It’s notoriously hard to come up with robust targets. Many sites have monthly traffic targets based on Page Impressions and Unique Users. But is this the best measure? Does it really measure what you want? What i want to know is How good is the product? How loyal are the users? How adaptable is the…… Continue reading Targets are Slippery
Author: yojava
the incredible hoque
hoque, i love the user generated article idea. you dont need to wait for a big meeting about it. start small. write one short article for metro. if a channel doesnt exist for it speak to content team about creating one. (maybe a community channel?). miguel and artur are also into diversifying our content. if…… Continue reading the incredible hoque
Using the Metro API – a guide for newbies
I’m going to show you how to use the Metro API. This post is aimed at javascript beginners but i recommend you try out this fun interactive introduction first – http://www.codecademy.com/ Step One. Create a file on your computer. Call it something like “metro.html”. Step Two. Copy the HTML below into it. Open the file in…… Continue reading Using the Metro API – a guide for newbies
Conversations. Not meetings.
Maybe we don’t need a big meeting about X. Maybe it’s better to have lots of small meetings. 2 or 3 people meeting for 5-10 minutes. It’s the Steve Jobs approach. Today it was Dave and Jamie, then Dave, Matt and Martin. Friday it was Matt and Larry. Tomorrow it might be Martin and Joe.…… Continue reading Conversations. Not meetings.
Top 5 Books For Evil Masterminds
If, like me, you are plotting world domination, here are my favorite books on the subject. “Purple Cow” (Seth Godin). Remarkable products sell themselves. Seth has a great writing style. Inspirational. “Adapt” (Tim Harford). How to innovate your way to a remarkable product – experiment based on variation and selection. Great stories including toasters, Iraq, Google, climate…… Continue reading Top 5 Books For Evil Masterminds
Agile is hard…
Agile is hard. Because the world is hard. Requirements change. Estimates are inaccurate. Agile turns these challenges to its advantage. Traditional methodologies, such as Waterfall, pretend the challenges can be beaten into submission using monolithic documents and GANTT charts. They can’t. Get over it.
Less Mass = More Agility
A quick thought experiment if you work somewhere with an big company mentality… Would the company be better off with half the product and half the mass? Half the mass means half the maintenance, testing, integration, points-of-failure, management, politics and more. Would this enable development of new features and products (such as mobile apps) twice as…… Continue reading Less Mass = More Agility
Top 5 Tips on Agile from “Getting Real” (book by 37signals)
“Underdo Your Competition” “Less Mass” “Half, Not Half-Arsed” “Start With No” “Hire Less And Hire Later” And a couple of my favourite quotes… Steve Jobs ~ “innovation… comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much” Charles Darwin ~ “It is not the…… Continue reading Top 5 Tips on Agile from “Getting Real” (book by 37signals)
Form tools
It’s often useful for non-techies to be able to embed forms in a page. Here are a few tools which might help… SurveyMonkey Google forms Wufoo Jotform QuestionPro Enjoy!
Testing myth: “The code is so simple – it doesn’t need a test”
If the code is so simple, then it will be simple to test it. And at some point, it’s likely the feature will be enhanced. If there is an existing test then it should be simple to enhance it. If there isn’t an existing test then things can quickly get messy. The more complex the…… Continue reading Testing myth: “The code is so simple – it doesn’t need a test”
The spectrum of development styles – from central planning to anarchy
There is a spectrum of development methodologies. Centrally organised Backlog driven by product manager Delivery driven by project manager Self organising Backlog driven by product manager Delivery driven by developers Developer driven Backlog and delivery driven by developers