Nov 04

Kickstart Your Project with an Inception Deck!

 

Before kicking off a new project, one of the tools I like to use is the Inception Deck. Originally introduced by Jonathan Rasmusson in his book The Agile Samurai, I fully recommend this book, the Inception Deck is designed to ensure everyone—from team members to stakeholders—is on the same page from the very start.

What is the Inception Deck?
It’s a series of essential questions and exercises that help teams clarify the project’s purpose, identify potential risks, and build a shared vision. The goal? To minimize misalignment and maximize focus as you move forward.
Here are the 10 Core Elements of the Inception Deck to guide your project kickoff:

Why Are We Here? — Define the purpose and reason for starting this project.

Elevator Pitch — Craft a concise statement that summarizes the project.

Design a Product Box — Imagine your project as a product on a store shelf. What would make it appealing?

Create a NOT List — Identify what’s out of scope to avoid scope creep.

Meet Your Neighbors — Recognize the key stakeholders, team members, and partners involved.

Show the Solution — Visualize the result. What will the final solution look like?

What Keeps Us Up at Night? — Acknowledge potential risks and challenges.

Size It Up — Estimate the scope and effort required.

Be Clear on What’s Going to Give — Prioritize what’s essential and where compromises might be needed.

Show What It’s Going to Take — Outline the initial plan and key milestones.

The Inception Deck provides a solid foundation for a project, helping teams establish clarity, trust, and alignment early on. It’s especially valuable in Agile environments, where continuous feedback and adaptability are key.

When I used this tool, we gained valuable insights, and the exercise took between one and two days to complete.

Have you used an Inception Deck or something similar in your projects? How did it help your team get started?
#Agile#ProjectManagement hashtag#InceptionDeck#TheAgileSamurai#AgileWarrior#TeamAlignment

 

 

Oct 30

Unleashing Creativity with the Marshmallow Challenge: The Power of Prototyping

The Marshmallow Challenge is a simple exercise with profound lessons: teams get spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow and are challenged to build the tallest possible structure with the marshmallow on top.

Surprisingly, kindergartners often outperform business students! Why? They prototype. Rather than planning endlessly, they test and iterate quickly, learning from each attempt.

This exercise illustrates the power of prototyping. It encourages teams to embrace experimentation, uncover hidden issues early, and refine ideas iteratively. In complex projects, prototyping accelerates learning, reduces risk, and fuels innovation.

#MarshmallowChallenge #Prototyping#Innovation#DesignThinking#Agile#TeamBuilding#ContinuousImprovement hashtag#Leadership#Creativity#ProblemSolving

Oct 24

Situational Leadership Part 4: Empowering Your Team Through Delegation

As we continue our exploration of the Situational Leadership Theory by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, we’ve looked at the Telling (S1), Selling (S2), and Participating (S3) styles. Now, let’s discuss the Delegating (S4) style:

🔹 Delegating (S4): In this style, the leader delegates most of the responsibility to the team, allowing them to take ownership of their tasks. While the leader still monitors progress, their involvement in decision-making is minimal. This approach best suits highly skilled and confident teams requiring little direction and support.

Leaders foster independence and accountability by empowering team members to make decisions, creating an environment where the team can truly thrive.


#Leadership hashtag#SituationalLeadership#TeamEmpowerment #ProjectManagement#LeadershipStyles

Oct 22

Situational Leadership Part 2: Engaging and Motivating Your Team



Continuing from my previous post on the Situational Leadership Theory by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, we covered the Telling (S1) style—ideal for providing strong direction when your team needs clear guidance.
Next up is the Selling (S2) style:

🔹 Selling (S2): Leaders still provide direction but focus on engaging and motivating the team. Communication is key, as leaders “sell” their ideas to get team members on board. This style works well when the team is willing but needs a bit more confidence or skill-building.

By adapting your leadership approach, you can meet your team where they are and support their growth!



Stay tuned for the next leadership style in this series.

#Leadership #SituationalLeadership#TeamDevelopment#ProjectManagement#LeadershipStyles

Oct 21

Situational Leadership Part 1: Adapting to Your Team’s Needs

Leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The Situational Leadership Theory, developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, highlights the importance of flexibility. The best leaders adapt their style based on their team’s maturity and the specifics of the task. This ensures that leadership is aligned with the team’s needs, fostering better collaboration and outcomes.

Hersey and Blanchard identified four leadership styles:

🔹 Telling (S1): Leaders provide clear instructions on what, how, when, and where tasks should be completed. This style involves high direction and minimal relationship-building—ideal for teams needing strong guidance.

Stay tuned for insights into the other leadership styles!

#Leadership#SituationalLeadership#TeamDevelopment#ProjectManagement#LeadershipStyles

Oct 17

💡 Introducing Agile with the Agile Ball Game!

When introducing Agile or Scrum to teams with no prior experience, I like to kick things off with a fun and interactive game that explains key concepts like iteration, teamwork, and continuous improvement: The Agile Ball Game. 🎉

Here’s how it works:

Grab 20-30 small balls.
Everyone is part of one big team.
Each ball must have air-time 🌬️.
Every ball must be touched by all team members, at least once 🤲.
Balls cannot be passed to your immediate left or right.
Each ball must return to the person who introduced it into the system.

🚀 After a 2-minute preparation, the team has 2 minutes to complete the first Sprint. 💬 Following the Sprint, there’s a 1-minute Retrospective to discuss how the process can improve.

This cycle repeats for five iterations—by the end, the team can reflect on how they improved and adapted after each iteration. ( In each iteration the team improve the time to move all the balls)

This game is a great way to demonstrate the value of small iterations, retrospectives, and continuous improvement—all core elements of Agile! 🎯

Does anyone have any other games or activities that are used to introduce Agile?
#Agile hashtag#Scrum#Teamwork#ContinuousImprovement

Oct 15

Measuring to Improve in Project Management

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” – Lord Kelvin

✅ Why Measurement Matters
Measuring key metrics like cycle time, lead time, and bug counts helps you spot bottlenecks and areas for improvement. Without solid data, you might rely on guesses, but accurate measurements lead to informed decisions and real results.

🚀 What Should You Measure?
According to Accelerate, focus on these four important DORA metrics:
-Deployment Frequency: How often your team releases changes to production.
-Change Lead Time: The time it takes for code to go live after being committed.
-Change Failure Rate: The percentage of deployments that result in issues, rollbacks, or failures.
-Time to Restore Service: How long it takes to fix an issue in production.

From my experience, I also recommend tracking:

-Cycle Time: The total time to complete a task from start to finish.
-Development Time: The time spent on coding and programming a feature.
-Bug Count: The number of defects or issues found in the software.

📊 Recommendations
Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to measure everything. Instead, focus on 3 or 4 key metrics, establish a baseline, and make gradual improvements. Concentrate on enhancing one metric at a time for the best results.

🔧 Pro Tip
Use tools like JIRA, Trello, or Asana to collect your data, and Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) to visualize it. Real-time insights help you focus on solving problems and improving processes.

Remember, measuring performance isn’t about micromanaging; it’s about empowering your team to continuous improvement by identifying growth opportunities.

hashtag#ProjectManagement hashtag#ContinuousImprovement hashtag#Agile hashtag#Leadership hashtag#KPIs hashtag#DataDriven hashtag#MetricsMatter hashtag#TeamWork

Oct 10

Prepararing a marathon project.

 

I love running marathons, and while I’ve completed several, I always wish I could run more. I treat my marathon training like managing a project—using a flexible, data-driven approach. With a 16-week training plan, I see each week as a new step, much like a Scrum sprint, where I check my progress and make adjustments as needed.

I track important details like my interval times, endurance, and recovery using tools like Strava and Garmin Connect, comparing them to previous training cycles and races like half marathons.

I’ve noticed that many runners stick to their training plans without adjustments, which can lead to burnout by race day. If you’re thinking about running a marathon, don’t make that mistake! Instead, listen to your body and adjust your plan based on how you feel.

Every week, I assess my performance and well-being. If I’m feeling tired or not meeting my goals, I adapt by adding more recovery runs or changing my long runs. When I’m feeling good, I push myself a bit more.

This focus on improvement—regularly checking in and adapting helps to get better and finish strong. As in project management, being flexible and responsive to change is key to success! So listen to your body and adapt your training plan 🏃‍♂️💪

#ProjectManagement #MarathonTraining #ContinuousImprovement

Oct 07

The Channel Tunnel Project

The Channel Tunnel is an undersea rail tunnel that links Folkestone in the UK to Pas de Calais, near Calais, in France. It carries high-speed Eurostar trains, and in recent years, it has transported over 22 million passengers annually, with freight surpassing 20 million tonnes.

In 1988, the Channel project began with a budget of £2.6B and an expected timeline of 5 years. However, it wasn’t completed until 1994, costing £4.6B—80% over budget and taking 20% longer than planned.

This is a classic case where uncontrolled changes in project scope occur due to unclear definitions and planning gaps.

Key issues in the Channel project:

–Lack of historical data: Without precedent, crucial requirements like air conditioning were missed in the initial design.

–Risk management: Unexpected underground conditions caused delays, highlighting the need for better risk identification and response planning.

–Communication gaps: British and French teams tunneling from opposite sides faced communication challenges.

-Procurement issues: Optimistic bids led to the “winner’s curse,” where contractors couldn’t deliver on time or budget.

Would an Agile and Iterative approach have mitigated these issues?

Oct 04

Product Prioritization: Prepare a birthday party 🎉



Beyond MoSCoW, ROI, or Cost of Delay product prioritization tools, will talk another day, one fun technique is buy-a-Feature.

When planning a product, the Buy-a-Feature prioritization technique can help teams align on the most valuable. This method assigns a virtual “budget” to stakeholders, who then “buy” the most important features.

Imagine organizing a birthday party! You have €100 to allocate between options like catering (€40), a live band (€60), decorations (€20), and a cake (€30).

Everyone involved can contribute their thoughts by “buying” their favorites with their budget. If the cake gets the most votes, but no one “buys” the live band, you know where to focus your efforts.

This technique fosters collaboration and ensures that resources are spent on what matters most to the stakeholders, creating alignment and building better products (or parties!).

What product prioritization tools do you use?

hashtag#projectmanagement hashtag#productmanager hashtag#agileprojectmanager