For the last convention of the year, I tried to go and find the sun in Aix & Marseille, but unfortunately I didn't find it. Well, it must be said that December 7th isn't the best time of year for that. First of all, I want to thank very much Olivier Lequeux and his fellow Romain Vignes who greatly facilitated my trips between the station and the event venue. Everything takes place at the École des mines de Saint-Etienne in Gardanne … Yes, I know, it made me wince too: « Saint-Étienne »! and in fact, it is indeed a second campus of the mining school of the eponymous town.

For the most observant among you, you will have noticed in the photo quite a few regulars at this kind of event. ;)

This time, no need to plan for accommodation, since it takes place over a single day. And the Lyon - Aix connection is fairly quick, count 1h30 per journey. The day opens with a copious morning snack and a word from the organizers in the same room. No keynote, we go straight to the speakers of our choice. Naming the different rooms after big names in agility is an interesting idea (Ron Jeffries, Kent Beck, Jeff Sutherland, Henrik Kniberg, Alistair Cockburn, Martin Fowler). As for me, I played the groupie (with others) to go and see Rébecca Carlier with « L'art de la rétro ». Her intro was nice, with a reminder of the historical events around this topic, putting it all in parallel with other, lighter events (aka the Spice Girls 🤣, etc). The final part on tips for running this event well was relevant and welcome, even though I don't agree with the idea that a facilitator can also take part (i.e. Scrum Master).

Then comes the main reason for my visit. Running a « Paradice » workshop with my fellow coaches Jean-Yves Klein & Yannis Martin. One drawback of this workshop is that you absolutely need an even number of participants… which we were not, so I stepped up to make up the number 😁 A position that, in the end, is more comfortable than facilitator, because on top of not running everywhere, you have to restrain yourself from revealing the ins and outs of the workshop. Overall, it went well. The participants debated at length … too much … and sometimes at the wrong moment for the facilitators. From a workshop that can easily last 2 hours, or even more, we had to squeeze it into 45 minutes maximum to have a bit of debrief time. Having discussed it later in the day with the guinea pigs, they were rather happy with it and got the lessons of the workshop well.

After a short 15-minute break to catch my breath, I went to see « Kanban : un potentiel inexploité » with Olivier My & François Boulon and frankly, I was not disappointed. Basically, presenting a topic as a pair (or more) is not an easy exercise to hand over the floor fluidly, but here, they pulled it off very well. The whole presentation rests on the duality of the speakers, each coming with their own experience, examples, advice, and that without ever stepping on each other's toes. They started with a nice mise en abyme to explain how Kanban works & how to put it into practice. This introduction was illustrated twice over by the speakers. Then, they reviewed each part of the method:

• Workflow: Reduce and simplify it as much as possible.
• WIP: Define it and adjust it constantly.
• Flow management: Review of the different flow analysis charts. Feedback: between 10 and 30 items are enough to draw a trend
• Process transparency: sources of requests / prioritization and commitment / swimlane / pull system
• User feedback: 3 loops -> Top 10 business (15d) / Daily / Retro (monthly).

Finally, they ended with the Kanban Maturity Model which is a very good compass to know whether you're making full use of Kanban.

Afternoon

After quite some hesitation, I let myself be tempted by Julien Derose's presentation and his « Magie & Communication », but it seems the topic appeals, because the room was packed. You could feel the speaker was a bit on edge at the beginning, but he gained confidence little by little. He interspersed his presentation with magic tricks. A rather well-mastered exercise since, even at short distance and with a camera in close-up on his hands, I didn't spot most of the techniques he used. But that's also the biggest flaw of his presentation. Those breaks took us « out » of his topic and we focused on his magic trick. We were trying to find the technique behind his tricks. It is undeniable that linking the 2 topics is original, but I recommended that he truly merge those 2 sides, by trying to better integrate his tricks into his speech. I am fully aware that this is no easy task, but his presentation would greatly benefit from it. Especially since his final trick with the envelope is excellent 🤩, but I won't tell you any more 😝.

I then headed to the presentation by Lilian Roche with « L'évolution du rôle de Product Owner : du tacticien au stratège ». He logically started with a definition of the role (guarantees the product vision / Maintains the product backlog / Maximizes product value) then gave us his vision of the logical evolution of a PO (Scribe < Proxy PO < Business representative < Sponsor < Entrepreneur). He also described what, in his opinion, is the right posture for this role (decision-maker + experimenter + visionary + users' representative + collaborator + influencer). As for the substance of the presentation, I have little to say — you can feel the subject is mastered, detailed, experienced — but as for the form, I think there is room for improvement. He was looking at his slides too much, you could feel he wasn't comfortable looking the audience in the eye. I also found that he moved around a lot. Did that help him reduce his stress? Finally, his vocal timbre wasn't dynamic enough, the pace a bit too monotonous. It's really a shame, because the substance is rich and interesting. Maybe I'm a bit critical, but that's because I really found this talk interesting. And I'm surely not the only one who found it interesting since he had paparazzi of his own 😄

And … that's it. Yes, I know, there is normally one more time slot, but I had to leave fairly early with Romain & Olivier so as not to miss my train. So I'll leave you with the campus's eco-friendly lawnmowers 🐑