We inaugurated the meetups (online meetings) of Projet Winston with a topic on Shape Up led by Laurent Meurisse. The trigger came from one of my typical “wake up, what kind of world do you want to live in” messages:

To which Laurent responded and I proposed making it the first meetup of Projet Winston. I was then recording the masterclass Scrum and agility with Claude Aubry whom I invited to join the debate.

The meetup

The meetup is recorded and accessible here:

By the way, there’s also 1 hour available from the first two masterclasses: Product Management with Rachel Dubois and Scrum and agility with Claude Aubry.

My notes taken on the fly

Claude shared his preparation notes in this article.

You understood that I started with a rather negative opinion reading my comment above, here are my notes taken on the fly while listening to Laurent (which I mention in the recording).

In no particular order, and this probably requires the sound and video from the meetup:

  • Build on one side, Shape on the other, we really start off on the wrong foot.
  • Cool down does that mean the rest is fast’n furious or hot’n sweaty (very very good album by Cactus)? (No idea of calm and regularity).
  • No review for 6 weeks???
  • The hill crest reminds me of the Lean notion of last responsible moment.
  • Predicting risks (the rabbit holes) is an illusion, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”, Von Moltke.
  • But ok for good > best, which there reminds me “we prefer a good plan immediately over a perfect plan in a week”, Patton.
  • However, I remind that “agile” slicing is not a prototype, but a “very thin, but complete slice of a cake”.
  • Saying that the notion of impact is foreign to Scrum is a big mistake.
  • This could remind me of a design sprint, but again the old-fashioned way: with parallel tracks (shape/build), and a risky length: 6 weeks.
  • I liked: the introduction of the idea of “bet”, of wager.
  • I liked: the “figure it out” aspect that we give to the “team”.
  • I liked: we learn to pitch, therefore to bring it back to the essential.

In short:

  • It’s really a not very agile thing that can serve to put a first foot in the right direction.
  • I take away from the feedback that is given during the meetup that it mainly helped with change management. The ownership of the need to do things differently.

See you soon for the next one!