One of the largest gathering of Agile professionals in the world is taking place next week. The conference is presented by Agile Alliance and runs for a full week starting Monday and ending on Friday.
I was fortunate to speak on a couple of topics with two of my former colleagues last year (Government Product Ownership with Darren Hoevel and Our Business Pipeline is Broken with George Dinwiddie). While I have yet to write about my experience and takeaways, I wanted to share a few thoughts or tips on getting a better experience at the conference.
When it comes to keynotes, I highly recommend attending all of them. I think you will particularly enjoy #modernagile keynote by Joshua Kerievsky. I definitely wouldn’t miss Managing for Happiness by Jurgen Appelo and Leadership for Genius Tribes by Carrie Kish.
It is a different story when you look at the program schedule however. There are so many tracks (18 to be specific including Audacious Salon — a new track this year co-chaired by Doc Norton and George Dinwiddie). In addition to Open Jam that usually takes place early morning which I highly recommend. I also recommend monitoring #agile2016 twitter feed for impromptu conversations that might be of interest to you. So, here are a few tips to keep in mind!
1. Start with the End in mind (Outcomes)
For the most part, I like attending Agile conferences to catch up with friends, meet new ones and share ideas and experiences (check out Agile Coach Camp later this year). I found however that it is useful to do some preparation which for me means starting with the end in mind. A couple of questions I ask myself before the conference are what are my goals? And what do I want to get out of this experience? (Outcomes). Go ahead and list them.
Or imagine it is the last day of the conference and you are on your way back to work, what was it about the experience that could benefit your team or organization?. Go ahead and note it down.
2. Pick a theme (or your sessions) early morning when you are fresh and focused
You might have heard of the Last Responsible Moment (LRM) however with so many tracks, sessions and events that take place, it gets overwhelming and you will experience decision fatigue. So don’t let the LRM turns into the First Irresponsible Moment (I heard the term from Shane Hastie). Also, keep in mind that you will be running from one session to another so you will be exerting mental and physical energy so you might need to have a comfy shoes on during the day.
What I found helpful to me last year was going through the program schedule every morning and pick a theme (or the sessions I am most interested to explore). I would highlight the sessions I want to explore based on the outcome I outlined. This helped me review my itinerary on a daily basis and do a quick retrospective. I will admit that on many occasion I decided to have a conversation and ended up not going to the session I was planning to attend but we all value responding to change.
Bonus tip: if you are attending as part of a group, you might want to think about coordinating throughout the day (morning and noon huddles) to have different folks attend sessions that may be running in parallel.
Also, it is worth noting that there is an app you can download for the program schedule (apple or google). I do prefer to use a hard copy and you will get one at the registration table when you pick up your name tag.
3. Use the law of the two feet (or mobility)
If you are familiar with Open Space Technology (OST), you might have heard of the law of the two feet or mobility. It basically says that: if at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet, go someplace else.
So, if you are not learning then go someplace else. I usually sit or stand close to the exit door for the first 5 minutes and if I don’t think the session is for me, I leave quietly. In essence, this is your own “Inspect and Adapt” in order to maximize your Return On Time Invested (ROTI) or I would like to think of this more as Return On Energy Invested (ROEI).
4. Be sure to capture the ideas on the go
You never know when you are going to run into a good idea whether it is at a session, at a lunch conversation or during Open Jam. So I usually have a small notebook handy or a bunch of post it notes and when the light bulb goes off, I try to capture the idea right away.
Bonus tip: after sometime I realized that it is difficult to retrieve ideas I captured during conferences or conversations so I started using the notes app on my phone which is synced up to my gmail. That way I can search for it when I need to assuming I recall the idea at the time I need it. You would be surprised how easy for an idea to slip away and once it’s gone, it is very hard to return.
5. Start an internal conversation and share insights!
Some companies get to send a group of individuals (coordinated effort) or individuals from the same company happen to be there (sporadic). Yes, there’s a difference but that’s a topic for another day!
Either way, there’s nothing stopping you from taking the initiative to start an internal conversation (re: Agile 2016 Takeaways) using a Lean Coffee structure to build on what we learned as individuals and collectively as a group. Perhaps this might spark conversations around starting an internal event, a hackathon or an unconference. These insights could be turned into experiments that help in sparking innovation across the company.
6. Remember to take frequent breaks to unwind
It’s easy to try to fill up all your time with sessions during the conference but it’s important to take frequent breaks to unwind. This includes a good night sleep where incubation takes place and ideas get baked.
7. Share your experience with the community
Everyone has a different perspective on how they applied specific practices and techniques to their situation. It is a much richer experience to share your perspective with the community. As you attend each session, think of it as if you were going to share the talk with someone. This will help you stay focused and avoid multitasking!
You could share your thoughts at your company by inviting colleagues to a lunch and learn to promote a culture of learning. Also, if you like to share your perspective with the community, feel free to check out Agile NOVA. I invite you to share your thoughts with us.
You might be thinking now so which sessions should I attend. Well, it depends on your outcomes (Go to tip #1).
OK, here are some places I would check out:
- Dynamic reteaming: how we thrived by rebuilding teams (Heidi Helfand)
- Games for doing (Don McGreal)
- Intro to Agile Product Management (Rich Moronov)
- Open Jam Daily huddles (Mornings at 8:30am and Afternoons at 1:30pm)
- Introduction to Agile Delivery (James Shore)
- Leadership is an Extreme Sport (Em Campbell-Pretty)
- Introduction to Agile Development Practice Basics for Everyone (Not just Developers) (Tim Ottinger)
- Introduction to Assumptions Mapping (David J Bland)
- #DiscoveryDojo: Hunting Value with Structured Conversations with Ellen Gottesdiener and Steve Holyer
- Help your organization outlearn the competition with Quantitative Improvement (Ashley Johnson and Arlo Belshee)
- Building Blocks of a Knowledge Work Culture (Doc Norton)
- Agile Program Management: Measurements to See Value and Delivery (Johanna Rothman)
- Open Transformation by Mike Carey and Todd Kronmann
- How to Create Leaders At All Levels (Esther Derby)
- Stalwarts Sessions with Ron Jeffries, Chet Hendrickson, Stephen Denning, Woody Zuill, Arlo Belshee and Ellen Gottensdiener (These sessions are designed to ask questions and have a dialogue).
I hope you find these tips useful. Happy learning and sharing!
