Avatar photoSteven Savage

MVP and Anxiety (My Agile Life)

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

This is an odd post. In some ways it’s about psychology. In some ways it’s about my use of “Agile” and Scrum  in my life. Either way, I think you’ll find it valuable, even if you’re not reading those posts.

Imagine that you have a problem to solve, but you’re not sure how to solve it. Worse, this situation is complicated by having many options – a common problem in a wired age with so much at our fingertips. You’re paralyzed by choice and fear of the wrong choice – so what do you do and how do you get out of this?

There is a solution – and one that comes from Agile and Lean techniques. Yeah, I know, trust me on this and keep reading.

The solution is something called Minimum Viable Product or MVP. In software and general terms, it means something that delivers the minimum needed to go to market and satisfy customers and get feedback. To get an MVP you carefully look over what you have to do, pick the effective minimum for the audience, and get it done right.

In fact, an MVP may be all you need for a while. Consider how many people or companies use bare-bones web pages with nice graphics and don’t need any more. You can apply this philosophy to your life.

To use MVP in your life, from plumbing to writing, ask yourself what is the minimum you need to do well to get something complete and ready. Sit down, list your concerns or needs or whatever, pick only the ones that must be done, and do them. You’ve solved your problem, and if it’s not perfect, you can tweak it later if you need to.

(And yes, that’s over-simplified, but it’s enough to get you started.  MVPs for products get more complex.)

Here’s a few examples:

  • You want to have premade lunches for a week so you make a big pot of chili and garnish it differently each day. Next week you might cook two different meals at once, but this is done for the week so you can relax.
  • You want to get a chapter of a book to an editor, so you make sure it’s clearly readable without fiddling with it endlessly. The editor can take it the rest of the way so you’re not caught in a writer’s panic.
  • Traffic is crazy due to construction, so you find a path to work that, if not the fastest, is the least likely to be congested. For the rest of the month your commute is longer than usual, but it’s predictable.

These solutions are not perfect but they are good enough and they get you on your way. In some cases they’ll save you time from worrying more than doing.

The other benefit of MVP is that going for the MVP prevents what’s called paralysis through analysis in the business world – overthinking. MVP gets you on your way and moving forward. In turn, the fact you are at least done means you can reflect on what you did, what you need, and improve things later. Sometimes you don’t even know what you need until you’ve done something after all.

In many cases – especially in life – the MVP is all you need for a long time, maybe forever. Sure you repainted the bedroom the exact same color, you didn’t spend hours debating colors like “Thupe” and “Preamble Brown”. Yes, the report at work could look a bit better but no one cares about the cover color. MVP can often bring you back to reality as well as keep you from anxiety.

Next time you have to fix something or do something, think about the MVP. It’ll focus you on value, keep you from over-elaborating, and reduce anxiety.

(By the way I do plenty of books for coaching people to improve in various areas, which may also help you out!)

– Steve

Civic Diary 8/22/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Yes, it’s time for my latest Civic Diary.  So where am I in my efforts to be a better citizen?

First, as always, holding my ground with my online work with a local political group, doing their Facebook page.

What I realized recently is that a lot of political groups that get established sort of stop innovating.  I’m there running the engine and so on, but I’m not just there to do that I’m there to innovate.  So I’m already taking what I’ve learned in author promotionals and using it on their page – add polls, roundups, and more.  I’m also calling a meeting to address social media – and probably have to make that every month or two.

TAKEAWAY: Don’t just run the engine in your activism, innovate.

Some of my other groups have taken a break this month, so we’ll see where they are next month.  Just in case, I’m tracking others I may want to join.  I haven’t quite found a “home” yet, except for the above-mentioned older group.  So always keep auditioning.

TAKEAWAY: Keep up your activism until you find a home – but don’t give up.  However . . .

I did have to take a break from my usual large amount of calls simply as I had so many events I’d become kind of exhausted.  So I didn’t do much calling later last week and don’t plan to start of this week.  That helped a lot – then again, man, have the last weeks been weird.

However, doing this kinda felt good as I saw how active others are in these times.  It helps to appreciate everyone else wants to change the world too.

TAKEAWAY: Take a break now and then from your activism.  It may let you see how others are doing.

I also keep myself on various activism mailing lists, so getting back on top of things is easy.  Those act as great reminders.

TAKEAWAY: Join some activist mailing lists.  It’ll help prod you – or jump back in.

Finally, I’ve found there’s a place that teaches Op-ed writing.  I’m thinking of taking it because let’s face it, I write.  Maybe I can use that to make more of a difference.  Plus a lot of op eds I see these days are shit.

TAKEAWAY: Seek out ways to use your unique skills in citizenship.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 8/21/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience, so where am I?

First of all, on time.  Sorry about my delays folks.

So what have I done the last week?

  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: Churning away, working on getting a good pace.  Right now we have a demon, spies, and Scintilla’s ability to smuggle some very deadly weapons between worlds.  Also sarcasm, because how do you react when someone in the most obviously Evil Cult Robes hands you a book.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook: The next book, on Food and Cuisine, is formatted and ready to drop!  So this weekend is queuing it up and getting marketing together.  Looking good so far – and my editor is really knocking it out of the park.
  • Seventh Sanctum: I did NOT get to the new generator as I had a few more bits of code change to put in to improve error reporting.  Anyway, that all looks pretty good.
  • Art: Wait, art?  Yep, I’m trying a side project to practice my graphic skills by designing fake book covers.  I might share them and what I learned doing them.
  • General: This was a social-heavy week – honestly I’m a bit burnt out from it.  Plus side, got to marathon season four of RWBY which is, of course, awesome.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #3: Get it done and probably out.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” Keeping up my writing pace and finishing chapter 6 hopefully!
  • Generators: Really I want to release the damn generator.
  • Other: Lots of end-of-month cleanup here, so that may occupy me.

Challenges:

  • Worst thing was pushing myself socially – I need to take breaks AND take breaks from big social events.  It’s not easy to be honest.
  • I haven’t taken time to do my posts on writing – and am kind of not sure how I let that fade.  I think I queue up posts so early I sometimes don’t budget time if I don’t have something 2-3 weeks ahead to go.  I’ll need to think that over.

– Steve