Product Developm

ent 101

@dblockdotorg July 2016

Alexander Calder, Pyramids, 1970, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alexander-calder-pyramids-1

—Idea to Product

What would you do on day one?

—Startup: Day 1

Ask for help.

“Dear Friend,

I have a favor to ask.

I am starting to work on a better mouse trap. I am hoping to do things right from the start. Could I please borrow some of your time or someone on your team and bring a couple of my team members and ask a few questions about your process and tools?

-Me”

—Startup: Day 2

Organize chat, documents, passwords and tasks.

—Startup: Day 4

Create a minimum process. XP Scrum WaterfallWhat’s next? What’s next week? What is the

meaning of life?

—Startup: Day 5

Create a learning process.Taxonomy Wireframes Workgroups

—Startup: Day 5

Happy hour!Scheduled meetings with other startups. Created communication channels. Created a way to track work.

—Startup: Week-End

Sustainable pace.

—Software: Day 1

Have a story.

“Users can sign up.”

—Software: Day 1

Source control. Repository Commit

Push Pull Request

Merge

—Software: Day 1

Code reviews.

—Software: Day 1

First commit.

—Software: Day 2

Friendly visit.

2-3 People Bring Pastries Tell Your Story Be Impressed

Ask Why 3 Times Owe One

—Software: Day 3

Choose a stack.

Helps focus on your domain. Classifies problems.

Offers generic solutions. Provides consistent experience.

Maps software evolution. Enables reuse of skills.

—Software: Day 4

Implement the story w/ tests & CI.

—Software: Day 4

Deploy to production.

—Software: Day 5

Demo.

—Iterate on Product

More stories Under-promise and over-deliver Make people happy Keep things simple Don’t acquire technical debt

—People

People make all the difference Cultural fit is more important than technical abilities Prefer generalists Pigs, not chickens Do references

AMA, thank you. dblock@dblock.org

@dblockdotorg