I've been thinking about teams recently, and in particular the types of teams that are brought together where nobody really knows anyone beforehand, but where they are expected to start work and be productive pretty much immediately. Take, for example, flight crews on aircraft, particularly with bigger airlines. Everyone has a role to perform: pilots … Continue reading Model teams
This week I have learned: certain Tory peers can only be described in the sort of language that Channel 4 news presenters use off-air. that you can get involved in open source even if you don't code. I had a fascinating day at the OpenUK Thought Leadership event on Monday, which is my stand-out memory. … Continue reading Weeknote 606: Drumatix
Over the past few weeks, I've been writing about how internal technology teams, whether IT, Digital or other permutations, might look at themselves though a service value lens to better understand what they do in the eyes of their "customers". If you haven't seen the articles, they are here, here and here. Last week I … Continue reading The tech team value prop – field experiments
This week I have learned: the Boston Robotics dog is a sinister thing. I got the opportunity to be face to robot grab arm with one at the Dorset Festival of the Future event. Whilst it's "just" a remote control device, the movement (which is more horse-like than dog-like) is proper "uncanny valley" stuff. the … Continue reading Weeknote 605: pareidolia
This week I have learned: ultimately it's about the people. We can get fooled in the world of technology into thinking that not only it's only about the tech, but that tech people themselves are somehow more machine than human. It's not and they're not. Chris was off sunning himself at a conference this week, … Continue reading Weeknote 604: people, innit?
Twenty-six years ago I started working at the BBC just as the corporation was entering into its first big phase of digital transformation. The world of broadcast media was changing as the production and distribution of television shifted from analogue to digital technologies. Shifting from analogue tape to first digital tape and then hard drives … Continue reading The digitally-transformed office
This week I have learned: I've been obsessing about metaphors about teams like flight crews, film crews and international football teams. I've then also extended the metaphor to talk about roles mismatching, tribalism and the psychology of the narcissism of small differences, topped with the mention of a small tea shop in the Cotswolds. Ultimately … Continue reading Weeknote 603: Fake coffee
So far in this short series, I have looked at identifying who a modern technology team might be providing services to, the jobs those people might be doing, the gains they can receive if they are successful, and the pains that they might experience if they fail, or that get in the way of them … Continue reading The Tech Team Value Prop – services offered
Occasionally there are conversations I have that stick in my mind for years and years. One of those such conversations was when I met up for lunch with a former-BBC and Microsoft colleague Mark a few years ago. "It's not a sales funnel," said Mark. "It's a sales sieve." Mark explained that whilst sales teams … Continue reading The sales sieve
As you will be coming to realise, these updates aren’t a sophisticated exercise in Content Marketing, but rather they are my Working Out Loud as I trace the steps to releasing the product next year. Working Out Loud is one of the 13 Play Skills that are explored in the cards, and it’s been an increasingly important … Continue reading PlayCards – the journey to product Ep. 2
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