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Behaviors Book

Doubling Down on Diversity

Doubling Down on Diversity

These days, it seems like even talking about diversity and inclusion can spark a political debate. But here’s the thing—it doesn’t need to be political. This isn’t about left or right. It’s about people. It’s about teams. It’s about building environments where different perspectives aren’t just welcomed, but seen as essential.

Because they are.

In tech, in product, in leadership—diverse teams consistently outperform homogeneous ones. Not because it feels good, but because it works better. This is a business discussion. A design discussion. A collaboration discussion.

So let’s talk about it.

Composition Isn’t Just About Code

Composition Isn’t Just About Code

The way your teams are structured shapes the software you build—and vice versa. In this article, we explore the profound connection between team and software composition through the lens of Conway’s Law, uncovering how misalignment leads to chaos and inefficiency, while thoughtful alignment drives collaboration, modularity, and adaptability. Learn why your true architecture isn’t in diagrams but in the code itself, and discover actionable steps to align your teams and software for better outcomes.

Why I Joined Test Double

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.

Small Deployments; Big Impact

Small Deployments; Big Impact

When teams hear about small, frequent deployments, they often picture chaos: code breaking, users complaining, and developers scrambling to fix issues. But in reality, small deployments do the opposite. They reduce complexity, amplify feedback, and create a smoother experience for both users and developers.

Making the Flow of Work Visible with Cumulative Flow Diagrams

Making the Flow of Work Visible with Cumulative Flow Diagrams

When we talk about making the work visible, there are two key aspects - what is the work and how is the work progressing. In this article, we are going to focus on how the work is progressing. Specifically, we are going to look at Cumulative Flow Diagrams as a means of visualizing work progress.

Frequent releases improve outcomes

Frequent releases improve outcomes

Whether you’re still figuring out your general product offering or you are enhancing and adding capabilities to a well established product, the ultimate test of whether or not you’ve hit the mark (or are at least trending in the right direction), is how your audience engages with what you’ve created. Yes, you can (and should) do market research before designing and coding up a potential solution to an identified problem, but the only way to know for certain, is to see what happens when your concepts come in contact with your audience.

Before you Judge and Jettison, Compare and Combine

So you’ve got some problem you’re trying to solve (Know the problem you are solving). You’ve agreed to work together on coming up with a solution. So you call a meeting and ask everyone to bring some ideas.

The objective of the meeting is to select the “best” option among the ideas presented.

In my observation, most folks tend toward an approach I call “Judge and Jettison”.

Opportunity Solution Trees

Opportunity Solution Trees

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.

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”.

Be Meticulous about composition

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.

A large group, little time, and a gnarly problem to solve?

A large group, little time, and a gnarly problem to solve?

If you are not familiar with Liberating Structures, I suggest you take a look at them. I use a few of them now and then as circumstances warrant. In future articles, I will discuss some of the others, but today’s installation is dedicated to the Liberating Structure I most often use — 1–2–4-All.