Lisa Call

Cherry Creek State Park, Denver, Colorado
 

Clarity

When I have clarity of intention I’m able to focus my actions on the things that will bring about my desires more quickly. I believe I am responsible for my own fate and focusing on what I want will result in it transpiring. So best to be very clear about what that is so I’m happy with the results. Hence my previous posts on my artistic success.

When I sit down with my todo list I think about each item and if it will lead to one of the goals on my list. If not I try to get the thing off my list - delegate it, don’t do it, or do it quickly. This is one reason why being clear is so helpful. It allows me to align my actions exactly to the outcomes I most want.

Another thing I meant to mention in my twitter for artists post, but it flittered out of my mind when writing, twitter fits into my long term success strategy. The marketing piece is probably there and it will help me sell art but more immediately I see it as a wonderful community of artists. I’ve meant dozens and dozens of new artists the last few weeks and am going to enjoy getting to know them better through their tweets. If you are trying to decided if twitter is right for you, one way to make that decision is to think about if it fits into your long term vision for your career.

Where Do You See Yourself?

Violette Severin has done a series of artist interviews on her blog and I was asked to participate. You can read my interview here: Interview with Lisa Call.

One of my favorite questions she asked was "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I gave a fairly short answer on her blog as I wasn’t yet done working through my definition of success. The list of items from last weeks post, What Does Success Mean To Me, is the more clear answer to that question.

Some people might have a problem with defining success so another way to think about it is with this question. What do you envision yourself doing in the future?

Positive Day Dreaming

I’ve been trying out positive day dreaming and it seems most of the time it goes like this:

I wake up and get to spend the entire day in my studio making art. Then the next day I get to do the same. And the next and the next. I even toss in some marketing activities cause it’s fun now and of course eating good food, making the art in a beautiful studio and spending part of the time with the people I love.

Right now I can think of nothing I would like more than to spend an entire month making art and not going to work. Okay admittedly an entire life doing this would be better, but with the remodel I think I might be working for a few more years now. A tradeoff that will be well worth it.

Still - I think I’m going to figure out how to take a month off work and just make art the entire time. What a perfect use of my vacation time. It puts a huge smile on my face just thinking about it.

Studio Newsletter

It’s time again for my quarterly studio newsletter. I expect the September edition to be sent by end of the week if not sooner. As has become habit, I will have a few ACEOs for sale to my newsletter subscribers.

You can check out a sample here: Lisa Call Studio News.

You can sign up below for the newsletter:

 
And of course, I will never share or sell your email address and will only use it for the purpose stated above. All emails sent will include a link to unsubscribe should you decide you are no longer interested.

Why More on Twitter

Clint Watson offered for me to write a guest post on his blog over at Fine Art Views after my previous post about twitter.

This is that post - I’ve sent it to Clint to post but am also posting it on my blog, which is probably against some blogging etiquette rule but I write best in wordpress after all these years of blogging (I know - kinda weird huh) and it seems silly not to hit publish for my readers, as my experience is few people actually follow links in a post. Although I do recommend Clints blog as he as some interesting opinions about marketing art. So check out his blog here: Clint Watson’s Fine Arts View Blog.

Why Tweet

My top 10 List of reasons I might think writing a tweet for twitter is a better use of my time than creating art in response to Clint’s comment on his blog:

Why ANY artist would think that sending a “Twit” is a better use of their time than creating art is totally beyond me.

My list:

1. As an artist if I made art 24/7 and never marketed it I would eventually run out of room in my house for the art. I spend a full 50% of my time running my art business. I think Clint knows this as he advocates blogging, so I will assume his comment meant "why would an artist tweet vs. doing any other marketing activity".
2. I do not view what I do as "selling" my art. Instead I look to just be me. Authenticity is my goal in marketing myself and therefore my art. For me this means having a conversation, not selling. Making a connection is what I’m interested in, not doing the hard sell. Even if not connecting with a real live collector every minute on twitter, it is all a wonderful opportunity for being authentic and writing openly about myself and my art.
3. Twitter gives me a chance to be authentic in a different way than with my blog. With my blog I put a lot of thought into my posts. They tend to get long and can take a few hours to compose as I edit and re-edit a lot. My tweets are much quicker thoughts dashed off in a few moments. It’s basically me, uncensored. Very authentic.
4. I think with twitter, at least the people that are using it to connect and not sell, you get to see the real person behind the art. It’s a fine line to walk between being boring, giving too much information and too much self promotion. I find myself dropping the feeds that are only about selling - it annoys me and adds zero value to my life. I want a conversation with someone that feels like a real person. I don’t watch tv, I block ads on the web via adblock in firefox, I rarely listen to the radio, read no newspapers and few magazines - my tolerance for advertising is very low - if I feel all I’m getting is an ad - I’ll turn it off.
5. I believe social media could likely become a more effective method of communicating with ones tribe than email. I think we are all completely overloaded with email. There is simply too much of it and we need a more efficient way to communicate. I find myself emailing less and less the more I use twitter. I can’t see into the future but I see the present and I see a lot people not liking email so much. At my day job as a software engineer, email has been rendered virtually useless as noone has time to read it anymore. A very common theme I hear from artists is that email takes up way too much time. I don’t view twitter just as addition to email, but hopefully a way to reduce that email so it takes less time.
6. I’ve been online since 1983. Admittedly I’m a geek. For me, one of the most natural ways for me to communicate is online and I’m very comfortable in public chat type forums. This is absolutely authentic for me. I think some people communicate well this way, others don’t.
7. I can completely relate to Steve Pavlina’s comment on his latest blog post about facebook:
   

   No doubt some people will question how Facebook could help me with my business. The truth is that I don’t really care. My modus operandi is to pursue growth experiences and mold my business around that, not the other way around. So all I’m looking for on Facebook is to make new connections that can lead to interesting growth experiences. I don’t center my life around a profit motive.

   There is more to being an artist than making cash from the art. Connecting with other artists is incredibly valuable on both a personal and professional level. Where will it lead? Let’s find out.

8. I find some really great information on twitter that helps with with my art career. References to articles and tools that other artists are using. While this might not be a direct sale of art to a collector, who’s to say that an opportunity I learn about via twitter doesn’t? It’s networking at it’s finest for only a few minutes a day.
9. My 16 year old son tells me only old people email. Kids text, they use social media. Email is too heavy weight for them. My son assures me I am far from cool, but at least I’m willing to give this new thing a try.
10. I buy art. I’m on twitter. I found art on twitter I liked. I bought it. I do not believe I am the only artist that buys art. And if I am, well so be it. Hopefully someday I’ll buy one of my own pieces and twitter will pay off.

My Thoughts Without Numbers

Okay - truth in advertising here - this isn’t really a top ten list. It’s just a random list of the things I thought of in no particular order and I attached numbers to the paragraphs because I always wanted to write a top 10 list.

I have no idea what the future of twitter might be and what type of value I might get out of it in the long run. And honestly, I don’ really care, which is why it has taken me over a week to finally sit down and write the article I promised Clint.

The short answer on why it is not beyond me to understand why an artist (me) might tweet instead of make art: Making art is a solitary activity. As a full time software engineer and full time artist, my opportunities for getting out are fairly limited. Twitter is a way to connect with my tribe in a very immediate way. It’s a fairly new way for artists to connect and I have no doubt I am making all sorts of "mistakes" that I will cringe or laugh about in the future, which is a large part of the appeal - testing it out and seeing where it will take me.

A final note. This is my experience. I’m not saying other artists should or shouldn’t hop onto the social media bandwagon. I think everyone needs to evaluate it for themselves and determine if it will fit into their art career. I’m happy to see Clint is actively using twitter now and his opinion in the future will be based on experience.

Still More

After writing this I can see I might have another post about twitter in the future. About how I actually use it. I think that might be of help of those that want to try out twitter but aren’t sure what to write about. Look for that post some day in the future. Not sure when.

 
PS - You can follow me on twitter here: Lisa Call’s Twitter Profile.

PSS - You can friend me on facebook here (just note in the request you read my blog): Lisa Call’s Facebook Profile.

PSS - Clint always does a PS so I felt I should follow the tradition for this post.

First - The Trees

(scroll down below the pictures if you just want to read about art and success)

 
As my long time readers know, I recently moved and am remodeling and putting an addition on my house to add a studio. So in addition to my normal art writing, this blog will, at times, resemble an episode of This Old House because I’m really excited about the work so I’m going to write about it.

The remodel will be starting very soon so first step was to get some trees out of the way.

In area #1 (as marked on the first photo) were 2 cedar trees much much too close to the foundation. They made a mess, not so sad to see them gone.

Area #2 is my beautiful crab apple tree in the backyard (pictured above) that I talk about often. It too had to go, as the new studio will be sitting smack dab on top of it. It took me over a month to admit this was a reality. My builder was patient with me as I finally came to terms with losing the tree. It was simply too close to the house and there was no way to keep the tree and still do an addition. They guys that cut it down said it needed to go even with no addition, so that made me feel a bit better. They also said it was one of the most beautiful crab apple trees they had seen.

Area #3 was another large crab apple wedged between my house and the neighbors. It was ruining my driveway with it’s roots. Again, much to close to the house, and it was already rotting and was dropping limbs when I cut it down.

The trees are now gone as seen above. My yard feels HUGE and full of possibility. It’s exciting. And much less sad than I anticipated. I can’t wait for the remodel to begin!

Lesson learned - those cute little trees that we all plant in our yards. They eventually end up as really big trees. So best not to put them very close to the house or the next home owner will have to pay big $ to have them chopped down.

Success - A State of Being

In my last two blog posts I wrote about
- why I want to know my definition of success
and
- what being a successful artist meant to me.

In both of these posts I wrote about success as a destination. Success defined as a set of goals to be achieved. I’m a big believer in planning out the future and working on the those goals so I stand by that definition of success. It helps to define what actions I should take.

But success is more than that. When I wrote the first post about why I wanted to know my definition for success, I was thinking about putting in "so I will know when I have made it" as one of the reasons. But it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t find any words to say this that didn’t rub me the wrong way.

That is because I consider myself a successful artist today, even without reaching those goals. I’m so ecstatically thrilled every day I wake up and think "I get to make art today". No amount of external recognition or achievement is better than this feeling.

I’m so fortunate to have found something in my life I am so passionate about and love doing so much. Even the marketing stuff is really growing on me and I get excited about it.

The process of being an artist is the best part of being an artist. Even if I never reach the goals I set out in the last post, I will always consider myself a successful artist by the sheer fact that I am one.

Although honestly, I’m pretty sure I will reach all of those goals, and it will be a fairly effortless process because I find all of this to be pure fun. I don’t feel I’m grasping or desperate, it’s just total joy each day to wake up and think about what I can do to move my career forward.

For me, success is both a destination and a journey and I wouldn’t want to give up either.

A Natural Progression

When I thought about being an artist 10-12 years ago, my definition of success was to get my work into some juried quilt shows. It didn’t take long and I was, by my definition, a success.

So I set the bar higher. I decided I needed to get into Quilt National to be a success. That goal was first achieved in 2003. I’ve now been accepted, into what to some is considered by some to be the quintessential art quilt venue, 3 times in a row.

With some success to my name, I decided to looked a little deeper and decided I wanted to focus on finding my artistic voice and this became my definition of success:

- I am the best artist I can be
- I have solo shows in not-for-profit galleries (note that non-profit part)

My focus was almost solely on making art and a bit of time was spent showing my work. My actions were in alignment with my intent and I was content. I spent years completely focused on my art and I feel this was a wise choice. As a result I have a lot of confidence in my art and skills and I had a few solo shows along the way.

Moving On

Each time I near or reach my definition of success I feel it’s time to change it and think bigger. The other option, declaring myself a success and coasting, doesn’t suit me very well. At least not yet.

It’s not that I’ve never had big grandiose ideas about where my art can go. It’s that I never spent the time to think about them in detail, write them down, focus on them and thereby make them my new reality. I don’t think this is a bad thing. Could be it’s a natural progression for many of us - start small and get bigger as the way becomes clearer and the obstacles seem less daunting.

Adding Value

Some of the change in direction I’m now planning came about when I was willing to realize and accept that:

1. It’s okay to sell art
2. I can work to be the best artist I can and market my work at the same time. This involved learning to ignore all the voices that speak to the contrary.
3. Getting money for something I love doing is pretty darn cool

I love Steve Pavlina’s comments on twitter the other day that read:

Becoming a millionaire (through honest means) requires delivering $1 million worth of value to other people. That’s generous, not greedy!

It’s a good reminder that as an artist I am providing value to the world and as such it’s okay to be reimbursed for that value.

Cynthia Guajardo had some interesting thoughts the other day as she was pondering what value she might be adding as a ceramic artist in her blog post about living simply. I was very happy to read that she came to the conclusion that she was adding value and will continue to make her pottery.

I suspect it’s fairly common for artists to question what value they might be adding to universe with their art and craft. I know I have. And I’m happy I also came to the conclusion that we add a lot and it is essential we keep creating. And expecting to be compensated fairly for that value.

My New Definition for Success

So now it’s time to take a deep breath and think big and tell the world all about it.

This is my new definition for what it means to me to be a successful artist:

• I am creating a body of work that I am proud of and that I know is pushing me to become the best artist I can.
• I see growth in my artwork.
• I am authentically marketing my artwork.
• I quit my day job and live comfortably from the proceeds of my creative talents. I want to be very clear about my definition so I have an amount in mind but think specific dollar amounts are a bit too personal for public consumption.
• My work is valued by buyers and collectors, who are willing to pay a good price for my artwork. Again, I have a specific idea of what I want my art to sell for so I am very clear about where this career is headed.
• I create an affordable line of work for those that can not afford my larger pieces.
• My work is included in 4 or more museum collections.
• I publish one or more books about my art and my writing about art. At least one will be a big "coffee table" style book
• I actively participate in a community of mutually supportive artists.
• I am an inspiration and mentor to other artists.
• I continually learn about myself through my art and my writing about art.
• I enjoy all aspects of being an artist.

Why Do I Need to Know This?

One of the items on my goal list for 2008 was to define what success means to me as an artist. As I mentioned in that post, my definition of success has changed, so I wasn’t sure where to go with my goals for 2008 at the beginning of the year so I didn’t really write any.

This wasn’t a bad thing because turns out what I really wanted to do this year was sell my house and get out of the suburbs. That lifestyle was no longer working for me. I loved my big house and big studio but I’m much happier in the city: close to work, close to the kids school and close to everything - museums, galleries, restaurants. I’ve seen more art in the past few months than I did the last 5 years, because it is right here 10-15 minutes from my house.

But back to success. I feel it’s now time to define what it means to me to be a successful artist. I have a vague idea in my head what I intend for my career but I want to write it down and give it some serious thought.

I feel I need to do this right now for a few reasons:

1. Clarity: Most importantly I want to get really clear about why I am making art and how I want to market it. Or more accurately, why I am making art today and where I am intending for this career to go. I believe that getting very clear about intentions is the best way to ensure they become real. When I am wishy washy with my intent my results tend to be wishy washy. When I get really clear I find I get very clear results also.
2. Adapting: I don’t think it’s realistic, at least for me, to come up with big grand ideas about what success means and for it not to change over time. I wrote out some definitions for myself a few years ago and then I moved and I decided I like selling my art and so much of what I wrote is no longer up to date. By revisiting this definition I can learn and adapt and move get closer to my true desires.
3. Direction: Having a definition of success for my art career makes writing goals very easy. If I know what I think success means then I just have to do the things that will result in that success. Without a definition of success it’s kind of hard to figure out what I should be doing on a day to day basis. There are thousands of things I could do as an artist and only by understanding what my desired destination is, can I pick the activities that best suit my stated intentions.

I’ve spent a couple days writing and thinking about the specifics of this definition and when I get it finalized, or at least polished enough that it feels right and it is clear, I’ll post it on my blog.

 
Do you have a definition for what success means to you as an artist?

Went for a hike in the Mt Evans Wilderness this weekend through a huge grove of Aspen trees. It was magical. I was completely in awe of these amazing trees.

I hope the colors looks okay in these - just calibrated my monitor and I’m thinking I’ll redo it in the morning cause it’s looking a bit weird.

That said - the golden light from the leaves of the aspen trees incredible. Photoshop isn’t believing the sky was as blue as it was and leaves as gold as they were. High on the list of todos for post host remodel - learn to use my camera and photoshop correctly.

Managing the Work

In my last Art and Scrum post I talked about tasks, which are basically todo lists for each of the stories.

As we all know there are many ways to maintain todo lists. I’ve tried all sorts of different methods of managing them and some work better than others.

For a while I was managing the project and task lists from Getting Things Done with a spreadsheet. [as an aside - I find the project lists and task lists from GTD very similar to stories and tasks from sprint - very similar - just different names and slightly different descriptions as to what they are]. There are also several software programs that can help project teams maintain their tasks lists. I think they are overkill for what I’m doing with my art business.

I didn’t much like the spreadsheet as I’m not big on putting lists online. I much prefer to hand write my lists as there here is something more satisfying about the writing process than typing. I also find online lists get out of date quickly and lists online are basically obsolete as soon as they are printed. I’d make notes on the printout and then weeks later I’d give up with the online list.

So I’m going with what many scrum experts claim to be the best way to do this: a task board.

The Task Board

A task board is a whiteboard or corkboard or some such thing that can be divided into columns and rows. I’m using one of my smaller portable design walls and have it attached to my wall as shown above.

I’ve written each story on a notecard and these are all in the left hand column. Acceptance criteria are noted on the card along with deadlines or any other notes I think are important to remember. Only stories for the current sprint are placed onto the task board.

Each task for each story is written on a white index card (sticky notes work great with white boards). There are 3 columns where a task card might be placed:

1. Not Started: The tasks all start in the second column on the left. This is the column for tasks not yet started.
2. In Progress: When a task is started it is moved into the next column over - this is for all tasks in progress
3. Completed: When a task is completed it is moved again to the next column - for all tasks completed.

By moving the tasks physically on the board I can see in one very quick look how the sprint is going. As you can see in the above photo, I had just started this sprint as almost nothing is done and just about everything is in the not started column. As the month has progressed I’ve been moving cards to the right. At the end of the month I’ll take another picture and show what it looks like.

The Daily ToDo List

I find that having this huge pile of tasks to tackle can be overwhelming and I can start spinning my wheels. This board is really pretty and cool but I can’t use it on a day to day basis.

So each night I evaluate where I am and I move tasks cards around as they change status. I then pick 2-5 tasks that I want to work on the next day and write them down on a piece of paper. My favorite - little scraps of paper that I can carry around as I move through my day. And I get to cross stuff off. Who doesn’t love crossing stuff off a list.

This little todo list allows me to put the big task board out of my mind (so I can avoid those "oh my gosh I have way too much to do how will I ever get it done" thoughts). I just focus on just a few items knowing that they are steps that make sense that will move me forward towards my larger goals.

A Few Notes

You’ll notice some yellow and orange story cards on my task board on the right hand side. These are for stories that I’m not actually working on right now but I don’t want to forget about. Things like juried shows I entered and I’m waiting for results, or commission projects that are on currently being approved, etc. I know I won’t have to "do" anything this month on these stories but I don’t want to forget about them either.

You’ll also note there are not tasks for the last 2 stories on the board. That’s cause I didn’t have them written when I took this picture. I now have tasks for one of them and am working on tasks for the last one (the update of my website). This is not good scrum. I’m not sure I care.

The Rest of the Stories

The stories on this board are just the stories I want to work on for September. All of the rest of the stories (in scrum called the product backlog) are also written on index cards and they are stored on a shelf next to this board. Every once in a while I flip through them to make sure I’m not missing anything important.

I also add new stories to that pile when I think of new things I want to do. I used to have great ideas for things to do with my art career but didn’t really have a good way to capture them. I’d write some in my sketch book, some got added to todo lists and many were just forgotten. Now I keep a stack of blank note cards and just jot it down and add it to the list.

 
I find this visual and tactile representation of the goals I’m working on for the month to be really helpful. In one quick look I can see how things are going. Right now I’m thinking this is one of the better things I got out of my scrum training.

New House -> New Cards

Today I designed and ordered new business cards. I’m now a Denver person not a Parker person. My old cards had my real street address on them. Decided to just go with phone and online contact information for this version.

I normally do all my online printing of postcards and such with vistaprint but they didn’t have an option to upload an image for the back of a business card, at least that I could find, so I switched to overnightprints.com for this order. Got a tip on twitter that they were good.

 

Front side

 

Back side

 
I did my last business card with a vertical orientation. I won’t be doing that again. Nonstandard isn’t a good idea for something that is rather standard. It didn’t fit into any of the holders when sitting out at shows.

The past 3 or 4 years I’ve used an image of Structures #35 for all of my branding - website, blog, business cards, thank you notes and even all of my avatars online are this textile painting. I guess I’m getting a bit tired of it so I went with something else for the business card. I think Structures #60 is currently one of my favorite pieces.

Depth and Breadth: Quiltmaking in the 21st Century

The Butler Museum of Art has requested business cards for the show Depth and Breadth: Quiltmaking in the 21st Century, which runs October 12, 2008 through January 4, 2009 with an opening reception on the October 13th.

I’ll be at the opening and will be giving a short artist talk. I believe some of the other artists in the show (Bob Adams, Jan Myers-Newbury, June O’Neil, and Jen Swearington) will be speaking also.

Monday I’ll pack up the 6 pieces for the show and get them to UPS. There will be work from both the Markings and the Structures series at the show.

For those that like to prepare early here are the museum details:

Butler Institute of American Art
Trumbull Gallery
9350 East Market Street
Howland, OH 44485

ACEO #12
3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
sold

 
A few unrelated topics…
 

Twitter

A series of articles I’ve read related to social media:

1) In a recent post, titled A Spectacular Way to Avoid Doing What Really Matters, Clint Watson definitively states:

Unfortunately, I keep seeing artists who seem to think that Twitter is some sort of revolutionary marketing tool that will help them sell art. It won’t.
…
Why ANY artist would think that sending a “Twit” is a better use of their time than creating art is totally beyond me.

 
2) A recent post by Seth Godin titled The small-minded vision of the technology elite:

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
—Ken Olsen, ceo of DEC,

Only 31 years ago. DEC was one of the leading computer companies of the day, but not for long.

Take a look at the geek discussion boards and you’ll see an endless list of sharp-tongued critics, each angling to shoot down one idea or another.
…
PS the marketing elite have precisely the same problem.

 
3) An interesting point of view by Bill Weaver is presented in an article on his new blog The Artists Center: What’s up with social media.

I recommend the entire article and here’s a small bit:

So last year when I found out about Twitter I joined but really didn’t get it until the last few months. Coupled with my Facebook toolbar for Firefox I now get regular little blurbs that pop up on the bottom of my screen whenever one of the people I am connected with has something to say. That very action has allowed me to get to know what used to be pretty close to complete strangers. As a result, I have several potential partners for workshops or seminars each having a strong skill I am lacking in. I hinted above about communities, again this is one of the things social scientists have found occuring more and more as a result of staying connected with each other.

 
4) My twitter profile: twitter.com/lisacall (guess that makes it clear where I fall in the conversation).
 

PFD Fabric For Sale

As I’ve mentioned before I purchase the PFD (Prepared For Dye) fabric directly from Kaufman. I love this tight weave, high quality, 100% cotton pimatex fabric. It’s very dense and in my opinion some of the best fabric out there for making quilts (definitely a matter of opinion). I wrote a post about this fabric here: Kaufman PFD Pimatex Fabric

Kaufman has changed their rules for keeping my account active and I need to purchase more fabric than I can use each year. Would anyone be interested in purchasing some of this fabric from me? The cost would be around $5 a yard (including shipping). Unfortunately I don’t have the time to investigate shipping out of the US so currently this offer is for US residents only.

If you’d be interested in purchasing some fabric please send me email and I’ll see if there is enough interest to pursue this. I sure hope so cause I LOVE this fabric and don’t want to lose my account.

ACEO #12

Last night I didn’t get to my studio until about 9:00pm. I finished construction of Structures #99 before work so the next step was to piece the back and baste the quilt. I was in no mood for that so instead I decided to make an ACEO. This artist trading card is a combination of the bright colors from Structures #98 and the more somber dark gray/browns from Structures #99 as they were jumbled together on my cutting table.

If you are interested in purchasing ACEO #12 please send me email. It is $21 US and includes shipping to anywhere (I accept payment via paypal or check). It’s sold.

ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.

Backside:

Fall in Colorado

The weather is Colorado is beautiful this time of year. Warm days, cool clear nights (well except for the recent rain). It’s beautiful. This is the view from Jim’s deck up in the mountains. Visiting my boyfriend is better than going on vacation. I love living in this state (I know I said this same thing just the other day - I’m very grateful for my life!).

Structures #24    ©2003    32" x &23quot;

 
Today I finally get to breaking stories into tasks. [See all posts about here: Scrum and My Art Business.]

Tasks - The How

When I summarized the overall scrum process and sprints in my last post I didn’t give much information about how a team goes about completing the user stories. This post starts to address the nitty gritty on how that works.

A user story is a goal. In software the goal is stated as seen from the point of view of a user of the software. For example a user goal for amazon might be "I want to search for books about a given topic".

This is great for understanding what the software needs to do but it’s not much information for figuring out the day to day things a developer needs to do to make it happen. Developers need more technical details that explain how to go about doing something.

So the missing step that I glossed over in the last post was that during the planning meeting for a sprint the team breaks all of the user stories for the sprint into tasks. Small chunks of work that give the developers step by step tasks for getting the work done.

In simple terms:

A user story tells What and Why.
A task tells How.

From Stories to Tasks

Breaking the user stories down into tasks is not a simple process. In software, much of the design of the system is determined in how the work is broken down. Are there tasks to design a database? If so that must mean there is a database in the system.

The same is true when I think about breaking down my art goals into tasks. The user stories I wrote for my art business are big picture types of goals. They are what I want to get done and just like in softwware they aren’t telling me how to go about doing it.

One of my user stories is "Go Live on My New Website". This only tells me I want to redesign my website. It doesn’t tell me how to actually do it. There are several ways I can approach this - these are both reasonable task lists for this story:

1. Get proposals and bids from 3 website designers for my new site.
2. Select designer.
3. Finalize design with website designer.
4. Approve completed work.
5. Tell the world about my completed website.

or

1. Install wordpress for new website design.
2. Design new template for website.
3. Create portfolio pages for website.
4. Create bio pages for website.
5. Create homepage for website
6. Flip the switch and make new website live.
7. Tell the world about my completed website.

Which tasks are selected to complete a goal determine what type of work is really involved in a user story.

When Do I Have to Know How

There is no reason to know how to actually make a user story happen when it’s written. All I need is a dream or a goal and to write it down. Making it real and making it concrete by putting it in writing.

It’s too easy to forget my brilliant ideas so I try to write them down when I think of them. Now I have a great place to store my art business ideas. In my master list of user stories (which in scrum is called a product backlog, but "list of user stories" works for me). Jotting down ideas and adding them to this list is a great way to keep track of ideas.

When I reprioritize the list I can decide if it’s worth pursuing. The great thing is I don’t have to know how to actually do what I want to do when I write down the goal. I can figure that out later.

It’s only when it’s time to start working on a user story, ie it gets placed into a sprint, that I need to figure out the steps or tasks that will show me how to tackle the project. Than said, I believe spending some quality time working out the tasks is time well spent. A well thought out plan is never a bad idea. I try not to rush this step in planning.

Just Get Started

Some times a story is too large or unknown that I can’t figure out all the tasks. So I break it into pieces and only include the parts I know how to do. I leave the rest as something to figure out later. I might write a task that says: "figure out the rest of the tasks".

As long as I know at least 1 task to get me started that’s enough. The next step will become more obvious when I get the first completed. No knowing how to complete something is no reason not to make it a goal. I really want to quit my job and do art fulltime. To do that I need to sell my artwork.

So I spent some time thinking about the different ways I might want to sell my art and I made a user story around each one to try it out. I don’t know how to do some of them right now but I don’t have to. I can just get started on the ones I understand or at least identify the first step for a big unknown. With Scrum’s adaptive nature I can reevaluate my progress at any point and reprioritize my work.

What is a Good Task?

A few comments on what makes for a good task. In software it is a chunk of work that can be done by a single developer in a day or 2. For an art business it’s maybe not so clear. For me I feel a task needs to be something that I can do in a fairly short amount of time, maybe 3 or 4 hours at most but more often they are 1-2 hour tasks.

If a task is too large I sometimes find myself using it as an excuse not to do it. So I try not to make tasks that are way too big. I also find that tasks that are too small are really not worth writing down so I forget to do them, so I also try not to make things too granular.

I think some of this is personal preference. How much tolerance a person has for doing work without crossing something off a list or getting distracted.

Structures #24

Today I has happy to discover that I had never posted Structures #24 on my blog (or least I couldn’t find it). This made me happy because it gave me an image to include in this post.

This textile painting was the first piece I made after completing the work inspired by the Grand Canyon. While not officially part of that group, it sort of is. It’s maybe a cousin.

 
Next Scrum post will include some task management information.