collaboration
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🚧 Gatekeepers are ineffective
In the context of complex systems, gatekeepers are ineffective. In product development, a gatekeeper is often a middle manager who relays information from one person to another. As an example, we have been struggling for the past year to ge…
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📝 You can't improve an email
I’ve been moving discussions out of email and into versioned Markdown files. Here’s what I’m noticing. Email has a structural problem: the only options are reply and quote. The original message can never be improved. When someone joins a pr…
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⚡ The essence of shipping faster
In recent conversations about why development schedules slip and what to do about it, several themes continue to come up: Openness - This is key to surfacing issues early. Safety - People must feel safe being transparent and speaking up. C…
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📦 CDPD - Container Driven Product Development
When updating the Simple IoT documentation, the question arose - how to install mdbook and a few plugins? Of course pacman has part of what is needed. In the past cargo has been used, but that is slow and not a good fit for shared tools. Th…
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📝 DDPD - Document Driven Product Development
Building on TDPD and RDPD, Document-driven product development (DDPD) offers another perspective. Ideas: Document the feature from the user’s perspective before implementing anything. Keep the documentation close to the code (same repo, et…
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🔀 The Power of Git* workflows
Git + Git hosting platforms enable both local and cloud-based workflows. Local: Lightning fast access to files - leverage the power of your local computer Use powerful native tools (editor, e-cad, m-cad, AI agents, command-line tools, scri…
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🔄 Three levels of workflow
There are three levels of workflow: Personal (what you do to get things done) Department/Discipline (How multiple people who do the same thing get things done – Example: PCB design) Cross-functional (How people who do different jobs intera…
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🎯 A single source of truth
An intense discussion about part/version numbers driving application logic surfaced an idea to create a simplified version of the product metadata that simplified the programming logic. However, this rarely works out long-term, because seve…
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💻 Local First Dev
In the last couple decades, we’ve observed the success of SaaS web applications (Google Docs, Salesforce, Basecamp, Trello, etc.). These applications have unleashed collaboration using the web platform. Before this, users might have emailed…
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🚧 Three things that hinder product development
Not using new tech when applicable. Doing the same work over and over again instead of automating. Lack of collaboration.
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💰 What is the cheapest PDM tool out there?
Product Data Management (PDM) is how you manage and publish your product data. The goal is to ensure all the stakeholders share a common understanding, confusion is minimized, and quality is maintained. The simplest PDM system is to put a b…
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🗂️ Git has an unfortunate name
Git, which was created 20 years, and various hosting platforms, has revolutionized software development workflow and collaboration. The name Git was chosen by its creator, Linus Torvalds, and has a humorous backstory rooted in both practica…
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📁 Git* solves the problem of managing files
The thing you get with Git* is a sane way to manage files: organization (team/repo/directories) documentation (excellent support for Markdown) efficient navigation (links in READMEs and other markdown files) history (who changed what when)…
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✍️ Effective communication (Written)
For starters, consider Michael Lynch’s “Underused Techniques for Effective Emails”. A few points in summary: Put the most important information first. Use headings, code blocks, and other formatting. Be succinct. Provide context by quoting…
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🔗 Integration, not isolation (part 2)
We recently discussed integration, not isolation from a technical perspective. In an organizational context, we can have integrated cross-functional teams, or isolated silos. And the easiest way to avoid silos is transparency and common sys…
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🔭 Text based formats and command-line tools are the future
For the past three decades, we have been told that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) will revolutionize computer use and even programming. In many ways, they have made computers very accessible for the average person – especially phone UIs. …
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🤝 Modern product development is a collaborative endeavor
There is no way around this – even if you are a Company of One. You must collaborate with: ▶ OSS communities who provide the tools and software you use, ▶ Your customers – if you are not learning from them, you probably won’t understand and…
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👷 The tension between solo and collaborative work
As systems become more complex, we emphasize collaboration more and more. But we must also remember that truth is still largely a solo pursuit. Truth by committee is almost an oxymoron. The new algorithms, the keen insights, and the disrupt…
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🛠️ Selecting tools
There are many considerations when selecting a tool: will it do the job? what does it cost? can I get support? is there a community around it? will it be available and maintained long-term? what does the future look like for new features? …
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🧩 The three legs of YOUR Platform
Automation – start with a checklist. Collaboration – #1 rule is don’t view email as a permanent place to store information. Process – the habits of your organization.
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📧 Inbox zero
Thanks to a nudge from Khem, I’m back to Inbox-zero. The big question is what to do with emails that need action or have valuable information in them? Some put them in a special folder. Others tag them. Others forward them to lots of people…
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Why Git?
Some time back, I gave a presentation that included an overview of the Git version control system. I still occasionally get asked why Git should be used instead of Subversion, as it seems harder at first. Most developers don’t really unde…
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TRAC and Distributed Development
I have long been a big fan of source control tools and issue tracking systems. The “concurrent” model made popular by CVS is a tremendous benefit any time there are multiple people working on the same project. For most of the projects BEC…