Harry Bailey

I wondered if the ongoing improvement and added depth becomes more than one service at some point. A bronze, silver, gold type choice perhaps.

It wouldn’t make sense to avoid improvements, but equally, should they be included in the same pot of time?

Had an issue with Notion.
I asked ChatGPT and it gave me the wrong info.
I asked Notion chatbot and it gave me the wrong info.
I asked Notion human support and they gave me the wrong info.
Plus the Notion docs page (for form controls) isn't accurate either.

(╭ರ_•́)

As one of my closest friends told me many years ago, to be funny you only need to make one person laugh, and that person can absolutely be yourself.

Metro stores ensure an n-1 staff ratio against required work to run things smoothly. All staff are trained to know almost enough to support customers.

Express stores ensure staff are well trained on just 1 area of the store. They receive a small electric shock to the bottom if they leave that area.

“most successful”? By what measure?

… probably speed again

I love how their solution to a problem that’s clearly been flagged to them was not a more suitable container, but a big label.

About 50% of the time I type 'blue' in my browser search bar I submit it before it autocompletes to bsky and I get the search results on google for the 2000s band featuring Duncan, Lee, Simon and Antony. #oneLove

Package comparison charts that have endless features that are available on every package are evil.

I was having a chat today with an agency founder about their recent growth, and the signs they had a successful business.

"I have a delivery model I can easily defend on a sales call" was one of theirs. Which I love.

Up to 10 team members.
At least 15 minutes a day.
Often 5 times a week.

~50 hours a month of (usually) unbillable time. The equivelent of a third of a person.

There's clear business case for making every stand-up the best possible use of people's time.

Sprinting is a poorly named approach that encourages the wrong behaviours and expectations.

Sprints are a short race of maximum effort. When participants reach the end, they don’t immediately line up again and do another sprint.

… unlike in delivery teams.

Complexity needs a seat at the table whenever scope is being discussed.

Developers don't slow down to ask clarifying questions.

They ship something plausible.

Spec was clear: test and merge. Spec was vague: two hours of rework instead of 20 minutes writing it down up front.

Just spent an hour debugging javascript code. If I'd just viewed the source of the page instead of faffing with the dev console I would have seen the issue immediately.

Newer shinier things aren't always better than simple old ways.

The ‘daily sync’ is an anti-pattern and all the information shared should be visible and usable in real time.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The issue is whether the delivery model was ever designed intentionally, or simply inherited.

That choice, or lack of it, tends to shape everything that follows.

🧵 10/10 FIN

The friction usually starts when the method no longer fits the context. An enterprise client expecting predictability meets a team built for iteration. A fast moving founder hires an agency structured for governance and sign off.

Capability is rarely the real constraint.

🧵 9/10

Early clients demand certainty, so certainty becomes the default. A strong delivery lead joins and imprints their style. A painful project creates new rules that quietly harden into policy.

Over time, this becomes “how we deliver”.

🧵 8/10

Most agencies don't consciously choose one of these, but instead they grow into them.

🧵 7/10

🔥 Chaos
No shared model. Each project shaped by whoever is leading it. Lots of effort. Occasional brilliance. Repeatability left to chance.

🧵 6/10

™️ The [Agency Name] Way
A documented process, refined over years. It works beautifully for certain clients. Others feel constrained by it. The process becomes part of the positioning.

🧵 5/10

🔁 Agile
True iteration. Priorities able to move. Outcomes valued over outputs. Commercially braver than most agencies are comfortable admitting.

🧵 4/10

💦 Wagile
Daily stand ups. Sprints. Boards.
But underneath, fixed scope and fixed deadline. Agile language carrying waterfall expectations.

🧵 3/10

💧 Waterfall
Defined upfront. Scope locked early. Timelines committed before the work has really begun. Change handled through control rather than curiosity.

🧵 2/10

The five ways agencies deliver projects.
(warning: they're not all great choices)

🧵 1/10

Drafting an article called ‘Turning bad clients good’.

In the age of AI, I’ve just stopped bothering with websites that use that massively long cookie panel with consent AND legitimate interest options and no ‘decline all’ choice.

Life is simply too short.

I just heard another "Agile isn't a methodology" and had a sly smile to myself.

Milk (chocolate?) caramel puffed rice? That sounds pretty special.