What are Design Sprints? I did not know that, either. Until I read the book Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five day by Jake Knapp of Google Ventures (GV). By the way, if you happen to know me, please send me an email request and you will get one (yeah, it is 100% legal). Still, to know something and do something these are completely two different skill sets. I knew that in order to grasp the whole idea I would need to participate in one. There it was, I was looking at a great opportunity, the workshop's agenda for Mind The Product conference in London. C. Todd Lombardo, one of the co-authors of "Design Sprint" book, was organizing a
Dual Track Scrum
Recently, I have been given a task to visualize a successful implementation of Scrum with a special emphasis on Product Organization within the company. It was a part of a larger interview process for an Agile Coach role. Here is what I came up with: Two tracks to rule your company There are two tracks on which your company rides. The metaphor here is that it is a train with a magnetic drive (we are in XXI century and build products with modern technology, right?). However, should one track fail it will come to a complete halt. It is rather obvious that failing at Product Delivery Track will stop the progress at your company, be it measured in money earned or innovations that it brings to
Boards do not have to be boring!
Today I would like to showcase a bit of my creative spirit and by example explain the evolution of a team's board used for daily re-planning activity during Daily Scrum. I specifically do not use the term Kanban Board because the way I designed those boards might be unorthodox to say the least. First there was chaos What's this all about, you might want to ask? Well, the guys are having fun with the Marshmallow Challenge but the photo bomber is this Kanban board in the background that the team used to have. I mean no-one would possibly know the state of affairs in the sprint even when examining it with the highest attention possible and from the closest possible distance. Enter The New New Board
3 Prototyping Tools You Need To Know
Just recently I did a review of a number of prototyping & wire framing tools that would enable me to create many rough sketches during ideation phase together with Product Managers I work with and then move on and refine gathered ideas to a higher fidelity both visually and conceptually. Depending on the context, you should have a different tool or rather a pair of tools as they usually complement each other nicely. InVision This tool is at the same time powerful and simple to use. Within minutes you can transform your static assets into dynamic prototypes. It features not just hotspots but also hover states, which allow for even more realistic interactions. In the mean time, while you do all this stuff, you can get
How to Create Products Customers Love?
My big passion is creating products. It was not until 2013 that I came to discover it, when I joined a very successful start-up, which was heading towards expansion to Asian markets and looking for a trader (i.e. someone who buys/sells financial instruments in order to profit), willing to learn new tricks. It was not all planed ahead. In fact all this came as a huge strike of luck or perhaps the better wording is Serendipidity. I was in the right place, met the right people, had the knowledge and skillset and was given an opportunity to head an amazing product and develop it further. Learning on the job, how to be a Product Manager I was taught many lessons. Now and then I