Product development structures as systems

The Changelog

This week we’re talking about product development structures as systems with Lucas da Costa. The last time we had Lucas on the show he was living the text-mode only life, and now we’re more than 3 years later, Lucas has doubled down on all things text mode. Today’s conversation with Lucas maps several ideas he’s shared recently on his blog. We talk about deadlines being pointless, trajectory vs roadmap and the downfall of long-term planning, the practices of daily stand-ups and what to do instead, measuring queues not cycle time, and probably the most controversial of them all — actually talking to your customers. Have you heard? It’s this newly disruptive Agile framework that seems to be working well.

This week we’re talking about product development structures as systems with Lucas da Costa. The last time we had Lucas on the show he was living the text-mode only life, and now we’re more than 3 years later, Lucas has doubled down on all things text mode. Today’s conversation with Lucas maps several ideas he’s shared recently on his blog. We talk about deadlines being pointless, trajectory vs roadmap and the downfall of long-term planning, the practices of daily stand-ups and what to do instead, measuring queues not cycle time, and probably the most controversial of them all — actually talking to your customers. Have you heard? It’s this newly disruptive Agile framework that seems to be working well.

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Featuring:

Show Notes:

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Timestamps:

(00:00) - This week on The Changelog
(01:17) - Sponsor: Sentry
(03:28) - Welcome Lucas, what's the story of your glasses?
(05:11) - It's been awhile, let's catch up
(06:18) - Lucas goes deep on his blog
(08:52) - Useful engineering metrics
(13:44) - The complexity of tasks and interdependencies
(19:45) - One layer deeper on interdependencies
(22:40) - Trajectory vs roadmap
(26:00) - Lucas, we're not moving fast enough
(34:25) - Sponsor: FireHydrant
(35:43) - Plan more carefully or more margin for error?
(38:33) - If they're not sprints what do we call them?
(41:07) - Using TDD as an analogy
(45:08) - Deeper on more margin for error
(48:42) - We argue that deadlines are useful
(55:16) - When do we talk to our users?
(59:46) - Velocity is not a good metric
(1:04:39) - Sponsor: Sourcegraph
(1:06:21) - The cumulative flow diagram
(1:11:09) - Avoiding estimates
(1:12:42) - Collaboration as a system
(1:14:34) - Lucas on standups
(1:17:59) - Are you blocked? Yes or No?
(1:21:58) - The newlyweds and the chuck roast
(1:23:21) - Question your queues!!
(1:24:11) - Closing out the show
(1:24:25) - Outro + clip from episode #340

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