Making the slice small is hard work.
I’ve been busy these last few months trying to ‘finish’ this app so it can be launched in the mobile app stores. I am constantly surprised by ho long these ‘final steps’ are taking. What seemed like ‘a few simple steps’ keep turning into longer dances.
When I started this work in October 2024 it looked easier. Do the basics and nothing more than we needed to make a difference compared to the other competitor apps out there.
As each screen was finished I could move onto the next one. Each one was to be as simple as possible. No extra options, no fancy graphics. Just the minimum necessary to validate the assumptions about the app. Just enough to deliver value to the people using the app.
The app is the smallest, thinnest slice we could deliver.
Making it thin is hard
In doing this I’m been thinking about a conversation I had with Colin Anderson. He showed me the Denki office, and we talked about the slicing challenge in the game development space. He explained the amount of effort and energy needed to create the artefacts you need to try an idea. Yes, you could swap a sword for a gun. There might still be a lot that might be tossed aside if you realised the idea was wrong. Trying lots of ideas is expensive.
I now appreciate his perspective more than I did previously.
I’d been intrigued by Colin’s Dundee Pecha Kucha talk in 2017, and arranged a follow up chat. His talk hints at the waste of time and energy in software development, but especially in game development. 10% success rate for ideas is what he discusses.
I’m not sure AI will speed this up, or reduce the cost and energy of experiments either.
Make it thinner
It all comes back to creating the thinnest slice you can to test your assumptions. This also includes the tension of the ‘possibilities’. The parts that could/should be included and what could/should be left out for a later version.
Teach your people to aim for the thinnest slice. Be fair too, and make them realise this can be hard and slow too. That’s been my experience of late.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
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The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.