Category: Teamwork

Joshua Porter wrote a terrific article about Netflix and their Fast Iteration process. Since UIE is more of a design and user experience shop, the article focuses primarily on creative designers, but I think that the concepts apply equally to developers. At Extractable, we are always trying to move away from a classic waterfall process…

Scott Berkun writes about Why innovation efforts fail, citing a few common problems (“task forces and committees are separate from the real teams,” suggestions are vetoed, innovation must be a core value and not an add-on). He also identifies a few factors that help innovation succeed (startign with a pilot project, willingness to accept risks,…

Dan sent me this link to an article on project management at the Ektron website. I especially like the idea of a project blog (or project log, as I prefer to think of it), since to me it seems like the natural way to post updates and circulate information – infinitely preferable to an endless…

I did like Lost in Translation, but I agree with I think about six of the Eight Things I

Suzanne Stefanac is writing a book on blogging called Dispatches from Blogistan for Peachpit/New Riders. Naturally, she’s been blogging the whole process and posting snippets of work in progress and the texts of interviews she’s conducted for the book. I know Suzanne from The Well, where I host the blog conference and where I’m known…

Joel sent around an interesting little white paper by Rebecca Churilla called Single Interactive Agency Looking for Clients to Build Lasting Relationships With, about how responding to an RFP can feel as nerve-wracking as a blind date, and how to make the “dance” of the requester and proposer work better for both parties.

Chris Pirillo just IM’d me to point out the Windows Vista Torrent site: Per the official report, Microsoft is currently recommending waiting for a DVD version of Windows Vista Beta 2 due to extremely long wait times for the download directly from Microsoft. To help them with their dilemma, Windows enthusiasts Chris and Jake have…

David Gammel, knowledge management guru, writes in his High Context Consulting blog (The One and Only Purpose for an Intranet): The sole purpose for an intranet is to facilitate the work of staff in pursuit of the organization

Bryce Johnson has posted a video recording (in two formats) of Jess McMullin’s session from the IA Summit, Game Changing: How You Can Transform Client Mindsets Through Play: One of the sessions I saw was Jess McMullin

Philip, Anjali, Gaven, Dan, Chris, Marsha, Joel, and I had dinner at the Young Avenue Deli tonight. Great food and nice divey atmosphere. We also played a little Galaga (vintage video game) and pocket billiards, although the cue ball kept going down into the coin-op vault.

I just spent all day in a seminar led by Kevin Cheng and Jane Jao, both currently at Yahoo! Local, on the subject of Creating Conceptual Comics: Storytelling and Techniques and I came away from it with some great ideas about how to communicate web interface and functionality ideas at the early, prototype stage of…

Tanya Raybourn (Pixelcharmer) points to Waterfall2006 in her Field Notes blog: This one, Waterfall 2006, sounds unmissable. After years of being disparaged by some in the software development community, the waterfall process is back with a vengeance. You

I know it’s probably just because I’m racing around to get a bunch of things done between trips (to Austin, Vancouver, and Utah), but this article (Be smarter at work, slack off) sounds like the perfect advice to me right about now.

David Seah’s Printable CEO Series incorporates some interesting paper-based tools for tracking and prioritizing your tasks during the day. His system assigns points to different types of tasks. Life-sustaining work, such as billing or signing new deals, earns 10 points. Work that provides concrete results that demonstrates your skills earns 5 points. Networking-related tasks are…

In his Noise Between Stations blog Victor Lombardi compares three models of organizational evolution and change–deteriorating, chaos, and periodic renewal–and finds the last the most healthy, writing: Periodic renewal requires the organizational discipline to stick with what works as well as the resolve to occasionally improve it, a careful balance. Just today Dan and I…