There is a big movement to support project teams getting out of the building (GOOB) to validate product assumptions and the like.
This is a great thing, the more users and customers project teams talk to the better. After-all something is better than nothing, right?
However I have seen this research done very poorly to the extent it is pointless.
Often the people going out have no experience, have not been taught the basics and haven’t even had a few “dry runs” on their approach or questions.
I have been hearing rumblings on the topic of women in the information Technology (IT) sector for years, in fact most of my career. I have never really give it much thought before as I have never considered myself in IT.
Now I attended a talk the other night on the subject, and this got me thinking. Why aren’t there a lot of women in traditional IT roles – where have all the women in IT gone?
Now let’s go back in time, it seems that about when I went to university (1981) that was the start of the decline in the number of women in the IT sector.
Recently I have been noticing a heavy group biasing effect with internal teams. This seems to be occurring a great deal around any visible voting system such as Dot Voting.
This has been to the extent that people are voting down the real intent and privately desired outcomes in favour of a conservative group safe outcome. Which is usually not what is wanted.
Currently dot voting is achieved by handing out a nominated number of dots (votes) and these are placed in full view of group members on the nominated items, with the previous votes visible at the same time.
I have been sketchnoting for a while now and I do find it a very easy way to personally document and retain information.
Over this period of time I have sketchnoted a good deal of technical and non-technical talks sometimes about subjects that I didn’t have a full understanding of.
The other day I was reviewing my sketchnotes, musing over this talk or that event, and I noticed something, a pattern within the sketchnotes.