Doc Norton

Hi.

I’m Doc and I am the founder of Doc Norton & Associates.

I have made it my life’s mission to make the world of software development a better place.

If you are leading an organization and you’re struggling to find or satisfy the market, I can help.

If you are leading an organization and software product clashes with your operational teams, I can help.

If you’ve got great talent, but you’re struggling to get product to the market, I can help.

If your technical debt is getting out of control, I can help.

Featured Articles

Featured Articles
An Experiment Canvas
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after
An Experiment Canvas
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after

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

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Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after
Create simple things in small steps
Behaviors Book, Create simple things in small steps
Create simple things in small steps
Behaviors Book, 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.

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Behaviors Book, Create simple things in small steps
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before during and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation, Behaviors Book
The Behaviors
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before during and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation, Behaviors Book

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.

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Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before during and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation, Behaviors Book
Behaviors Book, Software Excellence, Product Development, Agile, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before, during, and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation
Beginning a New Book
Behaviors Book, Software Excellence, Product Development, Agile, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before, during, and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation

My plan is to write a series of blog posts all related to the behaviors framework. Some of them will be about a specific behavior. Some of them will be about tools or techniques that help teams express one or more of the behaviors. Some of them will be my own experiences. And some will be damn near complete fiction.

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Behaviors Book, Software Excellence, Product Development, Agile, Know the problem you are solving, Make your work visible, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Be meticulous about composition, Validate before, during, and after, Release ridiculously often, Favor automation over documentation
What is Velocity?
Escape Velocity, Metrics, Agile
What is Velocity?
Escape Velocity, Metrics, Agile

In this excerpt from Escape Velocity, we take a more in-depth look at Velocity and try to answer (at least in part) the question, “What Is Velocity”?

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Escape Velocity, Metrics, Agile
Collapsing Conditionals
Agile, Technical Debt, Development, Programming Practices, Software Excellence, Refactoring
Collapsing Conditionals
Agile, Technical Debt, Development, Programming Practices, Software Excellence, Refactoring

This article focuses on using Chain of Command as a means of reducing cyclomatic complexity in our code. Along the way, we also create better adherence to SRP.

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Agile, Technical Debt, Development, Programming Practices, Software Excellence, Refactoring
Featured
Opportunity Solution Trees
Behaviors Book, Know the problem you are solving, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Make your work visible, Release ridiculously often, Validate before during and after
Opportunity Solution Trees
Behaviors Book, Know the problem you are solving, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Make your work visible, Release ridiculously often, Validate before during and after

In this article, I want to go more in depth on Opportunity Solution Trees; what they are, how they are used, how to create one, and how I think about them slightly differently (but only slightly) than folks like Teresa Torres who really introduced them broadly to the Product community in her book “Continuous Discovery Habits”. This book, by the way, is a must have for anyone who works in software product development - not just folks in product-specific roles.

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Behaviors Book, Know the problem you are solving, Work together, Create simple things in small steps, Make your work visible, Release ridiculously often, Validate before during and after
An Experiment Canvas
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after
An Experiment Canvas
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after

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

Read More →
Software Excellence, Product Development, Know the problem you are solving, Behaviors Book, Validate before during and after
Release-Often.jpg
Behaviors Book, Release ridiculously often
Release ridiculously often
Behaviors Book, Release ridiculously often

The seventh behavior, “Release ridiculously often,” is usually met with nods from half of the crowd and raised eyebrows from the other half. The nodders want to know why it isn’t higher on the list and the eyebrow-raisers want to know the definition of “ridiculously often”.

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Behaviors Book, Release ridiculously often
Be Meticulous about composition
Behaviors Book, Be meticulous about composition
Be Meticulous about composition
Behaviors Book, Be meticulous about composition

Composition refers to the way in which something is put together. Composition is a key element in many of the things humans create. Whether it be a musical piece, a painting, a garden, or a building, the way we assemble the core components — the composition of them — has a significant impact on the overall experience.

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Behaviors Book, Be meticulous about composition