- Prep work: On two separate flipcharts, draw a few variably complex abstract pictures (I do three or four pictures each), and assign them some value points that roughly align with their complexity. Normally I make these points add up to a total of 100 on each sheet, just for simplicity.
- Round One:
- Split the class into Customer teams and Delivery teams (I typically do this by table).
- Place one flipchart so that only the Customer teams can see it.
- Give the Customers 8 minutes to describe the pictures using written words alone, which they must place on Sticky notes and then give to the instructor to run over to their Delivery teams.
- Debrief: How did that feel?
- Round Two:
- Every student that was on a Delivery team is now a Customer, and vice versa.
- Have the Customers bring their phones and take pictures of the other flipchart.
- Have Customers pair up with Developers once they have the pictures in hand, and stand over their shoulders.
- Give the Customers 8 minutes to describe the pictures verbally, while their Developers draw.
Debrief is largely around the following points:
- Tight, direct feedback loops are critical to joint understanding
- Wordsmithing stories is much less important than communicating the right way with the right people while building and describing them
- Documentation should generally follow clarifying discussions, not precede and lead them, because the latter case
- Methods like this should inform how you set up things like grooming sessions
