'Sticky Notes' - A Feature Not A Bug Story

PART 1

The Demo

"I can see every child in the classroom having this interactive canvas open on their iPad. And based on what the lesson needs the child can use the various tools in the toolbar to do things." said Subject Matter Expert (SME). She was holding an iPad in her hands and gesturing at the prototype application, the excitement palpable on her face.

"We absolutely need Sticky Notes on this thing. I absolutely love sticky notes, and I especially love it when they are all a different color. Children love these neon colors." Key Stakeholder (KS) said as she tapped away at the 'cute create sticky note' icon with delight. Product Manager (PrM) nodded in appreciation of the need, this was something KS had brought up previously. The feature was already in the prototype, PrM felt he was on firm footing so far.

PrM thought the demo was going well. The tech team had pulled a couple of long weeks in the previous sprint to deliver this app. Lead Business Analyst (LBA) had a busy morning provisioning all the iPads with the app. It had been a rocky road, but this meeting would justify all the work. PrM took this beat to think ahead; another couple of sprints of work and we can push this app for the field tests. He made a mental note to especially thank the Architect after this meeting.

"SME, do we see all the children creating sticky notes together? Isn't that a wonderful sight." enquired KS.

"Indeed it is KS. In fact, the lesson actually requires all the students to work together and capture opinions on the same sticky note." replied SME. KS's eyes lit up. PrM raised a worried eye brow and thought - not this, not now.

"Oh Yes! All the children write into the same sticky," continued KS, "then the teacher can see all of the student's work in the Canvas on their app. It should be happening live!" concluded KS, beaming at the Big Stakeholder (BS) who sat at the end of the table.

"I agree. A shared canvas. PrM, is this Canvas sharable?" spoke BS, reaching for her personal iPad, with the intention of opening the app and checking out the canvas. The worried brow now developed a bead of sweat. PrM had not anticipated this turn of events.

There was history behind the Shared Canvas requirement. Specifically around whether it was needed for the field tests. The discussion was fraught with friction and led to long and circuitous discussions. BS, KS and SME wouldn't budge. The technology team held that the ability to share the canvas was a challenging implementation requiring more time than the allocated runway for the field tests. The stakeholders felt that sharing the canvas was a very cool feature. Ultimately, Sponsor had to step in and declare that "the ability to share the notebook would be part of the 2nd round of field tests." Hence PrM was skeptical of BS's question to him.

"Well, BS," began the Product Manager "the students will be able to complete all the tasks needed for the lesson using the features in the canvas - "

"It doesn't work anymore" interjected KS, her finger tapping away at the 'cute create sticky note' icon. The app was non-responsive. PrM noted that she filled the screen with stickies, the application was clearly out of memory. He debated explaining Non-Functional requirements to her.

"The app won't even open for me. Are we sure this thing works?" spoke BS. She had insisted that the app be provisioned on her personal iPad. Her iPad was a 2 generations old. She was already informed that the app may not open on her device.

This was not a good look. No matter how legitimate the reasons for failure, the optics were not great. PrM glanced at LBA, who walked over to BS to help. LBA could see that the app had opened, but BS had triggered the recover password flow after 3 incorrect attempts at logging in. LBA began to guide BS through the flow, maintaining indignance that the app was working.

SME used the silence to launch into further explanation of the lesson plan, emphasizing on the ways sharable canvases are now a must have. Sponsor's gaze fixed on PrM, as if to say 'you better come up with something here'.

"I agree with everything that's being said here about the lesson plans. I would suggest we stick to our original game plan of using the pre-selected lessons. And thank you SME for sharing those lesson plans with us. They really helped us iron out this feature set. I do recall that these lessons did not contain the need for sharing canvases. In the context of those pre-selected lessons, we have all the features needed to perform the field tests" PrM felt confident with this salvo. Sponsor now looked at BS, to see how that sank in.

"No. We need this canvas to be sharable." BS maintained, "You don't want the students passing iPad's around to each other do you? Are we just building a glorified notepad?" It was at this beat that the app decided to give out. BS's and KS's apps crashed at the same time.

Undaunted, PrM continued "Why don't we take another closer look at the lesson plan and see how the app plays a role? LBA why don't we pull up the lesson plan that SME sent us." PrM gestured towards LBA to join him. Sponsor nodded in agreement at the suggestion. Everyone seemed to agree except KS. She seemed utterly confused and ready to attack LBA who was now trying to start up her app again only for it to repeatedly crash. LBA kept his cool and kept his focus on the iPad.

Then BS said something that changed the complexion on PrM's face - "Hey SME, where are we with the lesson rewrites?"

LBA froze. PrM froze. Sponsor looked positively alarmed. At long last the SME said "This particular lesson has been re-written, we are only waiting on the content rights which we should have in a week."

"Great, why don't you send that over to LBA over here. Let's all of us have the app open and walk through this lesson. Don't worry folks we only made minor changes, we removed any need for the Shared Notebook, but we definitely need the Canvas to be shared." BS concluded.

The 2 tech folks in the room - PrM and LBA - now exchanged a look of utter loss.

"Is the Notebook not the same as the Canvas?" the first words LBA spoke to the whole group were these.

"Of course not dear. The Notebook is not the same as the Canvas!" cried KS.

Photos by?Tima Miroshnichenko?from?Pexels

Part 2 - Fallout

PrM and LBA relayed the news to the Scrum Master (SM). The three of them then relayed the news to the Architect, who laughed. LBA and Junior Business Analyst (JBA) got to work with story mapping and creation. The next day the Developers and QA team were apprised of the new work. The new work being that they had to deliver sharable canvases in the next 2 sprints. Following which they go straight to field tests.

PrM noted that this was another demo that all went off the rails in the last 10 minutes.

Sharing a Canvas meant the following:

1. Building out a module in the teacher version of the app where teachers can select students and enable sharing between them
2. Implement the ability for all possible edits on a canvas, to flow into the shared iPad group (all in all the canvas had over 15 different tools)

The tech team pulled together, and as if there was any doubt, they delivered a finished product in one and a half sprints. The QA team utilized this time to gauge the limits of performance. At the end of all this here's where the app stood. Sharable Canvases were possible, but any more than 25 students in a shared group would lead to loss of information.

The night before flying out to the target schools in the field test, the Sponsor called a team dinner. The team enjoyed a hearty nutty Thai meal amidst one of the last snow drops of the winter. It was a winter that, for most of them, had passed with little scope to think about anything else apart from this prototype app. Some felt it was a long and arduous winter, others felt it passed too quickly. Nevertheless, a passerby would have noticed that the group was tight-knit and trust in each other seemed to run deep. And indeed it was true, this was a bond forged by shared accomplishments over the past few months.

Sponsor and PrM shared a moment alone. They agreed that this was a good team and more importantly that it was worth fighting for the thing that this group had built. They were joined by JBA who asked "So, what's next?"

PrM and Sponsor exchanged looks and they both flashed him a wide grin.

PART 3 - Feature Not A Bug

JBA watched as the teacher wrapped up the class. There was a tinge of disappointment in the air. But refreshingly, both the teacher - Mrs. Rosa - and her early teen students seem to handle the low performance of the app very well. The part of the lesson that called for sharing the canvas did not even take off. The local server machine - a Mac setup in the Computer Lab of the School - could not handle the 25 concurrent sessions. The school's network bandwidth was at a fifth of the minimum required for the app to function, as JBA informed Mrs. Rosa.

Prior to the class, the heavily pregnant Mrs. Rosa listened patiently as JBA explained the limitations of sharing canvases. She said she'd take it for a test drive anyway. JBA did not argue - after all this was what the field tests were all about.

45 minutes into the class she asked the students to share their canvases. It didn't go well - the app froze and some students lost some of their previous work. She expertly diverted the class to another task, spending the last few minutes discussing the big words. The class then broke for lunch. Ms. Rosa had a special connection with the children in her class and nothing demonstrated this better than when at the end of the class each and every student took their iPad over to the charging station and plugged it in. No one needed reminding. JBA thought there may still be a chance.

Returning from lunch, JBA thought to check-in with Ms. Rosa about her afternoon lessons, in case she had any questions. He found her in the classroom doing something under a table. She stood up just as he walked in.

"Hi, I have a plan. You just stand here in case I need you." she said and placed him in a nook in the wall. JBA was standing next to a giant standing brown bear. One by one the students began to file in. Once all the students returned, the class began.

"Good Afternoon." Mrs. Rosa

"Good Afternoon Ms. Rosa!" said the children in unison.

The 25 children sat around 5 large round tables. The tables were arranged such that Mrs. Rosa had a clear path to walk amongst the tables. She began to walk among the tables saying "I want each of the tables to decide on who will be The Writer. Talk amongst yourselves and once you've finished, the Writer will raise their hand. Are you ready? OK, Writers raise your hand now." She had arrived at the projector. She plugged in the dongle to cast her iPad screen on to the projector screen. Glaring back at JBA, with the light hum of the OHP, was the pristine off-white canvas with the 'cute create sticky note' icon and everything.

5 Writers raised their hands. "Perfect" said Mrs. Rosa, she gave JBA a quick and furtive look. "Now, Writers, I want you to look under your tables and see if you find anything stuck to the underside of it. Once you find it, show the class". One by one the Writers crawled under the table and giggled or screamed. The children were thrilled. One by one each writer emerged and held in their hands a small square paper sticky note. Each was a different color.

Mrs. Rosa had used this time create a shared canvas group of these 5 students. JBA was engrossed.

"Writers, go ahead and create a sticky note in your canvas of the same color as the one you found. These colors denote your groups." she instructed.

"Yes, Mrs. Rosa" obeyed The Writers in unison.

Each sticky note instantly popped up on the projection. JBA's heart sang. A wave of giggles took the room. The canvas became a warzone. One Writer, egged-on by his table mates, took up half the canvas with their sticky note. Eventually, peace and collaboration began to brew. Mrs. Rosa asked questions of the students, who took it in turns to discuss and post an opinion in their sticky note. The opinion they wrote had to represent the opinion of the table. JBA glanced at Mrs. Rosa and noted that her eyes glinted, and realized that he was witnessing a master at work. What followed was 45 minutes of learning. The students fed off each others thoughts and crafted something new. Something that was greater than a sum of its parts. When the class ended, the students roared applause, so did Mrs. Rosa. JBA could not help but join in. That day, it felt like this idea may actually work.

The class dispersed. JBA quickly headed over to the Mac Server Machine and saved a copy of that Canvas Instance. He rendered the canvas XML and sent the image to the whole team, including the PrM and Sponsor with the message - 'Our First Shared Canvas'. JBA did not know it, but that email was forwarded by the PrM to SME and KS. KS forwarded that to BS and all the writers. BS forwarded that to the President of the Company.

Epilogue

The Rosa Canvas, as it came to be known, became a story that changed the Product. It impacted the way the creators crafted lessons. Even their teacher's instructions made them be more like Mrs. Rosa and her Children. Ultimately, until a few years later, this implementation of the Shared Canvas never changed. All of the compromises made in the technology now seemed like scope for improvement. But the Stakeholders loved the Shared Canvas so much that they dare not see any change to it.

In fact, the Rosa Canvas had wide-ranging impacts. It was a healthy blend of technology and interpersonal communication. It looked beautiful. It was digital and took up no space on a shelf. Even the tech folks came to love it. It reduced traffic by a fifth. There was a fifth less data to store, which meant they could service 5 times more traffic. It became such a beacon of the success of this product, that an image of it was included in most proposals for the product. Everyone that worked in that project remembered the Rosa Canvas.

There is a lesson in all this. Perhaps the big one is that constraints breed innovation. Another, perhaps more important one, is that your end-user is also your most valuable contributor. In all, Mrs. Rosa spent 45 minutes with the Shared Canvas. The PrM, KS, BS, LBA and Sponsor spent months debating and arguing about it. Ultimately, the version of the Shared Canvas that Mrs. Rosa worked on was considered a compromised product and not a reflection of the real one. But in her hands, the feature was celebrated. The inferior product became a standard bearer in just 45 minutes.

Put simply, don't be too attached to the way you would like things to be.

Note from the Writer

This story is based on true events that I have had the good fortune to experience. I've been present in some of the scenarios above and heard the rest second-hand. I had the good fortune to watch the creation of the Rosa Canvas. I was in the nook, next to the bear, and it was a feast for my eyes. I've been waiting a long time to write this story and am glad it is finally done. Phew.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Leave a comment if you liked it or have any feedback