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Looking for Failure

Looking for Failure

Failure provides critical feedback, but we're conditioned to avoid it at all costs and forget it quickly when it happens. How can we challenge this natural human bias? I've spent the last couple years digging into "pop" psychology and thinking about how books like "Thinking Fast and Slow", "Antifragile", "Drive", "Blink", and "Outliers" apply in a software development environment. I'm most excited about this idea that if we can make failure "safe" then we can use it to learn things that we would otherwise be tempted to avoid and ignore because it might go badly. A focus on failure, both deliberate and accidental, has been beneficial in moving my projects beyond the no defects, 100% test coverage type focus and towards finding innovative ways to detect and quickly reverse failure. This is not a perseverance, "Fail fast" or failure-fetish message, but more around the idea that failure is as good as success if your goal is to improve - so stop avoiding it! My ideal outcome is to get people talking about this idea of failing purposefully and see where it goes.

stevenjackson

May 05, 2017
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  1. Looking
    for
    Failure
    @stevejxsn

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  2. I’m @stevejxsn
    [email protected]

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  4. Takeaways
    • Failure as a learning aid
    • Reactions to failure
    • Hypotheses
    • Making safe places

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  16. Option 1: IGNORE

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  17. Option 2: REFRAME

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  18. Option 3: DEFLECT

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  19. Option 4: AVOID

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  20. Option 5: I WILL FAIL

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  21. Premortem
    "Imagine that we are a year into the
    future. We implemented the plan as it
    now exists. The outcome was a
    disaster. Please take 5-10
    minutes to write a brief
    history of that disaster."

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  22. Hypothesis
    Embrace failure
    to avoid Regret
    Avoidance

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  23. Regret Avoidance

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  36. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/153/d/f/the_scientific_method_by_jackcomstock-
    d3hv0yo.jpg

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  37. Define Fail Fail
    Refactor
    Pass
    Pass
    Acceptance Test Developer Test
    TDD
    ATDD

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  38. •Define success criteria
    •Define failure criteria
    •Strive to end the meeting
    Meetings

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  39. Hypothesis
    Express goals
    to avoid
    Reframing

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  41. Hypothesis
    Antifragile
    software is
    easy to change

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  44. Antifragile

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  45. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tpapi/2765541278

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  48. Hypothesis
    Debt makes
    you vulnerable

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  50. Hypothesis
    Local failures
    over global
    failures

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  54. Hypothesis
    Reverse expected
    failure to learn how
    to reverse random
    failure

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  58. Failure as a non-event

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  77. Hypothesis
    Blame
    prevents
    innovation

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  80. Hypothesis
    Failure is
    easier in safe
    spaces

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  84. What do you
    celebrate?

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  85. Which failures
    do you
    acknowledge?

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  86. What gets
    discussed in
    the open?

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  87. What exceptions do you
    make?
    Which ones do you never
    allow?

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  88. What is your
    tolerance for
    failure?

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  89. What do you say
    about people outside
    your team during
    challenging situations?

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  90. Law
    Change is
    inevitable
    Resistance is
    futile

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  95. Success Failure

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  96. Failure
    Success

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  97. Failure
    Success

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  99. I’m @stevejxsn
    [email protected]
    Thanks!

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