What Raising 3 Kids Taught Me About Working With Users

No matter the size of your team most of us developers work with users or stakeholders to develop project requirements. Making your way through competing requests to get to a good design takes a lot of time and skill. In this talk Derek will use what he has learned as a parent and humorously apply it to product design and requirement gathering. You will learn about effective methods for getting agreement on product features and interface design. You will learn about ways of discovering what stakeholders really need to ensure delivery of a great product. These are valuable skills that can help you create better applications, become more valuable to your team, and advance your career. You might even pick up a parenting tip or two.

Transcript

1. What Raising 3 Kids Taught
   Me About Working with Users
   @DerekB_WI
   binkleyd@yahoo.com
   

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2. About Me
   • Father of 3
   • Volunteer at Community Justice
   • Senior Engineer, TurnTo Networks
   • Home Pizza Chef
   

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6. Customer Generated Content
   

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7. 17yo, 9yo, 14yo
   

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8. Introduction
   

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9. Who are your users?
   • Not us.
   • Project Stakeholders
   • Target Audience of Business
   • Company Employees
   • Clients
   

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10. Communication Needs
    • Requirements
    • Usability
    • Successful Product Launch
    • Understand the Whys
    

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11. I don’t like quiche!
    

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12. Importance of
    Understanding
    • Oh! That’s what you meant.
    • Shared Glossary
    • Understandable Milestones
    

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13. Shared Experience
    • 105 Billion People Have Lived
    on Earth 1
    • 1.7 Billion Websites 2
    • Over 1 Million Apps in App
    Store 3
    1 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16870579
    2 https://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/
    3 https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/22/4866302/apple-announces-1-million-apps-in-the-app-store
    

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14. Everybody is Special
    • We are special to our family,
    friends, colleagues, etc.
    • Your project is special to those
    involved.
    

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15. Setting Boundaries
    Always saying yes, “fosters a sense
    of deficiency that can never be
    fully satisfied.” 1
    1 https://nyti.ms/2qruRKL
    

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16. Setting Boundaries
    • MSCW – Must, Should,
    Could, Want
    • Grooming the Backlog
    • Sprint Planning/Review
    • Limiting Distractions
    • Users shouldn’t need to
    know technology.
    

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17. Fair !== Equal
    • Substantive Fairness
    • Procedural Fairness
    • Fair Notice
    • Impartiality
    • Fact-gathering
    • Fair Hearing (being heard)
    http://www.boystown.org/parenting/article/Pages/fairness.aspx?/article/
    fairness
    http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20141215/NEWS/141219891
    

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18. There are no
    stupid questions
    

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19. There are no
    stupid questions
    • Are we there yet?
    

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20. Actual Destination v Perceived Destination
    

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21. There are no stupid questions
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    • Are we there yet?
    

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22. Help Users Focus on Progress
    • Product Backlog
    • Sprint Planning/Review
    • Burn-down/Burn-up Chart
    • Kanban Board
    • Product Roadmap
    • MVP
    

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24. Keep it Simple
    

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26. Boy Bands
    

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27. • "[I want to] clarify some of what I was trying to explain at
    today’s meeting. Since I don’t have a technical background, it
    doesn’t always make it from my brain to my mouth in one
    piece while under pressure." - project stakeholder
    Technology can intimidate and exclude
    

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28. Things Change Quickly
    

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29. “I don’t like it when things change.” 

    Sammy, age 7
    Things Change Quickly
    

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30. Don’t Underestimate the Effect of Change
    on your users.
    Things Change Quickly
    

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31. Help users understand value of change.
    Things Change Quickly
    

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32. Unexpected Behavior
    

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33. Unexpected Behavior
    

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34. Unexpected Behavior
    • User Acceptance Testing
    • Find good user base
    

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35. Putting Kids to Work
    • https://qz.com/703049/teens-summer-jobs-
    unglamorous/
    • https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/
    blog/2013/11/21/importance-youth-jobs-
    way-more-paycheck
    • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
    articles/PMC2936460/
    

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36. User Involvement
    • Giving acheivable tasks to users
    • Working together towards a shared goal
    

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40. Thanks - Bedankt - Merci
    • @DerekB_WI
    • https://joind.in/talk/25d2b
    

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