“Co-making great products” should be the tagline for most of the processes we use today, but sadly the opposite is true. Software development’s an expensive risky business. To deal with the risk, the players involved adopt a client-vendor model where those in the client role give requirements and those in the vendor role estimate time and effort and agree to build what’s asked for. In this model we clearly separate responsibilities and know who’s accountable when things go wrong.
If things go well, both parties claim credit. If things go poorly as they often do, each party blames the other. Although we know things rarely go as planned, we continue to work in processes where treating our coworkers as outsourced vendors is considered “best practice.” This talk is about an alternative way of working.
In this talk Jeff explores companies beginning to adopt a style of working where everyone in the organization gets involved with identifying and solving problems. You’ll hear examples from real companies describing their practices for learning first-hand about customers and users, practices for collaboratively designing solutions for the problems found in the real world, and approaches to learning if what we created really benefited anyone. This style of work isn’t the traditional client-vendor model where knowing who’s to blame is the primary concern. It’s a co-making style of work where everyone brings their skills and experience to the table and together takes ownership for making great things.
Watch this video on http://www.infoq.com/
