Posts by Marcus Blankenship

  Kat Lim asked me this great question: “My team has developers that age between 33 to 40 years old. I’m scrum lead (mix of ScrumMaster and tech lead). I try to put the Agile bug in them but still can’t get it done. It’s just they don’t want to divide in user stories, update…

My boss leaned over and quietly asked, “When’s the last time you threw a fit about something, Marcus?” Taken back, I shook my head. “Wha..? Well, never. I never throw a fit. That’s what jerks like Shelly or Doug do with me. I’m better than that. I’m professional.” “Marcus, that’s why they keep beating you.…

In the past, I’ve been too critical of my team, colleagues or customers. And this is hard to admit, but sometimes I brought my critical spirit home to my family as well. Too often I was the father or spouse that was never pleased with anything. It didn’t take long before my influence started to…

Do you care if the person who makes your coffee feels motivated? I do. Because I can taste the difference. For example, if they agree to serve me a Chemex in any size cup, I simply leave.  A Chemex recipe must be tuned to a specific amount of water, and real baristas know that. Unmotivated folks…

The next time you’re in a 1:1 meeting with your boss, ask: How could I make your job easier? The first time I asked my boss that question, he was speechless. After a long pause, he said, “Um… I’m fine. Just focus on your job.” I’m nothing if not persistent, so I asked again at…

Cognitive dissonance theory shows us that when our behavior doesn’t match our intentions, we feel discomfort.  For example, a smoker might understand the health problems associated with smoking, yet may not choose to enter a program to help them quit smoking.  When they become aware that their behavior (smoking) doesn’t match their beliefs (“smoking is…

Will is an introvert, quiet and methodical. He thinks through each move, coding like keystrokes are set it stone. Sean is an extrovert, funny and quick to tell you what he thinks. He talks as he types, and lives by the DELETE and UNDO keys. When my boss worked closely with Sean, he told me,…

Tom’s team is preparing a highly anticipated release, but QA hasn’t gone well.  More bugs were found than were anticipated.  Too many fixes have been of the hack-n-slash variety, meaning there could be lingering problems after the deploy.  There’s also a concern that tech debt is being accrued which will have to be paid later…

My kids loved two things when they were twelve: Harry Potter and Jelly Bellys.  So when Jelly Belly released the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans box, we had to try them!  I mean, how awesome would Harry Potter Jelly Beans be!!! (Turns out, less awesome than you think…) Driving home from the store, a chubby…

Today in the Tech Lead Mentoring group, Sarah* mentioned that next Tuesday her team was having a “no code day.”  Suddenly it got quiet, as everyone stopped to listen. I asked, “Oooh… what’s that Sarah?”  Sarah explained that a “no code day” was a day set aside to work on non-coding engineering activities.  Some folks…

Guillermo wrote me back yesterday to let me know how he solved the “demotivated, disconnected programmer” problem.  I’ll let him tell you… I started seeing this behavior in my developers, so what I did was to introduce a “Customer Support value hour.” Programmers have to sit with the CS people for an hour and see…

“Jamie just wants to be left and code.” Does this sound familiar? If so, maybe you have a developer who: 1. Doesn’t openly participate in retrospectives or team meetings 2. Complains meetings are a waste of time because they reduce engineering time 3. Doesn’t offer features suggestions or ideas to the group 4. Hates dealing with…