A New Hope

With my new MBA in my back pocket I've just started as a product owner at a SaaS company. We are ramping up our processes to begin agile development cycles and we've already started modelling functionality, wireframing and speccing feature candidates. I have to hand up a video presentation in a weeks time and I just started 3 weeks ago! I spent an afternoon with our 'storytelling' guru John today - a seasoned communications teacher and coach. It was very useful for drawing up my video prez storyboard. All fun stuff and admittedly a welcome distraction.

Everything is still new and shiny and I'm sinking my teeth into work. I'm glad I went through the MBA grinder as it does put a days work here in perspective. iPhone shuffle mode is great when you're under pressure. I'm also rediscovering working with a fast PC with plenty of RAM and a fast graphics card. Bless our IT helpdesk.

Tonight I was invited by our UI designer to a UX conference. Turns out the subject is right on the money for me. Agile dev for web UI methodology was the fare of the day. I met a community of experts facing the same daily challenges of web development. UX is fascinating angle on product management that is all too often underestimated if not overlooked. A cause well worth evangelising. Giuseppe was the principal designer of the Paris métro 'Navigo' system. I'm looking forward to meeting the crowd next month. I have some UI swotting to do before then!

As for the working conditions, our offices are great - just 30 minutes from the flat using whatever combination of walking, SNCF or metro, it always takes 30 minutes. I'm studying alternatives to save even more time but my building doesn't have a place to securely lock a bicycle. I'm considering getting a fold-up commuter bike. Designs like the Strida and the Mobiky Genius look wicked and might fit the bill.

Now it's late and I have a scrum tomorrow morning.