Liminal Thinking Blog

I spoke with Adam about agile design and development at Procter & Gamble.

Watch the interview.

Adam on Twitter: @atsiem

Links to things we discussed in the interview:

Vertical slice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_slice

Maker’s schedule, manager’s schedule by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

The management team by Joel Spolsky: http://avc.com/2012/02/the-management-team-guest-post-from-joel-spolsky/

Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug: http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Do-It-Yourself/dp/0321657292

I spoke with Despina about agile approaches to designing wearable technology, design interventions in Afghanistan, the ethics of design and much more.

Watch the interview.

Despina’s website.

Links to topics mentioned in the interview:

Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Augusto Boal: http://www.amazon.com/Games-Actors-Non-Actors-2nd-Edition/dp/0415267080

Theatre of the Oppressed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed

I spoke with Desirée Sy about lessons she has learned as a designer working on agile teams at Autodesk. We talked about trust, shared goals, how to make happy teams and much much more. Sorry about the end – my internet started acting up on me!

Watch the interview.

Desirée on Twitter: @desireesy

Adapting usability investigations for agile user-centered design: http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2007may/agile-ucd.html

Desirée will be teaching a workshop “Agile UX toolkit” in March in Toronto: http://www.torchi.org/Default.aspx?pageId=91841&eventId=826491&EventViewMode=EventDetails

I spoke with Jessie Shternshus about social skills in the workplace, sincerity, trust, creating safe spaces, how to have fun, practice, and mix things up at work.

Watch the interview.

Jessie’s website.

Links to people and topics discussed in the interview:

Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson http://www.amazon.com/Improv-Wisdom-Dont-Prepare-Just/dp/1400081882

Gamestorming by yours truly, James Macanufo and Sunni Brown: http://www.amazon.com/Gamestorming-Playbook-Innovators-Rulebreakers-Changemakers/dp/0596804172

Mike Bonifer and Game Changers: http://www.gamechangers.com/

I spoke with Bob about agility in large enterprises, secrets of successful transformation, how to catalyze insight and change, and much more.

Watch the interview.

Bob’s website.

Links to people and topics discussed in the interview:

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: http://theleanstartup.com/

Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf: http://www.amazon.com/Lean-UX-Applying-Principles-Experience/dp/1449311652

Dean Leffingwell: http://deanleffingwell.com/

The Scaled Agile Framework: http://scaledagileframework.com/

DevOps: http://scaledagileframework.com/devops/

Agile release Chain: http://scaledagileframework.com/agile-release-train/

Cadence: http://scaledagileframework.com/iterations/

Love Marks by Kevin Roberts: http://www.amazon.com/Lovemarks-Kevin-Roberts/dp/157687270X

Theory of constraints: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints

Confirmation bias: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Cognitive dissonance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris : http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Body-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X

Srini Pillay on the science of possibility: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJymX5yqYdo

Information radiators: http://alistair.cockburn.us/Information+radiator

The planning onion: http://bobgower.com/how-to-stop-wasting-the-energy-and-potential-of-your-business/

The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford: http://www.amazon.com/The-Phoenix-Project-Helping-Business/dp/0988262592

Technical debt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt

Holocracy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holacracy

I spoke with Woody Zuill about agile approaches to work design and an innovative approach he calls mob programming.

Watch the interview.

Mob programming website.

Links to people and topics covered in the interview:

Time-lapse video of mob programming: http://mobprogramming.org/mob-programming-time-lapse-video-a-day-of-mob-programming/

Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov: http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Perfect-Rules-Getting-Better/dp/111821658X/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin: http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1591842948

Llewellyn Falco: http://llewellynfalco.blogspot.com/

Kent Beck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck

The Art Spirit by Robert Henri: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Spirit-Robert-Henri/dp/0465002633

I spoke with Michael Margolis about the power of story to transform organizations.

Watch the interview.

Michael’s website.

Links to people and topics covered in the interview:

Grant McCracken: http://cultureby.com/

Steve Denning: http://www.stevedenning.com/site/Default.aspx

The Golden Fleece group: http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/GFretrospectiveMar2011.pdf

Annette Simmons: http://www.annettesimmons.com/

The six types of story: http://www.annettesimmons.com/storytelling/six-kinds-of-story/

Story collecting tool by Anecdote: http://www.anecdote.com/category/zahmoo/

Dave Snowden: http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/author/19/

Dave Snowden describes the Cynefin framework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oz366X0-8

I spoke with Adam Yuret about building trust, empathy, creating slack, reducing dependencies, managing flow, failure demand, feature fakes, and much more.

Watch the interview.

Adam’s website.

Links to people and topics covered in the interview:

Agile acid test (by Elisabeth Hendrickson) http://testobsessed.com/2010/12/the-agile-acid-test/

Lean coffee: http://leancoffee.org/

Monte Carlo simulation in product development by Troy Magennis: http://focusedobjective.com/121/

Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD): http://testobsessed.com/2008/12/acceptance-test-driven-development-atdd-an-overview/

Jabe Bloom: http://blog.jabebloom.com/

Value stream mapping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_stream_mapping

Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinertsen: http://www.amazon.com/The-Principles-Product-Development-Flow/dp/1935401009

Why Plans Fail by Jim Benson: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Plans-Fail-Cooperandi-Mememachine-ebook/dp/B006S3UHGA

Command intent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intent_(military)

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: http://www.amazon.com/The-Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous/dp/0307887898/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392236653&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lean+startup

Feature fake: http://itkanban.com/2011/12/feature-fake/

I spoke with Esther Derby about organizational systems and how to help them become more flexible and adaptive.

Watch it here.

Notes and further reading:

Esther’s website: http://www.estherderby.com/

Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy: http://www.satirpacific.org/uploads//documents/Satir%20Transformational%20Systemic%20Therapy%20in%20Brief.pdf

Satir Change Model: http://stevenmsmith.com/ar-satir-change-model/

Scaling up Excellence by Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao: http://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Up-Excellence-Getting-Settling/dp/0385347022

Beyond Budgeting by Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Budgeting-Managers-Annual-Performance/dp/1578518660

Implementing Beyond Budgeting by Bjarte Bogsnes: http://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Beyond-Budgeting-Unlocking-Performance/dp/0470405163/ref=la_B001JSCDQ6_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391103222&sr=1-1

Hard Facts by Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer: http://www.amazon.com/Facts-Dangerous-Half-Truths-Total-Nonsense/dp/1591398622

Slow Ideas by Atul Gawande: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande

Donnella Meadows on intervening in a system: http://www.donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/

Narrative Patterns by Dave Snowden: http://cognitive-edge.com/uploads/articles/41_narrative_patterns_-_perils_and_possibilities_final.pdf

I had a great time talking with these three Jedi Masters of design, lean, kanban and agility. We spoke about how to overcome rigidity and bureaucracy, how to run an adaptive design team, the limits of process, guinea pigs, science fairs, recipes and much more!

Watch the video.

Jeff Patton: http://comakewith.us/

Jim Benson: http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/jim-benson/#sthash.vhQDRggM.dpbs

Jeff Gothelf: http://www.jeffgothelf.com/blog/