Remote Retrospective Patterns

© 2013 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

Tarang Patel & Eric Rapin | Agile Coaches/TrainersRemote Retrospective Patterns

twitter: @nevasha & @ebrapin



Where…

2


twitter: @nevasha & @ebrapin3



In-person retrospectives…



Using tools like these…



But Remote Meetings Suck!



Remote communication creates challenges…

7

MediumTone of Voice

Interaction

Body Languag

eFocus

Face-to-Face

Video Conferencing

Phone

IM/Text

Email

Voicemail



10 common meeting dysfunctions

1. Meetings are repetitive, they are all the same

2. The same people do all the talking

3. Subjects are beaten to death, again and again

4. We come to decisions just to get out of the meeting

5. I don’t have time to code because I am in too many meetings

6. We have too many people in our meetings

7. We have too few people in our meetings

8. With constant stream of meetings, we are treated like machinery not people

9. Our demos and reviews never really bring about anything new

10. All the decisions were made outside the meeting anyway; we just have the meeting to be told what we are doing and to agree

8

I don’t like Mondays - http://www.infoq.com/presentations/tabaka-dont-like-mondays by Jean Tabaka

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/tabaka-dont-like-mondays





At least two reasons they suck…

Lacking Communication Bandwidth Turn Taking Engagement

Lacking Collaboration Shared Mental Models Problem Solving



Here are a few common patterns…

10



A group in each location…

Multiple Sites Video-Conferenced



Remote only in part…

Mostly in person, one or two remote



All remote…

High Fidelity Collaboration Tools



Multiple Sites Video-Conferenced

• Choose a facilitator for each site• Facilitators plan the meeting together

• Co-facilitate during meeting



Mostly in person, one or two remote

Uh, hello? Can I get a word in

here?

• Level the Communication Playing Field• Use a “Remote Ambassador”



Use a Remote Ambassador

“Bob has an idea about that, go ahead Bob…”

“Thanks Linda. What if we tried…”



All Remote in Collaboration Tool

• Plan For Active Engagement• Use Chat for Unstructured Discussion

• If > ~7 attendees, use breakouts



A few things to consider…

• What’s the highest bandwidth communication available to all attendees?• Video Conference

• Phone Conference

• Group Chat



Consider…

• What facilitation tools in use to make sure every voice is heard?• Pre-meeting surveys

• Polls

• Shared whiteboards

• Collaborative editing tools



Consider…

• How can you make sure people stay engaged and are not drifting into email/social media/etc.?• Check-ins

• Small Group Breakouts

• Activities

• Remember the 8 Minute Rule



So what…

Can remote meetings be as effective as in person meetings?Be agile – try something, inspect and adapt!



What Has Worked For You?


twitter: @nevasha & @ebrapin23



AGILE @ ADOBE PRODUCTIONS, #42I believe that the voices of fear and distrust, both from within and without, can only be dispelled by trusting the voice that comes from the team. Be still and listen to it as you stand to gain more than you'll lose. If it speaks with vision and outcomes for the team, group of teams, it just might be the voice of Creativity — or a reasonable facsimile or a tweet. If however, it snarls with fear of the unknown, fear of trying to work on chunked down work, fear of the dreaded micro-manager, customer or time boxing with incremental delivery, fear of losing the illusion of the perfect thing that you have or of not getting what you want, then it might be voice of Panic — or a reasonable facsimile.

24

Remote Retrospective Patterns

Technology

Transcript of Remote Retrospective Patterns