The Manifesto for Playful Product Development

Guest Article written by Graham Holden – here’s a little something about him in his own words:

Graham describes himself as a Programmer, Scrum Jester, Shantyman.

Has been working within the internet industry since 1997, for a variety of organisations.  Has a passion for programming and helping teams become effective.

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In Peter Greys Book – Free to Learn (thanks Tobias Mayer (https://tobiasmayer.uk/) for recommending this), he emphasises the importance of Play for children’s learning and development. As a parent, I’m often conscious of not interfering in the play my children embark on. I’ll be present, so that if they need me for anything I can help – but I like to let them get on with things.

Peter Grey outlines Play as the following :

  1. Play is self-chosen and self-directed; players are always free to quit.
  2. Play is activity in which means are more valued than ends.
  3. Play is guided by mental rules.
  4. Play is non-literal, imaginative, marked off in some way from reality.
  5. Play involves an active, alert, but non-stressed frame of mind. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/freedom-learn/200811/the-value-play-i-the-definition-play-gives-insights)

 

It got me thinking about how, when I am programming for “fun” it’s actually me “playing”.

I feel that the 5 “rules” above could be adopted within organisations as a framework. Some might say business is a serious thing, and there is no room for frivolity. But what a lot of us have forgotten, is that as children when we “played” it was serious. When you are in the midst of it, play is all consuming – it is an example of a perfect state of “flow”.

I would encourage organisations to adopt the framework to help teams use play for personal development and learning. This would be a great first step. In the past I’ve been involved in some interesting breaks organisations have put on, these have been called “hackathons”, “hackdays” or just “learning days”. The most successful ones have essentially followed the basics of the framework outlined above.

  1. The Teams chose what to work on, and could switch to other teams if needed.
  2. The experience of the day and the activities trumped the actual end results.
  3. The teams got to work how they wanted, with what they wanted, and produce whatever they wanted.
  4. The teams could work on whatever they liked.
  5. The teams had very little pressure on them, there were no KPIs.

 

I believe more and more organisations should be adopted playfulness at their core, and we can have a playful movement for product development.

 

Non-collocation is an Impediment with solutions – exactly like..

While reading the post/comments on an online conversation about non-collocated teams, I felt the need to summarise my views on the discussion separately.

If you don’t believe that non-collocation is a challenging impediment, here are 3 videosto prove that they are.. ALWAYS.

Emails in Real Life

A Conference call in Real Life

Oh you want to do a Video Conferencing? How about all other participants?

You having a lightning fast internet connection doesn’t help remaining participants with speed as low as 2Mbps or worse.

Watch this:

A Video Conference Call in Real Life

Let’s look at the Solutions, to make it work !

Preserving Normality When You Can

  1. Stay in contact
  2. Talk about the mundane, little things
  3. Visit Often
  4. Get to know each other
  5. Remember non-collated team members are humans
  6. Support each other, even over the distance
  7. Create trust
  8. Be committed to each other
  9. Don’t do anything irrational just because you’re angry or upset about something they’ve said or done

Doing Things Together and Bonding

  1. Share something
  2. Do the same things at the same time
  3. Learn together
  4. Make each other feel special
  5. Pursue common interests
  6. Create connection

Setting Expectations and Boundaries

  1. Discuss the nature of your relationship
  2. Talk through doubts, uncertainty, and fear together.
  3. Remain positive.
  4. Have reasonable expectations.

Truth about this Article

Being non-collocated is a challenge and is a reality that we all have to face in this digital world. A long distance relationship have very similar impediments but because we give a shit and we love that person, we try our best to maintain it.

The truth about this article is –

ALL of it’s content are copy/pasted from this Original Source .

 

This original article is about “Long Distance Relationship and how we can do our best to keep our loved one closer. After all, that’s all we can do to maintain a healthy relation.

Non-collocation is an Impediment with solutions, exactly like… Long Distance Relationship !

Thankfully, we already know how to deal with those impediments from our personal life experiences. Apply them. The goal is to remove those impediments gradually so the long distance stays a temporary work around. Please don’t make the mistake of asking people work in non-collocated teams for too long.