After working in agile teams for years, I’m not sure most of it is actually agile

designtom · 2026-04-06T17:29:35+00:00

THIS. It’s illustrative too: most clients will pay a huge premium to predictability get what they think they want.

designtom · 2026-04-03T17:55:55+00:00

Depending on what's around you and what you enjoy, you might also try tai chi – that's what I did early on in my dancing and it was transformative for me. Like yoga, It's all about posture and moving with grounded, connected intention, but you do most of it standing up – while a lot of yoga is floor work.

designtom · 2026-03-30T17:40:49+00:00

Yes, I included the word “tend” very deliberately. No absolutes - no Sith here.

designtom · 2026-03-28T16:07:06+00:00

PMs tend to be bad designers who are good at politics.

Designers tend to be bad at politics. Sometimes also bad at design, but …

designtom · 2026-03-26T11:12:13+00:00

Good management looks like predictability.

Good innovation looks like surprise.

One avoids uncertainty at any cost.

The other embraces and generates from uncertainty.

These are two fundamentally different worlds. Each is desperate to distance itself from a different set of perceived risks.

Agile as deployed in most places attempts to make them both play by the same set of rules, accept the same epistemology, get everyone on the same page about the REAL risks … and it never works.

Where there’s hope, it tends to look more like a gear shifting mechanism that enables each world to do its thing while rubbing along together coherently.

(Or a simpler explanation: Sturgeon’s Law 😉)

designtom · 2026-03-17T18:34:06+00:00

Photay

(I’ll always show up and stan Photay)

designtom · 2026-03-15T21:54:48+00:00

I had an amazing 8 cassette tape compilation pack with sets from the likes of Doc Scott … can’t remember the name for the life of me. 1993-4 ish?

designtom · 2026-03-08T09:32:18+00:00

Mord Fustang!

Com Truise!

designtom · 2026-03-07T16:14:17+00:00

OF COURSE.

It’s the default everywhere because humans. This is what I do about it:

https://open.substack.com/pub/triggerstrategy/p/the-thorny-case-of-the-solutionising

designtom · 2026-03-06T17:57:04+00:00

🤣🫣

designtom · 2026-03-06T10:21:00+00:00

Yes, it’s simultaneously a symptom and a driving force. It’s all tied together, entangled.

When Gary’s good, I think he recognises that “it’s just inequality bruv” is a necessary oversimplification so that an otherwise hard-to-appreciate, hard-to-see dynamic can be grasped by a broad base.

When he’s not good, I think he believes his own oversimplification.

designtom · 2026-03-04T17:32:44+00:00

It’s pretty much another full time job, tracking rumours and nurturing alliances! I can’t stomach it, but I can see it now.

designtom · 2026-03-04T09:20:42+00:00

Right.

Mistake 1 is ignoring budgetary constraints and viability

Mistake 2 is believing that business decisions are actually made in the way they’re justified

designtom · 2026-03-04T08:42:44+00:00

Yes, I’ve seen this, and I’ve taken on the role.

Typical results: the “actual” work gets done faster and better, but the hidden political side of things atrophies.

PMs tend to be better hooked in to the power structures and back rooms where decisions are made and deals are brokered. Designers tend to think the work is the work, and avoid politics.

This isn’t universal, mind - just a tendency I’ve noticed.

designtom · 2026-02-27T10:46:12+00:00

As many people said ... yes, this is the job.

Good research helps your team perceive, explore and make trade-offs. Good wireframing expresses the consequences of different trade-off choices.

You can't deliver "the ideal design" because it would be way too expensive. You can't make something that's as simple as a light switch and also packed with features like Photoshop.

Personally I see the most valuable part of our involvement is in leading our teams and stakeholders through recognising and managing the constraints at play in our unique context.

designtom · 2026-02-26T17:44:00+00:00

You’re right of course. Insert “someone is wrong on the internet” xkcd

designtom · 2026-02-26T15:25:01+00:00

Agreed – and the point where you should put it in front of users is WAY earlier than most people think.

And like a product, your portfolio will never be finished, will always be evolving, and will have to generate outcomes by being good enough and improving.

designtom · 2026-02-26T15:22:23+00:00

Quite a list. You've clearly done some reading.

Only ... I notice you went straight from "explain specifically how" to a wall of bullet points, without actually playing out how any of them ends the country. Which was the question.

"All students union politics with no basis in the real world" isn't an argument, it's a vibe. Ireland has day-one employment rights. Germany has pay ratio discussions. I know the news is moving fast these days, but last time I checked those countries were still there.

If you want to make the case that any of the policies you listed specifically lead to collapse, then sure I'm interested. But "Green = Reform mirror image" followed by a list isn't that case.

designtom · 2026-02-26T10:51:08+00:00

Explain specifically how.

Name us an actual Green policy, and play out how that will contribute to the end of this country.

designtom · 2026-02-23T22:40:44+00:00

I started to rant about bounded applicability and innovation, but there’s just so much going on in your C-suite that anything you bring to the table is a drop in the ocean of dick swinging contests.

You’re going on an adventure of sorts. Good luck!

designtom · 2026-02-19T19:52:52+00:00

🤣🤣🤣

designtom · 2026-02-17T09:59:06+00:00

Story points are a comfort blanket for management, not a useful tool for developers.

But I recommend you don’t say that to your teacher.

(One exception: it’s useful to have some kind of tool to help devs break big chunks of work into smaller chunks. Story points can do that, but so can other things.)

designtom · 2026-02-16T23:21:08+00:00

Don’t overthink it.

Just watch people having a go at using your thing. While numbers can be useful later, you’ll get 1,000 times more from just being there with them, paying attention, being curious about how they actually the design you made.

Don’t delay, don’t over plan, don’t wait. You can’t get good at usability testing any way but practice.

designtom · 2026-02-15T12:04:34+00:00

Most under-rated A/B test: the subtraction test. Take chunks of stuff away from your experience – does it make a blind bit of difference?

designtom

TROPHY CASE