I had the pleasure of sharing my experience with analytics frameworks and metrics at the most recent Lean Startup Circle (DC). This was a part of their “Back to Basics” series. Presentation below.
Category: Agile Methodology
Fight Ambiguity!
I had the pleasure of presenting at Lean + Agile DC today. I was surprised at the positive feedback around how we’ve tackled the challenge of creating a transparent and SIMPLE Agile PMO. The words from another presenter were, “I hope that you don’t mind, but I’m stealing all of this for my teams. This is exactly what we needed.”
Fight Ambiguity!
Agile teams are constantly faced with uncertainty and ambiguity.
In these situations, your unspoken responsibility as an Agile Team Member, Product Owner, ScrumMaster, or Program Manager, is to fearlessly seek out clarity. Elliot will present a series of visualization tools that will help you to fight uncertainty and ambiguity in the following scenarios:
1) The product backlog is unknown, poorly defined, or not well-communicated
2) Realistic delivery dates are unknown
3) Cross-team dependencies are unknown, hidden, or not yet defined
You’ll look like a super-star when you show up at the office with these handy tools, clear up ambiguity, and help your team to better deliver.
How to ace our coding assignment
Dear Ruby Developer applicant,
I would like nothing more than to contribute to your success! Here is my guidance on how to completely ace our coding assignment:
- Follow the instructions: You wouldn’t believe how many candidates are disqualified by not following the instructions, or by building tons of extra features. Show us that you can code to a shared specification.
- Focus on efficiency: Nested if statements can totally solve the problem, but are not very impressive. For perspective, I wrote nested if statements when I was learning Visual Basic in 10th grade. Show us that you can innovate on a simple problem with an elegant solution.
- Write tests: We like lazy developers, and lazy developers write tests so that they don’t have to waste time debugging code later. Show us how you will be a steward to our technology and to your co-workers.
Most importantly, HAVE FUN and good luck!
Taxi Magic is Hiring!
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of startup life is when we get to expand. We are hiring a ScrumMaster, and I’m SUPER happy with the job description that we assembled. Please do not hesitate to contact me if interested.
ScrumMaster
RideCharge, the DC-based technology startup that is revolutionizing ground transportation with Taxi Magic, is seeking a ScrumMaster to facilitate for one of its Agile teams.
The ideal candidate is a highly motivated self-learner with proven experience. We are seeking someone who can explain the basics of scrum in simple terms, but who also has experience facilitating solutions in complicated scenarios. Everyone at Taxi Magic is passionate about the work that they’re doing; you should be too.
Responsibilities:
- Serve as ScrumMaster for one Agile team
- Enforce the rules set forth by the team
- Enforce the rules set forth by Scrum, including facilitation of its ceremonies
- Establish and maintain an Agile dashboard
- Coordinate across multiple teams for complex projects and integrations
Required Skills:
- Experience facilitating Agile teams or in technology project management
- Charismatic and humble (we are a servant leaders)
- Demonstrated focus on continuing education and learning
- Ability to recognize the “right” amount of documentation for a user story, and to fill in the gaps when necessary
Desired:
- Certified ScrumMaster
- Publication, blogging, or public speaking about Agile
- Involvement in technology meetups and conferences