Weeknotes: S02 E05

Taking shape

I’m often surprised at how a week can feel oppressive or hard to cope with, but then lifts at the end to see you into the weekend, leaving me with only positive thoughts about it.

Having said that, I do remember ending work on Tuesday feeling so bruised that I just had to sit with a hand over my eyes until the world stopped spinning.

What did I learn about Agile this week?

We’re getting closer to how we want to work as a Core Product team, with three stages to story refinement now fully in play (backlog, tech and team). I’m still a little torn between the need to make stories better and the need to get stuff on the board to work on quickly, but the value is starting to show.

As a product owner not only do I now understand what I’m looking at, as we’ve talked it through at those refinement stages, but also its relative priority. Still more to do on that front though. We’re also starting to shift the balance from just technical debt and meeting urgent needs into delivering new features.

I was both excited and nervous about committing ideas I’ve had (and we’ve discussed as a team) to Jira this week to take into next week’s round of refinement discussions. Some of these features are things we pushed for while I was at Dorset, so I know their value from a day-to-day use perspective. One is a pet project I’ve been banging on about since before even starting at Placecube.

It also felt like I’d started wearing my Product Pants (finally) when I felt I had to push back on a discussion in the team refinement session where it dipped into questioning the need for one of the features over talking about how we implement it.

Also, my first retro with the team since I started. Love that our delivery manager added ‘things to celebrate’ as well, as we’d just pushed out a critical release which saw everyone pulling together and a real sense of celebration when it got the green light. You can’t bottle feelings like that! Some nice feedback from our CEO was also really welcomed at the next day’s standup.

Working with customers

LOTS of customer time again this week. I’d almost forgotten I’d committed to three training sessions this week, two with a customer I’d not met before. I love the interaction, and when I’m able to answer a question confidently, but I have to be honest: I can’t wait for our new trainer to arrive so it can be done more professionally. I think I’m on safer ground where I can talk about the practical side of implementation, or in qualifying perceived risks.

I also feel I work best where I can develop a relationship with a customer quickly so there’s some mutual trust. Back in my Best Value Review days I used to call it ‘buying my shooting licence’ as it often meant using that position of trust to have difficult conversations about performance or spend. Now it’s far more about understanding and solving problems, or making recommendations based on experience.

A good example of that this week was a short notice request for a meeting with a customer (just me) without knowing what the subject was. When I was able to give a quick and practical answer to the issue raised I was on a real high for the rest of the day.

The week was really dominated with me trying to respond to a set of requirements from a customer in a quicker time than we’d ideally like. But after some great input from others, and kind words from colleagues, I felt a little bit proud of what I ended up with. It led to a good, honest conversation and (fingers crossed) a positive outcome.

Quick thoughts

• In previous years, on any day where I’d felt I’d done something positive or added value I used to say ‘I earned my money today’. It didn’t happen that often. Now I’m starting to feel it so often I don’t need to say it. Loving this role.
• Surprised by how writing weeknotes has fallen naturally into a weekly cadence against expectations. Didn’t think I’d feel like doing it that often or have enough to say (but what happened to the GIFs?)
• Shorter week this week after having Monday off to recover from a weekend in Oxford and a very successfull 101st birthday meal (not mine)
• Finished a little early on Friday to celebrate 20 years since I met my wife

Spot of the week

Here our subject shows how any spare space can be used effectively while warming one’s bottom on a radiator.