Through the Lens of a Lifelong Learner

Two percent truth in feedback

2026-03-09T00:00:00Z

Feedback has a way of sticking with us, especially the kind we don’t want to hear. A mentor once told me: no matter how feedback is delivered, there’s always a 2% truth in it.

I did not love that idea at first. Some feedback felt more like criticism than help, and sometimes it came from people who were not exactly open to receiving feedback themselves. Still, one situation made it hard to ignore: a former colleague, pointed out my demeanor and how quickly I pushed back.

I was not hostile, but I was direct. For a long time, I treated directness as strength. In some environments, the loudest voice is the one that gets heard. But the truth was simpler. I was not always listening to learn. I was listening to respond.

When feedback hit a nerve, I got defensive. I would protect myself instead of getting curious. I might even deflect, focusing on the other person’s flaws rather than asking what I could take from the moment. Later, when I talked it through with my mentor, I noticed I was still describing the other person more than reflecting on what I could learn. That was a sign: I was defending, not growing.

My mentor did not correct me right away. She shared how she handled feedback she do not agree with. She paused and asked herself two questions:

Is there something about this that’s true?
Why is it triggering me?

That became my practice.

Now, when feedback stings, I pause before I speak. I breathe. I ask those two questions. Then I decide what response would actually add value. If a response helps the conversation move forward, I share it with care. If it will only protect my ego, I let it pass.

Over time, this has changed how I give and receive feedback. At its best, feedback is a shared act of growth. For me that means listening with curiosity, reflecting with empathy, and responding with clarity.

The 2% truth is not always easy to find. But it is almost always worth looking for.

Special thanks

Thank you to Tricia Broderick for the coaching sessions and her shared wisdom on the 2% truth.

Resources

Photo by Yuki Liu on Unsplash

Leading Through Influence

2025-08-23T00:00:00Z

Leadership isn’t about your professional title. It’s about how you show up and how you create the space for people to do their best work. Some of the most impactful leaders don't need titles; they lead through influence, by coaching, questioning, and supporting others to grow.

Leadership by Coaching, Not Directing

It’s tempting as a leader to jump straight into telling someone what to do or how to do it, especially when you have experience. The same is true when you’re working with someone early in their career. But when we default to directing, we often create dependency instead of building ownership. It can stifle creativity, autonomy, and intrinsic motivation. And beyond that, regardless of experience level, complex problems often benefit from fresh perspectives that can spark innovation.

Instead of prescribing the answer, frame the challenge and coach them through the process. Consider asking:

What options do you see?
What impact might this have on the user, the business, or other related systems?
What would success look like?

This approach not only helps people trust their own judgment, it also strengthens their autonomy and sense of ownership. In the end, it taps into what truly motivates people: autonomy, mastery, and purpose—the core drivers of motivation and growth.

Continuous Learning Through Iteration

The tech industry often talks about “failing fast.” But failure sounds final, and mistakes feel like judgment — and that misses the point. What really matters is iteration: experimenting, learning, and adapting based on what we discover.

When work is framed as iterative and risk is seen as experimentation, the mindset shifts from “What if I fail?” to “What can I learn and refine?” That shift encourages adaptability and curiosity, both for individuals and, over time, for teams.

Iteration also fosters psychological safety. When people know they’re encouraged to test, learn, and adjust, fear-driven anxiety gives way to excitement for growth. And in the process, they develop autonomy, strengthen ownership, and build leadership skills — outcomes that not only grow individuals, but also elevate the team as a whole.

Practical Ways to Lead Through Influence

So what does this look like day to day? A few practices I come back to most often, with coaching as the default and direct guidance only when urgency or safety requires it, include:

Provide problems, not solutions. Let people grapple with challenges and bring their own answers forward.
Ask open-ended questions. Push thinking further by asking questions like “why,” “what if,” or “how else.”
Frame work as iterative experiments. Encourage people to test, learn, and pivot when new information emerges.

These practices create the conditions where influence replaces authority and growth takes root naturally.

Closing Thoughts

Titles don’t make leaders. Behaviors do.

Leadership through influence isn’t about holding authority. It’s about creating a safe space where people can experiment, learn, and grow.

The leaders who make the biggest impact aren’t the ones with the most answers. They’re the ones who create more leaders.

Resources and Inspiration

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash
Drive by Daniel Pink

Graceful Principles

2024-02-01T00:00:00Z

Grace can mean different things to different people. For me, it’s about moving through life with poise, thoughtfulness, and emotional presence. It’s not about being polished or perfect, but about being self-aware, open, and intentional. Over the past few years, I’ve returned to these principles as a guide through uncertainty, to build trust, and to lead with care.

Gratitude

Embrace challenges as opportunities.

Gratitude changes how we move through difficulty. It softens resistance, opens perspective, and helps transform challenges into opportunities. By facing obstacles with awareness and staying open to their lessons, we can turn difficulty into growth.

Responsibility

Build trust through personal responsibility.

Trust begins when we take full responsibility for our decisions and actions. Responsibility isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being present, honest, and vulnerable. When we hold ourselves accountable, we lead by example and encourage others to do the same. This creates a safe space for people to speak openly, take risks, and grow.

Adaptability

Find balance between confidence and humility.

Adaptability is a gentle balance of confidence and humility. That balance creates an agile mindset, one that helps us pivot when presented with new information, unexpected challenges, and the complexity created by continuous change.

Curiosity

Challenge assumptions with the power of why.

Curiosity inspires us to ask why, to guide us through assumptions, bias, and judgment. It helps us go deeper than the what and how, uncovering the motivations, values, and needs beneath the surface.

Empathy

Center people in every decision.

Empathy begins with listening to learn. It enables us to notice what others are experiencing and respond with care. When we lead with empathy, we build trust, strengthen collaboration, and create authentic connections.

Summary

These principles embody authenticity, integrity, and confident humility. They encourage me to acknowledge myself and others with honesty, lead with care, and stay open to learning from every opportunity. Together, they help me grow emotionally, navigate uncertainty, and quiet the voice of imposter syndrome. They remind me that leadership doesn’t require perfection—just presence, courage, and intention.

Resources and Inspiration

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement with Retrospectives

2024-01-15T00:00:00Z

My primary goal as a leader is to help teams continuously learn and grow. For teams to succeed, it is crucial to establish a culture of trust and psychological safety; retrospectives are one of the most powerful tools to accomplish this.

Retrospectives are essential for any team that aims to foster a culture of continuous improvement. They assist teams in building the four resilience factors of a resilient learning team, as defined in the book "Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams" by Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick.

I have experience on teams that dismiss the value of retrospectives because they felt they weren't valuable enough given the time commitment. Chris Stone shared a poll on LinkedIn about the average duration of a retro. Many comments were about how much time was needed for a retro to be valuable. Chris noted that it is the team's decision on the value and the time commitment. I completely agree with Chris's perspective. It's entirely up to the team to decide. The agile leader's role is to assist the team in discovering value through continuous improvement.

The planning of each retro is critical to the continuous improvement process. When there is a lack of planning, the retrospective format is almost always what went well, what could have been better, and ideas for improvement. There is value to this retrospective format, but it can become dull and monotonous if there isn't some change to the event. However, there are other reasons this format is unsuccessful in driving change. There is often no change because of a lack of alignment, action, or follow-through with the insights captured during the retrospective.

Here is an example scenario:

A team works in two-week sprints and has a retrospective every other week.
The team gathers to discuss how the sprint went.
During the next sprint, similar items surface again. The team discusses the same items, the retrospective timebox ends, and the team moves on with their day.
Over the next several months, they shared their perspectives and ideas on what went well, what didn't, and ways the team might improve. Yet, very little was changing.

The problem was that the team needed an action plan to determine what to change and how to measure progress. Without a clear plan of action and follow-through, the retrospective meetings ended with nothing more than a "good talk, see you in two weeks." As this continued, the team became reluctant to commit their time, lost their trust in the value of retrospectives, and progressively dedicated less time to them. There are several reasons teams might experience this.

The most common reason I have experienced is that the team needs a dedicated agile leader or coach, and the person serving in that role is also an individual contributor. Serving both roles means they can only focus some of their time on helping the team grow and learn. It requires time and effort to facilitate continuous improvement. Another issue is requiring that person to be completely neutral during the facilitation. Being neutral takes significant effort and experience when you are an individual contributor.

I have participated in many retrospectives; the most effective ones had a dedicated leader. These happened when I worked at TechSmith, and Dave Desrochers led the retrospectives. Our team consisted of 15-25 people, mainly software engineers, with a few designers and test engineers. We would gather in a room, and the event would start with a temperature check of how we felt the sprint went. The temperature check was simple: did you feel Happy, Meh, or Stabby? I loved this temperature check activity and still use it to this day.

Dave is no longer with us, and I am forever grateful for his friendship, insights, and humor.

Then, we wrote a series of sticky notes to describe why we felt that way and shared them as we posted them on a whiteboard. The whiteboard contained previous retrospective data. It included the three improvement actions we were tracking and the top-voted items of the prior sprint. We had a working agreement (social contract) that we would only focus on three action items until the team determined one of three things:

The improvement had become a habit and no longer required our focus
That plan wasn't working as intended, and we needed to pivot
That it is more important to focus on another area

As the team posted their sticky notes, we grouped them, labeled them, and voted on their importance. We then reviewed the previous sprints' improvement ideas and the three current action items in progress. We determined if any items had become habits, how we felt about the progress of those that weren't, and whether any new ideas were more important than any of the three in progress.

That was our agreed-upon process, and it was effective. Although I experienced this and have carried it with me, I have been in the position of having to be both the leader and an individual contributor. It is challenging to maintain a neutral position when you have so many ideas you want to contribute as a team member yet are responsible for guiding the team's continuous improvement effort.

I am guilty of being a non-neutral facilitator in the past. I have failed to achieve team alignment. I have been unable to help the team see the value of retrospectives. I use past success and failure experiences and build on them with education to improve. When I facilitate retrospectives, I plan them using the guidelines from Esther Derby's and Diana Larsen's book Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, which are:

Set the stage
Gather data
Generate insights
Decide what to do
Close the Retro

Following these guidelines helps set the agenda and determine the duration needed to be sure that we not only inspect but also have an action plan for adapting, along with the steps to make this a continuous process.

I recommend checking out Esther and Diana's book if you're looking for inspiration. It contains some fantastic ideas for retrospectives. I also highly recommend reading "Lead without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams" by Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick. This book provides excellent insights into helping your team learn continuously and improve based on the 4Cs of Leadership (Courage, Compassion, Confidence, and Complexity), the 3 Essential Motivators (Purpose, Autonomy, and Co-intelligence), and the 4 Resilient Factors (Collaborative Connection, Inclusive Collaboration, Power Dynamics, and Embracing Conflict).

Retromat is a free web-based tool for planning retrospectives based on the steps Esther and Diana suggest in their book. It is a helpful guide and provides that first step without a blank slate.

Another tool I found but have yet to try is Retro Radar, created by Anthony Coppedge. Anthony is a business agility leader and describes Retro Radar as:

A visualization tool and technique for teams to reflect together in a spirit of continuous improvement. By highlighting what's working and what's not working, the Retrospective Radar combines a weekly team reflection (Retrospective meeting) for both prioritizing upcoming work and for providing feedback to immediate supervisors and up-line Leadership so that those doing the work directly affect the strategic planning for responsive pivots in the market.

Overall, retrospectives are essential for any team that aims to foster a culture of continuous improvement. It is up to the team to determine the value and time commitment required, and the agile leader's role is to assist the team in discovering value through continuous improvement. With a clear action plan and follow-through, an effective retrospective process can drive meaningful change and help teams continuously learn and grow.

Resources

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Diana Larsen and Esther Derby
Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams by Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick
Retro Radar by Anthony Coppedge
Retromat

Confident Humility - The Key to Continuous Learning and Growth

2023-07-23T00:00:00Z

Confidence and humility, often seen as opposing traits, play a pivotal role in personal and professional growth. Confident humility is a blend of self-assurance and modesty that allows us to navigate the delicate balance between overconfidence and doubt.

At its core, confident humility requires recognition and embracing our knowledge and experience with genuine confidence. It does not involve boasting or seeking external validation. It is an internal understanding of capability and accomplishment complemented by a deep sense of humility. An acknowledgment that everyone makes mistakes and can improve.

Building confident humility will help us to avoid the extremes of arrogance and doubt. Overconfidence diminishes our potential for growth by falsely assuming there is nothing more to learn or achieve. Doubt, on the other hand, creates self-imposed barriers that deter progress and inhibit us from recognizing our true potential. These self-imposed barriers of doubt are associated with imposter syndrome, a debilitating feeling of inadequacy that impacts people from all backgrounds and achievements. A balanced blend of confidence and humility allows us to confront these barriers with self-compassion and a growth mindset.

Using confidence with humility, we embrace our strengths while remaining receptive to feedback and diverse perspectives. We can embrace challenges by viewing failure and setbacks as opportunities for continuous learning and growth. This approach encourages seeking support, advice, and insight, recognizing that everyone possesses unique experiences and expertise that offer learning and growth opportunities. Embracing these opportunities leads to improved collaboration and promotes cultures of psychological trust.

To summarize, confident humility can act as a compass to guide us on our journey to self-assurance, open-mindedness, and continuous learning. By acknowledging our self-worth without becoming complacent and recognizing our limitations without succumbing to self-doubt, we can transform personal and professional growth to harness our full potential.

Resources

Let kindness be the path

2020-07-26T00:00:00Z

Everyone is angry, the right, the left, the middle, all of us. We are split based on politics, race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, age, ability, social class, and culture. Our views, beliefs, and how we choose to express them is our right provided by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But why does exercising our first amendment rights need to be so shaming, hurtful, and personal? In this country, the United States, we lack empathy and strive to capitalize on indifference. This indifference drives division that assures our path forward will be without change, without growth and generates fear and anger within our communities. These emotions, unchecked, provide tyranny the opportunity to take over our country. It allows detractors to minimize and mislabel our protests and occupy our streets.

All of us rarely agree on every aspect of a belief or view. Most interactions with others rely on compromise. Reaching agreement involves finding a common denominator or yielding to the greater good. We will never reach an agreement through name-calling or personalizing our beliefs so strongly that changing them means questioning our own identity.

I see one path forward that does not result in continued division, pain, and violence. It's simple on paper, hard in reality, and requires self-awareness, strong character, and patience. The answer is kindness. Even when anger is the guide, let kindness be the path.

I share this during the days that we lay to rest Representative John Robert Lewis, a man of humility, integrity, and kindness that sacrificed his body and his life for the change and growth we need to be a better country.

References

Photo by Andrew Thornebrooke on Unsplash

Thankfulness during this unprecedented time

2020-03-22T00:00:00Z

Living in confined areas with friends and families during a global pandemic feels surreal. The reality of this situation can make it difficult to find reasons to be thankful. Unlike any other time in my life, I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude to so many people.

Medical Professionals

Every day you place the needs of your patients before you and your family's own needs. You are often doing this with a lack of resources and the proper safety equipment. Despite the risk, you are fulfilling our need for safety. To every one of you on the front line fighting this virus, thank you!

Warehouse Workers and Truck Drivers

To every one of you leaving the safety of your homes and family every day to make sure the supplies we all need are moving in and out of the warehouses, thank you!

Grocery Store Workers

Without you, we all would starve. The CDC has requested that people do not gather in groups larger than ten and remain six feet apart at all times. Despite this guidance, to provide for our communities, you have to go against these guidelines. All of us need to recognize your sacrifices and our part to help keep you all safe. To every one of you helping to assure our pantries are not empty, thank you!

Sanitation Workers

Our homes would be trashed without them. We can help them by wiping down our trash bin handles. To every one of you helping us keep our homes, garages, and yards clean, thank you!

Artists, Educators, and Teachers

It is hard to imagine what this situation would be like without the internet. Through technology and selfless acts of kindness and generosity, many artists, educators, and teachers are using the internet to keep us engaged.

The Luck Reunion streamed artists from across the country, sharing their music and messages of hope. Our yoga studio is streaming live classes to keep our community united and to help us maintain our mental and physical health. Teachers are creating lessons and using applications such as Google Classroom and YouTube to deliver these lessons to elementary, middle school, and high school students.

To all of you who are embracing change, learning new tools to help others, sharing your time and love to help us all feel together while we remain apart, thank you!

People coming together while remaining apart

Social distancing at this time is a necessity. Those that aren't able to understand this need increase the risk to all of us. It's true that many of us will only experience mild symptoms, but many of us will die. Our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and grandparents are all at risk. It's not just the older generations. Regardless of age, people with underlying conditions as common as diabetes are at risk. To those of you who are sacrificing your lifestyle for the safety of others, thank you!

Neighbors and Strangers on Nextdoor

So many of you are offering your help to deliver food and needed supplies, and run errands for people you have yet to meet. To every one of you promoting messages of love, hope, and kindness, you are selfless and amazing, thank you!

People dropping their political stances

I am avoiding any use of the R and D words. I have my views and the opportunity to voice them in November. Today, our focus should be on one viewpoint, overcoming this virus with as few lives lost as possible. To every one of you that can push your politics aside for the greater good of our society, thank you!

To anyone that reads this post

I am a single note in a world full of noise. If you stumbled across this post and made it this far, thank you for allowing me to occupy your time and know that my family and I are doing everything we can to keep you and your family safe. It's important to understand that we are in this together. Something as simple your smile can be that reminder. ʘ‿ʘ

Resources

Start your day with a positive mindset

2020-01-20T00:00:00Z

A recent tweet from Scott Tolinski was an incentive to start a practice that I have been contemplating for far too long. My typical routine was up at dawn with a cup of coffee and some light reading. After reading and responding his post, I decided to set a 15-minute timer and practice what I tweet.

For the past week, I have started the day with some yoga. This entails light stretching and flow for 15-20 minutes, followed by 5-10 minutes of meditation. Starting the day in this way has helped me to feel awake, positive, and ready for the day. Before this morning practice, my focus was on the tasks of the day. Practicing a little mindfulness in the morning has changed my entire outlook.

This positive energy is important and not just for me. It's influential to everyone I interact with during my day. It's fascinating that we, without intent, can influence so many other people. I know I am not an inspirational icon like Brené Brown, but I recognize that my attitude and actions have an impact on the people around me.

We've all noticed how the energy of an entire room can change whenever certain people enter it. Donna Levi - Huff Post

Realizing that my energy can affect another's, suggests that I have an obligation to more than myself. The importance of my positivity is not just for me, it is also for my family, friends, colleagues, and even the strangers I meet throughout any given day. I found a couple of quotes on twitter that share this same philosophy:

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single. Kari Joys MS on Twitter

Share your light with the world and watch the world illuminate. Inspired Healthy on Twitter

The world already has plenty of negative energy sources. I don't want to be another one. I do not want to make it harder for others to shine. Although each of us is responsible for how we feel, it is a cognitive challenge to be positive when surrounded by negative energy. As a husband, father, leader, and compassionate human being, my goal in 2020 is to be a source of positivity to help uplift the people around me.

References

Basecamp's Shape Up Method

2019-08-31T00:00:00Z

An interview with Jason Fried describing backlogs as piles of guilt inspired me to look closer at his viewpoint. With a little research, I found Chapter 7: Bets, Not Backlogs of the Shape Up book. The information was intriguing, so I decided to start at the beginning and read the entire book. What I discovered was an extremely well-designed framework of methods built on agile values and principles.

A system this mature is a product of years of inspection and adaptation. I believe they started with established practices and tools and through an iterative process developed tools and practices that met their principles, needs, and values. It has many similarities to popular agile frameworks like Scrum, which are also built on agile values and principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto. Scrum doesn't work for everyone, but its practices and tools satisfy the principles, values, and needs of many organizations.

Agile Values

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Agile Principles

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

The Spine Model

I briefly touched on the Spine Model in a previous blog post. This model has been used to help teams make sense of their work environment, improve collaboration, and help organizations to be more agile. Many conversations about how to work as a team often start with a discussion about practices and tools. Without understanding the principles, values, and needs first, the choices are preference-based often leading to ineffective communication. When creating processes, tools should support practices that apply principles which leverage values to support needs.

Needs: “From the perspective of {X}, this part of the system exists in order that {Y} can be achieved.”
Values: “We optimize the system for {X}, so that meeting the Needs is more likely.”
Principles: “We leverage {X} to get more of what we Value.”
Practices: “We do {X} to apply the Principles that matter in this context.”
Tools: We use {X} to apply our Practices more efficiently.”

Walking the Shape Up Spine

Basecamp's customized way of working based on agile values and principles is a powerful example of how teams can customize processes to meet the unique needs of their organization. The caveat is that it takes time, so starting with an established agile framework is often the first step. Using the Spine Model is a great way to frame the first step conversation as you get started.

Disclaimer: The walkthrough of the Spine model below is my perception of the needs, values, and principles of the Basecamp organization. It is based on assumptions after reading the Shape Up book. The purpose is to show how the Spine Model can be used to transform the way teams work together.

Needs

Learning more about the Spine Model, you find there are two different aspects of needs, the needs of the system itself and the needs of the individuals within the systems. I have narrowed the scope to quickly frame the conversation about the needs the Shape Up method supports.

Complete only the work that matters
Minimize the overhead of the planning process
Maximize team member energy and morale
Release features that have value and impact
Ability to change course to act on the unexpected

Values

The Shape Up System is optimized for:

Efficiency
Focus
Quality
Flexibility
Calm and Order
Responsibility and Empowerment

Principles

We leverage ...... to ......:

We focus on ideas that are current rather than creating and maintaining a backlog. Determining the important work should be simple and focus on what is important today rather than on past ideas.
We use a fixed time, variable scope model that starts with a number and ends with a design, rather than starting with a design and ending with a number (estimate) to improve the accuracy of an idea's scope.
The way to figure out what needs to be done is by doing. We recognize that an understanding of the full scope of an idea or work item is only known once the work has started.
Teams that can focus solely on the work scoped to an iteration cycle will provide higher quality deliverables.
Teams that have the autonomy to determine how to complete the work needed to deliver a solution will be engaged and happy.
Iteration cycles are short enough to complete work that matters but long enough to minimize the time required for planning.
Providing time between iteration cycles will energize teams and allow them to sustain the pressure of iteration cycle deadlines.
Tasks separated by person or role won't add up to a finished project early enough.
Organizing tasks into meaningful parts of a problem that can be completed independently results in higher quality solutions.

Practices

The following practices are used to support the principles outlined above. Many of these practices can also be mapped to one or more of the agile values and principles. The Shape Up practices from a high-level are organized by Shaping, Betting and Building.

Shaping

The practice of taking a raw idea and determining it's value along with rough sketches of a solution to address risks. The deliverable is a summary called a pitch that summarizes the problem, constraints, solution, risks, and limitations. Intentionally, the fidelity of the pitch is kept low. There are two tools described below that support this practice, breadboards and fat marker sketches. Keeping the fidelity low, even lower than a wireframe keeps the designer from being biased by the shaping of the solution.

Shaping also has boundaries to determine how valuable the raw idea is. This is referred to as the appetite. The appetites come in two sizes, a Small Batch and a Big Batch. The Small Batch is smaller than the iteration cycle, while the Big Batch is expected to take the entire cycle.

Basecamp Principles

#1: We focus on ideas that are current rather than creating and maintaining a backlog. Determining the important work should be simple and focus on what is important today rather than on past ideas.
#3: We recognize that an understanding of the full scope of an idea or work item is only known once the work is being done. The way to figure out what needs to be done is by doing
#5: Teams that have the autonomy to determine how to complete the work needed to deliver a solution will be engaged and happy.

Agile Principles

#5: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
#11: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

Betting

Betting takes place outside of the iteration cycle and is the act of determining what to work on next. The event is referred to as the Betting Table. The stakeholders come together and decide what work will be committed to in the next cycle. Committing to work in the next iteration cycle is called a Bet. The betting always starts with a clean slate, requiring stakeholders to bring pitches they champion to the table. This makes the process efficient and keeps the focus on the work that is important today, rather than on ideas from the past.

The Bet is for a Six-week cycle. They found that "six weeks is enough time to finish a project from start to end, yet short enough to see the end when starting." During the six week cycle, the teams are protected from distractions allowing them to build their momentum and focus all their effort on the Bets.

Following the cycle is a Cool-down period. This period is when the stakeholders meet at the Betting Table to bet on pitches for the next six-week cycle. It is also a period where teams do not have any scheduled work. The programmers and designers are empowered to choose what to work on. This removes the pressure of always having a deadline to meet.

Basecamp Principles

#1: We focus on ideas that are current rather than creating and maintaining a backlog. Determining the important work should be simple and focus on what is important today rather than past ideas.
#2: We use a fixed time, variable scope model that starts with a number and ends with a design, rather than starting with a design and ending with a number (estimate) to improve the accuracy of an idea's scope.
#4: Teams that can focus solely on the work scoped to an iteration cycle will provide higher quality deliverables.
#6: Iteration cycles are short enough to complete work that matters but long enough to minimize the time required for planning.
#7: Providing time between iteration cycles will energize teams and allow them to sustain the pressure of iteration cycle deadlines.

Agile Principles

#7: Working software is the primary measure of progress.
#8: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Building

Once the six-week cycle starts the teams start breaking down the work into scopes in a process called scope mapping. Scope mapping determines the parts of the project that can be built, integrated, and finished independently from the rest of the project.

The work is organized by project tasks opposed to separating it by person or role. This assures the focus is on a scope of work that the team can swarm on and deliver. Since the bet is for a short cycle, this process assures there is completed work at the end of the cycle. Any work that is not complete will be abandoned based on the circuit breaker agreement. This is an agreement to cancel projects that don't ship in one cycle by default, rather than extending them.

The circuit breaker has a powerful effect. It drives the self-empowered teams to scope the items to fit the timebox. They use a process called scope hammering as they define the scopes to determine the nice-to-haves from the must-haves. Once the must-haves are identified, the team can prioritize and focus on the critical path to delivering the scoped work.

Basecamp Principles

#3: The way to figure out what needs to be done is by doing. We recognize that an understanding of the full scope of an idea or work item is only known once the work has started
#8: Tasks separated by person or role won't add up to a finished project early enough.
#9: Organizing tasks into meaningful parts of a problem that can be completed independently results in higher quality solutions

Agile Principles

#2: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
#5: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done
#7: Working software is the primary measure of progress.
#9: Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility
#10: Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
#11: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

Tools

Breadboards: A UI concept that defines affordances and their connections without visual styling. Used during the shaping process to determine the solution for a problem that is delivered as a pitch at the betting table.
Fat Marker Sketches: A sketch of a UI concept at very low fidelity drawn with a thick line. Used during the shaping process to determine the solution for a problem that is delivered as a pitch at the betting table.s.
Scope: Integrated slices of the solution that are created during the building process to determine work that can be delivered together.
To-do list: Lists of scoped work that the teams use to collaborate on the work that needs to be completed together.
Hill Chart: A chart that allows stakeholders to efficiently determine the status of the scoped work throughout the six-week cycle.

Summary

This is a high-level overview of the Shape Up method. I highly recommend reading the book. It provides a more in-depth look into the experiential learning that defines how the Basecamp organization works together. Even if all the practices don't work for your team or organization, it is a quick read that will provide inspiration and ideas that can be applied to many teams working towards a culture of agility and continuous improvement.

Resources

Photo courtesy of Basecamp - Shapeup Chapter 13 - Work is like a hill
The Agile Manifesto - Manifesto for Agile Software Development
Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
The Spine Model - A model for making sense of collaborative systems, and enabling useful conversations about them
Walking the Spine Model - Agile for Humans podcast
Shape Up Method - Basecamp's Shape Up Method book

Positive team culture starts with self

2019-07-14T00:00:00Z

We all have the choice to determine if the glass is half-full or half-empty. Based on how the brain is wired, half-empty is much easier to recognize and focus on. Our glass half-full/empty perspective has a direct impact on the attitude and mood of those we interact with. This implies that positive team culture can only be cultivated by emotionally intelligent people.

There are studies indicating differences in how positive and negative information is processed and stored in the brain. As a result, negative information has a more significant impact on mood and is often more memorable. This is referred to as a negative bias and viewing life through this lens is natural. The influence a negative bias has on mood makes it essential to surround ourselves with positive influencers.

Negavite information is stored 12 times faster and more securely than positive information. How To Be Awesome At Your Job, Episode #399: Maximizing Your Mental Energy with Isaiah Hankel, minute 24:20 - 25:40

Surrounding ourselves with positivity is a great start, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The key to positivity is self-awareness. It takes practice and patience to become self-aware, but the outcome is worth the effort. It helps us recognize when our focus is misplaced and needs realignment. Becoming self-aware can help to replace the negativity and share positive energy with the people around us. There are many resources to help in the journey to self-awareness. Here are some suggestions to finding self-awareness and minimizing the negative bias.

Mindfulness

The ability to shut down the monkey mind and be in the present is a challenge. Studies on mindfulness indicate a physical change of the brain's structure and function that impact decision making and overall reasoning. Our experiences have a significant impact on our feelings and perception of events. Challenging assumptions and being mindful of our emotions can help us be better friends, companions, and leaders.

Journaling

Journaling is one of the best activities to become more acquainted with yourself. Even if you only have enough time to journal for a minute or two a day, the resulting insights are enlightening. Gratitude journaling specifically is also a great way to increase positive energy.

Sleep

One of the most important factors of our overall mental health is sleep. Getting enough sleep will help to reduce cognitive impairment along with improving mood. "Getting up on the wrong side of the bed" is the saying that comes to mind when describing someone lacking sleep. I have been guilty of sacrificing sleep to complete work that wasn't finished during the day. That strategy not only impacted my mood, it also made me less productive the next day and resulted in an infinite loop.

Physical Exercise

Physical exercise studies indicate the benefits to include sleep quality, as well as the reduction of stress and anxiety. A simple example of physical exercise would be a daily walk. I started running in 2011 by taking two 20 minute walks twice a day. Those daily walks helped clear my mind and allowed me to focus on the present. Last year, I began a regular Yoga practice. The impact that Yoga has from a mental and physical perspective is undeniable.

Feedback

When we consistently compare ourselves to others, we reinforce a negative bias. This can result in a debilitating condition called imposter syndrome. Soliciting feedback from friends, colleagues, and mentors will provide valuable insight into the positive qualities others see in us. This perspective can be a mind-opening experience.

Positive Influencers

Here is a small selection of people that I follow on LinkedIn that are pushing positive energy into social media:

References

Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash
What is a negativity bias - Very Well Mind
Maximizing Your Mental Energy with Isaiah Hankel - Awesome At Your Job
Calming the Monkey Mind - Pschology Today
The #1 Self-Awareness Habit - Life Skills that Matter
Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills - Harvard Health
Mindful Self-Awareness as the Basis for Effective Leadership - Key Step Media
The Ultimate Gratitude Journal Guide - Inteligent Change

Find Your Spine to Create an Agile Team Culture

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

You may be wondering what I mean by find your spine. I'm just referring to a model called the "Spine Model" that was discussed on Episode 90 of the Agile for Humans podcast. The model was created by Danie Roux and Kevin Trethewey. In their words, the spine model is:

A model for making sense of collaborative systems, and enabling useful conversations about them.

Our purpose for adopting agile practices is to find a path towards continuous improvement and provide value to our customers. That seems like a pretty valuable goal. When researching agile, the most common terms we discover are scrum, sprint, product backlog, and Kanban board. These are practices and tools used in agile methodologies. If we adopt them before discussing the problems we are trying to solve, we are setting our selves up for failure.

This is the strength of the Spine Model. The model proposes that we start the conversation with our needs. That makes perfect sense from a design thinking perspective. We can't create a solution without understanding the problem or in this case, our needs. To meet our needs, we first look to determine our values. An understanding of values leads us to define our principles. After we have thoroughly discussed needs, values and principles we will be better prepared to talk about practices and tools. The Spine Model introduction provides a little more explanation.

This is an example found on the Spine Model wiki and how it can apply to agile.

Needs

From the perspective of __, we exist/want in order to __.

The organization exists to deliver high-quality product offereings in order to be competitive and make money.
The team exists to develop and deliver the right software features efficiently and incrementally in a continuously changing environment in order to support the organizations business goals.
The team member wants to work on exciting projects that allow them to make the decisions needed in order to best support both the users' and the organization's needs.

Values

We optimize our development process for __.

Focus
Courage
Openness
Commitment
Respect
Feedback
Communication

Principles

Primary Agile Principles

We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Team Determined Principles

We leverage __ to __.

We allow for changes late in the development process to support the needs of our users.
We use working software to represent our primary measure of success.
We need autonomy to be a self-directed team capable of making decisions based on experiential knowledge to efficiently provide a quality deliverable.
We monitor and evaluate our progress and processes to help us continuously improve.

Practices

We __ to __.

We use retrospectives to help improve how we work together.
We work in sprints to minimize the impact of changes in priority.
We utilize daily scrum to communicate daily progress of our work.
We work remotely to support the flexibility of our team members.

Tools

We use __ to __.

We use a product backlog to help the product owner and team to determine the right work to do.
We use a Kanban board to create transparency of work in progress.
We use Jira to track our issues and monitor the velocity of our team.
We use Mural to conduct our retrospectives guide our efforts to continuously improve.

Agile Team Culture

When walking the spine, the conversation around values and principles will help define two critical agile agreements, the Social Contract, and Definition of Done. These two agreements help to:

Establish a self-directed team culture
Allow new team members to quickly understand team norms
Resolve team conflicts before they become an issue

Resources

Smitten with Eleventy and Netlify

2018-12-20T00:00:00Z

When I created this site, I threw it together with PHP. It worked and didn't take long to develop. However, the FTP deployment process was antiquated and setting up an SSL certificate with my host was time-consuming. I had been wanting to try Netlify for a while after hearing about all the great services they offer like the ease of deployment, free and automatic SSL certificate installation, form submission service, and various other JAM stack based services.

To take advantage of Netlify, I needed to learn a static site generator. Based on all the great things I heard about Eleventy, I decided to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did because it was flexible and simple to use and had plenty of documentation and sample projects available for quick learning. Leaning on the shoulders of Zach Leatherman and Paul Hawksworth, made the transition amazingly fast. Thank you both for sharing! I borrowed quite a bit from the EleventyOne repo, as well as Phil's site listed on the Eleventy Starter Projects page. Starting with the EventyOne scaffolding will jumpstart your project.

The process to build with Eleventy and deploy with Netlify is so simple, so fast, and so enjoyable that I have become completely smitten with this couple.

Semantic Markup Is Less Work

2018-01-29T00:00:00Z

Why are we still building user interfaces that are inaccessible? Why do we accept creating significant technical debt to build experiences that simply don’t work for all users?

I’ve been a designer / developer for many years and I have yet to meet anyone in this industry that doesn’t care about how their design or implementation impacts users. The issue isn’t that we don’t care, it’s that many believe it’s more difficult or time intensive to design and develop an inclusive interface. It is also believed that accessibility can be addressed in a future development phase. Of course it can, but the effort to do so is underestimated because of the amount of technical debt that can be accrued. Planning for and building inclusive interfaces from the beginning is quicker, simpler, and results in higher quality code that is accessible to more users.

Planning for and building inclusive interfaces from the beginning is quicker, simpler, and results in better quality code that is accessible to more users.

There are many articles around this topic, so instead of discussing how a list of items should be marked up in an ordered <ol> or unordered <ul> list rather than being placed in a series of <div> tags, I want to provide an example of code that I’ve seen in the wild. This is code that renders an interface inaccessible by anyone that is not a mouse user, simply because semantic mark up wasn’t used.

Markup

The non-semantic markup was the result of a custom styled checkbox generated by a prototyping tool or WYSIWYG editor. The checkbox state is created with javascript and relies on background images to visually indicate that state to the user.

<!-- Accessible / Semantic -->
<label class="input-checkbox">
  <input type="checkbox" name="checkbox_1" value="some value" />
  <span class="input-checkbox__check"></span>
  <span>I'm a custom styled checkbox</span>
</label>

<!-- Inaccessible / Non-semantic -->
<div class="input-checkbox">
  <span>I'm an imposter</span>
  <input type="hidden" name="checkbox_1" value="set on click" />
</div>

See the Pen Custom Checkbox by Derick Montague (@BeyondHyper) on CodePen.

The non-semantic block uses a span as a label and a hidden input for storing the checkbox value. This component can only be accessed by mouse users. The only way to change the state of the element is by clicking on it. Another critical point is that the state of the checkbox is 100% dependent on javascript to function. If the user doesn’t have javascript enabled or if the function that establishes the checkbox behavior throws an error, no users will be able to interact with the element.

In this example, one potential reason for the non-semantic markup was that it came from generated code and it was a simple copy and paste implementation. In another, an engineer that wasn’t experienced with CSS layouts made a guess on how to build a custom checkbox. In both cases, we have isolated any user that can’t or prefers not to use a mouse and once this code has been implemented throughout the application, updating the solution to use the semantic approach is not a trivial process due to having to remove the javascript dependency and complete regression testing.

Although we could use ARIA roles and tabindex attributes to make the non-semantic code accessible, the amount of work and effort (development and cross-browser/device testing) negates the efficiency gained by using generated code to start with. The developer would need to develop the functionality that a native checkbox provides out of the box, such as:

Managing the state of the checkbox
Add the ability to focus on and tab to the element
Emitting events, such as the change event

It’s always better to use semantic elements rather than relying on ARIA when possible.

Looking at the semantic example on CodePen, it easy to see how simple the implementation could have been. A native input, label, span, and pseudo-element and we have created an inclusive component that doesn’t have any dependency on javascript to function.

References

Photo by Arnold Francisca on Unsplash

Data URIs - Tricky Tricky

2017-12-14T00:00:00Z

It’s a short and simple story, really. It starts on a search to find a solution for some cross browser problems with Data URIs. The first stop was the probably don't Base64 SVG article on CSS Tricks and ends on these quick examples.

Chrome and Safari

These two pals aren’t picky at all. They’re rather civil actually.

background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='100' height='100' viewBox='5 5 24 24' fill='#000000'><path d='M10.743 11.68c-0.619-0.631-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022s-0.641 1.632-0.022 2.263l6.274 6.4c0.619 0.631 1.632 0.641 2.263 0.022l6.526-6.4c0.631-0.619 0.641-1.632 0.022-2.263s-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022l-5.383 5.279-5.154-5.257z'></path></svg>");

FireFox

The only difference here is that we encoded the # sign as %23 associated with the fill property’s hex color value.

From fill='#000000' to fill='%23000000'

background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='100' height='100' viewBox='5 5 24 24' fill='%23000000'><path d='M10.743 11.68c-0.619-0.631-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022s-0.641 1.632-0.022 2.263l6.274 6.4c0.619 0.631 1.632 0.641 2.263 0.022l6.526-6.4c0.631-0.619 0.641-1.632 0.022-2.263s-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022l-5.383 5.279-5.154-5.257z'></path></svg>");

IE 11

Rather than encoding for base64 and removing the encoding type, we can encode the < as %3c, > as %3C, and # as %23. The final part that IE needs to feel warm and fuzzy is the full encoding declaration charset=utf8 as opposed to just setting the value, utf8. I haven’t tested Edge, but it “should” work. It works for all four browsers referenced in this post.

From data:image/svg+xml;utf8 to data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8

From <svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='100' height='100' viewBox='5 5 24 24' fill='%23000000'><path d='M10.743... to %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='100' height='100' viewBox='5 5 24 24' fill='%23000000'%3E%3Cpath d='M10.743...

From ...></path></svg> to ...%3E%3C/path%3E%3C/svg%3E

background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='100' height='100' viewBox='5 5 24 24' fill='%23000000'%3E%3Cpath d='M10.743 11.68c-0.619-0.631-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022s-0.641 1.632-0.022 2.263l6.274 6.4c0.619 0.631 1.632 0.641 2.263 0.022l6.526-6.4c0.631-0.619 0.641-1.632 0.022-2.263s-1.632-0.641-2.263-0.022l-5.383 5.279-5.154-5.257z'%3E%3C/path%3E%3C/svg%3E");

See the Pen Background SVG Data URI by Derick Montague (@BeyondHyper) on CodePen.

Resources

Photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

Nudging Accessibility into the Development Process

2016-12-09T00:00:00Z

What does this mean, nudging accessibility into the development process? Accessibility is a challenging task. Standards are murky, supporting technologies vary, and there are far too few experts. Sadly, a large percentage of developers I’ve talked to bypass accessibility for a few reasons, all of which have one thing in common, knowledge gaps coupled with time constraints.

Heydon Pickering recently wrote a wonderful article published by Smashing Magazine about CSS Inheritance. The article thoughtfully discusses how many of the conventions we are using, BEM, Atomic CSS, and others, do not take advantage of CSS inheritance and the cascade. When I was reading Heydon's thoughts on styling attributes, I had an aha moment about the other benefit of using attributes as the selector of your ruleset, that is specific to accessibility.

Let’s Nudge

The same developer that creates the presentational layer, may or may not be the same one implementing the behavioral layer. Let’s look at a simple form validation interaction that would require the aria-invalid attribute. The typical way we handle an error is with a state class (is-invalid) or a data attribute (data-state=”invalid”).

When the developer is building out the validation logic for displaying the error, we have required them to use the error state class or data attribute in order to apply the styles to the DOM element. After that, we ask them to add the aria-invalid attribut, so that users relying on assistive technologies will be made aware that the content entered into the associated input element is invalid.

By using aria-attributes for styling hooks, we make it easy for all developers, especially those that are not well versed in accessibility to build more accessible interfaces. We are nudging their success and providing a much better experience for users with disabilities. Another quick example is hiding an element. We have all used a state class like is-hidden. When we could have easily used the aria-hidden attribute as the selector in our ruleset to hide the element.

This post just starts to scratch the surface of ways to make the internet a more inclusive place. What ideas do you have?