Innovation Anti-patterns: Bonkers Beans and Magic Numbers

Holly Cummins Senior Principal Software Engineer Red Hat @holly_cummins innovation
anti-patterns bonkers beans and magic numbers Voxxed Athens

@holly_cummins #RedHat george washington carver

@holly_cummins #RedHat george washington carver first African American to earn
a BSc

a BSc first non-President to receive a national monument

a BSc first non-President to receive a national monument ship named after him

a BSc first non-President to receive a national monument ship named after him inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame

@holly_cummins #RedHat george washington carver

@holly_cummins #RedHat why peanuts?

@holly_cummins #RedHat cotton farming plantations

@holly_cummins #RedHat cotton exhausts soil

@holly_cummins #RedHat

@holly_cummins #RedHat hungry farmers could not afford expensive fertilizers to
restore the soil

@holly_cummins #RedHat hungry farmers could not afford expensive fertilizers to
restore the soil … so they got hungrier

@holly_cummins #RedHat peas soy beans peanuts (a peanut is a
bean, not a nut)

@holly_cummins #RedHat cotton exhausts soil beans restore it

@holly_cummins #RedHat cotton peanuts

@holly_cummins #RedHat but there was a problem

@holly_cummins #RedHat but there was a problem idea! peanut butter!

idea! salted peanuts!

idea! salted peanuts! idea! chocolate covered peanuts!

idea! salted peanuts! idea! chocolate covered peanuts! …

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win:

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win: improved soil, great cotton yields

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win: improved soil, great cotton yields
yummy peanuts to eat

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win win-win

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win win-win win-squared

@holly_cummins #RedHat the double win win-win win-squared 1 + 1
= 3

= 3 twofer

= 3 twofer überwinden

= 3 twofer überwinden the extra win

@holly_cummins #RedHat life before the shopping cart

@holly_cummins #RedHat life before the shopping cart heavy

@holly_cummins #RedHat life before the shopping cart heavy annoying

@holly_cummins #RedHat life before the shopping cart heavy annoying ow,
my arm

@holly_cummins #RedHat life after the shopping cart

@holly_cummins #RedHat life after the shopping cart easy

@holly_cummins #RedHat life after the shopping cart easy nice

@holly_cummins #RedHat life after the shopping cart easy nice ooh,
I can also take this .. and this …

@holly_cummins #RedHat life after the shopping cart easy nice ooh,
I can also take this .. and this … the double win

@holly_cummins #RedHat “everybody knows”

@holly_cummins #RedHat everybody knew … peanuts are barely edible

@holly_cummins #RedHat now senior principal software engineer helping to build
Quarkus

@holly_cummins #RedHat “innovation leader” in corporate strategy consultant in IBM
Garage worked with businesses to help them innovate huge enterprises + teeny startups before

@holly_cummins #RedHat 15 years ago everybody knows programs go fastest
if you compile them ahead of time

@holly_cummins #RedHat 15 years ago uhh … not actually true
– JIT and GC can enable surprising speed-ups everybody knows programs go fastest if you compile them ahead of time

@holly_cummins #RedHat now (innovative leap) everybody knows programs go fastest
if you let the runtime optimisers do their thing

@holly_cummins #RedHat now (innovative leap) uhh … not actually true
– moving more to build-time enables surprising speed- ups everybody knows programs go fastest if you let the runtime optimisers do their thing

@holly_cummins #RedHat everyone knows reflection is a good idea :)

@holly_cummins #RedHat 2020 (another innovative leap) and what if we
did ahead-of-time for libraries, not just the JVM itself?

@holly_cummins #RedHat quarkus starts so fast quarkus runs so fast

@holly_cummins #RedHat … and the developer experience is joyful quarkus:
a double win

@holly_cummins #RedHat (actually, a triple win) it can halve your
app’s carbon

@holly_cummins #RedHat the best ideas are on the edge of
‘impossible’ and ‘stupid’

@holly_cummins #RedHat the best ideas are on the edge of
‘impossible’ and ‘stupid’ … but now seem kind of normal

@holly_cummins #RedHat ideas that seemed stupid … that were not

@holly_cummins #RedHat “People don't want to lug a computer with
them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the newspaper. Somehow, the microcomputer industry has assumed that everyone would love to have a keyboard grafted on as an extension of their fingers. It just is not so.” New York Times, 1985 laptops

the double-win

the single-win

@holly_cummins #RedHat ideas that seemed stupid … that actually were

peanut bread

peanut bread peanut sausage

peanut bread peanut sausage peanut coffee

peanut bread peanut sausage peanut coffee peanut paint

peanut bread peanut sausage peanut coffee peanut paint peanut nitroglycerine

peanut bread peanut sausage peanut coffee peanut paint peanut nitroglycerine
the non-win

failed experiments are only possible with psychological safety

learning is only possible with psychological safety

is the org supportive of this?

is the org supportive of this? it means they are
asking questions they didn’t already know the answer to

@holly_cummins #RedHat how do we tell the difference between ‘almost
impossible and stupid’ and ‘actually impossible and stupid’?

@holly_cummins #RedHat build something small how do we tell the
difference between ‘almost impossible and stupid’ and ‘actually impossible and stupid’?

@holly_cummins #RedHat build something small and incremental how do we
tell the difference between ‘almost impossible and stupid’ and ‘actually impossible and stupid’?

@holly_cummins #RedHat optimising for feedback can feel weird

@holly_cummins #RedHat optimising for feedback can feel weird visual designs

user research

user research devops

user research responsive web app devops

user research responsive web app TDD devops

user research responsive web app TDD devops deployed to prod

user research responsive web app TDD devops deployed to prod order processing system

@holly_cummins #RedHat wizard of Oz mvp

@holly_cummins #RedHat this only works if you can release often

@holly_cummins #RedHat this only works if you can release more
than once

how do you measure a win?

@holly_cummins #RedHat we’re going to be data-driven!

@holly_cummins #RedHat the quantitative fallacy (the McNamara fallacy)

@holly_cummins #RedHat we have data! and no matter what the
numbers, it shows we are doing a good job!

how do you measure a double win?

how do you measure a double win? usually, one of
the wins is a surprise

how do you measure a double win? usually, one of
the wins is a surprise may not have metrics in place

how much effort should you put into measuring?

@holly_cummins #RedHat high uncertainty moderate uncertainty

@holly_cummins #RedHat high uncertainty moderate uncertainty experiment

@holly_cummins #RedHat high uncertainty moderate uncertainty experiment hypothesis

@holly_cummins #RedHat high uncertainty moderate uncertainty experiment hypothesis able to
fail

@holly_cummins #RedHat high uncertainty moderate uncertainty experiment hypothesis designed to
fail

fail strong metrics

fail strong metrics learning

fail follow-on experiment strong metrics learning

fail follow-on experiment radical descoping strong metrics learning

fail follow-on experiment radical descoping really hope to succeed strong metrics learning

fail follow-on experiment radical descoping really hope to succeed strong metrics learning user value

fail follow-on experiment radical descoping really hope to succeed iterative continuous expansion of scope strong metrics learning user value

@holly_cummins #RedHat the innovation funnel

@holly_cummins #RedHat prune out the bad ideas early

@holly_cummins #RedHat innovation funnel

@holly_cummins #RedHat idea innovation funnel

@holly_cummins #RedHat production idea innovation funnel

@holly_cummins #RedHat production idea innovation funnel innovation railroad

@holly_cummins #RedHat production idea innovation funnel organisational incentive to plough
on; failure is punished innovation railroad

@holly_cummins #RedHat production idea innovation funnel innovation fizzle organisational incentive
to plough on; failure is punished innovation railroad

@holly_cummins #RedHat production idea innovation funnel innovation fizzle most projects
the same length few get to production incentive for ‘innovation activity’ organisational incentive to plough on; failure is punished innovation railroad

the same length few get to production incentive for ‘innovation activity’ organisational incentive to plough on; failure is punished innovation railroad filtering for ‘sure thing’ focus on risk reduction bureaucracy paperwork

the same length few get to production incentive for ‘innovation activity’ organisational incentive to plough on; failure is punished innovation railroad filtering for ‘sure thing’ focus on risk reduction bureaucracy paperwork lack of psychological safety innovation teams

@holly_cummins #RedHat this starts to become a lot like work

@holly_cummins #RedHat can you try too hard to innovate?

@holly_cummins #RedHat the fauxnovation

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we don’t have slack in the system for
normal improvement, but we do have an innovation budget.” corollary

@holly_cummins #RedHat innovation keeping the lights on

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need a chatbot.”

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need a chatbot.” “we need a chatbot…”

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need a chatbot.” “we need a chatbot…”
“… because our internal search is really bad.”

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need blockchain.”

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need blockchain.” “we need blockchain…”

@holly_cummins #RedHat “we need blockchain.” “we need blockchain…” “… because
our processes need to be digitised.”

@holly_cummins #RedHat ‘normal’ improvement smuggled in with disruptive innovation

@holly_cummins #RedHat ‘normal’ improvement smuggled in with disruptive innovation ‘normal’
improvement enabled by disruptive technology (actually, this is kind of ok?)

@holly_cummins #RedHat (actually, this is fine)

@holly_cummins #RedHat (actually, this is fine) (actually, this is kind
of ok?)

@holly_cummins #RedHat sometimes, disguises have value

@holly_cummins #RedHat sometimes, disguises have value (actually, this is kind
of ok?)

@holly_cummins #RedHat … but think about why they are needed?
are you measuring the right things?

@holly_cummins #RedHat work … work … yawn

@holly_cummins #RedHat 1 + 1 = 3 double win

@holly_cummins #RedHat this works for people, too

@holly_cummins #RedHat the daily grind exhausts teams

@holly_cummins #RedHat the daily grind exhausts teams play restores them

@holly_cummins #RedHat play helps adaptation people play robots don’t play

@holly_cummins #RedHat play can turn into a product “our founder
wrote this on a plane, for fun.”

@holly_cummins #RedHat ok but we can’t play all the time?

@holly_cummins #RedHat year 1 peas cotton

@holly_cummins #RedHat peas cotton year 2

@holly_cummins #RedHat year 3 peas cotton

@holly_cummins #RedHat peas cotton year 4

@holly_cummins #RedHat a change is as good as a rest

@holly_cummins #RedHat week 1 play daily chores

@holly_cummins #RedHat play daily chores week 2

@holly_cummins #RedHat week 3 play daily chores

@holly_cummins #RedHat play daily blah week 4

@holly_cummins #RedHat rotations

@holly_cummins #RedHat 10% time every friday afternoon you can do
a cool side-project (tends to fall apart in presence of deadlines)

@holly_cummins #RedHat since you’ve been working your socks off on
this release, we will give you time off! … you still come to work, but you can work on anything you like or …

@holly_cummins #RedHat advantage: everyone is ‘off’ at the same time

@holly_cummins #RedHat play isn’t always easy especially in organisations

@holly_cummins #RedHat play has consequences

@holly_cummins #RedHat lost productivity play has consequences

@holly_cummins #RedHat untracked productivity play has consequences

@holly_cummins #RedHat failure play has consequences

remember peanut nitroglycerine?

@holly_cummins #RedHat so …

@holly_cummins #RedHat so … • play, to innovate

@holly_cummins #RedHat so … • play, to innovate • iterate
freely and measure (with caution)

@holly_cummins #RedHat so … • play, to innovate • iterate
freely and measure (with caution) • look for the double-win

thank you @holly_cummins slides

Innovation Anti-patterns: Bonkers Beans and Magic Numbers

Innovation Anti-patterns: Bonkers Beans and Magic Numbers

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