Category: Virtual Reality

It has been a difficult time for Agile coaches and agilists everywhere. Indeed, 2020 and COVID have forced many of our practices – much in-person – to become virtual. This creates many questions: how do we create connections? How do coaches build trust? How do you form agile teams that are high performing when everyone is at home in their pajamas?

Right now, traditional tools have helped: Mural, Muro, Teams, and Zoom. These are useful tools that help us do things together. We can see each other’s faces (cameras on!), and we can draw things (assumes some computer skills honestly). Indeed, I recently taught an innovation class for a week, and it was great (ask me for details).

These tools have one serious downside: they’re not interactive. Almost all agile folks have been to class have done some sort of arts and crafts. We create brochures, and we pass little golf balls around, and maybe even do the helium stick. All of these are great team-building and good metaphors, and fundamentally impossible using the traditional tools.

In the future, I’ll be posting articles on specifics, but for now, let me leave you with these few tidbits:

• Engage software is currently my favorite when it comes to immersive online environments. It’s a University online. They need more content and better tools to create it, but the basics are there and at a very affordable price. Check them out at https://engagevr.io/
• Oculus Quest 2.0  has just been released by its parent company Facebook. Get this, this Quest is 100 dollars LESS than the original, with a better screen and other improvements. It’s clear what Facebook is trying to do here – make the Quest mainstream. Check out this video if you don’t believe me. https://business.oculus.com/?locale=en_US

• What happens when a $2T company enters the market? That’s what’s going to happen very soon. It’s been bubbling about for a while now, but it looks like Apple is getting into the game. A few years after Google’s challenging Glass experience, Apple is moving in with their own, probably with care to avoid similar difficulties. Those who pay attention know that Apple has been harping on their Augmented reality apps on their traditional devices for some time now. It’ll be game-changer if these are well-designed glasses that make the world pop without spending a fortune (I’m looking at you hololens!) 
• Speaking of Microsoft – I wouldn’t sleep on those folks in Redmond at all. Check out this video about their education offering – amazing! Now, what can we do about that $3500 price tag?

Look, we all know this is going to happen, and its time. It’s past time. Virtual work is here to stay, and how can we call ourselves agilists without adapting to change? Admittedly, the “VR craze” has died a few times. but its a zombie – keeps coming back to life. I started using this tech way back in Second life and VRML (ahh, the days of rotating 3-d logo awe). What’s different this time? Well, thanks to Moore’s law and significant advances in display tech, we don’t need a unique computer, a massive pile of dollars or coding skills to create, sell, and enjoy immersive experiences.

I’m currently co-creating some amazing Agile VR experiences. Who’s with me? If you are, hit me up at info@virutalagilecoach.com.