For the last couple of weeks my wife has been trying out an electric pedal bike, as part of an environmental scheme to promote awareness and—it is hoped—adoption. Electric bikes … Continue reading Beware the peripheral variables when evaluating technologies
In previous blog posts I’ve expressed my reservation about the idea of “risk appetite”. This personal concern is rooted in the idea that it seems a somewhat esoteric concept, especially … Continue reading Rethinking risk appetite
I’ve frequently said managing uncertainty can be done by exposing and exploiting variables. We over-simplify when we express risk as a single point (“There’s a 40% change this will happen”) … Continue reading Exposing and exploiting variables in quiz games
The other day I was having a conversation with someone about requirements and software design. We had a description for a small system, and I was saying “this is the … Continue reading Requirements are entangled with design
Some time ago I was involved in a practical example of shifting a team’s approach from a fatalistic “what’s going to happen is going to happen” to something more practical. … Continue reading Are things outside your control? Think again
I was in a meeting a while back discussing the introduction of new key performance indicators (KPIs) for a team. The group was understandably cautious about what we might be … Continue reading Measure without numbers
I often work with product teams who have conversations—sometimes very difficult ones with stakeholders—that are full of unstated assumptions, subjectivity, and a lot of unsubstantiated “I think…” comments. For a … Continue reading Moving from subjective to objective discussions
I was very interested to listen to a recent episode of The Bottom Line on Radio 4, on Dealing with Uncertainty. These kinds of discussions are necessarily high level, but … Continue reading Good relationships help manage uncertainty
A little while ago I was working with a team that had a lot of user research to do. Naturally, we only had limited time, so we needed to decide … Continue reading Prioritising hypothesis tests
We sometimes think we want to eliminate uncertainty. Clarity is helpful in our projects and in our businesses. When I listen to discussions about Brexit (today’s status: approaching the leave … Continue reading Eliminating uncertainty can be excessive
