Comments on: Startup Weekend Uncensored http://www.marinasmusings.com/startup-weekend-uncensored/ My random (and often controversial) thoughts. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:20:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Trevor F. Smith http://www.marinasmusings.com/startup-weekend-uncensored/#comment-7 Trevor F. Smith Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:18:46 +0000 http://www.marinasmusings.com/startup-weekend-uncensored/#comment-7 Actually, I was one of the people pissed off that the project management team was "fired" but I didn't realize it had happened until long after most of that team had left the building. At that point what's the point of complaining? Not that the group didn't argue and complain about everything else. :-) One major role of project managers is wrangling the dev team away from four hour arguments about database schema and towards goal oriented development, and it's clear from what I saw in the dev team dynamics that we didn't ship on Sunday because nobody played that role. To be clear, I'm not sure that a dedicated pm team is the right answer but I do believe that the lack of that role was directly responsible for our not shipping. Would there have been more pull in dev from a pm team lead than the apparently weak pull from the heads of the other teams? I guess we need another Startup Weekend to run another experiment. Actually, I was one of the people pissed off that the project management team was “fired” but I didn’t realize it had happened until long after most of that team had left the building. At that point what’s the point of complaining?

Not that the group didn’t argue and complain about everything else. :-)

One major role of project managers is wrangling the dev team away from four hour arguments about database schema and towards goal oriented development, and it’s clear from what I saw in the dev team dynamics that we didn’t ship on Sunday because nobody played that role.

To be clear, I’m not sure that a dedicated pm team is the right answer but I do believe that the lack of that role was directly responsible for our not shipping. Would there have been more pull in dev from a pm team lead than the apparently weak pull from the heads of the other teams? I guess we need another Startup Weekend to run another experiment.

]]> By: Krish http://www.marinasmusings.com/startup-weekend-uncensored/#comment-5 Krish Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:46:42 +0000 http://www.marinasmusings.com/startup-weekend-uncensored/#comment-5 Interesting thoughts and gave me an idea of what I missed. I am just wondering about why they went with just one project (or app or whatever you want to call) when they had 125 people on board. They could have split into more than one based on the interests of the people and this could have solved the mess associated with 125 founders. In fact, it could have led to a competitive environment within the startup weekend itself and resulted in better product(s). PS: I am not saying Skilbit is anything inferior. Interesting thoughts and gave me an idea of what I missed. I am just wondering about why they went with just one project (or app or whatever you want to call) when they had 125 people on board. They could have split into more than one based on the interests of the people and this could have solved the mess associated with 125 founders. In fact, it could have led to a competitive environment within the startup weekend itself and resulted in better product(s).

PS: I am not saying Skilbit is anything inferior.

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