Aspiration, explained
I never worry about you working hard. I do worry about you working hard on the wrong things. Sharing before you’re ready is all about inviting others to give feedback before you get too far into any endeavor. The goal here is to help you identify gaps in your logic and see alternative approaches before you invest too much time into what you are working on.
Consider how great it is to get feedback on something when you’ve barely invested any time in that project. You’re flexible at this stage, able to adjust without effort.
Now, consider how discouraging it is when you’ve worked in solitude on something for weeks, and then you show it to a colleague, only for them to point out an ostensibly obvious gap in your approach. At this point in the project, the criticism stings. You start to think about all the perfecting you did in vain on this or that part of the project. You feel resent toward the feedback-giver, and you resent yourself for missing such an “obvious” issue.
Sharing before you are ready helps you avoid this trap.
If your copy is not handy, here’s Chapter 2 from Do Better Work, which is all about this topic.
Examples / Observations
Observation created almost 5 years agoFeaturing:Brittany H.We put learners firstWe share before we're readyWe ask clarifying questionsWe get agreementsBack-end engineerBrittany has been taking the lead on our Forced Logout acceleration (doing some discovery, determining the best approach from an architecture standpoint, story shaping, delivery, etc.). While planning and working through some discovery, she ran into some roadblocks. She gave context, asked a clear question, and provided potential solutions so folks could easily comment in hopes to gain clarity and move forward in a timely manner (see the below Slack conversations for examples). Keep up all the great work, Brittany 🎉
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1592937599264700
https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1592937611265000
Observation created almost 5 years ago[the observation]
Observation created about 5 years agohttps://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8H3ENQ2J/p1583353040120300
I hope this doesn't get annoying, but hot damn I love this style of collaboration!!!
Stating the context, and making it clear what you are asking for, and then asking ALL of the other disciplines!
Really looking forward to seeing what happens next. The golden standard (in my mind) is how the end of this interaction lands. Do folks feel heard, did we have a better end solution because of the early discussion, or do folks feel like this was an empty gesture? Time will tell, but I'll be watching with all of the hope I can muster!
(edit)
The thing I love the most is that it is digestible.
Small chunks allow everyone to participate without feeling overwhelmed.
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Waseem D.Ethan M.Alec R.We share before we're readyDecomposition & SequencingEpic shaperFront-end architectBack-end architectThis thread speaks to it: https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/CPHPVJSTH/p1574698910011200
This is a great discussion and approach to taking on what could be a larger project in Linked Elements. The team was able to work together to identify and slice up the work in order to get value into the hands of customer faster. Alec said it in his summary here:
We are going to structure the epics so at the end of each element the element is fully implemented. This means that at the end of epic two the paragraph element will have all of the linked element functionality. Then epic three will be the photo element fully implemented.
- This will mirror how the platform team rolled out a role management, a fully functional piece of a larger whole. This means we can learn more about the entire linked element process earlier.
- It gets to value quickly. We have been hearing for years from clients about the linked element functionality. With this plan, we will allow admins to do this whole process faster!
- It will make the delivery manager role more smooth. Because of this plan, each epic will look similar technically speaking. The first element will take the longest because we have to implement all of Linked elements but after we will be able to determine with reasonable accuracy how long each element takes to build start to finish.
As a result...
- This enables the squad in efforts of successful decomposition of ideas into shippable units of work to deliver customer value, validate P&E assumptions, or both
- Developing right-size slices of work that fit into the checkpoint and quarterly goals
- Thinking through the stack in a way that promotes flexible story creation (e.g. model/database, API, routes, react components, UI).
- Your squad consistently gets slices of work into customers hands for testing as early as possible in the lifespan of a project
Observation created over 5 years agoFeaturing:Tom C.We put learners firstWe have difficult conversationsWe share before we're readyWe ask clarifying questionsWe own our requestsWe are truthfulWe are coachableWe inspire others to do better workWe don't wait to be told what to do, we take initiativeWe put the team before ourselvesWe challenge ourselvesWe critique, we don't complainRubyCommunityInitiativeMentorshipDesign CollaborationBack-end engineerIn last week's Learn Squad weekly huddle, the topic of a bug (dubbed "a hole in the spacetime continuum") came up. This bug came to life as a result of a story I had recently done in the Accessibility epic, but Tom had taken the initiative to fix it shortly after it was noted as an issue in Slack. I greatly appreciated him taking this on, but found myself feeling even more appreciative in Monday's meeting during the conversation around what happened/why the bug occurred. He explained that he guided me down the wrong path when I consulted him on some Ruby syntax while working on the ticket, and explained the fix. Prior to this, I had never seen someone take so much ownership over an issue that occurred from assisting another engineer. In my past work, the responsibility would've fallen all on me, so this experience left me in awe. I am very thankful to work alongside someone like Tom, who a) understands we're all human, and b) takes ownership of his work (whether that's in the codebase, or offering help to others)!
Conversations about We share before we're ready
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