Blog-Posts

A brand new chapter of Balanced Team just got started in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our first meeting took place on March 30, 2016 at the recently renovated ITHAKA/JSTOR offices in downtown Ann Arbor. We had a small but engaged and very diverse group, which was the perfect way to kick off the chapter. There was a mix of people who had been to BT events before and those brand new to the idea, people involved in product development and people who are not. There were developers, product owners, UXers, QA engineers, a scrum master, and a project manager. There were people involved in product development and people who are not. A big benefit to the mix of backgrounds and skills was the many great experiences and perspectives that were brought to the table. ...

Balanced Team Ann Arbor is getting started! On Wednesday, March 30 at 6PM we’ll host an evening of open space discussions on Balanced Team topics. Join us to get the conversation about building and working on multi-disciplinary, collaborative teams started. Register on Meetup To facilitate conversation, we’ll follow the Open Space format. The agenda is in your hands, so please bring your ideas or topics of interest. Possible topics could include: your lean success stories, challenges you are having as a member of a product team, transitioning to lean, collaboration within your organization, experimenting and learning from your users/customers, learning from mistakes, combining the different view points of different team members and stakeholders in an optimal way, etc. ...

On a damp, dark Saturday morning in November, a group of like-minded designers, developers, product managers, agile coaches, business analysts and project managers got up bright and early to meet at the Pivotal offices in London, UK for the Balanced Team London Salon 2015. After a hearty, cooked breakfast (thanks Pivotal!) we kicked off with a presentation from Johanna Kollmann on the history of Balanced Team. Then participants interviewed each other and introduced each other in the opening circle. As the Salon was an unconference, with the help of post-its and sharpies kindly provided by Unboxed, we then co-created our agenda for the day. ...

On Saturday November 21st, a group of poly-skilled developers, designers, researchers, academics, entrepreneurs and product managers will be meeting for the Balanced Team Salon: London. Come join us! Get your ticket on Eventbrite If you’re interested in Lean Startup, Agile, Lean, Agile UX, Lean UX, Devops, Customer Development – and anything else that values multi-disciplinary collaboration and iterative delivery of value – you’ll find this of interest. Rough schedule for the day: 10-11am Breakfast, make new friends, meet old ones, generate conversation topics. 11am-3pm Break out group discussions, fishbowls, etc. 3-4pm Share learnings, closing circle, tearful goodbyes. 4pm Drinks nearby at a venue tbc. ...

Balanced Team is hosting a spring Salon in Chicago on May 2nd, 2015 from 10am–3pm. It will be an open un-conference format focusing on sharing our experiences and good conversation. Those new to Balanced Team are encouraged to attend. Also, it will be a time to get the conversation started ahead of the Balanced Team Summit in Grand Rapids. Those attending will help set the topics for the day in the collaborative spaces of Pivotal Labs’ Chicago office, inside the Merchandise Mart. We will have Balanced Team experts coming in from all corners to share their experiences. ...

Balanced Team Los Angeles is back and will be hosting an evening of conversation and consumption on May 20th, 2015 from 6:30PM to 9PM at Rhubarb Studios in Downtown Los Angeles. If you’re interested in Lean Startup, Agile, Lean, Agile UX, Lean UX, DevOps, Customer Development—and anything else that values multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative delivery of value—you’ll find this of interest. To facilitate conversation, we’ll follow the Lean Coffee format. The agenda is in your hands, so please bring your ideas or topics of interest. Balanced Team experts will be on-hand for those interested in learning more. ...

In cooperation with LeanUX NYC, Balanced Team is hosting an evening of conversation and consumption on April 15th, 2015 from 6PM to 9PM. CompStak will host at 36 Cooper Square in Manhattan. To facilitate conversation, we’ll follow the Lean Coffee format. The agenda is in your hands, so please bring your ideas or topics from the conference! Balanced Team experts from around the country will be on-hand for those interested in learning more. ...

Rick Harlow and I had the pleasure of interviewing with West Michigan-based magazine RapidGrowth about the upcoming Balanced Team Summit. Here’s a nice little excerpt : “To me, if I had to explain the value proposition,” says Harlow, “it would be: Everything from startups to large companies, everyone from experienced people to people just trying to learn about it. And hopefully it becomes, similar to that story map: We’ve structured an event to allow for a purposeful conversation around, what does it mean to work among a diverse group of people with different skills and talents to accomplish things?” ...

We’re excited to announce that tickets are now available for the upcoming summit in Grand Rapids in June. Early bird ticket sales will run through February 15; standard ticket sales will begin after that. There are a limited number of early bird tickets available, so buy now and save some cash while you can! We’d greatly appreciate your early support. Visit the event website for more information on ticket sales, and of course the event itself. ...

Update 3/11/2015: A Balanced Team / LeanUX NYC Social has been scheduled for April 15. The NYC Salon will be pushed back to a later date. Please save the date for a Balanced Team Salon on Sunday April 19, 2015 in New York City! It will be hosted by CompStak at 36 Cooper Square in Manhattan. The planning committee includes Jonathan Berger, Ray Delapena of Catalyst, and Jeff Domke and Rick Winslow of CompStak. ...