Interesting things to RiskStorm?

(Lee) #1

I’m intending to demonstrate RiskStorming at my workplace, and to remove the pressure of using something we actually do, as well as making it more even between new and experienced staff, I was thinking of something impartial for them to do it against, and if it can be interesting to help engage them, all the better.

I’ve experienced it with Uber (thanks to @berenvd and @marcel), as well as KITT (thanks to @danielbilling), but was wondering if there are other things people have used?

I wouldn’t it too weird or eccentric, as I’m hoping this is something teams will use as I help encourage them to collaborate more, and move some of the teams with historic thinking obsessed with risk logs and cumbersome spreadsheets to open their mind.

(Beren) #2

Hey Lee,

We use several different ones depending on the situation and learning you want to achieve at the end.

  1. For a quick, 20-30 minute introduction that’s fun, we sometimes use the ‘Deathstar’ from Star Wars. Even if you don’t know the movies, you can imagine what a huge moon-sized battle station in space might face in terms of problems and risks.
    It’s fun, quick and gives you -some- insight in what RiskStorming achieves.

  2. For 1-2h meetups there’s the Uber one, though a whole application can be rather shallow when thinking in terms of strategy. After that one we shifted it to a new feature. Something that would take a couple of weeks/months to develop, but isn’t too big either. It makes the exercise a whole lot more realistic. We took the hypothetical “Buy a picture” feature for Instagram. Where users can exchange money for pictures as in buying it as a piece of art. (not like stock pictures) It’s a feature that is complex enough when it comes to exposing it to the outside world. The internal complexity is ‘rather standard’. (or can be envisioned quickly)

  3. For the half day workshops, we either go for a feature/release/product that they are currently working on. If that’s not possible, we take the hypothetical “Zalando Augmented Reality” feature where users get a new virtual wardrobe where they can put together outfits. The outfits can then be ‘loaded’ into their mobile phone and through the camera will be projected onto the body. So: make your outfit, point it at the mirror and see how it looks on you.
    This gives quite a few outward risks with pictures being stored and shared, the integration with the smartphone,… but also inward project risks as we tell the teams the AR is being developed by a third party.
    The architecture becomes more difficult to visualize, the distributed teams and responsibilities become risks and the feature would be a highly marketable and therefore highly fallible release.

So different types of sessions and workshops, different answers. :slight_smile:
Don’t be afraid to experiment and try out your own ideas though!

Good luck, friend!