Jeff Patton

Bio

Jeff makes use of over 20 years of product design and development experience to help companies create great products. Jeff started in software development in the early 90s as a project leader and senior developer for a small software product company. There he learned that well written code, and fast delivery isn’t the secret to success, it’s just table stakes. It’s actually deep understanding of your customers and users coupled with a desire to create a product that’s really valuable to them that makes the biggest difference. In 2000 Jeff worked as a product manager at one of the first companies adopting Extreme Programming. It was there he built a strong appreciation for the discipline that Agile thinking brings to software development and a deep concern for what seemed to be left out, specifically good product thinking. Since then Jeff has been an evangelist championing the inclusion of strong product design and user experience practice in Agile development. Today Jeff teaches and coaches a contemporary blend of practice that incorporates Lean and Lean Startup and Design Thinking all directed at helping organizations build products their customers love. Jeff’s a Certified Scrum Trainer, and winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Development. Jeff is known for coining the term Story Mapping to describe a simple holistic approach to using stories in Agile development without losing site of the big picture. His O’Reilly book on Story Mapping helps thousands of people learn to use stories on Agile projects. You can learn more about Jeff at his websites: jpattonassociates.com, and agileproductdesign.com. There you can find essays and past writing from his columns with StickyMinds.com, Better Software Magazine, and IEEE Software on Jeff’s websites: jpattonassociates.com and agileproductdesign.com.