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Why I Joined Test Double

When I say I’m joining Test Double as their new VP of Delivery, I’m not just making a career move—I’m making an alignment move. This is a company that already values the things I value. They’ve built a strong culture, a strong team, and a strong set of practices. I’m not joining to overhaul anything. I’m joining to help make something great even better.

Why I Joined Test Double
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Collaboration Contracts beta release

Today, I’m excited to announce the beta launch of Collaboration Contracts, a lightweight app designed to help teams—especially distributed ones—quickly define and manage their roles in decisions. Whether you're using it to bring clarity to one-off decisions or baking it into how your team operates every day, the app is built to support alignment, accountability, and smoother collaboration.

Collaboration Contracts beta release
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An Experiment Canvas

The Experiment Canvas is a simple means of planning, tracking, and responding to your experiments.

An Experiment Canvas
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Create simple things in small steps

Simple Things

When I say simple, I don’t necessarily mean easy. And I certainly do not mean crude in form or incomplete. Simple indicates something that does not have superfluous parts or multiple responsibilities, is easy to understand, is as independent from the rest of the solution as possible, and meets a need as is.

Simple may not address all use cases, but it does address some use cases.

Create simple things in small steps
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The Behaviors

Over the past several years, as I’ve been helping teams and organizations improve their ability to deliver software products that are desirable, viable, and feasible, I have been experimenting with a Behavior Framework that has proven to be rather effective. And I’d like to share it with you in hopes that you find it useful and that you provide me feedback on your experiences with it.

Shaping culture through inaction

Shaping culture through inaction

It is not only the things we reward that shape culture, but the things we allow. Perhaps the easiest way to shape a culture is to do nothing at all.

When a rockstar employee yells at, denigrates, or refuses to help teammates and you let it slide because the rockstar is valuable, you are shaping a culture. When a teammate tells a racist or sexist joke and you say nothing because nobody present is a member of the target group, you are shaping a culture. When an executive abuses power, when a coworker engages in gossip, when a team cuts corners to make deadlines and you decide it isn't your problem, you are shaping a culture.

Inflexible agility

Back in May of 2014, I attended ALM Chicago. I had the privilege of closing out the conference with my "Let's Start an Epidemic" talk. The second speaker of the day was Venkatesh Rao. This was his third time speaking at the conference and I quickly came to understand why they kept inviting him back. His talk was daring, extemporaneous, and insightful. There were many pearls in his presentation, but one thing he said in particular struck me.

Jungle Gyms, Not Ladders

Jungle Gyms, Not Ladders

I've worked for essentially two types of companies - those that have clearly defined job ladders and those that don't.

A clearly defined job ladder provides people a clear picture of what they need to accomplish and what skills they need to display in order to move into a new role. A clearly defined job ladder provides a baseline for performance appraisals. Everyone in the organization knows what is expected of people in each role. Are you displaying these attributes with a level of proficiency requisite for the role, or are you not? Job ladders make the expectations of progress and the opportunity for advancement clear and consistent.

Forever Forward, Reprise

It is with absolute jubilation and optimism that I announce March 7, 2014 is my last day at the Groupon Chicago office.

I've been part of Groupon for just over a year now. I remember chatting with H about companies he could help me connect to as he surreptitiously mentioned Groupon (over and over again). I remember interviewing with "Cheese Sandwich Guy"; a dude in a t-shirt that diagramed the architecture of a cheese sandwich. I recall wondering if I'd enjoy working with him. As it turned out, he was my new boss. And, yes, I do sincerely enjoy working with him.

The journey has been valuable and has left an indelible mark on me. I've learned about people, teams, leadership, mentoring, and collaboration. I've loved working with the folks in the Chicago office. I've made some close friends, brought some old friends closer, and for the first time in my life, I've made a deliberate effort to keep in touch with people.

If I've not done well keeping in touch with you, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm still working on it.

On October 12, 2012, I wrote a post announcing my departure from LeanDog and my new opportunity at Groupon. Today, I can hardly contain myself as I announce my next adventure.

No, I'm not leaving Groupon (that would be foolish). I have taken on a new role as Groupon's Global Director of Engineering Culture. This is not only a new role for me, this is a new role for Groupon. So we'll learn as we go.

I've a fantastic team member in Connie-Lynne Villani who takes on engineering orientation, education, and diversity along with public outreach. I will be focused on engineering standards, branding, and engagement.

And those newly-exercised skills keeping in touch with friends will be put to good use. As part of this new role, Jennifer and I will relocate to the Palo Alto California area.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a companion like Jennifer by my side. Together, we've raised two wonderful children. Together, we've navigated numerous challenges. And together, we take the next step.

I don't know precisely where this path leads. I simply cannot see that far ahead. But I know two things with certainty; I will never be alone in my journey and the only direction is forward.

Fist to Five

Fist to Five (a.k.a. Fist of Five) is a simple tool for measuring level of agreement in a team. Often, this is far more expedient than discourse, even among those in agreement. Secondarily, it helps to overcome “silence means consent” for teams where this may be an issue. This is not a replacement for discussion, merely a way of getting a quick check to determine if more discussion is actually warranted.

Unit Testing is to code coverage as Exercise is to weight loss

This is a quick post, following up on a tweet from a little while back:

"Unit testing is for code coverage like exercise is for weight loss. You're actually missing the point."

A great number of people in the software field appear to think the primary benefit of unit tests is test coverage. Some even talk about them as if they were one and the same. "No need for more unit tests, we have plenty of coverage already."

Coaching Anti-Patterns: Prescriptive Agile

Coaching Anti-Patterns: Prescriptive Agile

I saw a tweet this morning that got me thinking about a coaching anti-pattern I frequently see:

"Without knowing you, your Agile coach knows you use should start using stand ups, TDD and pair programming, etc.
Taylor would be proud."

THE PRESCRIPTIVE AGILE COACH

The Prescriptive Agile Coach is armed with a reliable set of practices. The practices have been documented, vetted, and implemented successfully on a number of teams. They are inarguably proven. To the Prescriptive Agile Coach, those not following these practices are not truly Agile.