Why and how you should talk to your developers

1. spin42 @spin_42 hello@spin42.com
How to talk to your
<developers>

2. Weare Spin42…
Marc
Thibault
Loïc
Presence: psychological
Town: Bryan, Texas
Skills: He teaches Agility to Chuck Norris
Presence: physical
Town: Louvain la Neuve
Skills: His first book was
Metaprogramming Ruby Presence: physical
Town: Louvain la Neuve
Skills: He speaks as fast as he codes

3. Developersare …

4. Not freaky, crappy, ugly guys

5. handsome guys who can to talk

6. They can talk… but
Why talk to them?

7. Yet another project
How the customer
explained it
How the business
described it
How the developer
wrote it

8. What Do You Want?
Something to Show
Get Customer/User Feedback
Get Funded
Earn Money

9. Robust
Minimal Viable
High quality
Simple
Relevant
High Quality
Simple
Relevant
High quality Simple Relevant

10. Robust
Minimal Viable

11. PrototypeBuild
Measure
Learn
Increment

12. MVPBuild
Measure
Learn
Increment

13. How to Get There?
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
Leonardo da Vinci

14. 1Define Your Needs

15. User Stories
As a <type of user>, I want <some
goal to do something> so that <it
brings me some value>

16. SMART User
Stories
Specific
Mesurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time Bound

17. I want a search field to search based
on the firstname and lastname

18. As a community manager, I want to
search in the customers list so that
I can see what previous
conversations I've had with them

19. Prioritize
2

20. Dimensional Planning
Idea: If complete version of a functionality
is impossible, a simple version can be
super easy
Goal: Increase project throughput and
shorten the feedback loop
3+1 dimensions: time, resources, scope and
depth

21. Dirt Road
Barely viable product level
Take what you need then
throw out a third

22. Paved Road
Sober but robust implementation

23. Asphalt Road
Full implementation
You probably don’t need
features implemented at
this level

24. Flying Cars
SCI-FI ultra cool things
So cool that you’ll never
implement them

25. Poker Planning
Idea: It’s the discussion and not the
number that matters
Goal: Mesure the relative complexity of a
user story compared to another

26. Let’s Play a Game

27. How hard is it to cut those
fruits in one eatable piece?

28. 3

32. The greater the task, the
harder it is to estimate

33. And then treat them
as deadlines
We’ll ask for estimates

34. Find your team
maximum workload

35. How many cookies can
you eat in one minute?

36. Build it
3

37. Kanban

38. http://www.ted.com/talks/
tom_wujec_on_3_ways_the_brain_creates_meaning

39. Test it
4

40. Test it
Costofchange
Time
Fast untested coding
Simple tested coding

41. Collect Feedback
5

42. Do it Again
Welcome to the feedback loop
∞

43. What Should we Achieve?
“In the long history of humankind (and animal
kind, too) those who learned to collaborate
and improvise most effectively have prevailed”
Charles Darwin

44. Startup to Stay up

45. Startup to Stay up
Costofchange
Time
Critical Mass
$ of change
$ of change

46. Wanna Stay Up?
Interact With Your Team
Be PragmaticRespond to change
Collaborate with Customer
Build a Working Software

47. Programming is like sex
One mistake and you have to support it
for the rest of your life

48. Questions ?