Beer and Cream Cheese Agile Methodology Revisited

Just over a year ago, I blogged about how the MatrixMaxx team was using an agile software methodology we’ve dubbed “beer and cream cheese.” MatrixMaxx is Matrix Group’s Web-​​​​based association management software (AMS) that is used by dozens of trade associations and professional societies to manage their membership applications and renewals, meeting registrations, committee rosters, tradeshows, […]

In Business, I Get the Chance to Win Gold Every Week

I’m watching the Women’s Downhill competition during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics this evening.   I saw several women crash on the course, their Olympics dreams and year of preparation, go up in smoke.  Business books are full of sports analogies, but for my part, I’m glad that the world of business is not really like the […]

Crowdsourced Software Development?

This afternoon, the MatrixMaxx team at Matrix Group held a Town Hall meeting with clients to get feedback on about a half dozen features slated to go into the 10.1 version (scheduled for release in early February).  We could have surveyed clients via e-​​​​mail or a Web survey; we could have conducted a focus group; […]

Beer and Cream Cheese SCRUM

Last Thursday, the MatrixMaxx team celebrated a successful SCRUM sprint with a beer and cream cheese party.  So what do beer and cream cheese have to do with software development, specifically SCRUM? Read on and find out. MatrixMaxx is Matrix Group’s Web-​​​​based association management software product.  For about a year, the team had been exploring […]

Sometimes We Just Need to Ask Our Customers What They Want

All day long, I sit in meetings where my staff, clients and I try to intuit what customers and members want.  We look at usage reports, search logs, customer feedback forms, guestbook entries, and survey results.  All of these sources give us insight into what customers do, seek and want.  But after conducting a focus […]

How I Became a Cool Kid and Why It’s All About the Platform

What do the iPhone, Facebook, Twitter and Google have in common?  They have great platforms that have contributed greatly to their success!  What’s a platform and why does it matter? Wikipedia defines a platform as “a place to launch software. It is an agreement that the platform provider gave to the software developer that logic code […]