Demystifying Group Decision Making

We make decisions every day. Some effect just us and some effect others. We may make decisions on our own. Other times, we may choose or be required to involve others when making decisions.

Decisions are central to all progress, whether trivial or destiny changing. So why don’t we talk about how to make effective decisions as much as we talk about development methodologies and processes?

This talk will share a simple framework to understand three approaches for decision making (command, consult, and consensus), their inherent trade-offs, and how to effectively put them to use.

Don't Panic Labs' Problem Solving Toolbox

We’re taking on increasingly complex problems while moving faster than ever.

In this interactive workshop, we will explore the product lifecycle and demonstrate how to co-create solutions at various stages through collaborative activities with customers and your team. Build your problem-solving toolbox with techniques that we have successfully used over the past 15 years at Don’t Panic Labs.

Problem solving works best when everyone has a seat at the table and this session is ideal for developers, architects, product managers, scrum masters, project managers, tech leads, and most importantly you! Get ready to think creatively, collaborate with others, and unlock solutions to the unknown.

Learning Objectives / Activities:
- Mash-Up: Combine ideas to create innovative solutions.
- User Mapping for Empathy: Put yourself in the user’s shoes to understand their needs.
- Fix-It Framework: Learn a structured approach to problem-solving and effective communication strategies.
- Additional Design Thinking Activities

Roadmapping with Critical Thought

We’re discovering and taking on increasingly complex problems. Businesses want to deliver more value and faster. Roadmaps have become the fundamental tool to aligning teams in these efforts.

We’ve all learned how to structure a roadmap, but how do we figure out what to actually put on the roadmap? This session will dive into customer discovery and critical thought tools to evolve from a product owner publishing a roadmap to a team co-creating one together.

Learning Objectives
Discover benefits gained with collaborative roadmaping
Overview customer discovery & co-creation
Identify the nature of problems, predictable or research and development
Apply activities to facilitate team critical thought

From Ideas to Action: A Hands-On Innovation Workshop

Every innovation starts with a person and an idea—but most early ideas won't ultimately succeed. How do you quickly assess, refine, and validate an idea so it either gains traction or fails fast so you can move on to the next one?

In this interactive, fast-paced workshop, you’ll bring your own idea for a startup, product, or feature and work through a series of activities to:

1. Expand your perspective and add structure to your idea.
2. Explore new possibilities by generating ideas you hadn’t considered.
3. Assess desirability, feasibility, and viability to refine your concept.
4. Identify concrete steps to bring your idea closer to reality.
5. Tap into the collective intelligence of the room to accelerate your progress and maximize your experience at KCDC.

Whether you’re tech lead shaping a new feature, a senior developer with a side project, or a manager fostering innovation in your team, this workshop will equip you with the tools and insights to move from idea to action and help others do the same.

Engaging and Aligning Teams for Innovation

Innovation is a wicked problem; the viable solution is often unknown until it's in widespread use. This makes it difficult for developers, designers, scrum masters, and product owners to achieve shared understanding and determine how best to reduce risk, generate learnings, and increase the chances of an innovation becoming sustainable.

Drawing on over a decade of experiences with different teams, products, and industries, I will provide a high-level overview of how innovation initiatives differ from extending existing systems and share techniques to decompose tough problems, engage in critical thought, move faster, and increase the chances that innovators’ visions will successfully become a reality.

Learning Objectives:
• Awareness of how innovation is different than extending existing systems
• Gaining context through Impacts, Outcomes, and Outputs
• Analyzing Feasibility, Desirability, and Viability
• Moving to Action with Key Questions
• When to Iterate in Models vs. Code

Originally presented at Nebraska.Code() and Heartland Developers Conference in Omaha. It has been updated and revised with feedback and new experiences.

Co-Creation: The Key to Creativity, Engagement, and Impact

Teams have evolved from documenting requirements to creating product definitions with techniques like journey mapping and user stories. Our effectiveness has increased and we’ve become user-centric. But what if the way we’re currently using these techniques is actually holding us back? In this session, we explore how co-creation combined with these techniques and other critical thought models is what unlocks empathy, creativity, shared understanding, engagement, and more impactful solutions.

Learning Objectives:
• Understanding of Decision Making and Commitment (Command, Consult, Consensus)
• Leveraging divergent and convergent thought
• How to include co-creation within your team and process
• When to discover and explore with code and when to learn through models