Alistair Cockburn - Designing Quality of Life

Explicit content warning

09/20/16 • 79 min

Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

Writing the introduction to a podcast interview with Dr. Alistair Cockburn is not a simple thing. He is the co-author of the Agile Manifesto and the author of numerous books on Agile, Use Cases and Object Oriented Programming. There is also his work with Crystal and now with the Heart of Agile. He’s contributed a significant body of material around the topic of how we work. While this interview touches on most of the above, the primary focus of the interview is around a simple question with a complex answer: How can you design a lifestyle that is based on continually examining and enhancing the quality of your life. The interview is a long one, but is filled with volumes of advice and wisdom on how to build a professional life that supports the level of quality you want to achieve in your personal life. The information will be especially valuable for anyone working on consulting. For those who are pressed for time, I’ve created detailed show notes below so you can jump to a specific portion if you need to and you can find them here: http://bit.ly/2cjamVJ If you would like to learn more about Alistair Cockburn, check out http://alistair.cockburn.us. If you’d like to follow Alistair on Twitter, you can find him at https://twitter.com/TotherAlistair If you’d like to learn more about Heart of Agile, check out http://heartofagile.com If you’d like to check out the Facebook Live conversation between Alistair and Nic Sementa, try http://bit.ly/2cESM57

Previous Episode

How to Write a User Story for Marketing w/ Nic Sementa and Alistair Cockburn

Nic Sementa from the Agile Marketing Academy joins me in this podcast to share his thoughts on how to craft User Stories that will work for marketing. Nic's thoughts and opinions on this topic are heavily influenced by his marketing background, which, as he points out in the interview, is a little unique since most of the conversations on the topic are led by agile practitioners. During the interview Alistair Cockburn joined in the conversation to offer his expert advice and guidance on the subject. Alistair is one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, the creator of the Crystal methods, leading voice on Use Cases and the man behind the Heart of Agile. (There is lots more - you can find it all at http://alistair.cockburn.us/ ) Show Notes: 00:38 Nic’s background and the challenges faced by Marketing that Agile could help with 4:27 Putting Agile together with Marketing 5:52 User Stories from a Marketers perspective 6:52 The historical challenges involved with “marketing” to the customer as opposed to engaging directly with the customer to find out what they need 8:00 How coercing your customer to buy leads to the marketing equivalent of technical debt 8:50 Googling Agile Marketing 9:20 The corporate world is high school with ashtrays 10:00 Why marketing needs a new language framework for Agile 10:57 Apology to the Band Geeks (which Dave is) 11:30 Revenue impact of implementing Agile Marketing Techniques 11:52 How User Stories change in Agile Marketing 12:33 Personas and more 13:33 Developing a deeper understanding of the User and his/her pain points 14:03 MadMen in Reverse is not going to help you understand the “ideal customer” 15:14 Marketing Research 16:10 There is no such thing as offline marketing 17:52 Recap of the Marketing User Story Guidance 18:57 Let’s get al Skynet with this thing! 20:00 Special Guest Alistair Cockburn on Agile Marketing User Stories 25:55 Abstract thinkers vs. concrete thinkers 28:05 Alistair’s visual grammar version of User Stories 35:33 Where to learn more about the Agile Marketing Academy and how to reach Nic Some Links: For more on the Agile Marketing Academy you can go to their Certification site http://www.agilemarketingcertification.com or send them an email at [email protected]. You can reach Nic on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/nicsementa

Next Episode

Jukka Lindstrom - The Transformation Will Be Digitized

One of the great benefits I have had through volunteering for the Scrum Alliance has been the opportunity to work with a long list of inspiring and brilliant people. At the top of that list is Jukka Lindstrom. Jukka is someone who’s approach to exploring and solving problems is so different from my own that I felt like every time we collaborated on something, I got better at what I was doing just by working with him. A few years ago Jukka left his job as an Agile Coach and Trainer and started working full time with traditional organizations. At the start of 2016 he joined Cargotec to head up their Digital Transformation effort. If you think Agile Transition is hard, consider that it is only a small part of the transformation of digitizing a global organization with 11,000 people who are used to working in an analog world. In the first part of the interview Jukka and I talk about the work he’s been doing since leaving Reaktor and what it’s like trying to transform a company of 11,000 people to not just Agile, but a digitized way of working as well. Leaving the Agile Consulting world to go back into a traditional environment is a brave choice, but for Jukka, it presented an opportunity to test out what he had learned and see if he could help. While it has provided him with great learning experiences, it has also come with some tough moments. In the second part of the interview we focus on how what that career transition has been like and how he has avoided getting trapped in the doldrums when he is faced with working in a more traditional environment. Show Notes 00:09 Interview Begins 00:57 Jukka’s role at Cargotec and what the company does 02:37 The difference between Agile Transformation and Digital Transformation 07:36 The complexity of transformation at Cargotec 08:44 Why is this level of transformation so much harder than basic Agile transformation 10:10 The mindset shift 11:54 Placing a bet on technology when you don’t know exactly what you’ll be able to do with the result yet 13:00 transforming11,000 people ... “that’s like 1,200-1,500 teams of people” 15:00 Where do you learn faster? Working in software or more traditional (manufacturing) companies 17:15 Becoming an Agile Bodhisattva 17:52 When you walk back into the waterfall, doesn’t it kinda suck? And how do you stay inspired? 19:45 Realizing that the reason you feel stuck is because you aren’t being true to yourself 22:37 How to avoid playing the victim and taking ownership of your own learning and joy 24:30 “I’m not having fun... why am I doing this?” 25:27 If you can’t find fun in what you’re doing, you’re doing the wrong thing 25:55 Things Jukka does outside of work that helps him stay engaged and learning while he is at work 27:00 MIT’s ULab Links from the Interview Cargotec Website: http://www.cargotec.com Singapore Cargo Port Timelapse Video https://youtu.be/HrZg96L8yaY MIT’s ULab Course https://www.edx.org/course/u-lab-leading-emerging-future-mitx-15-671-1x Leading from the Emerging Future by Otto Scharmer http://amzn.to/2dJJ1TL Reaktor https://reaktor.com If you’d like to contact Jukka LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jukkalindstrom Twitter https://twitter.com/jukka_lindstrom