interests and our different areas of
00:20:31.140
expertise
00:20:32.580
along with the Retreats uh every two
00:20:35.340
weeks we will have an organization-wide
00:20:37.799
engineering talk these are video chats
00:20:40.980
that are more specifically focused on
00:20:42.840
our code base and it might be one to two
00:20:46.620
people presenting on a technical
00:20:49.020
challenge that they've solved how they
00:20:51.600
have approached it it might be best
00:20:54.480
practices for using a new tool that
00:20:56.880
we've added and we found this especially
00:20:59.580
useful as the offices have grown because
00:21:03.059
it's a way of sharing that institutional
00:21:04.799
knowledge that you can't really get
00:21:06.840
anywhere else
00:21:08.340
so
00:21:09.780
um we've explored some of the practices
00:21:11.160
around engagement and upskilling
00:21:14.220
um we're going to move on to talking
00:21:15.539
about how those process how our
00:21:18.000
processes can help us deliver the most
00:21:20.880
value that we can for our users
00:21:23.460
so there are always going to be more
00:21:26.280
opportunities to add value than we have
00:21:28.559
time for so we need a way to kind of
00:21:32.159
compare and prioritize them
00:21:35.280
so when we consider adding value you can
00:21:38.340
think about it in terms of effort and
00:21:40.320
impact when we are at the betting table
00:21:43.140
we focus on taking big bets and knocking
00:21:46.860
out those easy wins and then we're also
00:21:49.260
looking for ways that we can get
00:21:51.480
customer feedback early so we're making
00:21:53.520
sure we're staying on the right course
00:21:56.520
so one example of a big bet that we took
00:22:00.179
recently
00:22:01.559
um was earlier this year we decided to
00:22:04.140
entirely rebuild our mobile app
00:22:06.380
our app was originally built using react
00:22:09.419
native but the US team spent a couple
00:22:12.299
Cycles recreating the app in rails and
00:22:15.179
then we added Hotwire for that layer of
00:22:17.940
interactivity
00:22:19.320
so it's an interesting case study
00:22:21.299
because we could have spent that time
00:22:22.740
adding new features instead of changing
00:22:25.679
up our Tech stack but we took the bet
00:22:28.080
that adding hot wire would make it would
00:22:31.260
make us more competitive in the long run
00:22:33.419
because we'd be able to ship more
00:22:35.520
quickly as a team and then get the
00:22:38.460
updates in the hands of our users faster
00:22:42.299
so the mobile app rebuild highlighted
00:22:45.480
for me the ways The Shape Up methodology
00:22:48.059
makes it easier to identify the most
00:22:50.640
important work to be done and then
00:22:52.440
actually ship that work
00:22:54.299
so to begin we knew this we didn't want
00:22:57.360
the mobile app rebuild to be an extended
00:22:59.539
uh project and the appetites for the
00:23:03.000
various features in the mobile app
00:23:04.320
reflected that
00:23:05.940
to limit time investment we initially
00:23:08.700
focused on achieving parity so we
00:23:10.980
weren't adding like new bells and
00:23:12.480
whistles
00:23:13.880
and setting an appetite really uh helps
00:23:18.900
us focus and you know helped us focus on
00:23:21.000
delivering value because
00:23:24.059
it builds in checkpoints for making sure
00:23:26.700
that what you are working on is still
00:23:29.340
going to be useful for your users if
00:23:32.280
something doesn't get done within the
00:23:33.960
given appetite we don't work on it by
00:23:36.900
default in the next cycle it has to go
00:23:39.780
through that pitching and betting
00:23:41.340
process again where it's going to get
00:23:43.320
compared against other opportunities
00:23:45.059
that have come up
00:23:46.700
and that means that we do not maintain a
00:23:50.520
backlog each cycle is going to start
00:23:53.580
with a clean slate
00:23:56.280
so for devs that means there's not a
00:23:58.860
long list of unrelated tasks at the back
00:24:02.700
of your mind that are competing for your
00:24:04.440
attention
00:24:05.360
compared to what you're currently
00:24:07.200
working on and there's a really clear
00:24:09.240
goal line at the end of each cycle that
00:24:11.460
makes it easier to track your progress
00:24:14.159
the mobile app also reflected the
00:24:17.580
importance of iteration in delivering
00:24:19.919
value
00:24:21.059
so iteration is not unique to the shape
00:24:24.179
up process but it is really baked in
00:24:27.000
uh Shape Up encourages focusing on
00:24:29.940
vertical slices of work so that your
00:24:33.120
users can get the basic job done the
00:24:36.480
common example is if your user is trying
00:24:38.940
to get from point A to point B you might
00:24:42.299
ultimately want to build in a car but
00:24:44.039
you start by building them a skateboard
00:24:46.140
so that while you're building them the
00:24:48.480
car they can still get that basic job
00:24:50.580
done
00:24:51.960
so for the mobile app work iteration
00:24:54.539
meant focusing on parity so that our
00:24:57.840
users could at least accomplish the same
00:24:59.580
tasks as they could with the old app we
00:25:03.299
tried to strip in vertical slices
00:25:05.419
because of the benefits it provides so
00:25:09.419
one it allows you to get feedback from
00:25:14.039
your actual users on the first iteration
00:25:16.740
before you move on to the second one and
00:25:19.440
then two since you've built something
00:25:21.059
that is a complete unit of work you have
00:25:24.419
the freedom to move on to something else
00:25:26.820
should another opportunity come up
00:25:28.919
that's going to be more valuable for you
00:25:32.940
so for our team we chose to iterate a
00:25:36.299
second cycle and we were able to inform
00:25:38.520
our decisions in that cycle based on
00:25:40.559
feedback that we collected from the
00:25:42.419
actual product
00:25:44.460
so you now know the basics of the shape
00:25:47.820
up process you identify problems you
00:25:51.480
pitch Solutions and then you bet on the
00:25:54.419
most valuable problems to solve and
00:25:56.940
you've also heard about what's worked
00:25:58.380
well for us at workforce.com
00:25:59.900
particularly ways that we are trying to
00:26:02.039
shape our processes around moving
00:26:04.200
quickly
00:26:05.120
building an engaging work environment
00:26:07.740
and then prioritizing the most important
00:26:09.900
work
00:26:10.679
so I am hoping that this has maybe
00:26:12.840
sparked some thoughts for you about your
00:26:14.940
own work experience and maybe
00:26:17.460
highlighted some opportunities to try
00:26:19.440
something new or maybe rethink something
00:26:21.240
that isn't working as well
00:26:23.700
and going back to that idea that we
00:26:25.440
started with
00:26:27.120
um the processes are meant to be the
00:26:29.520
background they're not our focus when
00:26:32.640
you boil down what our work is our work
00:26:35.580
isn't about following a particular
00:26:37.460
methodology it is about the people that
00:26:41.279
we are working with the people that we
00:26:43.740
are building our products for and that
00:26:46.440
shared big picture goal of delivering
00:26:49.260
value while having a pretty pretty
00:26:51.900
enjoyable time doing it thank you
00:27:00.179
and we do have a table in the food room
00:27:03.720
I'm not sure what it's called
00:27:05.700
um so if you want to come by and talk
00:27:07.200
more I'd love to chat with you and we
00:27:10.260
have quite a few members of our team
00:27:11.580
here so if you want another perspective
00:27:13.340
on what the shape up process is like you
00:27:15.900
could chat with one of them
00:27:22.740
um we have a couple minutes so does
00:27:24.299
anyone have any questions
00:27:26.880
that's a great question and so
00:27:29.279
um he asked like with our reactive team
00:27:31.500
how do we Define what the reactive Team
00:27:33.480
Works on versus what is going through
00:27:35.400
the pitch process
00:27:37.020
so we have actually been having an
00:27:39.659
internal discussion about this recently
00:27:42.299
um we are
00:27:44.400
trying to uh
00:27:46.679
make the reactive team kind of exclusive
00:27:49.020
to work that we don't anticipate so it
00:27:52.860
might be an opportunity that we didn't
00:27:55.200
know about at the beginning of the cycle
00:27:58.440
um or maybe there is a way that we can
00:28:01.500
improve a future that a customer like
00:28:03.360
told us about
00:28:05.100
um and kind of saving it for that type
00:28:06.960
of work
00:28:08.820
uh so the question is uh what if you're
00:28:11.640
working on something that is going to be
00:28:13.380
longer take more time than a six-week
00:28:15.659
cycle uh do we always stick to that six
00:28:18.179
weeks so the way we approach larger
00:28:21.179
pieces of work
00:28:22.740
um the mobile app is kind of an example
00:28:24.360
for that we look for ways that we can
00:28:27.299
take something big and break it down
00:28:29.640
into smaller vertical slices so and ship
00:28:34.620
things kind of incrementally
00:28:37.500
um so that we can still accomplish those
00:28:41.580
those big bets uh but not necessarily be
00:28:46.140
tied up in it and overly committed to
00:28:49.679
something because there's always the
00:28:51.120
possibility that we're going in a
00:28:53.279
direction
00:28:54.779
um and something could change the value
00:28:56.940
of that direction so we want to be able
00:28:58.620
to remain flexible
00:29:00.360
all right um any other questions
00:29:04.860
awesome well thank you all for coming
00:29:06.900
today I really appreciate it