Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Playing with rotation time in a mob

A common thing to happen in a retrospective after Mob Testing is that someone points out that they feel they need more time as designated navigator / driver, "I need more time to finish my thought". Today, it happened again.

I facilitated the group on a 3-minute timer. I emphasized the idea that this is not about taking turns on each one of us executing our individual test ideas, but it's about the group working on a shared task, meaning same ideas, bringing the best of each of us into the work we're doing.

On two retrospectives with a 3-minute timer, the feedback was the same: make the time longer. So I did what I always do in these cases: I made the time shorter, and we moved to 2-minute rotation.

The dynamic changed. People finally accepted it wasn't about finishing their individual task, but to finish the group's shared task.

A lot of times when people feel they need more time, they are saying they have their own individual idea that they don't share with others. Longer time allows this. Shorter time forces the illusion of that being useful out of the group.