“Creating Products that Customers Love” strikes us as highly poignant, as much of the world heads toward a holiday season with much gift-giving. Roman Pickler’s book, “Agile Product Management with Scrum” provides the single best book, barely over 100 pages, to understand the role of Product Owner. Some claim it remains one of the seven…
Our students have clamored for a quick-reference checklist of the most important facilitation Do’s and Don’ts. In response, we bring you the brief, yet powerful, list below (alpha-sorted by the highlighted term or phrase). Please note that the highlighted facilitation do’s and don’ts are linked to articles that provide additional examples, evidence, and supporting rationale.…
The Business Model Canvas was created by Alexander Osterwalder, of Strategyzer® and provides a one-page primer and template that offers a basic methodology. Questions and points of view are detailed below.[1] Especially intended to support the MG RUSH Business Analyst community, please modify each and all of the following to support your situation. Business Model…
Structured meetings and workshops positively impact organizations and stakeholders—even permeating cultures. Here are a few straightforward benefits for facilitation training that support structured meetings. Business wisdom demands the application of knowledge, stuff that is ‘in−formation’ (not static). Compound dynamism of information with the challenge of organizing a group of people, where nobody is smarter than…
What is a Design Sprint? Created at Google Ventures, a Design Sprint represents a methodology that helps teams complete a five-day workshop for building and testing some problem-solving product or solution (prototype). A prototype might include a product on a screen, on paper, a service, a physical space, or an object. Created by Google Venture’s…
A professional facilitator handles several types of assignments, from planning through design. However, most facilitators must also provide a method for securing the deliverable. Although a different role, the ‘methodologist’ responsibilities make up the most important part of preparing for many meetings. How will you lead the group successfully from the Introduction through the Wrap? When…
Have you ever heard someone say in a meeting “I don’t know why we’re doing this project in the first place?” Odds are, the meeting is being held to advance the project, not re-validate it. The person asking the question has now imposed their agenda on the group. They have forced scope creep [1]. Whenever…
The Agile mindset demands frequent, if not constant, interaction among its project stakeholders. Perhaps more so with Scrum, than other frameworks. From Daily Scrum activities to Sprint Retrospective events held every one to four weeks, having a formal facilitator or being a facilitative participant adds tremendous value to successful Sprints. So, who facilitates Scrum events…
In an earlier article (see: Risk Analysis – Method and Questions to Facilitate a Portfolio of Projects) we defined “best” by projects that scored favorably in an Innovation test by looking at the relative technology and market risks associated with new ideas (eg, process, product, etc.). With this article (geared for experienced facilitators and methodologists, but…
Successful leaders have one thing in common: Strong facilitation skills. What are these facilitation skills and how many do you need to lead a successful meeting? Depending on who you ask, there may be: 6 Essential Facilitator Skills 9 Meeting Facilitation Skills 9 Facilitation Skill Competencies Top 11 Facilitator Skills and of course, many, many…