From the Mouths of Minions Hi there! You don’t know us, but we jokingly refer to ourselves as “Jeff’s Minions.” We’re Janice and Katrina. We didn’t h

     
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From the Mouths of Minions

Janice   Katrina Iteration1

Hi there! You don’t know us, but we jokingly refer to ourselves as “Jeff’s Minions.” We’re Janice and Katrina. We didn’t help Jeff write his book and we don’t attend his workshops or travel with him to his classes. No, but we help out with all kinds of other stuff! From managing class registrations to adding content on the website and everything in between, we keep Jeff Patton & Associates humming so Jeff can travel the globe teaching, coaching and evangelizing product discovery.

Now, you subscribed to Jeff’s newsletter. We know this because, again, that’s part of the stuff we do. And, we noticed that you (and a number of other folks) haven’t received anything for your efforts. Well, that’s because Jeff’s usually busy teaching, coaching— or sleeping ;-). Although, we have noticed that sometimes he stops working and he hangs out with his family. So, anyway, we decided to start sending you the occasional email with tips, news, upcoming classes and free stuff. And, some of you may know that Jeff’s not the kind of guy who will promote himself, but we have no problem promoting him and the cool stuff that he’s doing!

So, without further ado…here are some things we think you’ll find helpful and interesting and fun.

Janice & Katrina (Jeff’s Minions)

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Our New Favorite Video

Product Thinking - Agile NOVA Video Screenshot - cropped

Product Thinking with Jeff Patton – Agile NOVA

This video from Agile NOVA in the DC Metro area was recently published. It’s unedited (that’s how new it is), and we think you’ll really enjoy it. Topics include building story maps in small collaborative groups (Jeff inserts a cool video to talk through this), building the minimum viable product, how seeing the big picture using the story map helped Gary Levitt, owner and designer of Mad Mimi, develop and launch his business…and more! (Pssst! This email is being sent to you via Mad Mimi).

Watch the video, just follow this link: vimeo.com

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We Often Get Asked: Can I Get A Copy of That?

We get emails all the time from folks wanting to know if they can use a slide or a handout from one of Jeff’s classes. So, first we want you to know that Jeff is a big believer in sharing his stuff with everyone and for free. He’s into this thing called the creative commons share-with-attribution license (you can find that here: creativecommons.org). Second, all of Jeff’s slides, handouts, papers, videos and a variety of other resources used in his classes can be found on our website right here: jpattonassociates.com/handouts. So, yes, you can have a copy of that - help yourself!

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The Agile Glossary: Personas

You may remember talking about Personas in Jeff’s classes. If you have forgotten what they are or want to brush up on them, the Agile Alliance website offers a nice glossary of terms. For Personas, they offer a definition, benefits and common pitfalls. You’ll also get links to two studies that examine this practice. The other cool thing, we think, is that they cite Jeff’s article, “Hitting the Target: Adding Interaction Design to Agile Software Development,” as the first formal description of Personas in an Agile context. We think there’s a lot of good stuff here and think you’ll find it helpful: Agile Alliance Glossary. We also recommend browsing Jeff’s slide deck, “Personas, Profiles, Actors & Roles: Modeling Users to Target Successful Product Design.” It’s one of Jeff’s tutorials that shows you how to construct each user model and how to leverage them to improve your software.

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Jeff's Approach to Successful Product Ownership

It's a Different Kind of CSPO Class

Now some of you have taken his class (and you know it's one-of-a-kind!). But some of you JPA subscribers haven't taken a class yet! Well, now's the time. There are only two public classes left this year, one in San Francisco and one in Sweden. If you've taken his class, please share this with others so that they will take his class. If you haven't taken Jeff's class...here's a bit more for you to think about:

The Product Owner role doesn’t belong to just one person. Jeff teaches a team-based approach to product ownership where a product owner leads a small discovery team that includes the roles and skills necessary to create a great product. You can still get your Certified Product Owner certification in Jeff’s class, and you’ll learn about practices that blend the best of agile, lean and user experience thinking so that your team can engage in faster, more collaborative product design and validation. And, yes, you’ll talk about user story mapping and you’ll get a copy of his book ;-).

Register for one of his classes today. (There are only two public classes left this year!)

United States, San Francisco: October 13 and 14
Sweden: November 7 and 8

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Hey, Did You See This?

Our Last Note: Do You Follow Jeff on Twitter?

If you don’t, then you missed the below post (which we think is so cool. These moose are right near his house!)
https://twitter.com/jeffpatton/

Twitter JPatton Photo of Moose and Video
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