The document details a post-mortem analysis of an Ignite talk that went poorly due to lack of preparation, resulting in a short presentation that ended abruptly. Key corrective actions proposed include allocating more preparation time for future talks and avoiding launching major products on the day of an event. The discussion emphasizes the importance of visibility in the process and learning from failures to improve future outcomes.

1. The Continuous
Improvement
Toolbox
Post-Mortems
“The cost of failure is
education.”
Devin Carraway - Google SRE Book

2. My Bio
Site Reliability Engineer
for Lumin Digital
2+ Years Site Reliability
Engineering Experience
9+ Years Software
Engineering Experience
aaronamell@gmail.com

3. 2019-08-21 Ignite Talk Gone Wrong
Issue Summary
The postmortem ignite talk went horribly wrong. It all started around slide 4.
Aaron forgot the material on his slides.
Tickets Related to Issue
IGNITE-1 Preparation for ignite talk
Raw Logs and Data
Video of presentation to be added later along with transcript.

4. 2019-08-21 Ignite Talk Gone Wrong
Timeline
11:10 Talk Begins
11:11 Talk Goes Wrong
11:13 No Improvement Yet
11:15 Talk Ends
Root Cause
Lack of Preparation. Too much work in the days leading upto the conference.
Resolution And Recovery
Talk was over after 5 minutes. It is unknown at this time if the audience has recovered.

5. 2019-08-21 Ignite Talk Gone Wrong
Corrective Actions
IGNITE-2 Allocate more time preparing for talk
IGNITE-3 Don’t launch major product day of ignite talk
Prepared By
Aaron Mell
Presented By
Aaron Mell
Reviewed By
The unlucky devopsdays 2019 talk attendees

6. You shall not Blame

7. Get the Right People to Review

8. You Cannot Fix What you do Not Understand

9. Technical Solutions > Process

10. Don’t Delay Discussion,
Lest You Forget the Details

11. Make Time for the Corrective Actions

12. Sharing is Caring
Make the Process and Results Visible

13. Standardize the Process

14. “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase
perfection, we can catch excellence.”
Vince Lombardi

15. “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase
perfection, we can catch excellence.”
Vince Lombardi

16. The Continuous
Improvement Toolbox
Post Mortems
Aaron Mell