Lean Coffee in the North

Join us for coffee/tea or beverage of your choice and fun discussions about how to overcome challenges we face or to share about Agile-inspired and other topics we agree or disagree with. This event is aimed at getting people in the North and NE areas of Portland and Vancouver together to facilitate discussions. It's not exclusive to people that live in the North and NE, just closer to those parts of the city to make it easier to come out.

We'll spend the first few minutes gathering discussion ideas, then roll right into the smooth easy cadence of the lively chatter.

If you aren't going to be able to make it, please update your RSVP so that we know how many to expect.

Parking:
Use the Gotham Building Parking lot on the corner of N Page St and N Borthwick Ave. which is free.

Building Entry:
Entry to the building is best through the door by Little Gotham Coffee. We'll have someone meeting on time attendees at the door. For those that run a few minutes late due to traffic or other reasons out of your control, there will be directions at the door on how to contact someone to let you in.

Percipio Consulting Group is hosting this event at their offices. Percipio is a business consulting firm that helps companies identify opportunities for improvement and successfully implement meaningful changes. Learn more at https://www.percipiogroup.com/

Events are made possible by the AgilePDX community and our sponsors, including platinum sponsor ProFocus Technology (https://www.profocustechnology.com/). Learn more about our sponsors at https://agilepdx.org/sponsorship.

ADA Accessible? No power assist door at the entrances of the building or Percipio's office. There are no steps to navigate entering the building or getting to Percipio's office inside the building.
Gender Neutral Restrooms Available & accessible? Two GN restrooms available and accessible for HC.
Food and Drinks available? Generally coffee and water are provided.
Cost for food/drinks? Free
Alcohol or not? Not available
Easiest way to get to venue? The easiest way to get to the venue is via personal transportation (bicycle or vehicle) and there are easy public transit options.
Public Transportation Options? The yellow line Max stop (Northbound #11506 & Southbound #11509) is one block from the door on N. Interstate.
Trimet Bus stops are:
Northbound: Stop ID 11839.
Southbound: Stop ID 2945

New to Lean Coffee? It's a great way to have real, focused dialogue and we often discuss matters of agile, lean and such - but anything goes. As far as the mechanics, here's the format we'll follow:

Step 1: Everybody writes down proposed topics on stickies, placing them in the center of the table. Take as much time as needed, but typically takes only 3-5 minutes (or whenever coffee is ready).

Step 2: Each topic is briefly described by its writer to get a flavor for the subject (15-30 seconds typically per sticky).

Step 3: Each person gets five votes which they indicate by marking the voted-for sticky with their Sharpie. Mark with a plus + if you agree with the topic and want to discuss it, or a minus - if you disagree and want to discuss it, mark it with a dot if you want to hear the discussion and maybe join in. You can put all votes on one, one across many, however you feel. Each mark counts as one vote.

Step 4: The top vote-getting stickies are placed in the ToDo column, ordered by the stickies with the most votes at the top. In an Agile fashion, we'll use groupings of ToDo, Doing, Done and Lessons learned.

Step 5: Each of these stickies are discussed for 5 minutes, most votes first. The facilitator takes a quick "Cesar" (thumbs up/down) vote at the five-minute timer, and she moves on for three more minutes if the discussion still has majority interest. When complete, move the sticky over to the Done column. Rinse and repeat.

Step 6: wrap-up thoughts at the end - what one idea or person did you most enjoy, then break for home/drinks/cover.