You Need to See It

I am currently working on a project for my job that is not going well. Part of the problem is that I was not given explicit instructions on what people wanted. Instead I got instructions to make something better. I sat down and asked questions about specific improvements that people wanted to see. Then I started putting things together so I could solicit feedback.

The first pass went well and people liked the idea of what they saw. That is actually the wrong response. I really needed people to tell me I was headed in the wrong direction or how they thought my ideas could be improved upon. Now we are getting close to the end of the project and I am being asked, "That is all?" Fortunately I still have some time to get things back on track.

Several years ago, I wrote about "Agile Development." The idea is to show something every couple of weeks and constantly ask for feedback. This experience underscores the importance of constantly showing updates. Even though that is what I thought I was doing, I didn't do it well enough as it is only now that stakeholders are coming to me with new ideas about the project.

I don't think the Agile process should be limited to just software development. It could be applied to any job or chore. Think about teaching your children to do dishes or mow the lawn. You don't send them out unsupervised for hours at a time. Instead you periodically check on the work to make sure it is being done correctly. Early in the process is the best time for feedback as the longer you wait, the more fixing needs to be done. Now for my project I just need to figure out how to create the largest flash in the shortest amount of time.