RARA - Nov 2017 by Jenn Hueting

Working with stakeholders as a team on a shared understanding of the scope, what's most important to work on and why (not being afraid to question the initial ask)

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:11:40 UTC

I think having some shared ownership on what is being worked on is pretty important

Time for discovery at the beginnings of work

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:11:47 UTC

Investigate what the stakeholders want, why, what the user needs are, review analytics, etc.

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:12:06 UTC

Short scrums every day work well to check in and understand dependencies

2017-11-21 20:12:19 UTC

Team time/pairing works well to keep everyone aware of work being done/get feedback/learn new things

Make time for user research in our projects

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:12:28 UTC

I like that we find ways to get our work out in front of users, consistently, sometimes unconventionally

Mattermost chat room

2017-11-21 20:12:51 UTC

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:13:11 UTC

I like having the project be the focus and knowing that I can contribute in different ways— QA'ing, helping with content audit— to bring the project to realization. Makes me feel flexible and holistic in my work.

2017-11-21 20:13:33 UTC

It's nice to have a no-meeting day/have time to focus on work

Interdisciplinary team

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:14:03 UTC

I like working closely with people from other disciplines: we all bring different perspectives that are valuable and valued

Daily design time

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:14:09 UTC

Flexibility

2017-11-21 20:14:35 UTC

The team has a pretty high degree of independence and flexibility in how much work they take on and when it happens; it is not dictated to us by the stakeholder. I think this helps everyone take ownership over their work and remain invested in the success of the project.

Having a key stakeholder integrated in the team's meetings, cadence, etc

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:14:47 UTC

Gets away from us/them attitudes that might come up otherwise

Role hygiene (?)

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:14:52 UTC

We're pretty good at knowing who should be doing what and when, also respectful of each others' role boundaries, also free to comment/give feedback on each others' work

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:15:13 UTC

Sometimes it can be hard if my tasks are dependent on other tasks. Hard to know best ways to contribute without being redundant with other people's work. Helpful to build "side work" into sprint.

Making time for relevant "pet" projects

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:15:27 UTC

We highly value doing this on our team and make time for it: making new/improvements to wagtail patterns, creating a whole new photography style, etc

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:16:57 UTC

Aside from daily design time being good for working, it's nice to simply have face time with a small group and get to know people since we work remotely and don't have an office culture.

Retros

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:16:58 UTC

Work at a reasonable pace

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:17:57 UTC

We try not to overload ourselves, we aren't driven by external deadlines. We are realistic about what's possible in a given two-week period.

2017-11-21 20:19:23 UTC

Focus on MVPs

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:20:28 UTC

in addition to all these other things, I also feel like we are lucky in that we have really nice and conscientious people on this team - and we haven't been subject to the whack a mole distractions of doing lots of small projects that can come in any time. i don't know where these random observations fit

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:20:42 UTC

Can be difficult to know what other teams are doing, especially related to communal work (like design manual, CF)

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:21:36 UTC

Can be tough to get external developer eyes on our work as a project team

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:21:44 UTC

Github works well for breaking down tasks and documenting

Willing/able to make time to learn across disciplines from each other

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:23:05 UTC

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:26:43 UTC

all these things work well as a small project group in particular. having an established time on the calendar, space to talk about all things from personal to work process related.

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:29:36 UTC

working on the same thing may be important (as opposed to design ops or platform, with no collaboration on one big thing). Shared responsibility for seemingly small projects — tying them to the larger meaning

LARGER MEANING

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:34:46 UTC

Tie work back to goals, seeing small work as all part of bigger streams of work, focusing on that, opens up room for strategic thinking, etc

sonna_kim — 2017-11-21 20:37:45 UTC

<--- team time

All the google docs

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:38:01 UTC

Reflection time every 4 months in person

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:39:22 UTC

Talk values, talk process, talk goals

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:40:44 UTC

Underlying motto of "continue improvement"

More accountability and motivation

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:43:53 UTC

"I don't want to let my team down"

Real clear direction, what is important, why we're doing this

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:46:52 UTC

Again, larger meaning

Variety of types of work

stephanieosan — 2017-11-21 20:48:28 UTC

Working with stakeholders

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 20:55:57 UTC

- listening... what are we missing, learning from stakeholder
- Product owner is one role of whole just as UX, FEWD, GD, PM are
- integrating stakeholders into team, equals, welcome to family

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 21:00:33 UTC

Everyone has a good attitude

jmhueting — 2017-11-21 21:04:26 UTC

We can control within the bubble