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I find it strange how there's been so much digital ink spilled over agile and Jira, yet they keep being used everywhere. The author talks about how folks he "routinely interfaces with, including upper management on both the business and tech side, at startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, are done or close-to-done with Agile", but I'll believe that when I see it.

The author also notes how one sign of tech bloat is talking to customers repeatedly without becoming an expert on customer behavior. One of the reasons for this is that the people who talk to the customers are often times PMs/POs who aren't subject matter experts, and their "talking" is simply asking users if they want a new feature instead of doing discovery as to what users need. This is a UX issue first and foremost, but alas, companies are laying off UX researchers and UX people in general.






In the 1990s, I was working on eCommerce and was sent to our factory in another state for a week to understand that side of the needs, then a few days at a customers place of business in another state. This was a government contractor. Understanding the whole process was important even in that industry at that time.

>Understanding the whole process was important even in that industry at that time.

Understanding the whole process of the issue you're trying to solve is important in any industry, but that requires people to be proactive. Unfortunately, these days there's a lot of "well, we know what the customer really wants" because they looked at a NPS score or rely exclusively on survey responses, which are inherently reactive.


Agree. People now might think a 5 minute call is a deep dive. Haha.



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