• You will learn the benefits of using an empathy map and how to build one.
• You will learn some common biases to watch out for when considering customer needs.

Useless \ˈyüs-ləs\ use·less: not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome. [Synonyms: futile, (in) vain, pointless, to no purpose, ineffectual, ineffective, to no effect, unprofitable] If you want to stop building useless software, you have to start understanding your customers. Empathy mapping is a simple activity for your team, stakeholders & anyone who is responsible for delivering products & services. You collectively explore what your customers see, hear, say & do, as well as consider what they think & feel. You gain insights into their pains & potential wants which are the keys to building more useful software. In this session, Diane shows you how to build an empathy map & points out the potential biases to watch out for as you go. You will learn how easy it is to work collaboratively to create a shared understanding of the customer. And that is the first step to start building software that customers find useful.

• You’ll leave the session with a new lens for how to how to think about and approach leadership and teamwork in complex, fast-changing work environments
• You'll explore principles to apply as a manager or informal leader of teams in the modern workplace
• You will also learn simple tools and techniques to apply to strengthen your team’s effectiveness and help you to help others

This interactive session is a crash course in team development for the messy modern world. Too many leaders and organizations rely on outdated approaches to leadership which are as ancient as the factory shop floors they were designed for. Instead of clinging onto to these archaic ways of working we need a new playbook for the complex, uncertain and fast-changing digital landscape of today. This session will give an introduction to principles and methods you can use to build happier and more effective teams. Get inspiration for new ways of thinking and working, reflect on how your team is functioning and identify specific areas where you and your team can improve. Alex Neuman and Max Larcombe work with 21st-century learning and organizational development at Hyper Island. They have worked extensively with process design, leadership and team development. Alex was product lead on the Hyper Island Toolbox. Max previously led Master’s education and is currently Head of Online Courses.

• You will walk away with new ideas for what it means to be "present" at work.
• You will learn how to create that sense camaraderie even when you're virtual.
• You will know how to work online as if you were in the office together.
• You will learn about a whole bunch of new tools you've probably never seen before.

Working from distance comes with its own set of challenges. Remote teams need to combat the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality and learn how to build trust in new ways. In this session, we will explore how digital nomads, virtual entrepreneurs, and global organizations are reaching through the screens to collaborate seamlessly at a distance. You will walk away with new ideas for what it means to be present at work and how to create that sense camaraderie even when you're virtual. This session complements the session Judy Rees is facilitating. Attend both for full remote mastery!

• Learn what the different methods are good for and why there is an "and" rather than "or"
• Find practical tools you can immediately apply with your team

As companies evolve to adopt, integrate, and leverage software as the defining element of their success in the 21st century, a rash of processes and methodologies are vying for their product teams' attention. In the worst of cases, each discipline on these teams -- product management, design, and software engineering -- learns a different model. This short, tactical talk reconciles the perceived differences in Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Agile software development by focusing not on rituals and practices but on the values that underpin all three methods. The tactics in this talk draw on Jeff’s years of practice as a team leader and coach in companies ranging from small high-growth startups to large enterprises. Whether you’re a product manager, software engineer, designer, or team leader, you’ll find practical tools in this talk immediately applicable to your team’s daily methods.

• You will learn the fundamental flaw in Tuckman's Theory of Team Development
• You will learn how teams actually mature and interact
• You will understand that stable teams don't solve for Storming, but for other issues entirely

Stable Teams have long been a known and accepted leading practice in agile. And Tuckman's stages of group development proves the need for stable teams, right? But what if that's not correct? Doc posits that Tuckman's is actually a disproven theory that none-the-less mysteriously persists. What if, by stabilizing teams, we solved a completely different problem? And what if by de-stabilizing teams we could better solve other problems?

• You'll hear how our current organisational models for developing software (and software developers) are broken
• You'll learn how to "grow" well-rounded developers through long-term structured mentoring
• You'll learn to view effective dev teams as assets that need to be invested in and maintained
• You'll learn how a different model for software development could address the skills "crisis"

The way we build software teams and manage developer careers is broken. Exponential growth in people entering the profession means more experienced developers are greatly outnumbered. This is compounded by a tendency to promote the most experienced developers into "hands-off" management roles, where no longer influence developers day-to-day at the "code face". This leads to a profession of "perpetual beginners", and an effective skills shortage that holds many organisations back. A new model is needed; one that keeps the most experienced developers working on code (while still progressing in the organisation), that accelerates learning through structured long-term mentoring, and that treats effective dev teams as valuable assets that require ongoing investment, and not fixed costs that need to be disposed of as soon as the work is "done". Finally, we'll look at a business model that could give devs the control we need to achieve this: the software development "practice".

• You'll learn what it means to "Turn Up the Good"
• You will learn what it takes to notice good things to turn up
• And once you've noticed them, you'll learn a bit about how to "turn them up"
• You'll understand the benefits of doing this daily

Many things can hamper the effectiveness of our teams: Too many meetings, technical debt, bugs, multi-tasking, and so on. When we see these problems our first reaction is often to say "We need to fix this stuff". We want things to be better, but just as often our fix introduces its own problem and it's not unusual to see today's "solution" become tomorrows problem. Wouldn't it be nice if these problems would simply "fade away"? While I can't promise you that there is at least one alternative approach which I call "Turn Up The Good". This concept is expressed nicely by Kent Beck in the first edition of the book "Extreme Programming Explained": “When I first articulated XP, I had the mental image of knobs on a control board. Each knob was a practice that from experience I knew worked well. I would turn all the knobs up to 10 and see what happened. ” - Kent Beck The basic idea: Pay attention to what is working nicely and experiment with ways to make it even better, or "Turn It Up". I've noticed several benefits to this approach, and a big one is that as we "turn up the good" on things that are going well, many of the common problems fade away. We'll take a look at examples of how this has worked out in practice, and see how this can be applied in our daily work.

• Discover “the nearest thing FBI negotiators have to a Jedi mind trick”
• Learn a quick, highly-effective way to build communication bridges by demonstrating that you understand the other party
• Hear how this approach has been used to reduce conflict and misunderstandings while maintaining the creative tension that’s essential to innovation
• Experiment with the technique in a series of lightning - and enlightening - conversations

You’ve got important stuff to say. But how can you make sure people listen, and understand? What needs to happen for them to pay attention to your message and take the right action? Whether you're communicating with executives, with customers, with colleagues or with others people, you need to to be heard and understood above the constant buzz of everyday distractions. Here’s an approach that works: when they know that you “get” them, they’ll be more open to hearing you. Then, they’re much more likely to “get it”.