New Year's Resolution - A Blog Series
Part 3: What we have learned applies to our lives today!
By Retta Witter, Senior Consultant, J. Geiger Consulting, Inc.
I did my MVP (minimum viable product) in my last blog but I thought I would do a lessons learned from an earlier hiking trip to see if I am missing anything. In October, my two friends and I did a partial hike on the Lake Eleven Segment. On our car ride home we had a ‘lesson’s learned’ discussion or some might call it a retrospective or after action report (AAR). We all talked about what worked well and what we would have done differently. Each one of us had our own separate hike, even though we did it together, we carried different gear and had different roles in camp to see what difference that would make.
When doing lessons learned you talk about:
What worked well?
Opportunities for improvement
Failures
Recommendations for doing things better the next time.
My answer in each category:
What was successful?
I survived with minimal blisters. ( I only got 1)
We packed redundant systems for key ones
2 camp stoves
2 water filtration systems (one of our filter bags broke which could have been a problem had we not had spares)
Opportunities for improvement – (brainstorming session to expand will happen for this section for me)
My pack, while it met the less than 15% of my body weight, was too heavy for my fitness level.
Getting better at contingency planning, Dan did most of the wood cutting, brought heavy gear like a very nice ax I cannot carry based on the sheer weight of it.
I loved how Dan set up a gravity water filtration system however in the cold it started freezing up. Perhaps bring a chemical purifier as a backup?
“The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice. ”
Failures – Planning, for weather and the trail.
Clothing choices/ planning for unexpected weather
I was lucky and last minute tossed in hand and feet warmers. However, I would have liked to be a bit warmer.
I dropped one of my gloves in the lake and the tip of it froze so I could not use it. I had a light pair of spares that came in handy.
Had I done more research I would have been in a better head space knowing what to expect.
We relied a lot on Dan for knowing and understanding the trail and I don’t think It isn’t fair for 1 person to be relied on so much, in my opinion. I could not help in making informed decisions when we needed to make decisions. In the future I will do more to help make good decisions or understanding the trail we are hiking.
I did not bring a portable weather radio. I have one from a previous camping trip on a remote island but I didn’t bring it. It may have warned us earlier about the weather issues.
What would I do better? – (brainstorming and prototyping will happen for this section for me)
Better food / snack choices?
The bought trail mix gave me major heartburn and the food was just fair in flavor.
The prepacked food was not that good. I am also not sure it had enough calories for the work we did either. My mother cooked for a living and used spices to really create amazing flavor. I realized I am spoiled when it comes to food. I like it to taste good
Prototype some of my own meals
Must be light and tasty.
Dehydrate my husband’s chili!! YES PLEASE! What is the proper level of water to add back in for hydration?
Ramen noodle options?
Clothing layers
I had a pullover hoody which added a layer but when I was in the sun, I was too hot, so it wasn’t easy to just unzip a layer.
Keeping key items closer at hand
I would like to get a small hip bag for items like:
Snacks
Pain medicine like Advil or Aleve
Picked up birch bark, it is awesome for starting fires, Side note: so are Doritos or chips because of their oil content if you don’t want to pick up items or you aren’t hiking near fallen birch trees.
I received a dehydrator for Christmas for my herbs and for backpacking. Today I am dehydrating some chili my husband made and we shall rehydrate it another time. Sadly, the entire house smells like his chili and now I am hungry.
Based on these lessons learned recap I need to address a few things in my MVP, I need to add antacid and water treatment a to my first aid kit, I need some sort of saw for cutting wood or have someone in my camping group do it. I also need to address my clothing options.
Have you done a lessons learned activity? Do you ever review them later or mid project? This is a key activity in Agile project management so that you continue to get better as a team.