Sigao is on the Move

“I think there’s going to be companies that shut down because of coronavirus and don’t open back up,” he said. “There’s going to be companies that make it to the end. Then there’s going to be companies that figure out how to expand and grow and are not looking at just surviving, but how can we come out ahead. Scrum training that we do prepares companies for that. So we think it’s even more important given the world we’re in … to help them be faster and better.”

Chris Sims
(Birmingham Business Journal Article, July 15, 2020)

COVID19 has forever changed the world. We have to move forward and learn how to exist. First, we must keep people healthy. Next, we must learn where we can pivot and always push to keep ahead of the market.

While many are moving out of office space, Sigao is moving into it. We aren’t bringing everyone back (we will make fact-based decisions that put our team first). But, we cannot stay idle either. We are making choices now that will allow us to adapt to an ever-changing market. Flexible space in a beautiful community gives us the ability to grow and change as we continue to learn more about how to thrive and fulfill our mission of improving lives.

We love #Birmingham and are investing in it. This space allows us to continue our platform of investment in our community. It will serve as an anchor that offers us an ability to deepen our human-centric approach to coaching, training, and development.+

How will this help us

As part of the move, we are creating a media studio that will allow us to build our virtual learning and content creation platforms. These platforms (such as Chris is Agile (https://sigao.pub/ChrisIsAgile) and Sigao (https://sigao.pub/YouTube)) will allow us to help our community learn the skills needed to practice the lightning-fast pivot.

Additionally, we have built a world-leading virtual training platform focused on Scrum and Agile (Check it out here). This space will allow us to evolve our partnerships with programs like InnovateBirmingham. It will enable us to serve more markets and create engaging educational experiences that empower learners to develop their careers and grow their companies.

More to come…

This is the first of three huge announcements we will be making this month. The BBJ article hints of an exciting, senior leadership hire, and a deepening of our partnership to the Licensed Scrum Community. We can’t wait to make those announcements, but, for now, we are looking forward to this move and seeing what comes next for Sigao, our community, and the world!

In case you missed it, here is the Birmingham Business Journal article that offers more details around our move!

AgileKit : Meet The Brand

Welcome to AgileKit – an interconnected framework of Agile tools designed by agile coaches, scrum masters, and product owners to support Agile teams in product planning and construction.

AgileKit is an internal project we’ve been developing over the past 2 months. While developing core concepts for the applications as a whole, we started to notice the same ideas pop up:

  • Simple
  • Easy
  • Functional

When it came time to Brand, we took these same concepts into account.

First, we started with the color: “blue.” Yes, we understand the cliché of the color blue and tech. However, blue is the favorite color of most, if not all people.

“It’s nature’s color for water and sky but is rarely found in fruits and vegetables. Today, blue is embraced as the color of heaven and authority, denim jeans and corporate logos. [However, blue] has more complex and contradictory meanings than any other color. These can be easily explained by pinpointing by the specific shade of blue. Most blues convey a sense of trust, loyalty, cleanliness, and understanding.”

After searching through what seemed like a never-ending wasteland of blue’s, we finally found – the one. #296BFF embodies what we hope to convey about AgileKit: constant inspiration, serenity, and dependability.

Once the color was decided, next came the last and arguably most challenging aspect, construction of the mark itself.

AgileKit Logo Development

We went through a handful of ideas before the final mark really started to take shape.

First, we started with curly brackets and an icon of sorts inside. Then, we tried various versions of combining ‘ak’ into useful shapes – that went into a steep free fall ending with the genuine realization that it just wasn’t going to work. But that’s ok – We went back to the drawing board and decided a more stylized, and fluid shape was going to fit the AgileKit brand best.

Probably couldn’t explain just how the concept came about, it was more of a vague idea, out there in the ether. However, It started with this illustration of a sprint cycle.

Typical Sprint Cycle

 

And so it began.

AgileKit Brand - Designing the Mark 1

AgileKit Brand - Designing the Mark 2

The original idea was to have swooping lines to indicate direction. After several revisions, we noticed the mark moving further and further away from the core idea and beginning to get too messily detailed. Therefore, we decided to take several steps back and add more curves, instead of sharp lines – and thus, the final mark was created.

 

AgileKit: The Mark

AgileKit: The Mark Wireframe

The mark’s interpretation is up to the viewer, it could be a water drop, a planet, a blob, a blob with another blob, or our personal favorite – a very stylized version of a sprint cycle. Our hope is, regardless of what you actually see, you know it’s the simple, easy, and dependable software of AgileKit.

credits: https://www.colormatters.com/the-meanings-of-colors/blue

How to Use AgileKit:Poker

Over the past month, the Sigao Studios team has been working on building AgileKit.IO, a suite of micro-tools designed to improve your agile team. Our first release is an agile estimation tool for playing agile estimation poker.

Create a game and invite friends

To begin playing poker, navigate to www.agilekit.io and press the green Create Game button.

AgileKit.IO Create Game Button
Once AgileKit has provisioned a new game room, you will be asked to give your name and an email address (If you have created a game in the past, you might not be asked again).
Poker Name and Email Dialog

The only thing we will use the email address for is to email you the results of the game at the end of the session.

Once you are in the game, you can send the room ID to your team so they can join you. They can do so by navigating directly to the link, or entering the 5-character code into the Join Game box on www.agilekit.io.

Poker Invitation Code

As your team members join, you will see them show up in the players list located in the top right of the game area.

Poker Players List

Create Some Product Backlog Items (PBIs)

In order to begin the game, you will need to add some PBIs to your game. If you have just created the game, you will have a blue dialog asking you to create a PBI. To do so, click the button. If you are in the game, you can add a new PBI by pressing the new PBI button located above the PBI list.

splashscreen

Poker New PBI Button

New PBIs show up in the PBI list located on the bottom right of the game screen.

pbilistwithitems

You can edit or delete a PBI using the icons next to each PBI.

Play the Game

Once you have PBIs entered and your team has joined you can begin playing the game. The first step is to select a PBI you want to estimate by clicking the PBI in the items list. When you do that, that PBI will show up on your team members game board and you can begin the discussion.

AgileKit Poker PBI Card

When you are ready to vote, your team members can select the vote card that they wish to vote.

votingcards

You will see their votes show up in your game board view.

Poker Votes Cast

When you are ready to see the votes, press the blue “Flip” button and everyone will see the votes.

Poker Votes Shown

Now, talk about the votes. Have the person with the lowest and highest explain why they voted the way they did. Promote open and frank conversation, and, if you reach consensus, enter the Score in the Score box on the PBI. If you would like to vote again, press the red Reset button and everyone will be able to cast another vote.

Poker Consensus Reached

When you are ready to view the next PBI, simply click on it in the Items window and it will show up for everyone and you can begin the voting process for that item.

Export the Game

Once you are ready to end the game, you can click the green Export button. You can do this as many times as you would like. You will be asked to complete a single question survey. Once you do that, press export and you will receive an email.

Poker Export Screen

Poker Email Results

Next steps

Sigao Studios is excited to offer this inaugural AgileKit tool. We have many more tools planned and are looking forward to creating a tool set that will help transform your agile and scrum organization. If you have any feedback or questions regarding this tool, please feel free to let us know. We are eager to hear how we can help your organization move forward in your agile methodology.