Brain Dump: A Web-o Blag

Where to Sit at the IQ Awards

The Boulder County Business Report’s (http://www.bcbr.com) annual IQ Awards are coming up. A lot of great companies from the Boulder area have been nominated. And I’m lucky enough to be part of two of them.

One is Socialthing! (http://ping.fm/LDIys and http://ping.fm/S0scy), a digital life manager. The other is, well, you’ll just have to find out. :)

Since two of the startups I have helped found are nominated for the Boulder County Business Report’s IQ Awards, I have a bit of a problem. At which table do I sit?

I may be wrong, but I don’t believe that Emily Post has covered this topic in any length. So do I sit between the two tables? At one half the time and then at the other, the other half of the time? Or should I pick one and stay there? Or at some other table entirely? It might be interesting to sit with the StillSecure team.

And what if one (or both of them) wins their category?

Too many questions, I agree. So my plan - and hopefully the Emily Post people or foundation or whatever, will put this into Etiquette law - is to go, have a nice team, meet some great people and say “Its an honor just to be nominated. Twice.”

Project Management

Been thinking about Agile dev (Scrum specifically) lately. Its great to plan “these are all of the things we will do.” It helps you to stay focused on making positive moves; on progress; and on creating a habit of progress.

But at those review meetings, is anyone asking “what if things went wrong? Would we be able to handle it?” Is it because it might be seen as a negative or as disruptive? An hindrance to progress? Nay-saying? Focusing on doom and gloom?

This isn’t disrupting the momentum, being a nay-sayer or a pain in the ass Its actually maintaining the habit of progress by helping everyone to add movements towards handling things if events do not go as planned. Like having the fire escape route for the building posted on the wall.

Expect the worst, hope for the best and proceed somewhere in the middle of those two.