One could assume I am merely getting into a groove of writing my learnings every 2 weeks, but people who know me would know better. Trying to compress 8 months of planning and prep for an outdoor swim meet into 4 weeks played into this a little bit. Ok, a lot. But it was worth it, and worth sitting down to compile this list is as well.

See The Fruits of My Labors – A lot of hard work went into putting that swim meet together by a lot of people, including new elements required as a result of city mandates which I presume are to prevent the meet from turning into a super-spreader event? One of those elements was livestreaming the meet. Where it has become commonplace for swim meets around the country, we haven’t done it ourselves, and at an outdoor pool to boot. We pulled it off, and if you’re inclined you can see it on the Fox Cities Bird Bath swim meet’s YouTube channel. Believe it or not the view and angles of the pool are very helpful to swim families.

My Morning Brew Means More – Go ahead and accuse me of picking and choosing scientific studies, but I am all over this one on how coffee consumption helps prevent chronic liver disease.

More Reasons Not to Put It On a Hot Dog – After reading this list of rather handy uses for ketchup other than eating it you likely won’t want eat it either. My guess is my new favorite ketchup by TrueMadeFoods I mentioned a few weeks back doesn’t have the same side uses.

So Long Sweet Baby Ray – Larry Raymond, the founder and namesake of the Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce, died at the end of May. Raymond was from Chicago where he was a chef and started the sauce brand over an illustrious career. He later lived in my wife’s hometown here in Wisconsin. His sauce lives on as it is now owned by the same Massachusetts company that makes Ken’s Steak House salad dressings.

Although I have known it for years, I am repeatedly reminded that being a leader comes from action, not from a title.

Accessibility Wins In Bill Loss – Where news coverage portrayed the only people against U.S. Senate Bill 1, or S1, were Republicans, those who are seeking greater accessibility in voting were as well. Why? The For The People Act had a paper ballot mandate, which goes against already existing technology to aid those with impairments to vote beyond a paper ballot. This statement from the National Coalition for Accessible Voting details some of the opposition that goes beyond party lines.

Tallying Recounts with Existing Technology – Where I have seen a lot of coverage on the recounting of 2020 election ballots in Arizona, what I haven’t seen much coverage on is an easier way to audit the vote. This way was proposed by a trio including Larry Moore, who I had the privilege to work for in the past and has helmed 2 digital voting firms. Perhaps it’s the lack of sensationalism that explains why the coverage is so sparse?

Looking Google In The Eye With Your Web Site – People often lament to me the challenges they have with their Web site’s ranking in Google. Perhaps these straightforward missives from digital marketing guru Chris Abraham will help with tips on what work you should be doing on your Web site for Google to notice and this 3-part series on how to deal with the Big Tech firm’s latest algorithm changes.

Then There’s What You Have to do in Ontario – Larger firms in the Canadian province of Ontario also have to ensure their Web site meets accessibility standards. They have to do so not because it’s a great idea, but because it’s the law. And they can get fined for not meeting those accessibility standards.

Bene There, Done Them – A staple of early Web sites in the 90’s were small, rectangular animated icons promoting other Web sites or technology. I recall making some myself and adding others to various Web sites. If you don’t know what I am talking about see for yourself – this site has literally thousands of these 88 by 31 pixel icons.

Maybe I Should Start Everything Like This – I came across this video of a classical singer warming up for a performance with a true classic, the theme to Star Trek: The Original Series. I need to take a timeout and think about how I can break the monotony of the daily grind and infuse a little “wow” into it.

Bridging the Virtual Gap – When I took the training from Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner the takeaways from the course were the materials and experience that made it well worth it. The cherry on the sundae was the gift box they sent me afterwards, which I just opened the other week. I commented on the branding of their materials and Web site, but this gift blew me away! Pictured above, there’s a custom designed box complete with goat pictures inside and out. Inside was a hand-written note from Mike, a notebook and a deck of Planning Poker cards, used for planning in Scrum. For fun there was a pen with a USB Flash drive built-in, stickers and temporary tattoos. This was a treat and excellent way for the virtual course to come 360 with something tangible.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Time. That elusive thing we all can measure and manage but still escapes us and we tend to let other things manage it. Though long ago I realized I cannot “make time” I am still working on the measure and manage things. As a result, a week went by where I didn’t write this collection of seven days of observations and learnings. So much for my year plus streak! But life goes on and I still kept taking notes, and here they are.

But First, Please Subscribe – I may have mentioned over the years that my kiddos are swimmers and I am involved with making the swim meets happen. Some of you have even suggested I need to spend more time away from chlorine, but I digress. In any case, we are live streaming swim meets over the next month and I need to make our new YouTube channel “legit” – can I ask for a subscribe to our YouTube channel?

Click Here to Subscribe to the YouTube channel

Thanks in advance for your support!

Brackets Begone – I don’t always write code, but when I do, I have used Brackets as my code editor. When I recently opened it up to do some coding magic, I got a message Brackets is being discontinued. Apparently software giant Adobe owns this open source project and is abandoning it. Not quite sure if someone is continuing it or not. It has worked well for me, and I am sure I will find an apt replacement.

Branding Jumpstart Gets Better – My good friend Emily Brackett (no relation to the previously mentioned code editor) and her agency Visible Logic have recently launched a new version of Branding Compass, a service for businesses and individuals to build a brand on a budget that still speaks to their business or personal goals. I have seen this service evolve over the years and it is a great resource. Of course if you have the budget to do a full brand, hire Visible Logic for that. But if not, this is a must-do to project the image you want without the big spend.

Squinting On The Edge – With a recent install of a new version of the Microsoft Edge Web browser, I noticed the text in the address bar was smaller. I apparently wasn’t alone in this observation of smaller text in Edge. Not sure why anyone would want to do this, or give the option to not adjust it, but I find it highly annoying. Edge has been my “primary” browser but with what I do I am usually in literally a half-dozen browsers over the course of the day, so it has been tolerable.

Friend or Phishing Scam? – Several of my clients got emails similar to this which are phishing scams that can lead to ransomware installs that seize your computers. Often I am asked how to tell if something is a legitimate email or not, and my answer is to simply do a Web search on the opening line of the email, as I did with this one which led to the link I have presented here.

Stop the Ringer From Going Low – There’s nothing like helping someone to setup a new iPhone and you discover “features” you didn’t know existed or how to remedy them. One such is when the phone starts ringing, the ringer gets quieter. Why anyone would want that is beyond me, but here’s how I found how to stop the ringer from doing that.

File Under Why, Why! – I learned about Amazon Sidewalk, a “service” where your Amazon Alexa device becomes something similar to a WiFi hotspot. With all of the spying talking tubes do as it is, this is a privacy nightmare! It can be turned off – as I don’t have an Alexa, I can’t vouch for any links out there, but they do exist.

Graphic Tools I Used – As I have mentioned I use these posts as personal reference materials as well, so these links on how to set transparency of an image in Gimp and how to create outline boxes in Photoshop are more things I am filing here.

Enough Tech Mike, How About Some Music? – I realize as I wrap up the last few weeks, most of what I learned was tech heavy. So this list of the top alternative songs of 1989 as compiled by Matt Sebastian and his Slicing Up Eyeballs blog is certainly welcome. A fun fact is the name of his blog comes from the song Debaser from the Boston band The Pixies that is on the list.

Coffee Sunrise – The above photo was taken from the balcony of our hotel in St. Ignace, Michigan as the sun rose over Lake Huron. A family getaway to nearby Mackinac Island – just a short ferry ride from our hotel – included biking, mini golf and a ton of fresh made ice cream. It also included not running on any time schedule. I share the photo to you and if you click on it you can see a larger version, suitable for your computer wallpaper or Zoom background.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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This was another week of “no news is good news” at work where I gave presentations and got little feedback from the audiences. The optimist in me is patting myself on the back, but why is the realist in me is looking over my shoulder?

Lethal Weapon? – I had heard a tale from people that if one of your kiddos gets their Black belt in karate, you need to add a rider onto your liability insurance. According to my insurance agent, this is not the case. But my inquiry was due to the fact that one of my kiddos did get her Black belt this week, and I am extremely proud of this hard-earned achievement!

Final Separation – eBay has been peppering me with emails the last few weeks about how it is no longer paying into people’s PayPal accounts when they sell something on the auction site and will instead direct deposit to your bank account. I finally read one of these messages and went into my account, but they didn’t force me to enter specific account info as of now. This appears to be the final separation since eBay spun off PayPal several years ago.

Marketing Gets Into the Fun Too – There’s such a thing as the Agile Marketing Manifesto. It’s a work in process, and here’s its current status.

Step-By-Step Thinking – This week I watched a great Q&A with agile experts Roman Pichler and Mike Cohn where the Ladder of Inference was discussed. I had never heard of this before, and it’s a model for how people make decisions, often times with 2 people making different decisions.

Easter Egg Omelet – When I opened Microsoft Excel today I decided to pause and look at the templates that are available to me. I have never looked at these before for if I am opening Excel without a file, I am creating one new. Among the templates is the Periodic Table of Elements. Who knew? I didn’t.

The Good Old Mobile Days – I watched the 2017 documentary The Rise and Fall of Nokia Mobile whose title says it all. Where I was around and involved with the influencer community of the one-time mobile device giant, this story interviewed many of the people who were integral to its successful rise, all to be let go from the firm as it exited the mobile handset space it virtually invented.

Where I may not know Jack, I agree with the message he has on the back of his truck.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Another timeout for a little self-promotion as I am proud to announce I am now a Certified Scrum Product Owner, or CSPO. A week ago I took a 2-day course and in the process gained certification through Scrum Alliance.

What is a CSPO?

A CSPO is a practitioner of the Scrum. With its origins in software development, Scrum is “framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.” A product owner is one of 3 roles on a Scrum team, along with the Scrum Master and Developers. The team delivers software, or whatever the work product is, in an iterative approach over periods of time called sprints, where a sprint can last a few weeks to a month. You can read more on Scrum in the Scrum Guide the “bible” on the framework.

The role of the Product Owner is an empowered representative of the stakeholders for the product the entire Scrum team is working on. Its mission is to maximize the value of the product for said stakeholders and its users. High-level responsibilities include defining the Product Goal, managing the Product Backlog (or what the team will be working on), communicating and ensuring transparency.

Why the Product Owner Course? And didn’t you take the Scrum Master course?

Last year I took the course and exam to become a Certified ScrumMaster through Scrum Alliance. Through this process, I was really intrigued by the Product Owner role. In my current job, in many regards I serve as a Product Owner more than I do a Scrum Master. Also, I found a lot more emphasis on the Scrum Master role on the Scrum team “out there” more than I did on the Product Owner. This led me to pursue this course of study and serve in this capacity. Even had I not had this strong interest in being a Product Owner, I feel it important to understand all of the Scrum team roles to better serve as one of them.

The Course Itself

Before the global lockdowns last year, Scrum courses were never taught remotely. You would take a course near you or travel to take one in person. The Scrum Master course I took last year was virtual, though I had signed up for it as an in-person course originally. I was pleased with the last-minute pivot, the instructor and learned a lot from it.

All Scrum trainers have since gone to a virtual model. Where some courses are now starting to be taught in person, the majority are still online. This opened wide the possibilities from where to take the course. As I chose to continue courses through Scrum Alliance, I took the CSPO course through Mike Cohn, a veteran Scrum practitioner, trainer and author.

Where I have only taken a few courses online over the years, this was by far the best offering I have experienced. The online “space” is integrated into Agile Mentors, a community and resource center whose membership is included for a year with the course. Before the live sessions, there was about 4 hours of “basics” videos going over the core of the Product Owner role, including quizzes throughout. It was structured this way to ensure to maximize the 2 days of live instruction, and it worked very well. I was equally impressed with the design of the overall experience – Cohn and his Mountain Goat Software spent a considerable amount of time in the branding and technology for this and all of their products.

No exam?

At the lunch break during the first day of the course it dawned on me there was no mention of an exam following the course to earn the certification. During the Q&A at the end of the day I asked this “meta” question. A good discussion followed and Cohn went into great detail on it from his own experience – he was a founder of the Scrum Alliance, and he said for this role it is a challenge to create questions for such an exam, as he has tried himself. Cohn’s upfront and no-nonsense approach was also a selling point for me on training with him. The non-binding quizzes throughout the pre-course videos did help in reinforcing the materials.

Without an exam and by actively participating in the course, this is the only qualification for the CSPO certification. Where I felt it was a little anticlimactic, I have decided it will be up to me to challenge myself as a Product Owner and always quiz myself. But what a better challenge for Scrum Alliance to develop an exam for this certification!

Next Steps and Kudos

I am looking forward to my continued journey with Scrum, the better way to do things – just ask Elon Musk! I have been asked my employer to help emphasize and further the Product Owner role, and I am up to the task. I also welcome your questions on Scrum in general. If you are thinking of studying for it as I did, I highly recommend the course from Mike Cohn. Thanks to him, Stacey Ackerman of the Agile Mentors community and the numerous classmates I had from around the area and the world who made the CSPO course a memorable experience.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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It was a fast week, as is shown by the items not crossed off of my to-do list. Sharing this list of what stimulated whatever side of the brain that stimulates one intellectually is also an item to be crossed off the list.

Catch-up – After taking a training course last week (more on that to come) it seems like I am still catching up on a lot. Catch-up... ketchup... which reminds me of my new favorite ketchup from TrueMadeFoods which has no sugar and is surprisingly good.

Mute Maria at the Pump – This post came out about how to mute those annoying “entertainment” spots that are playing at a gas pump near you. Sorry not sorry to my fellow Patriots fan Maria Menounos who is the star of many of these segments.

The Act is still the Law – A friendly reminder to myself and all that despite a pandemic, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is still alive and well, the law.

POPOV, not Popov – Since I have been in the world of the Scrum framework for working over the last year or so, I have heard a lot of dissing on the Product Owner role. The Product Owner or PO represents the product stakeholder and is a key member of a Scrum team. That being said, it’s an important role, and I think a lot of it is based on the fact that there’s more emphasis on the Scrum Master role, at least that’s how I see it. So when I discovered Roman Pichler's Product Owner Podcast this week, it shed a refreshing light on the PO role.

Back to the Deck – This week the 2 outdoor, 50-meter swim meets my swim team puts on were given the green light. The Fox Cities Summer Classic will be on Saturday and Sunday, June 19 and 20 and the 22nd Bird Bath Invitational will be Friday thru Sunday, July 9 thru 11, both at lovely Erb Park Pool in my home city. More information on these unique swim meets is available on this well-designed and highly-useful Web site.

Just Buy That New Technology Already – I’ve talked about planned obsolescence in the past, but after a while older technology just isn’t supported anymore. Let’s Encrypt is open source software that generates SSL certificates for free on your Web server. If that didn’t make any sense to you, SSL is the “S” in “HTTPS” and secures the information between your computer or device and a Web server. In September, Let’s Encrypt won’t support some older technology. The impact on the general population will be low, but could impact nonetheless.

Quiet Riot – The daily lineup for Riot Fest came out this week and it’s a great one. Unfortunately 3-day passes are sold out and only a couple of single day tickets are available. As I am not as young as I used to be, I like the VIP area, and all things considered, I will be missing this great lineup. Of course if anyone has an extra VIP 3-day pass, I’m more than glad to take it off your hands.

Saaaaaaaaaaaailing – The Yacht Rock channel is back on SiriusXM. If you don’t know what yacht rock is, put on an Izod polo shirt and time travel back to summers along the water in the 1970’s. It’s rock, but mellow. Thing Christopher Cross... if you know who that is. I was tuned in last summer while trying to maneuver a pontoon boat around a lake.

Zero Interest – Check out the label above for a beverage called Minute Maid ZeroSugar Lemonade. Modified Cornstarch? Glycerol ester of rosin? No thanks.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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