Taylor Vanden Hoek on Atomic Spin

Move Fast and Focus on Value: Innovation During Uncertain Times

As market uncertainty continues, leaders face choices about where to conserve and what to cut. Where does innovation fit into this picture?

UX/Design Practices

Use “Buy a Feature” to Prioritize Work that Really Matters

Buy a Feature is a great game for any time during a software project to help teams prioritize work that is truly valuable.

UX/Design Practices

Try This Exercise in Creating Personas for Software Design

Ideally, personas emerge from contextual research. In lieu of research, teams can create proto-personas, to be refined through research.

Project & Team Management

Leading Through Change During Software Projects

The uncomfortable part of change is inevitable. My advice won't make that discomfort go away, but I do believe some practices can make it manageable.

Project & Team Management

Software is Never Done: The Optimist’s Perspective

What is the optimistic view of “software is never done”? There is real, innovative, value-added work to do after the launch.

Project & Team Management

3 Key Differentiators of Delivery Leads on Software Teams

Delivery leads are the client’s proxy, and we often create value in ways that other roles on the team, like project manager, don’t fulfill.

Project & Team Management

Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Ramping into an Existing Team

When ramping into an existing team, asking questions goes a long way. Here are questions I've used to get to the heart of what matters.

UX/Design Practices

Pairing with a Developer to Design an App – Part Three

While pair designing an app, now is the time to throw in all those ideas and solutions. We chose rapid sketching so we could visualize our ideas quickly.

Project & Team Management

Consulting During a Software Client’s Reorganization

As a consultant, I’m responsible for looking and planning ahead and keeping us focused on the right work, even during a software client's reorganization.

UX/Design Practices

Pairing with a Developer to Design an App – Part Two

The next step in our design process for creating an app was an audit of features. The benefit of this audit is determining context, value, and priority.

UX & Design

Pairing with a Developer to Design an App – Part One

Product designers and developers commonly have a push and pull relationship, but what happens when they decide on pairing to design an app?

Effective communication

Unblocking Complex Questions on Your Product Team

You can clear up complex project questions by clarifying the problem, envisioning the landscape, and defining the work ahead once a decision is made.

Taylor Vanden Hoek

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