Week 13

Reflection

As a sub-team (need a better name for that organisational unit) we're only 18 months old. We decided that we should take stock of what we've done and work out what kinds of things we could do next. We're still committed to several projects that will span the near and medium terms so this is a lens for viewing how we tackle those. As well as a way of judging potential new opportunities that arise.

We decided that we should have a retrospective capturing all what we've done. Then try to be critical about what went well and what didn't. Both on a personal and team-level. Then by reading around the subject, we could decide on what we do next. We came up with the terms REVIEW, REFLECT and REINAGINE as a way to describe this process. With much laughter.

As I've taken part in a handful of project retrospectives previously, I volunteered to run it.

Long weekend

Easter! Friday to Monday off work. In a desperate attempt to make sure I didn't end up doing work, I bought myself a Wii U with Mario Kart 8. Although on the surface there's something basic and cartoonish about the graphics, like all great animation there's life in the tiny details that bring it to life. For example, seeing a characters hat wave in the wind on the slow motion "highlight reel" at the end of each race.

A very old friend who moved to Australia has come back with a husband and two kids in tow. Great hanging out with them at the Museum of Childhood which I haven't visited since I was a kid on a school trip. Peter Markey's Wave Machine was cool.

I did have to spend 4 hours in Ikea. Mostly in the kitchen planning dungeon. The premise is that Ikea offer quite a nice web-based 3D planning tool where you can lay everything out and get an estimate cost. You go into the shop (is it fair to call it a shop? It's more of an expansive, all-consuming retail zone), log into your account and they can use your model rather than starting from scratch. Watching the guy use this same piece of software as a pro to put in all the bits that we forgot, such as side panels for the cupboards that would be visible. Then there was an array of terrible internal systems that take the model, turn it back into a list of parts and associate those parts with a plan of the kitchen. With a cost so can buy it. Want a custom workshop ? There's another drawing program where you draw the shape, within constraints, and save the file for another program to read to give you a quote. Want installation? There's another programme, seemingly at another computer at another desk that can do that. All seem to require entering all the customer name and address details over and over again. Is this small pieces, loosely joined?