pigsaw.mastodon.world.ap.brid.gy - Profile | ThreadSky

Even in decent agile product teams planning can seem time-consuming, especially if you're in a large organisation with lots of dependencies and stakeholders. Some notes on how to make it less so... https://niksilver.com/2025/06/10/making-planning-less-time-consuming/

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Last night's game was... Revolution! So easy to learn that we were on round two or three while the next table was still on the teach (for Last Night On Earth). Quite fun, and nice to be able to get some successes even if you're doing poorly. #boardgames

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

When people in our teams are disruptive, it's too easy to label them as "bad people". But it's also worth considering the bigger picture first. This weeks blog post: Blame the system before the person. https://niksilver.com/2025/06/03/blame-the-system-before-the-person/

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Mmmm, the smell of new packs of cards... #boardgames

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Played Red Dragon Inn last night. Most of the time was spent reading the cards we each picked up, then rereading them all any time someone did something, in case we had a counteraction. Ideally we'd have chosen our characters and read and revised our cards […] [Original post on mastodon.world]

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

It's great being a developer, developing your skills and striving to craft great code (and that's a skill I barely have). But when working in a team, it's more important the team's needs should come first. And that's true of every team member […]

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

From last night's #boardgames, I have no photo of Cockroach Poker - sorry. Instead, here's a photo of my prototype game, Twiggly Wood, which the crew very generously playtested (twice!) and provided brilliant feedback on. Most grateful to them.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Team dynamics are complex. Sometimes a decent team can become an amazing one just because one person - maybe a key person - leaves and gets replaced. https://niksilver.com/2025/05/20/changing-one-team-member-can-be-significant/

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Fabulous (and exhausting) weekend of playtesting #boardgames still at the prototype stage. All at #ProtospielOnline. Among other things I built a zoo, learned minor spells, fenced, and got be an intruder to a mainframe masquerading as one of the goodies. Wonderful people, great disussion of […]

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

The beginning of a fully weekend of playtesting at #protospielonline. As expected, a really friendly crowd and really thoughful, insightful feedback about games yet to be published. Thanks, folks. https://protospiel.online/ (Also: Having a great time in https://screentop.gg/)

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Last night I played Settlers of Catan for the first time. (I know, I know.) It was fun, but I really only got the basic strategy about a third of the way in. ("Ah, you need to create roads to reach a variety of resources...") By then it was too late. But I […] [Original post on mastodon.world]

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Unfortunately, good comms and good plans are not enough to bring about effective change. Conviction from those leading it is also really important, as a colleague once reminded me. More on the blog... https://niksilver.com/2025/05/13/conviction-supports-change-a-lot/

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Got to play Dominion last night for the first time. With the choice of.... quite a few... expansions. Easy to learn the rules, but learning the individual cards clearly takes practice. Very enjoyable playing many combos. #boardgames

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

Expressing levels of confidence in our claims - of value, of estimates, and so on - not only helps us make better decisions, it also distinguishes us from AI chatbots. https://niksilver.com/2025/05/06/the-value-of-expressing-confidence-levels/ Thanks and hat tip to @chrisoldwood for the insight […]

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

Excellent. https://alex.party/posts/2025-05-05-the-future-of-web-development-is-ai-get-on-or-get-left-behind/

submitted 41 days ago • 1 comment

Currently preparing to join #protospielonline in a week and half. A full weekend of playtesting new #boardgames online. This will be a new experience in so many ways. You can sign up here: https://protospiel.online/

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Off to vote. You should too.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Last night's #boardgames night featured Jamaica (pictured) and Avalon. Jamaica was very light and jolly, although - who'd have thought? - one player suggested it's not historically accurate. Avalon involved ridiculous claims as to the identities of the […] [Original post on mastodon.world]

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

I was speaking to a colleague recently about how digital product teams so often want the rest of their org to change... and how that push from them rarely succeeds. Some notes on that in this week's blog post. https://niksilver.com/2025/04/29/change-from-the-side-is-unlikely-to-succeed/

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Played Earth earlier this week with the local #boardgames club. Really nice bunch of people, and the teach was impressive. As for the game itself... the material is beautiful, but I only got comfortable interpreting some of the icons after about 90 minutes and […] [Original post on mastodon.world]

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

Despite talking about cost of delay in past weeks, I've been guilty of relying on some assumptions. They're not wrong, but context matters. A bit more on that in this week's blog post... https://niksilver.com/2025/04/22/cost-of-delay-beware-the-special-cases/

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

Tiny Towns is popular round our way - this is the second play through in two weeks. Easy to understand, enjoyably frustrating, good for several people (in teams), and it looks and feels great. #boardgames

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

Too many projects and delivery programmes have their crises. But the routine replanning crisis that happens in waterfall-type projects is something that generally just doesn't happen with agile and incremental delivery... https://niksilver.com/2025/04/15/one-less-crisis-with-agile/

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

A few teams I spend time with regard their kanban board too passively. In this week's blog post I propose that the kanban board is also the compass, not just the map. https://niksilver.com/2025/04/08/the-kanban-board-is-also-the-compass-not-just-the-map/

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Taking time out to learn is good, but just doing that won't get great results. I've found it's far better to mix the learning with the doing.

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

On a practical note, here's a straightforward workshop format for helping teams think about sequencing delivery. https://niksilver.com/2025/03/25/a-workshop-on-sequencing-delivery/

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

Early delivery - the gift that keeps on giving. Though this may not be obvious to some more senior stakeholders, who don't spend all their time worry about the mechanics of delivery. https://niksilver.com/2025/03/18/early-delivery-keeps-generating-value/

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

A lesson I learned a while back, and story to go with it... Never generalise a product from the start. https://niksilver.com/2025/03/11/never-generalise-a-product-from-the-start/

submitted 96 days ago • 0 comments

Estimating user stories has at least two postiives... and creates at least one temptation to avoid. Some thoughts on this in this week's blog post... https://niksilver.com/2025/03/04/the-usefulness-and-not-of-estimating-user-stories/

submitted 103 days ago • 0 comments

When product roadmaps focus on outcomes... it's generally much better. This week's blog post: https://niksilver.com/2025/02/25/when-product-roadmaps-focus-on-outcomes/

submitted 110 days ago • 0 comments

3 MIN SURVEY HELP NEEDED PLS! <3 (needs to be done before 1st March 25) For my final year project for my BSc in Psychology (Hons) Degree with the Open University, I'm researching factors influencing therapy-seeking behaviour. Adults 18+ in the UK and EU are invited to complete a short […]

submitted 114 days ago • 1 comment

Sometimes there's a disagreement on the primary user of a service. But typically the best choice is the user whose action strings the whole thing together. This week's blog post... https://niksilver.com/2025/02/18/choosing-the-central-user-of-a-service/

submitted 117 days ago • 0 comments

Returning to a subject of a couple of week ago - mistaking categories as definitive. This is an example using the Kano model of categorising product features. https://niksilver.com/2025/02/11/categories-qualities-and-the-kano-product-model/

submitted 125 days ago • 0 comments

A definition of done can be a really useful thing. But also the centre of conflict. Some explanation of that this week on the blog: https://niksilver.com/2025/02/04/working-with-our-definition-of-done/

submitted 131 days ago • 0 comments

This week, something about mental models and avoiding mistakes with those. More specifically, jumping off from the age-old (actually, only 50 years old) question of "art or science"? https://niksilver.com/2025/01/28/distinguishing-qualities-and-categories/

submitted 139 days ago • 0 comments

Messages to potential devops people also need to be understood by the rest of the product team... This week's blog post is “You build it, you run it”… for everyone. https://niksilver.com/2025/01/21/you-build-it-you-run-it-for-everyone/

submitted 146 days ago • 0 comments

Follow on from @gregdetre post, which I mentioned last week, here's one more insight that I thought was relevant not just to working with AI. It's relevant to working with... y'know, people: guardrails (such as automated tests) enhance ambition and allow us to experiment with more confidence […]

submitted 153 days ago • 0 comments

Things that are nice about Mastodon, number 471... I check it early morning, and it takes about 5 minutes. Then two hours later I return and I see just one more message. Just one. Nothing more is being pushed to me. I'm reminded to get off social media and do something more productive. Thanks […]

submitted 154 days ago • 0 comments

I found this a really worthwhile read from my friend @gregdetre - a practical guide to AI-assisted programming. https://www.makingdatamistakes.com/making-tea-while-ai-codes-a-practical-guide-to-2024s-development-revolution/

submitted 160 days ago • 0 comments

First blog post of the new year... it's a good thing to get away from project-centric working and be product oriented, but projects still have a place in a product-oriented world. https://niksilver.com/2025/01/07/projects-have-a-place-in-a-product-oriented-world/

submitted 160 days ago • 0 comments

Being user-centred is for long-running platform teams, too. Maybe even try to think like a cloud provider. That's this week's (non-festive, entirely utilitarian) blog post... https://niksilver.com/2024/12/24/platform-teams-should-be-user-centred/

submitted 175 days ago • 0 comments

On the one hand I'm increasingly exasperated by so many YouTube videos titled "<thing> changes everything". No it doesn't. On the other hand, I've finally bothered to learn about tmux. It's really impressive, and I can honestly say it changes... some very small part of my life for the better […]

submitted 176 days ago • 0 comments

Another side of using inversion for problem solving... working backwards from success. I find this is very useful when I'm talking to a team who insist something is "impossible". https://niksilver.com/2024/12/17/working-back-from-success/

submitted 181 days ago • 0 comments

Futurespectives are powerful, but they're just one example of a more generalised thinking tool - inversion. Some explanation in this week's blog post: https://niksilver.com/2024/12/10/generalising-futurespectives/

submitted 188 days ago • 0 comments