Publish
guides, not theory books.
Each Agile Data Guide codifies a small number of patterns your data team can use on Monday morning. Worked examples. Real canvases. Anti-patterns. The stuff that didn't fit in a book gets the companion Substack.
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one pattern per book
The series
What are the Agile Data Guides books?
The Agile Data Guides are a series of practical books, each one focused on a small nunber of Agile Data patterns. Choose-your-own-adventure guides for applying the patterns and pattern templates in your team's context, not step-by-step manuals.
Each book has a companion Substack that extends the material with shorter, single-idea articles and worked examples.
We teach your team to do the data work. No team, or no time? AgileData.io will do the work for you.
The problem
Why do most data books gather dust?
Theory in. Theory out. The reader closes the cover and the work on Monday looks exactly like the work on Friday.
These books are written by someone who's been in the trenches. The patterns and pattern templates inside have been used with real data teams, building real Information Products, with real stakeholders, in real organisations. The worked examples are real. The anti-patterns are mistakes Shane has actually made.
That's the only kind of book worth writing.
The shape
How is each Agile Data Guide structured?
Every book follows the same shape: definition and context, step-by-step approach, examples and stories, patterns and anti-patterns, practical application.
- Definition
- Steps
- Examples
- Patterns
- Practical
You can read it cover to cover. You can dip into the chapter you need. You can use the companion Substack to go deeper on any single idea.
Each book is paired with coaching (so a team can apply it) and a course (so a team can be taught it). The book is the canonical version of the pattern. The Substack is the living extension.
Three books
Published
An Agile Data Guide to Information Product Canvas
The flagship. A pattern template for capturing data and information requirements in 30 minutes, in a way stakeholders love and data teams can build from.
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In progress
An Agile Data Guide to Modeling Business Concepts
Co-authored with Juha Korpela. A pattern for modelling business concepts in a way that matches how the business actually thinks.
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Coming soon
An Agile Data Guide to Data Persona Template
A template for defining data personas that map to real roles, real outcomes, and real features.
Start here
Start with the Information Product Canvas.
The first book in the series. Used by data teams in NZ, Australia, the UK, and across. In print, in Kindle, and as a companion Substack.
Buy the Green Booklook for the green cover