Introducing a Forelog: Experiments in Vision

(The following is for Tony B. (“What it is!”), my buddy at work, who wrote a LinkedIn post that inspired me to write a reply that “exceeded the maximum character limit”. Grr. And thus, I’m reminded why I still have this blog medium: to express myself on my terms, which, ‘twould seem, can include a seven month gap between posts.)

There’s a LOT in: “The goal is to be directionally correct, honoring your values and objectives with each step.”

When coaching product development, we’re hoping our customers (…users) will buy our offerings, and ideally use ’em, and double ideally love ’em, ’cause it’s changed their behaviour to be more in line with futures/visions both the supplier (company) and demander (user) want.

Our #product offerings are how we #impact the world, the stuff of a #backlog, a ‘what’ from which we seek feedback.

When coaching process development, we’re hoping our teams (…and scaled entities) will try out low-risk ideas to have things suck a li’l less over “the next 2 weeks”, and maybe even be awesome, while appreciating this habit to practice: pause & reflect & ask how we can be better.

Our #process improvements are how we #conduct ourselves in the world, the stuff of a #frontlog (my word), a ‘how’ from which we seek feedback.

When coaching personal development, we… uh, I… uh, I don’t really know what I’m doing here, so I pull from YouTube videos, and wise words gathered from the years, and my proclivity to merge mental models, resulting in an extrapolation of the above.

Continue reading Introducing a Forelog: Experiments in Vision

I Am Writing A Smart Contract

At least, I think I am. I definitely want to.

I mean, what I really want, or in more Agile wording: the problem I’m trying to solve is: an owner should be able to name an NFT, and have that name appear in the crypto asset. This requires an owner-only ability to change its metadata, and then a dynamic updating of the associated media file.

At least, I think it does. It makes sense to me.

I mean, what I really want is to make shit again. So I downloaded VS Code, and am following along with a YouTube tutorial. I’ve got some documentation open, and more accurately, I’m stumbling along, setting up a development environment on my 11″ MacBook Air from 2013, never having been a coder. And it’s exciting.

At least, I think it is. I feel solid about all this.

I mean, writing a smart contract may not be necessary, but the adventure of making something does feel necessary, and I hope to share the specific (and on-chain!) utility I’m after once I have something to show, as opposed to the other times I’d declare I’m working on a project. I do wonder “Where the fuck am I going with this thing?” as I explore this latest thing out loud; inner critic acknowledged & put aside, this is currently the art into which I’m pouring my heart: my next cadenza.


In 2022, I hope you find what you can control, along with what you can’t (like 2021) (and 2020) (…and 2019, 2018, …). If you’re like me, you’ll probably realize you have a much better ability to control the effort than the outcome, so to what combination of hell-yes inspiring outcome (vision / noun) and gut-level enjoyable effort (activity / verb) do you want to give your focus?

#StayAgileMyFriends #YouGotThis

Bring-Yourself-To-Work Day

Imagine this concept: “Bring-Yourself-To-Work” Day.

What psychological safety would be required in the workplace for you to show up as your authentic self?

What culture would be required in the workplace for us to celebrate each others’ individuality?

What grace would we have to practice giving for us to work with each others’… individuality?

What patterns of communication, both synchronous & asynchronous, would we try, to bring the best of ourselves to work?

I re-derived this phrased the other week, giggled, and figured I’d share for the lulz.

Want more? This has been written about, so google around. But first, giggle.

To-Don’t List

I’ve made to-do lists since I was a kid, currently managing a love/hate relationship with ‘em, which is ironic, since I’m in a profession where I’m all about backlogs and frontlogs. So you’d think I’d be dang good at ‘em. I mean, I am. (I’m real’ humble, too!) And I bet you are, too. And we can get better, with a little help from our friends: Bruce Lee, Greg Marta, and Tim Ferriss.

Oh, and y’saw “To-Don’t List” in the title, and wonder when we’ll get more into that? Yeah, that’s at the end. I can’t stop ya from skipping ahead, but its build-up will make a little more sense if you hang out for the ride…

Continue reading To-Don’t List

Low-bar Agile Coaching is Crafting the Next Frontlog Item

Look at your hat. It says “Agile Coach”. I know, it’s a weird choice of hat, but where you work, everybody’s got a hat, some folks wear more than one, and this is yours.

How do you stand in this hat? Well, depending on how much you’re responsible for the client result (“doing, in the present”) or the client growth (“doing, in the future”), there are 9 ways to stand, per a popular diagram by some Dandy People.

Yet from my experience, there are 2 main flavours of stance, based on what the client is expecting when you roll up to ‘em, wearing that hat:

  • consulting: “I don’t have time. Just fuckin’ tell me what to do.”
  • coaching: “I have some time. Get me to see what to do.”

In both cases, your hat says you’re paid to help them with what to do next. And that thing, that next thing, that next thing you have some input on, is hopefully perceived as worth what they’re paying you to wear that hat. (Heck, instead, they could’ve printed a developer hat!)

So whether you’re peddling yourself as

  • a magician of “aha” moments,
  • an empathetic ear,
  • a resource in their back pocket,
  • a cheerleader in their corner,
  • a trusted advisor,
  • an accountability partner, or
  • a parental force of high expectations & tough love,

your client will walk away with a thing to do next. It may not have been explicitly stated by you… it might be a new approach, an old idea, or a boost of confidence to actually do a thing.

So what’s #TheNextBigThing?

  • It is one actionable item of continuous improvement.
  • It is one experiment that you could do, which you would do.
  • It is ONE low-risk try to have things suck less ‘round here, and maybe even be awesome.

Want a low bar for earning that Agile Coach hat, or Scrum Master hat?

Craft the Next Frontlog Item.

Oh, and it’s totally safe to try this at home, too.