The best processes are those that encourage teams to naturally do the right things at the right times. Amazing processes like this don’t happen by accident; they are specifically designed to encourage desirable behavior while discouraging harmful behaviour. By carefully choosing the process’s affordances -- practices or artifacts that direct our thinking toward a specific goal -- a team can tailor a process that makes success intuitive. The session will begin by presenting the core concepts behind affordence-driven process improvement before diving into a collaborative workshop. During the workshop teams will use information from the introduction to brainstorm practices that will help them promote those values, as you would in a team retrospective.
A Beginners Guide to Building a RAG App Using Open Source Milvus
Designing a Process that Works for Your Team
1. Affordance-Driven
Process Improvement
Designing a Process that Works for Your Team
Ariadna Font Michael Keeling
@quicola @michaelkeeling
2. Workshop Agenda
• The Theory of Affordances
• Affordance-Driven Process Improvement
• Workshop Time!
FYI -- We’ll spend about
the last hour hands-on
2
3. Goals for this Workshop
1. Unlock your mind so you can identify
affordances in your team’s process
2. Practice affordance-driven improvement
in a retrospective simulation
3. Map typical team behaviors to common
agile practices
3
6. You’ve seen these concepts before…
• Software Architects
• Object Designers
• User Experience Experts
• Kanban Experts
• Agile Coaches
• “Systems Thinkers”
6
7. Goal:
Design
an
object
that
makes
it
feel
natural
and
easy
to
do
the
right
thing.
7
8. What is an affordance?
An
affordance
is
any
perceivable
element,
such
as
an
object
or
idea,
that
directs
a
person’s
thinking
toward
a
specific
set
of
acAons.
J.
J.
Gibson,
The
Ecological
Approach
to
Visual
Percep:on.
Psychology
Press,
1986.
Donald
Norman,
The
Design
of
Everyday
Things.
Basic
Books,
1998
8
9. What is an affordance?
An
affordance
is
any
perceivable
element,
such
as
an
object
or
idea,
that
directs
a
person’s
thinking
toward
a
specific
set
of
acAons.
J.
J.
Gibson,
The
Ecological
Approach
to
Visual
Percep:on.
Psychology
Press,
1986.
Donald
Norman,
The
Design
of
Everyday
Things.
Basic
Books,
1998
9
13. The Urinal Fly
“It improves the aim. If a
man sees a fly, he aims at
it. Fly-in-urinal research
found that etchings reduce
spillage by 80%. It gives a
guy something to think
about.
That’s a perfect example of
process control.”
Robert
Krulwhich,
“There’s
a
Fly
in
my
Urinal”
hJp://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=121310977
13
26. Goal:
Design
a
process
that
makes
it
natural
and
easy
to
do
the
right
thing.
26
27. Affordance-Driven Change
• Observe and Evaluate Behaviors
– What is your team doing?
– Positive, Negative, Neutral
• Identify Affordances
– What nudged your team’s behavior?
• Alter Affordances
– Change the negative affordances, keep the
positive ones
27
29. Affordance-Driven Change
Observe
What
is
your
Behaviors
team
doing?
Evaluate
Behaviors
How
do
IdenAfy
they
act?
Affordances
Alter
Affordances
29
30. Affordance-Driven Change
Observe
Is
this
the
behavior
Behaviors
you
want?
Evaluate
Behaviors
PosiAve
IdenAfy
NegaAve
Affordances
Neutral
Alter
Affordances
30
33. Example: Team Square Root
ObservaAons:
Arguments
about
tasking
Team
over-‐commiang
Resist
giving
up
tasks
Michael
Keeling,
“Process
Affordances:
Ignore
at
your
own
Peril”
hJp://neverletdown.net/2009/03/process-‐affordances-‐ignore-‐at-‐your-‐own-‐peril/
33
34. Values: Baseline for Evaluating Behavior
As
a
team
we
valued
Predictability
Adaptability
Respect
Open
CommunicaAon
34
42. What is an affordance?
An
affordance
is
any
perceivable
element,
such
as
an
object
or
idea,
that
directs
a
person’s
thinking
toward
a
specific
set
of
acAons.
J.
J.
Gibson,
The
Ecological
Approach
to
Visual
Percep:on.
Psychology
Press,
1986.
Donald
Norman,
The
Design
of
Everyday
Things.
Basic
Books,
1998
42
43. Goals for this Workshop
1. Unlock your mind so you can identify
affordances in your team’s process
2. Practice affordance-driven improvement
in a retrospective simulation
3. Map typical team behaviors to common
agile practices
43
44. Ground Rules
• When your team is ready to move on,
have somebody wear the party hat
• Manage your time, watch the clock!
• Raise your hand if you have a question
• Have fun!
44
45. Workshop Agenda
1. Establish context, agree on team values
2. Evaluate behaviors
3. Identify affordances nudging your team
4. Propose changes to your team’s
practices
5. Finish posters and share findings
6. Wrap-up
45
46. QualiAes
your
“team”
values
Summary
of
pracAces
nudge
your
team’s
behavior
AcAon
items
–
how
to
change
behavior?
46
47. Establishing Context – 2 min
• Task: Introduce yourselves to one another
– Briefly share some interesting facts about yourself
and your role(s) at work
• Context:
– You are now a team, working together to build a
new awesome piece of software.
– You’ve gathered together for a team
retrospective….
47
48. Get your package
Send
one
team
member
to
the
front
to
retrieve
workshop
materials.
48
49. Agree on Team Qualities – 5 min
• Task: Agree on the 3 – 5 core qualities
you value most as a team.
– Annotate worksheet and add to poster
• Goal: You are going to focus on these
through the workshop and use them to
evaluate behaviors and determine what
improvements to pursue first.
49
53. Evaluate Behaviors – 10 min
• Task: Decide whether your team’s
behaviors (Blue Cards) are positive,
neutral, or negative relative to your
values.
• Goal: Learn to observe and analyze team
behaviors in your work environment.
53
57. Identify Affordances – 15 min
• Task: Map practices to negative behaviors.
What affordances nudged your team?
– Try the “5 Whys” technique
– If there is no practice in your deck that you
think leads to this bad behavior, use one of the
wildcards
• Goal: Have a handful of patterns like this on
your poster
<Practice> nudges <Behavior> because ____
57
58. QualiAes
your
“team”
values
Summary
of
pracAces
nudge
your
team’s
behavior
Don’t
forget
your
poster!
Start
58
60. Propose Key Changes – 10 min
• Task: Create 2 or 3 action items for your team
and document why you think they will get rid of
the negative behavior
• Goal: Add or remove affordances to your team’s
process. Turn the undesired behaviors into
desired ones.
Practice P(Bad Behavior) è Practice P’ Ø / Good Behavior
60
61. Example…
Free dinner nudges developers to stay
late…
Change the Free Dinner affordance
Free breakfast – nudge developers to come
to work early, not waiting for a signal to
mark the end of the day
61
62. Propose Key Changes – 10 min
• Task: Create 2 or 3 action items for your team
and document why you think they will get rid of
the negative behavior
• Goal: Add or remove affordances to your team’s
process. Turn the undesired behaviors into
desired ones.
Practice P(Bad Behavior) è Practice P’ (Ø / Good Behavior)
62
63. QualiAes
your
“team”
values
Summary
of
pracAces
nudge
your
team’s
behavior
AcAon
items
–
how
to
change
behavior?
63
64. Share your findings! – 15 min
• Task: Share your poster!
• Goal: Tell a story so that others can learn
from your thinking process
• Reflection
– Any surprises in you practice/behavior map?
– What can you take back to your team?
64
66. Goals for this Workshop
1. Unlock your mind so you can identify
affordances in your team’s process
2. Practice affordance-driven improvement
in a retrospective simulation
3. Map typical team behaviors to common
agile practices
66
67. Practices vs. Affordances?
We simplified things a little for the
simulation…
The world is not this simple.
Affordances can be subtle, tricky to identify.
67
68. Tools for Retrospectives
• Identify valued team qualities
• “Like to Like” game
– Create your own behaviors and practices card
decks
• Affordance Awareness
– It’s not your fault!
68
69. “A
bad
system
will
beat
a
good
person
every
Ame.”
-‐
W.
Edwards
Deming
69
71. Thank you!
Michael Keeling Ariadna Font
@michaelkeeling @quicola
http://neverletdown.net http://ariadna.font.cat/
71
72. References
• Robert Krulwhich, “There’s a Fly in my Urinal”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121310977
• Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 1988
• J. J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception.
Psychology Press, 1986.
• Galvao and Sato, “Affordances in Product Architecture: Linking
Technical Functions and Users’ Tasks” Proceedings of IDETC/CIE
2005
• Michael Keeling, “Identifying Process Affordances: Nudging Toward
Change”
http://neverletdown.net/2010/03/identifying-process-affordances-
nudging-toward-change/
• Michael Keeling, “Process Affordances: Ignore at your own Peril”
http://neverletdown.net/2009/03/process-affordances-ignore-at-your-
own-peril/
72