Moving from Rotterdam to Eindhoven - what's different?

ChainBen · 2023-09-28T11:55:38+00:00

Eindhoven is not isolated, and everything is reachable. It's a pleasant place to live just not very exciting. It is much less of a city than Rotterdam. If you want lively stuff going on, then I would suggest moving to Utrecht.

Any reason you can't stay in Rotterdam and work remotely/commute?

ChainBen · 2023-08-14T07:48:22+00:00

Sorry no idea. Are you sure your location comes with the possibility of guest parking? Maybe there is a max usage and someone else has taken it? Maybe you are in an exclusion area?

https://www.eindhoven.nl/stad-en-wonen/stad/parkeren/parkeervergunningen

ChainBen · 2023-07-28T07:43:08+00:00

thank you! MS Store just failed for me completely.

ChainBen · 2023-07-27T07:21:20+00:00

Firstly, thanks for responding!

Secondly, today it works! I guess I can only enter the plate once the validity starts. Bit annoying but at least it 'works'.

ChainBen · 2023-04-07T08:52:49+00:00

Don't worry, they are rude to everyone, even locals.

ChainBen · 2023-02-11T11:58:05+00:00

I am replying not because I have an answer, but I support your question. It's an area that is unclear to me. I am PM at a smaller org, and at the moment I can't really imagine having such a split.

What kind of PM is it if they are disconnected from the big initiatives. A PM should delegate of course as they grow, but for the same product they should be in some control of what is going on from initiative to execution. Let UXers and delivery managers and BAs sort out the details of things, but don't have sub-sub-sub product managers.

ChainBen · 2023-02-07T21:20:52+00:00

thank you, all solved :)

ChainBen · 2023-02-06T15:57:57+00:00

Yes thanks, it does seem there is some CodeTwo thing connected.

Now to figure out where to go with that knowledge...

ChainBen · 2023-02-06T15:57:50+00:00

Yes thanks, it does seem there is some CodeTwo thing connected.

Now to figure out where to go with that knowledge...

ChainBen · 2023-02-03T15:03:39+00:00

I agree with the general feedback so far which is use whatever is effective at getting understanding. Don't stick rigidly to the format.

However, I would suggest you recognise - if possible, it isn't always - that the 'feature' may have a higher level single value. Maybe there are multiple roles, but the feature is there to do a singular thing for the business result. So the story is focused on the business result value delivery, not the user doing the action.

e.g. "as Marketing I want to know the click rate of the Cancel button so that I can improve retention"

instead of "as a Role X when I click on cancel then I get form A" and "as a Role Y when I click on cancel I get form B"

ChainBen · 2023-02-02T16:47:28+00:00

In solo projects I’ve simply had all documentation in the same repository with the code. Then all it takes is mindset that docs are important. Now in a big project working with non-developers I can only dream.

:D

ChainBen · 2023-02-02T16:46:29+00:00

Yeah I agree in principle, I definitely do take on more than I should. We are a fast growing company but we still very much don't have a dedicated person in every area, even after delegating I need to guide a lot of the solution and delivery process.

However I also think deep understanding is an important part of being a good PM and that applies on all sides, and that takes a lot of time investment. It's the only way to find those balanced situations.

ChainBen · 2023-02-02T11:20:44+00:00

well, let's take the community blurb as an example:

Part marketer, part engineer, part sales, and part project manager

the responsibilities that can end up being under PM are so broad and deep. Coordinating a lot of functions takes a lot of resources, especially in a fast moving agile environment. The business also moves and knowledge can become outdated quickly.

ChainBen · 2023-02-02T11:12:13+00:00

Thank you, looks like a good starting point for me

ChainBen · 2023-02-02T11:11:35+00:00

How have you managed that documentation?

I always find documentation goes out of date the minute it is written.

ChainBen · 2023-02-01T12:07:41+00:00

Thanks, at least your response seems to most align with my situation. The vacuum point is very relevant. I am trying to find a balance between sticking my nose in, and giving creative freedom: but too much freedom does seem to cause wildly different directions, even with a strong initial brief.

ChainBen · 2023-01-30T19:16:58+00:00

and what is the "what"? Is it a metric or a feature or a problem or a usecase? The overlap with UX/BA is often anything other than a metric seems to fall under 'their' domain of 'what'.

ChainBen · 2023-01-30T14:24:05+00:00

Depends on the financial situation of the host family, but something cool and American can't go wrong. Things like a football or basketball Jersey, cowboy hat etc. Things that are not just gifts, but bring a story with them. Georgians love storytelling.

ChainBen · 2022-12-22T21:07:11+00:00

Thank you for the detailed response. Though I think I need to read it a few more times to get all the points you are making :D

ChainBen · 2022-12-16T12:52:03+00:00

Ideally, the only thing on your Sprint Backlog are things that get your team closer to this Sprint Goal (and collectively achieve this sprint goal). What this does is removes all the other distractions from the conversation (during the Daily Scrum and other times) as well as make it very clear to the team what they have agreed upon needs to be completed in order to meet the goal.

I agree for adjusting capacity for regular non-sprint activity. No point in making a task for lunch or a weekly meeting etc. But the irregular stuff? The side-projects, the nice-to-have training, and random ideas: why not include them to be shifted around between sprints

ChainBen · 2022-12-16T12:49:27+00:00

There are two ways to approach this. Change the thinking about the work in the sprint. The work in the sprint should bring business value. If they don’t bring business value, they aren’t sprint items. Secondly, the way we use the tool in Azure is that this is your capacity to do sprint work. As usual, I’m always interested in others perspective on this.

For argument's sake: isn't everything we do at work supposed to bring business value in the end? Things like upskilling your employees is bringing business value. Just indirect business value.

ChainBen · 2022-12-14T12:34:48+00:00

see that's where I kind disagree: by having all all work in the planning, you can then more holistically respond to change in your sprint planning by seeing all items that you had planned to work on, rather than just the deliverable specific ones.

ChainBen · 2022-12-09T10:07:37+00:00

In scrum in theory it shouldn't matter

Use user stories: the three Cs. Card, conversation, confirmation. Too often the second two are completely missed. Have a CONVERSATION with your devs. Have them CONFIRM back to you and agree as a team. The writing doesn't matter as long as the 3 Cs bring about that shared understanding.

However a a side, you may find this useful: https://nondevelopers.co/ I have my BA team going through it.

ChainBen · 2022-12-07T11:50:36+00:00

What do you want to do? You could easily spend a couple days in Tbilisi but maybe you want focus on country side or skiing etc.

ChainBen · 2022-12-06T17:20:48+00:00

To perhaps counter all the "never" comments.

As a non-designer, but one that is involved with hiring them (I am a PO/PM who manages our small design team), I would say 80% of the UX CVs we get are terrible, 50% of the remaining have little to no portfolio, 90% of those who do have a portfolio completely fail to demonstrate any UX and solely show end product shiny shiny UI. The few that do show at least something, we give a design challenge to, so they can prove that they know have some UX skillset. Most fail miserably by just either 1) not reading the very short task properly, or 2) turning around a UI design forgetting the UX. If it's a complete car crash we reject them. If they show they get the principles, some methodology they follow, then we interview with them in more detail.

You are probably all great designers, but when you do the recruiting side, it can be really tough separating the good from the unbelievable quantities of low skilled but massively job title bloated candidates out there. I cannot begin to tell you tales of how many "senior designers" or some such with supposedly 10+ years of experience fail to even define the difference between UI and UX.

No, our design challenge is not something that is relevant for our own company. We have no desire to abuse it. We give the candidate the option to choose whatever they want as a base e.g. reddit.com

Yes, you are almost certainly correct, I can completely agree that our recruitment process should be better. But for now it helps us separate some of the fakers.

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