March 29, 2017 — There are a lot of parallels between the open source development world and Improv communities. The goal of this talk is to expose the similarities and directly apply the core principles from the stagecraft of improv to get better code, smoother projects and ultimately happier customers. At the end the audience will be able to take practical examples and very simple exercises back to their organizations to better communicate with customers and internal stakeholders alike as well as techniques to get ‘unstuck’ when hitting major blockages in creativity needed for elegant code.

Topics will include:
Parallels between the Dev Community and Improv
Core principles of Improv and how we can embrace them for better code, including
– Active Listening
-Yes, And…
-Embracing failure as part of the process
Simple group exercises for any size team to improve communications

Presentation Slides »

November 22, 2016 — There are a lot of parallels between the open source development world and Improv communities. The goal of this talk is to expose the similarities and directly apply the core principles for the stagecraft of improv to get better code, smoother projects and ultimately happier customers. At the end the audience will be able to take practical examples and very simple exercises back to their organizations to better communicate with customers and internal stakeholders alike. Also, techniques to get ‘unstuck’ when hitting major blockages in creativity needed for elegant code.

Presentation Slides »