The Unicorn Project with Gene Kim

SHOW: 433

DESCRIPTION: Gene Kim (@RealGeneKim, Author, DevOps Researcher) talks about his new book “The Unicorn Project”, the follow-on to “The Phoenix Project, and the newest trends shaping DevOps and business success. 

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SHOW NOTES:

• The Unicorn Project (homepage)
• The Unicorn Project (resource guide)
• The Phoenix Project on The Cloudcast (Eps.79)
• The DevOps Handbook
• DevOps Enterprise Summit (event)

Topic 1 - Welcome back to the show. It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years since you were last on the show. Before we get into the Unicorn Project, let’s talk briefly about some of the other things you’ve been doing since The Phoenix Project (DevOps Handbook, DevOps Enterprise Summit, etc.) 

Topic 2 - Let’s do a Cliff Notes version of The Unicorn Project. It picks up 2-3 years after The Phoenix Project - what are the challenges now facing Parts Unlimited?

Topic 3 - Without giving away the ending, there is a sense that the Unicorn Project team essentially says that DevOps is dead and they are going to do things a new way. Is that the message of the story?

Topic 4 - The hero of this story (Maxine) is what I’d call a “25x engineer”. She’s portrayed as super-elite in her engineering skills. I’ve also noticed that the State of DevOps report is also now adding a focus on these super-elite teams. Is that a good thing to focus on, since so few teams identify like that? 

Topic 5 - This book talks about 5 “ideals”. How would you stack rank them in terms of ease or difficulty in achieving?

• THE FIRST IDEAL: Locality and Simplicity
• THE SECOND IDEAL: Focus, Flow, and Joy
• THE THIRD IDEAL: Improvement of Daily Work
• THE FOURTH IDEAL: Psychological Safety
• THE FIFTH IDEAL: Customer Focus 

Topic 6 - In Unicorn Project, you have a very broad set of characters. Do you do this so that a broad set of people can identify within these challenging environments? 

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