Retro for Q2 2022 Invitation Ensembles

[zspencer]

Ahoy @KellyAH, @eg-bet, @nirmalathapa, @naomiquinones and @user512!

Thank you all for participating in ensemble sessions from April through June! In order to "crank up the good" we thought a little retro would be nice!

Feel free to reply to this with:

🎉 - Things you think went really well!
🤔 - Things that left you feeling confused or "fall out" of the learning experience
♻️ - Suggestions for what you'd like to see changed during Q3!

[zspencer]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

• We got through adding the test coverage for the invitations and fixed a number of bugs!
• I appreciate Naomi, Kelly and Neer's willingness to interrupt and ask questions!
• Kelly's small-step focus is amazing!

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

• I am not entirely sure how to maintain "flow" effectively when work carries through multiple sessions, and also it seems like it takes multiple sessions to make discrete progress.
• I sometimes worry that I gloss over things that are important or dive too deep into stuff people don't actually want or need to learn about.

♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️

• I don't know that I'm doing "problem posing" particularly well, which is something I want to get better at.
• It would be cool if people felt comfortable carrying forward pieces of work outside of the ensemble, but I don't know how to make that feel fun and feasible.
• Do we want to switch to Zoom or use discord for better audio / video quality and ditch Jitsi? It's nice to be dogfooding but it's also a bummer when we have to deal with A/V issues.

[KellyAH]

I am not entirely sure how to maintain "flow" effectively when work carries through multiple sessions, and also it seems like it takes multiple sessions to make discrete progress.

IMHO We need to take on smaller tickets/work. Or break up work into smaller pieces.

I don't know that I'm doing "problem posing" particularly well, which is something I want to get better at.

seems like we listeners should be asking more questions so we can have more dialogues.

It would be cool if people felt comfortable carrying forward pieces of work outside of the ensemble, but I don't know how to make that feel fun and feasible.

we start picking up smaller chunks of work. so small that it feels easy to accomplish. And assign some of it to people if they have time to work on it.

[KellyAH]

🎉 went well

• finished the feature with full test coverage
• we all learned a lil TDD
• learned a ton watching @zspencer code and using his productivity tools and tricks
• the feature finished faster once Zee coded during every session
• new members joined @naomiquinones , @nirmalathapa to learn and contribute

🤔 confusing things

• sad we lost a few attendes, Egbet and CJ but life happens, hope they are doing ok
• how is the current state of our mob testing sessions? Are we happy with how it has been going? changes?

♻️ Suggestions

• should we rotate who codes to give Zee a break?
• should we pick up smaller features next time?

[zspencer]

♻️ Suggestions
should we rotate who codes to give Zee a break?

I don't mind driving, so long as people are comfortable interrupting :).

should we pick up smaller features next time?

Yes!

[nirmalathapa]

🎉 Things you think went really well!

• Zee talking through test case scenarios and being able to explain through the problems while coding was very helpful
• Very welcoming and collaborative environment
• Lots of ideas sharing by Kelly, Zee, Naomi

🤔 Things that left you feeling confused "out" of the learning experience

• I think the product features background knowledge felt a bit in adequate due to which felt a bit confused at some times

♻️ - Suggestions for what you'd like to see changed during Q3!

• Might be a good idea to have 10-15 mins of an overview of what we did in the each last coding sessions would be nice

[KellyAH]

have 10-15 mins of an overview of what we did in the each last coding sessions would be nice

❤️ this. Let's do it! 👍

I think the product features background knowledge felt a bit in adequate due to which felt a bit confused at some times

yes lets talk more about product features background knowledge so we know why we are building stuff

[KellyAH]

🙌 ACTION ITEMS 😸

• We need to take on smaller tickets/work. Or break up work into smaller pieces.
• be better at preventing scope creep
• scope tests smaller, save doing full e2e2 test till later
• make it easier to merge small bits of code to main instead of having a huge pr
• at end of every session the code and pr should be in mergable state. so each session starts fresh
• be better at discussing product stuff so we understand why we are building X
• need to better understand/communicate how customers use convene so we can better serve them
• kelly will setup her local dev environment so zee doesnt have to code all the time. others can also setup their local when they are able to
• we should all have a session of sharing our productivity tools and tricks
• at the beginning of easch session, start doing a 10-15 mins of an overview of what we did in the last sessions

[naomiquinones]

🎉 - Zee's ability to answer various questions during our sessions while driving, as well as being able to figure out and explain why things are broken and how to fix them, Kelly helping to clarify and refine what the code and the tests should be doing
🤔 - I have only a general understanding of this product, but I do my best to ask questions about whatever it is that we are working on at that moment.
♻️ - Perhaps splitting up the session into two subsections, each with a five-ten minute discussion to figure out a very small task that we can finish in that time and understand what it's for, why it's needed, etc. , or if it's a bigger feature that requires the entire session, the second half could start with a shorter recap of what we did and whether we need to break it down further to finish that day. Maybe every other session or every third session the product requirements discussion could be longer...