Alex Walton, Author at ProdSens.live https://prodsens.live/author/alex-walton/ News for Project Managers - PMI Wed, 03 Jul 2024 06:20:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://prodsens.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/prod.png Alex Walton, Author at ProdSens.live https://prodsens.live/author/alex-walton/ 32 32 Dynamically render columns in Angular material table https://prodsens.live/2024/07/03/dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table https://prodsens.live/2024/07/03/dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table/#respond Wed, 03 Jul 2024 06:20:32 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/07/03/dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table/ dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table

Did you know that you can dynamically render columns in #angular material table? No, I am not talking…

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dynamically-render-columns-in-angular-material-table

Did you know that you can dynamically render columns in #angular material table?

No, I am not talking about simply adding/removing columns on click of button, but a more robust solution like shown in below.


   matColumnDef="boilingPoint">
     mat-header-cell *matHeaderCellDef mat-sort-header="boilingPoint">
      Boiling Point
    
     mat-cell *matCellDef="let element">{{ element.boilingPoint }}
  

As show in code above, it’s upto consumer component which column it needs to render This technique involves mainly 2 things

1st is hostDirectives – to attach MatSort with component.

It is needed so that consumer can use mat-sort-header if it wants

@Component({
  selector: 'table-dynamic-example',
  standalone: true,
  imports: [MatTableModule, MatSortModule],
  hostDirectives: [MatSort],
})

2nd is contentChildren – to get projected columns

Due to internal structure of MatTable, we can’t directly use content projection here using ng-content, hence contentChildren is needed

private customCols = contentChildren(MatColumnDef);

And finally render them in afterViewInit hook using MatTable.addColumnDef

Also make sure to attach host MatSort with dataSource‘s sort. Otherwise sorting will not work

ngAfterViewInit() {
    this.dataSource.sort = this.matSort;
    this.customCols().forEach((col) => {
      const columnName = col.name;
      this.matTable()?.addColumnDef(col);

      // need to wait until column is added
      this.ngZone.onStable.pipe(take(1)).subscribe(() => {
        this.columnsToDisplay.push(columnName);
      });
    });
  }
 mat-table [dataSource]="dataSource" class="mat-elevation-z8">
  @for (column of displayedColumns; track column) {

   [matColumnDef]="column">
     mat-header-cell *matHeaderCellDef mat-sort-header>{{ column }}
     mat-cell *matCellDef="let element">{{ element[column] }}
  
  }

   mat-header-row *matHeaderRowDef="columnsToDisplay">
   mat-row *matRowDef="let row; columns: columnsToDisplay;">

That’s it! Full code is available on stackblitz

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Descriptive Statistics || Part 1(Central Tendency and Dispersion) https://prodsens.live/2024/05/23/descriptive-statistics-part-1central-tendency-and-dispersion/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=descriptive-statistics-part-1central-tendency-and-dispersion https://prodsens.live/2024/05/23/descriptive-statistics-part-1central-tendency-and-dispersion/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 07:20:55 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/05/23/descriptive-statistics-part-1central-tendency-and-dispersion/ descriptive-statistics-||-part-1(central-tendency-and-dispersion)

Hey reader👋. Hope you are doing well. In the last post we have read about some of the…

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descriptive-statistics-||-part-1(central-tendency-and-dispersion)

Hey reader👋. Hope you are doing well.
In the last post we have read about some of the basic terms used in statistics. In this post we are going to talk about measure of central tendency and measure of dispersion.
So let’s get started🔥.

Measure of Central Tendency

What is Central Tendency?

Central Tendency refers to the measure used to determine the “center of the distribution of data”. This refers to the central value which represents most of our dataset.
For e.g. suppose we have to find the ages of people residing in a colony. We collect the data and find that the average age of the people in the colony is 45. Therefore, this number, 45, represents the central tendency.

1. Mean or Average

The mean (or average) is the sum of all the values in a dataset divided by the number of values.
Image description

Example-:X={1,2,2,3,4,5} => Sample Mean=(1+2+2+3+4+5)/6=2.83

2. Median

This is the middle value of a data set when it is ordered from least to greatest. If there is an even number of data points, the median is the average of the two middle numbers. The median is less affected by outliers and skewed data.
Image description
To find Median follow these steps-:

  • Sort the data

  • Find the central element (for even number of datapoints the median is average of two central values and for odd the median is central value itself).

How median is helpful in outlier detection than mean?

Consider a dataset -: X={1,2,2,3,4,5,100}
Observing this dataset we can clearly state that 100 is an outlier.

An outlier is a value which is quite different from rest of the values in dataset.
Let’s find out mean and median of this dataset.
Mean = 16.71 Median = 3
So addition of an outlier has skewed the mean from such a large amount whereas median remains nearly same. This is why median is more useful in detecting outlier than mean.

3. Mode

The mode is the value that appears most frequently in a data set. A data set may have one mode, more than one mode (bimodal or multimodal), or no mode at all if no number repeats.

Example-: X={1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,5,5,5,5}
Calculating frequency of each number in dataset ,we will find that 5 has largest frequency therefore mode is 5.
Mode is helpful for Categorical Data.

Now we know that why we measure central tendency for our dataset. Let’s have a look on measure of dispersion.

Measure of Dispersion

What is Dispersion or Spread?

Dispersion simply states how far data points are located from central tendency i.e. mean/median/mode. This is also called Variability.
Image description

The common measures of dispersion include:

1. Variance

The average of the squared differences between each data point and the mean. Variance provides a measure of how much the data points spread out around the mean.
Image description
(n-1 in Variance formula for sample represents degree of freedom)

2. Standard Deviation

The square root of the variance. It is in the same units as the data, making it more interpretable. It indicates the average amount by which data points differ from the mean.

3. Range

The difference between the highest and lowest values in a data set. It gives a quick sense of the spread but is influenced heavily by outliers.

4. Interquartile Range (IQR)

The difference between the first quartile (25th percentile) and the third quartile (75th percentile). It measures the spread of the middle 50% of the data, reducing the influence of outliers.

Percentile-: A percentile is a value below which a certain percentage of observations lie. E.g. 95 percentile = The person has got better marks than 95% of entire students.
Percentile of score X = (Number of values below X/n) * 100
X = (Percentile/100) * (n+1)

IQR = Q3 (third quartile) – Q1 (first quartile)

5. Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)

The MAD is the average of the absolute differences between each data point and the mean. It provides a measure of dispersion that, unlike variance, is in the same units as the data.

6. Median Absolute Deviation (also MAD)

The MAD can also refer to the median of the absolute differences between each data point and the median of the data set. This measure is robust to outliers and skewed data.

7. Quartile Deviation (Semi-Interquartile Range)

This is half of the IQR, calculated as (Q3 – Q1) / 2. It provides a measure of dispersion around the median.

8. Coefficient of Variation (CV)

The CV is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean, often expressed as a percentage. It is useful for comparing the relative dispersion between data sets with different units or widely different means.

Why we use Measure of Dispersion?

Measuring dispersion is important in statistics and data analysis because it shows how spread out the data points are. This helps us understand how consistent the data is and how it relates to the average values like the mean, median, or mode. It also lets us compare different data sets, find unusual values (outliers), choose the right statistical tests, and assess risk, especially in finance. Additionally, dispersion helps spot data quality issues, guides decision-making by showing stability or problems, and provides context beyond just the average values. Overall, understanding dispersion gives a clearer and more accurate picture of the data, leading to better analysis and decisions.

Example-: Class A -: {80,85,90,95,100} Mean(A)=90
Class B -: {70,75,85,95,105} Mean(B)=86
Variability(A)={|80-90|,|85-90|,|90-90|,|95-90|,|100-90|}
=>{10,5,0,5,10}
Variability(B)={16,11,1,9,19}
Mean absolute difference(A)=6
Mean absolute difference(B)=11.2
So above calculations show that B has high spread as compared to A.
Image description

I hope you have understood this blog. In the next blog we are going to see Probability Distribution Curves. Till then stay connected and don’t forget to follow and if you like this post please leave some reaction.💙

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You want to learn about search engine optimization (SEO), but where do you start? You’ve probably heard of…

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seo-step-by-step-tutorial:-8-easy-basics-for-beginners-to-master

You want to learn about search engine optimization (SEO), but where do you start? You’ve probably heard of a few basic terms, like keyword research, but what else do you need to know?

I this post, I’ll walk you through the basic vocabulary you need to know and tips for learning SEO on your own. Then, we’ll review a step-by-step SEO tutorial to help you get your SEO strategy off the ground.

Table of Contents

→ Download Now: SEO Starter Pack [Free Kit]

SEO Basics

Having an understanding of foundational SEO vocabulary is important. Let’s dive into a few key words to know:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The tactics you use to optimize your website to ensure you provide the high-quality information searchers look for and rank higher in search results for specific keywords so people can find your content.
  • On-page SEO: Any optimizations you’d make within your website to improve search rankings, like the keywords used in your content or back-end elements like site structure.
  • Off-page SEO: Any actions you take to improve your search engine rankings outside your website, like backlinks from other websites or guest blogging.
  • Link building: Getting links to your website from other high-quality websites to build authority and credibility.
  • SERPs: SERPs stands for Search Engine Result Pages, and it’s the results page after someone conducts a search.
  • White-hat SEO: Optimization tactics that align with accepted and recognized best practices.
  • Black-hat SEO: Optimization tactics that manipulate search engine algorithms to rank websites higher in SERPs. These tactics are often unethical.
  • E-E-A-T: E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. It’s part of Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines and one of the factors Google uses to determine a page’s relevance and authority.
  • Keyword: Words or phrases users type into a search engine to find content related to their search. As an SEO, you include relevant keywords in your content that align with search intent so your site appears in related searches.
  • Keyword Research: The process of finding keywords people enter into search results related to your business to help you inform the words to use in your website pages and content.
  • Organic/Organic results: Any results in SERP that are unpaid and that appear because of a page’s relevance to the search query.
  • Organic traffic: Organic traffic is traffic that comes from organic results.
  • Rank/page ranking: Where your site falls in SERPs for a specific keyword.
  • Ranking factor: A ranking factor is an element that impacts where your site may fall in search results, like your page authority.
  • >Search intent:Search intent is why a user conducts a search.

How to Learn SEO

We’ve just reviewed some basic terms, but now you want to dive deeper.

Learning SEO on your own is possible, but it’ll take a bit of time because there is a lot to learn. Thankfully, there’s so much helpful information out there to support you in your learning process.

I know everyone has a different learning style, so I’ll include resources that appeal to different needs.

1. Read and watch reliable resources.

There are a lot of educational resources out there to read and watch that will help you build your knowledge of SEO. Here are some of my recommendations.

There are other search engines out there, but I’m going to assume you’re mainly optimizing your website to meet Google’s quality standards. Therefore, the best and most reliable resource to learn to optimize for Google is, well, Google. The Search Central Blog and Search Quality Rater Guidelines are great places to start.

2. Take free courses.

If you benefit from structured and guided learning, an SEO course is another option to build on your SEO skills. A bonus is that many courses offer certificates upon completion. These are some high-quality options:

SEO is always evolving, algorithms are always updated, and new trends are always coming about. For example, Google only recently added an E for Experience to the existing E-E-A-T guidelines to ensure that content is helpful, relevant, and created by someone with experience in the subject at hand.

This change is even more important as AI-generated content becomes more popular as the lived experience of a writer is a key differentiator between computers and humans.

Therefore, one of the most important factors in becoming an SEO expert is staying on top of the trends so you can pivot when major industry shifts happen. We cover changes in the SEO landscape on the HubSpot Blog, and Google also maintains a running list of major updates that can impact your SEO success.

4. Study your competitors.

Learning from your competitors is a great way to understand what’s helping other sites succeed.

You can conduct a competitor analysis to uncover things like new keywords to leverage, where competitors get backlinks from, and new opportunities to capitalize on.

Featured Resource: Our free Competitive Analysis Templates help you conduct a thorough analysis of competitors in your niche, and this step-by-step guide walks you through the process of using the template for an SEO competitive analysis.

5. Learn by doing.

Once you feel confident, you can take a hands-on approach with what you’ve learned and enact some SEO strategies.

If you already have a website, you can practice by doing something like a competitor analysis

and updating your current strategy based on your findings. If you don’t have a website, consider starting one, implementing some of your learnings, and monitoring metrics to see how you get on.

One of the best things about SEO is that a wide variety of tools are available to help you along every step of the way.

6. Use SEO tools.

Considering the breadth and depth of the internet, it would be a nightmare to do some of the essential SEO functions by hand — this is where SEO tools come in to save the day. They’ve saved me significant time and energy and quickly brought me the results I’m looking for.

Here’s a list of tools I recommend:

  • HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software: offers SEO recommendations to improve your site, optimize page content, and measure ROI.
  • Website Grader: scores your site based on factors like mobile friendliness and SEO optimization.
  • Google’s Search Console: can help you measure your site traffic and fix SEO performance issues.
  • Google Analytics: helps you view important metrics to understand your SEO efforts, like the measure of organic vs non-organic traffic.
  • Check Page Rank: monitors your website’s rank and domain authority
  • Ahrefs: helps you conduct keyword research and stats their important stats like search volume and CTR
  • Seobility: analyzes the technical aspects of your site to help you resolve on-page SEO issues
  • Jasper: AI writing assistant that can help you write SEO-optimized blog posts with target keywords.

Once you’ve embarked on your learning journey and feel ready to jump in, here’s an easy step-by-step SEO tutorial to follow.

1. Find keywords.

Keyword research is as simple as picking a list of words and phrases relevant to your business. Think about which words are most likely to get people to do what you want them to do (visit your website and submit a form) and focus on those words.

I’ve found that a dedicated keyword research tool, can be extremely helpful but, as a beginner, you can also intuitively choose your keywords first. For instance, if you sell roasted coffee, you might opt for “roasted coffee,” “Colombian coffee,” and “local coffee roaster.”

List these keywords out in a spreadsheet or document for you to keep track of. Then, pick one word or phrase to use on one page of your site. In other words, you don’t want to target different keywords on one page. You want to target one keyword, as well as any keywords it’s semantically related to.

Continuing with the example from above, I might create a page for “local coffee roaster.” That would be my main keyword, but I can also target semantically related terms such as “local coffee,” “coffee roaster near me,” “coffee roaster [city name],” and “locally roasted coffee.”

Here’s an example of what that looks like:seo step-by-step tutorial: keyword variants

Image Source

You can see a few keyword variants: “CRM software,” ”CRM solution,” and “free CRM.”

2. Put keywords in the page title.

Once you’ve chosen a keyword, it’s time to put it into action. First up, you want to put in your web page’s title.

The page title is one of the most important things that Google and other search engines evaluate to determine what is on a web page. It appears on top of your web page’s result in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Notice how the following brand put its keyword, “Atlanta Coffee Roaster,” on its page title:

seo step-by-step tutorial: keyword in page title

Don’t forget to keep it short. I recommend 65 characters or fewer to ensure that search engines don’t trim your title, like in this search result:

seo step-by-step tutorial: truncated page title

Keep in mind that your brand name is part of the character count of your website’s title.

3. Put keywords in the page URL.

Google and other search engines also use the text of the URL of the page to determine the web page’s content. You should use your keyword or phrase specifically in the slug.

seo step-by-step tutorial: url slug

Image Source

Don’t overdo it, though. For instance, If I created this slug for my coffee company, it would be busy and unhelpful:

mycoffeecompany.com/coffee-atlanta-near-me-fulton-county-greater-atlanta-area-coffee

Keep it short, descriptive, and simple. A more effective example would be:

mycoffeecompany.com/atlanta-coffee-roaster

If you’re using WordPress, here’s how to change your web pages’ slugs in the backend.

4. Put keywords in your meta description.

Your page’s meta description can further tell search engines and users what your page is about. I recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to place your target keywords or phrases in the description. Don’t make it long — less is often more.

seo step-by-step tutorial: meta description

While metadata is not nearly as important as it used to be, it still counts. Take advantage by putting your keyword or phrase there. The description should be readable by a person and make sense, and the keyword metadata should focus on your keyword or phrase. Don’t make it long — less is often more.

5. Put keywords in your H1 text.

Your H1 text is usually the title of an article or some larger bold text at the top of your page. Google and other search engines can see this, and they put extra importance on the words in the H1 text, so you want to ensure your target keyword or phrase is there.

Here’s an example from a local coffee roaster company:

seo step-by-step tutorial: h1 heading example

Image Source

6. Use keywords in the page’s content.

Using your target keywords in your content is essential to your on-page SEO strategy.

Why? It signals to search engines that the page is about the keyword and should appear in related search results. In the same vein, you need to be mindful of the number of times you use it in your site content. Using it too often is a black-hat practice called keyword stuffing , and it should be carefully avoided.

I have heard from “experts” that you should use your keyword anywhere from 4-6 times to 10-12 times. My advice is to just write naturally, but to carefully avoid black-hat practices such as keyword stuffing.

In other words, don’t write something like this:

“We are Atlanta Coffee Roasters, the best coffee roasting company in Atlanta, GA, where you can find Atlanta locally roasted coffee roasted by hand in our coffee shop serving the greater Atlanta area.”

That’s simply unreadable. Compare that with the content from the local coffee roaster company:

“At Peach Coffee Roasters, we’re passionate about single-origin coffees and carefully crafted blends. We have three licensed Coffee Q-Graders who select the best coffees from around the world and roast them to perfection. This obsession with quality extends to every step of the process, from green coffee sourcing to small-batch roasting and using only the best brewing methods every time. “

One of my best tips is to read what you’ve written aloud. If you’ve repeated your keyword too many times, you’ll probably be able to hear it as you speak. You can also use the keyword density formula, dividing the number of times a keyword is used on your page by the total number of words. Here’s an easy example:

Your page has 1,000 words, and your keyword is used ten times. This gives:

10 / 1000 = .001

Multiply this by 100 to get a percentage, which is 1%. Google and other search engines respond well to a keyword density of around 0.5%, but many SEOs recommend 1-2 keywords for every 100 words, which is between 1-2% keyword density.

Once you signal relevancy to search engines via your keywords, it’s time for the hard work to start: building inbound links to your website from authoritative sites in your industry or niche.

This is arguably one of the most important SEO steps you have to take, especially considering Google’s Search Quality Rating E-E-A-T guidelines, where A stands for Authority. Backlinks to your site signal that other pages view your site as offering authoritative information on your topic area.

For instance, check out the backlink HubSpot received in this Digital Trends article (anchor text: “Accruing inbound links”):

seo step-by-step tutorial: backlink example

I also recommend including external links to other websites related to your industry, which further demonstrates your relevance for that keyword.

8. Monitor your rank.

Last but not least, it’s time to check on the results of your efforts. Give the search engines some time to do their thing (from a couple of weeks to a few months), then keep checking your rank to see what happened and track your progress.

If you’re just getting started with SEO, you can check this rank manually by searching for your target keyword in Google. As mentioned above, I also recommend using an analytics tool like Google Search Console to see your rankings for free. Since GSC can be limited in some respects, you can upgrade to an official SEO monitoring tool to track the most relevant keywords and consistently come up with strategies to improve your performance.

On that same vein, you should also monitor your Google PageRank. Google uses your Page Rank to measure how “important” your website is on the web. Having a higher Page Rank means you have a better shot at being one of the top results for search terms.

I mentioned Check Page Rank above, and it’s a great way to get an estimate.

seo step-by-step tutorial: page rank analysis

You can also grade your website with a tool like Website Grader, also mentioned above, to evaluate the SEO effectiveness of your site.

seo step-by-step tutorial: website grader

This SEO Step-by-Step Tutorial is Just the Beginning

Your learning doesn’t have to stop here. With the SEO 101 vocabulary I mentioned above and the step-by-step tutorial, you can easily start creating an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Our starter pack, linked below, will help you ramp up your SEO plans and boost the likelihood of your website ranking on the first page of SERPs.

marketing

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Product leaders in the C-suite: tips for dealing with execs https://prodsens.live/2024/02/12/product-leaders-in-the-c-suite-tips-for-dealing-with-execs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=product-leaders-in-the-c-suite-tips-for-dealing-with-execs https://prodsens.live/2024/02/12/product-leaders-in-the-c-suite-tips-for-dealing-with-execs/#respond Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:20:17 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/02/12/product-leaders-in-the-c-suite-tips-for-dealing-with-execs/ Product leaders in the C-suite struggle to get their organisations to innovate and understand the value of experimentation,…

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Product leaders in the C-suite struggle to get their organisations to innovate and understand the value of experimentation, according to recent research. What actions can they take to get other execs to change their approach to Product? Read more »

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Diving Deep Into Marketing for Dentists (My Takeaways) https://prodsens.live/2024/02/08/diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-my-takeaways/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-my-takeaways https://prodsens.live/2024/02/08/diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-my-takeaways/#respond Thu, 08 Feb 2024 12:20:18 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/02/08/diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-my-takeaways/ diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-(my-takeaways)

An avalanche of both booked and patient walk-ins is the dream of dental practitioners. But let’s be honest…

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diving-deep-into-marketing-for-dentists-(my-takeaways)

An avalanche of both booked and patient walk-ins is the dream of dental practitioners. But let’s be honest — getting these patients requires hard work because the dental industry is fiercely competitive.

To help you win and bring your dream to fruition, I will discuss the most interesting dental marketing campaigns I’ve seen and highlight what makes them so effective.

Download Now: Free Marketing Plan Template [Get Your Copy]

I’ll also share some out-of-the-box marketing strategies for growing your dental business. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Dental Marketing Strategies: 5 Campaigns You Can Learn From

Below are the top dental marketing campaigns I’ve discovered — from Google ads to unique website updates. Here’s how these dental offices and companies found success.

1. Increase lead capture with Google Ads.

Google Ads is one of the most effective marketing strategies I’ve seen dental companies use. Beyond helping to create brand awareness, Google Ads lets you generate leads fast.

Case in point: Smile Doctors.

dental marketing campaigns, Smile Doctors homepage

Image Source

Smile Doctors started in 2015, and in the first few years, the brand had minimal brand recognition. To connect with people who may need its orthodontic services, they used Google Ads, and I’ll tell you why.

From my experience, marketing channels like SEO take time to bring results — often six and up to nine months to attract just traffic.

Waiting for results wasn’t in the best interest of Smile Doctors. As a business with offices across the U.S., Smile Doctors needed country-wide brand awareness to get clients across their branches.

Embarking on a Google Ad campaign was an easy (though costly) choice to get people searching for dental services in each location.

Part of the campaign included the creation of customized landing pages aligned with each ad campaign. The brand also created many location-specific landing pages.

In fact, as of the time of this writing, Smile Doctors has 269 location-specific landing pages. Here’s an example.

Smile Doctors location landing page

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With the landing pages set up, they conducted research to find commercial and transactional keywords. They also did competitor analysis and found and bid on many location-based keywords.

The campaign was massive, and insights from SpyFu show they may have invested over $13,000 per month in Google Ads.

Smile Doctors estimated Google ads budget

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Here are a few of their ads.

Smile Doctors Google ads example

Overall, these ads got Smile Doctors a 35% increase in conversion rates. Call and form submissions also surged by 73%.

The icing on the cake is the incredible increase in online brand awareness — going from a mere 252 monthly visits in 2016 to 62,115 visits in 2023.

Smile Doctors organic traffic from 2016 to 2023

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My Takeaway

Google Ads can get you results, but it’s best when you pair it with customized landing pages. These pages have the potential to rank organically, causing you to attract organic traffic and possibly help you cut your Google Ad costs.

2. Increase organic website visits and qualified leads with a targeted SEO campaign.

Customers will always appreciate your willingness to direct them. Once you can teach them “How to do [insert topic idea],” you will stand out and become an industry authority.

The Klement Family Dental (KFD) knew this about SEO and went all-in on it.

Before they got aggressive with SEO, they had a one-page dental website with subpar copy and no blog.

Klement Family Dental former homepage

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Fast forward to 2024, the website has a new look with lots of pages, resources, and clear calls to action.

Klement Family Dental current homepage

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Their strategy? A combination of content marketing, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.

Some of the technical SEO boxes they checked off include having a sitemap and optimized site architecture, which looks like this:

Site architecture

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A practical example is their “dental services” top-level navigation. Hovering on it shows the next-level menu, which has yet another category.

Klement Family Dental website architecture

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This website structure is a plus for user experience because it reduces the crawl/click depth to three clicks.

That means it takes three clicks for a user to reach the bottom of the architecture (tooth filling, for example) and find what they need.

The outcome? Search engines rank such pages high.

The KFD website also has an informative blog with 171 posts. The traffic value of these posts shows they save up to $40,000 on Google ad costs.

Organic traffic cost of KFD blog

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Besides this saving, what I love even more is their targeting of keywords that have commercial value. For example, their top article about “home remedies for toothaches” brings in 19,000 monthly visitors with a traffic value of $26,800.

Organic traffic cost of KFD top article

The catch with this article? If the home remedy options do not satisfy visitors, they can contact KFD for professional help.

My Takeaway

Implementing SEO and content marketing can unlock the full potential of your dental website. But this duo works even better when you target keywords with high commercial value.

3. Run a reputation management campaign.

A report by B2B SaaS Reviews says 52% of customers consider businesses with an average review rating of four out of five stars suspicious.

Parker Pediatrics and Adolescents, a dental brand, didn’t meet this threshold. The outcome? Patient numbers were taking a hit.

To fix this, they embarked on a reputation management campaign using a two-pronged strategy.

First, they established and optimized business listings primarily focused on Google Reviews. Working on the business listings positioned this dental brand for local SEO success.

This process ensured they had consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) on the internet, which created trust for potential new patients.

Google Business Profile of Parker Pediatrics and Adolescents

The second approach was the simultaneous launch of a Google review solicitation campaign. This helped them generate a steady stream of reviews from actual patients.

Today, when you search for Parker Pediatrics, you see a consistent NAP across listings and a good review page.

Customer review of Parker Pediatrics and Adolescents

The clinic’s average Google Reviews rating underwent a remarkable transformation, going from 3.6 to an impressive 4.2. They’ve also witnessed a 16% increase in new users, according to Cardinal Digital Marketing.

The clinic now boasts over 100 reviews, a testament to the genuine satisfaction of their patients and an accurate reflection of their work.

My Takeaway

Online reviews shape perceptions, especially in healthcare. To attract patients with reviews, always ask your past patients to always leave positive feedback.

More positive feedback helps you dilute the overall impact of any negative review on your brand.

4. Get leads with Facebook Ads.

Smile Design Dentistry (SDD) is a family-owned practice in Florida. Faced with a low number of new patients, the brand embraced Facebook ads as a solution.

Their objectives were to:

  • reduce customer acquisition cost.
  • increase patient volume while keeping spending stable.
  • enhance lead generation and new patient bookings across their 50 locations.

To meet these objectives, Cardinal Digital Marketingworked with SDD to tell video stories, use image carousels, and adopt value-based conversion actions that helped the Facebook algorithm find better prospects.

They also created ads tailored to each location at every stage of the funnel. Plus, the creative planning involved A/B testing assets to achieve the lowest cost per lead (CPL).

Facebook ads by Smile Design Dentistry

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After this campaign, call duration, conversion rates (CVR), and cost per acquisition (CPA) improved. There was also a notable increase in brand search volume, which shows improved brand awareness.

The indicator of success was not just in the efficiency of conversions but in the actual results — an influx of new patients.

My Takeaway

Facebook ads are helpful for patient acquisition. But while you’re at it, watch out for your CVR, CPA, and CPL. If they are too high, you might be doing something wrong. That said, the ultimate barometer for success is more patients.

Quick note: You can connect your ad account to your HubSpot Marketing Automation software to create and manage your Facebook ads directly in HubSpot.

5. Try a website update or refresh.

Dr. Geisca Horn and Dr. Chad Loween run Serene Oaks Dental. Looking at their website homepage, all I see is elegance.

Serene Oaks Dental homepage

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But it wasn’t always this way.

The site looked like this in March 2016.

Web archive result of Serene Oaks Dental homepage

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Web archive results show they have redesigned their dentist service website several times.

In fact, the good folks at Roadside Dental Marketing say they redesign their site roughly every 2 to 3 years. And in 2021, they did a complete website makeover.

This is fascinating. Their rationale?

Serene Oaks Dental is not your average dental practice.

Dr. Horn and Loween are trailblazers in cosmetic dentistry who constantly enhance their skills and invest in the latest technology. They are also in a competitive market near Minneapolis, so they need to always stand out to stay ahead.

According to Roadside Dental Marketing, the results of their rebrand were a 72% increase in mobile traffic, a 37.9% surge in total traffic, and a 52.5% boost in average pages per session.

My Takeaway

Your website reflects on your practice. By updating it, you create a great brand perception. This is even more important if you work with patients who want expensive dental services.

4 Dentist Marketing Ideas and How to Execute Them

Here are four dentist marketing ideas you can use to drive traffic and sales opportunities to your dental business.

“Dentist near me.”

“Dentist in Florida.”

“Best dentist for Invisalign in [state].”

These are local search terms. When patients search for them, Google will return results with profiles in the user’s area.

To win such local clientele, you need to set up or claim your Google Business Profile. Here are some tips for optimizing your profile.

Claim and verify your business.

This is the first step to optimizing your Google Business Profile.

A verified profile adds authenticity to your brand. This reassures visitors they are engaging with a legitimate and established dental practice. Here is how a verified Google profile looks:

Google Business Profile of Sky Dental

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Add images showing the physical location.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and with a dental practice, it’s worth even more. Showcase your clinic, staff, and facilities using high-quality images and videos.

A visual representation of your dental services can help potential patients get a feel for your clinic and set the tone for a positive experience.

Google Business Profile image of Sky Dental

Choose relevant categories for your dental service.

Doing this helps your business appear and rank in the right search results. For instance, here’s what I got when I searched for “orthodontist in New York.”

Google Business Profile results for orthodontist in New York

And “oral surgeon New York.”

Google Business Profile results for oral surgeon in New York

These results show Google will return results that reflect the category a user wants. So, if you run a specialized practice, clarify this by choosing the right category and emphasizing it in your description.

Optimized Google Business Profile description

Optimize your description for local keywords.

Research and identify local keywords for dental services. Think “orthodontist in [location],” “teeth whitening in [location],” etc.

Use these keywords in your profile description, services, and posts to enhance your local search visibility.

2. Bid for transactional and commercial intent keywords.

Both are bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. Customers who search for them are actively seeking to make a purchase or take action — you just need to be there and gain their trust.

From my experience, such keywords may not have lots of traffic potential.

But their commercial value is enormous and bidding for them will be expensive and rewarding. Smile Doctors’ success shows the effectiveness of these high-conversion keywords.

Here are a few ways you can identify these keywords:

  • If your dental practice serves a specific location, include location-based terms in your keywords. For example, “dentist near me” or “dental services in [city].”
  • Uncover competitor keywords with tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush and target those with the highest commercial value. Keywords related to services, pricing, or transactional actions are good examples.
  • Focus on long-tail keywords. These keywords are specific and indicative of user intent. For instance, targeting ‘my tooth hurts’ is a gigantic waste of money. But “my tooth hurts so bad?” That’s a keyword that someone who needs help right away will search for.
  • Include phrases that stimulate action in your ad copy. For example, same-day treatment is available and 24-hour emergency dentist.
  • Use adjectives that suggest intent, such as “best,” “top-rated,” “affordable,” or “near me.” These modifiers suggest commercial intent, and using them will help refine your keyword list to attract patients.

Recommended reading: The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads [Examples]

3. Create Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram).

Facebook has a global advertising audience of 2.25 billion, and Instagram forecasts 1.44 billion estimated users by 2025. Both platforms offer unparalleled reach and targeting capabilities for paid advertisement.

Below are some Facebook and Instagram ad ideas.

Before and After Images

The visual impact of a transformed smile speaks volumes.

By creating these images, you give potential patients the confidence to use your service. You can try this out with a side-by-side image featuring a client’s smile before and after using your services.

Lifestyle Transformation Display

Highlighting the impact of dental services on lifestyle can resonate deeply. This is as simple as showing happy people with well-aligned and white teeth.

Feature images or videos that capture the newfound confidence and joy your patients experience after fixing their teeth.

Education on Bad Habits

Educational content is highly shareable and can position your dental brand as an authority.

Create visually appealing content that educates people on bad habits affecting their dental health — you’ll get engagement and trust that’ll translate into more patients.

Igniting Pain Points

Addressing pain points associated with dental issues helps you tap into a patient’s emotional triggers. To execute this, you can design image carousels, create videos, feature past clients, and more.

Plus, there are a myriad of issues you can address, like bad breath, tooth pain, decay, smiles that ruin impressions, and yellow teeth.

You can also create behind-the-scenes videos displaying some work being done, the atmosphere, and everything to the final result.

Tips for Facebook and Instagram Ad Success

  • Branding: Maintain a consistent brand presence across both platforms to build recognition and trust.
  • Use carousel ads: Facebook and Instagram carousel ad formats help you tell a visual transformational story.
  • Generate engagement: Create posts that encourage engagement through comments and shares. Facebook’s algorithm rewards content that sparks conversations.
  • Use Instagram Reels: Engage your audience with short, entertaining Reels that educate on dental health in a fun and digestible manner. What’s great is that Reels are shareable on Facebook.
  • Call-to-action (CTA): Always have clear and compelling CTAs. Whether it’s booking an appointment or learning more about your services, tell the prospective patient the next step.

4. Create TikTok videos.

TikTok is an invaluable tool for dental businesses to connect with a wide demographic.

According to TikTok user research by Backlinko, out of 5.3 billion internet users worldwide, 23% use TikTok. The most interesting part of this data is TikTok’s 1.218 billion ad reach potential.

But newsflash: you don’t need ads to make TikTok work. With organic content, you can get incredible reach and engagement, provided your content is relatable and shows expertise.

Two dentists who use the organic approach on TikTok are @thebracesguy and @veneercheck.

Tiktok pages of dental experts

Their numbers and what they do:

 

@thebracesguy

@veneercheck

What they share

Educational videos about the use of braces and aligners. Behind-the-scenes videos and client results.

Use celebrity smiles to explain dental concepts

Likes

286.9M

7M

Followers

4,700,000

148, 000

Average views per video

50,000

10,000

Achieving the above feat won’t be easy, but taking a step trumps stagnancy. Here are a few ideas you can implement to establish your brand presence on TikTok.

Before and After Smile Transformations

Create visually striking before-and-after videos showcasing the transformative power of your services. This format will both engage and reinforce the impact of your services and boost confidence.

3D Dental Work and Behind-the-Scenes Content

Offer a glimpse into cutting-edge dentistry by sharing high-quality 3D dental work and behind-the-scenes footage. This content can demystify dental procedures, building trust and appreciation for your services.

Dentist-Patient Conversations

Humanize your practice by featuring authentic interactions between dentists and patients. These conversations can address common concerns and foster a sense of community within your TikTok audience.

Hygiene Tips and Product Recommendations

Educate your audience with hygiene tips and product recommendations. You could create short and informative videos that highlight the importance of dental care practices while subtly promoting your services and endorsed products.

Concerns Your Audience May Have

There is no such thing as excess information or ‘the information is already out there.’ Your audience may want to hear from you.

To figure out their concerns, include a call to action in your videos and ask them to comment about their dental challenges.

There is a popular TikTok trend? Cool! Align it with what you do and make a fun video(s). This ensures your content remains relevant and resonates with the platform’s culture.

Also, respond to comments, ask questions, and encourage user-generated content. Bottom line: Engage with your audience.

Your Next Step as a Dental Practitioner

These marketing campaigns and ideas show you can achieve significant growth right now, while planning for future growth.

To grow right now, you need a substantial PPC or social media advertisement budget. For future growth, you need to consider organic content you can create that won’t only support your ad strategy but also generate traffic in the future.

And if you can execute both at once, that’s even better. You build brand awareness, attract new patients, and generate revenue — this trio will make you smile as a practitioner.

New Call-to-action

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Tools and Configurations for an Effortless Workflow in Docker and Kubernetes https://prodsens.live/2024/01/17/tools-and-configurations-for-an-effortless-workflow-in-docker-and-kubernetes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tools-and-configurations-for-an-effortless-workflow-in-docker-and-kubernetes https://prodsens.live/2024/01/17/tools-and-configurations-for-an-effortless-workflow-in-docker-and-kubernetes/#respond Wed, 17 Jan 2024 21:25:05 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/01/17/tools-and-configurations-for-an-effortless-workflow-in-docker-and-kubernetes/ tools-and-configurations-for-an-effortless-workflow-in-docker-and-kubernetes

I think it’s a familiar situation when you decide to create a service, write the initial code, package…

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I think it’s a familiar situation when you decide to create a service, write the initial code, package it into a container, launch it in Docker or Kubernetes, and everything works. However, you need to change the code because you plan to actively develop, modify files, add new dependencies, and so on. Manually building or synchronizing files each time is time-consuming. Fortunately, the world is not standing still, and there are already several tools that can help you solve this task.

Below, I’ll tell you about some of them with examples and code.

Skaffold/Tilt configurations are set up for Kubernetes. The simplest way to init a local cluster is using Docker Desktop. Go to settings and check the ‘Enable Kubernetes’ option, or you can use Minikube.

Docker compose watch

Perhaps it’s worth starting with the simplest tool and configuration – Docker Compose Watch, which became available starting from 2.22v.

Watch can be used to track changes in files and perform one of three actions:

Sync – synchronizes changes in the file with the file in the container.

Rebuild – initiates the image-building process and replaces the already running container with a new one.

Sync + Restart – synchronizes changes and restarts the container.

Example:

code example

In the example above, you can see a simple Docker Compose configuration, but we are interested in the watch key. Here, it is specified that if the web/package.json file changes, a rebuild should be triggered to update dependencies and restart the process. However, if something else in the web folder changes, the _sync_hronization process is initiated.

The npm start command inside the container will detect these changes and update the service.

Running docker compose in watch mode is straightforward, you just need to execute the following command:

docker compose watch

Docker watch in action

This simple example demonstrates how easily you can launch a container and synchronize changes on the fly. For more detailed information about this feature, please refer to the official website https://docs.docker.com/compose/file-watch/

Skaffold

Next in line is Skaffold, an excellent tool that I’ve been using for the past two years. It works reliably, has quite extensive functionality, but for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the skaffold dev command. This command automatically tracks changes and synchronizes them in a Kubernetes pod.

Example:

Code example

In the example above, you can see a simple configuration where the path to the Dockerfile and the path to the k8s manifest are specified. In the config, the sync type chosen is manual, indicating that we will specify the directory path to synchronize ourselves. In this case, we synchronize changes in the local web folder to the /app folder in the container.

To run in development mode (where changes are tracked and synchronized), execute the following command:

skaffold run -f deploy/skaffold.yaml --port-forward=pods

skaffold in action

These are not all the capabilities of Skaffold; it’s a very powerful tool that can be used for both local development and production. For more detailed information, you can read the official documentation at https://skaffold.dev/docs/

Tilt

The last but not least tool is Tilt, with which I have almost no experience, but it has more than 7k stars on github and they joined Docker, which sounds promising.

Example:

title code example

This tool has its own file format, and for syntax highlighting in IntelliJ IDEA, you can use this repository: https://github.com/tilt-dev/tiltfile.tmbundle, in the screenshot, you can see three functions:

  1. k8s_yaml– specify the path to the k8s manifest.
  2. docker_build – provide the data for the build, and an interesting part is live_update, where you specify what to synchronize and the command to run if a file changes.
  3. k8s_resource – here we specify k8s resource name and the port we want to expose.

Running it is quite simple:

tilt up -f deploy/Tiltfile

title in action

Like with other tools, this is just a simple example of using Tilt, which is capable of much more. You can read more details on the official website: https://docs.tilt.dev/

If you know of other tools that you use or have used, please share in the comments. I’ll try to update the post with examples of other tools as much as possible.

You can find all the source code here: https://github.com/idsulik/local-dev

Russian version: https://habr.com/ru/articles/786282/

P.S. If you need a separate utility that tracks changes and synchronizes them into a container pod, I recommend skasync (https://github.com/konrin/skasync). It can be used in conjunction with Skaffold and more.

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Build a Free and Easy Prompter(like ChatGPT) with Hugging Face Models in Just 8 Lines of Code 🚀💬🤖 https://prodsens.live/2023/12/02/build-a-free-and-easy-prompterlike-chatgpt-with-hugging-face-models-in-just-8-lines-of-code-%f0%9f%9a%80%f0%9f%92%ac%f0%9f%a4%96/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=build-a-free-and-easy-prompterlike-chatgpt-with-hugging-face-models-in-just-8-lines-of-code-%25f0%259f%259a%2580%25f0%259f%2592%25ac%25f0%259f%25a4%2596 https://prodsens.live/2023/12/02/build-a-free-and-easy-prompterlike-chatgpt-with-hugging-face-models-in-just-8-lines-of-code-%f0%9f%9a%80%f0%9f%92%ac%f0%9f%a4%96/#respond Sat, 02 Dec 2023 12:24:35 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2023/12/02/build-a-free-and-easy-prompterlike-chatgpt-with-hugging-face-models-in-just-8-lines-of-code-%f0%9f%9a%80%f0%9f%92%ac%f0%9f%a4%96/ build-a-free-and-easy-prompter(like-chatgpt)-with-hugging-face-models-in-just-8-lines-of-code-

So, before we begin writing code, let’s define Prompting. So, 🤔📝 In the context of using models such…

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So, before we begin writing code, let’s define Prompting. So, 🤔📝

In the context of using models such as ChatGPT, prompting refers to providing a specific input or query to the model in order for it to generate the desired response.

Users can enter a prompt or set of instructions, and the model will generate text based on its prior knowledge and understanding of language patterns.

Prompting is a common method for utilising language model capabilities for a variety of tasks such as content creation 📝, creative writing 🖋, code generation 💻, and more! 🌐

What Tools we are using :

- Huggingface pretrained model ( more specifically falcon)
- Python
- Langchain
- Google Colab

So, let’s get started! 🚀

To begin, go to Google Colab Notebook 📒 and create a new notebook that looks something like:

Homepage of Google colab

After that,

Create new notebook

After that this page will open, here we can change our notebook name to prompter.ipynb

Remaning notebook

Now, let’s dive into coding the following 8 lines of code: 💻👩‍💻🚀

Step 1:
Install relevant libraries :

!pip install langchain
!pip install huggingface_hub

Step 2:
Let’s add hugging face token to our environment variable :

import os
os.environ["HUGGINGFACEHUB_API_TOKEN"] = "YOUR_TOKEN"

One can easily get our token from hugging face website :

  1. Go to the official Hugging Face website at https://huggingface.co/ and signup or signin accordingly.

  2. Go to Settings page and select Access Token Tab, Then you will get option of Create token.

Access Token

3.Create token and replace it with YOUR_TOKEN.

Step 3:
Import HuggingFaceHub from langchain :

from langchain import HuggingFaceHub
  1. Initialise your Large language model( llm):
llm = HuggingFaceHub(repo_id="tiiuae/falcon-7b-instruct", model_kwargs={"temperature":0.6})

Here I used tiiuae/falcon-7b-instruct model and there are plenty of models available you can check this on this link :
https://huggingface.co/models?pipeline_tag=text-generation

The temperature is set to 0.6, which is considered mild. In the generated text, it signifies a balance of originality and focus. By adjusting the temperature, you can fine-tune the language model’s output based on your individual needs for diversity and coherence.

Beside temperature there are other parameters also available for fine tuning our model.

  1. Let’s test and use the model :
response  = llm("Explain Large Language Models ?")
print(response)

And this results into :

Large Language Models are computational models that are designed to process large amounts of natural language data. These models are used to understand complex language, such as detecting subtle differences between different dialects or understanding the structure of sentences in different languages. Large Language Models are typically composed of neural networks, which are used to extract features from text and generate output. The output of these models can be used to perform tasks such as machine translation, summarization, and natural language processing.

Finally, in just 8 lines of code, we have created our own ChatGPT! 🎉💻🤖

Checkout my results :

My Prompt one

Itaewon Class is my favorite KDrama. Also my favorite singer Kim Taehyung sing a song in this Kdrama [ “Sweet Night” ~ Kim Taehyung]

Also some more results are :

My Prompt Two

That’s all in this blog. One can also fine-tune this model or even use different pre-trained models and create personalized ML/AI models. 🤖🧠✨

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DynamoDB And Lambda Triggers https://prodsens.live/2023/11/17/dynamodb-and-lambda-triggers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dynamodb-and-lambda-triggers https://prodsens.live/2023/11/17/dynamodb-and-lambda-triggers/#respond Fri, 17 Nov 2023 04:24:15 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2023/11/17/dynamodb-and-lambda-triggers/ dynamodb-and-lambda-triggers

Understanding DynamoDB Streams and Lambda Triggers Introduction to DynamoDB Streams DynamoDB Streams are a feature of AWS DynamoDB…

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Understanding DynamoDB Streams and Lambda Triggers

Introduction to DynamoDB Streams

DynamoDB Streams are a feature of AWS DynamoDB that provide a 24-hour rolling window of time-ordered changes to items in a DynamoDB table. These streams are essential for capturing and acting upon data modifications like inserts, updates, and deletes. They are configurable on a per-table basis and come with four distinct view types:

  1. Keys Only: Captures only the partition key and, if applicable, the sort key value of the changed item.
  2. New Image: Stores the complete state of the item as it appears after the change.
  3. Old Image: Retains the item’s state before the change, enabling a comparison with its current state.
  4. New and Old Images: Provides a comprehensive view of the item’s state both before and after the modification.

Integration with Lambda for Trigger Functionality

Lambda functions can be integrated with DynamoDB Streams to create a powerful, event-driven architecture. This setup allows for automated actions in response to data changes in DynamoDB tables, a concept known as database triggers. This approach is particularly effective in serverless architectures, where it can be utilized for various purposes, including reporting, analytics, aggregation, messaging, or notifications.

How the Trigger Architecture Works

  1. Item Change: An item change occurs in a DynamoDB table with streams enabled.
  2. Stream Record: This change generates a stream record that is added to the DynamoDB Stream.
  3. Lambda Invocation: The Lambda function is then automatically invoked in response to the stream event. The function receives the data change as an event input, which can be based on any of the configured stream view types.

The Power of DynamoDB Streams and Lambda Triggers

The combination of DynamoDB Streams and AWS Lambda forms the backbone of a robust trigger architecture in DynamoDB. This setup exemplifies the event-driven paradigm, allowing for real-time, automated responses to data changes. It’s particularly valuable for applications that require immediate action based on data modifications, such as real-time analytics, user notifications, or data synchronization across systems.

Exam Perspective

From an examination standpoint, it’s crucial to understand the relationship between DynamoDB Streams and Lambda triggers. These components work together to implement a dynamic and responsive trigger architecture in DynamoDB, offering a versatile solution for various real-world scenarios.

Conclusion

DynamoDB Streams, combined with Lambda triggers, offer a powerful way to build responsive, event-driven architectures. This technology allows for efficient monitoring and handling of data changes, making it an invaluable tool in the AWS ecosystem. Whether for analytics, reporting, or real-time data processing, understanding and implementing this setup can significantly enhance the capabilities of your DynamoDB-based applications.

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Configuring AdaptiveWork for Agile Project Work https://prodsens.live/2023/08/03/configuring-adaptivework-for-agile-project-work/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=configuring-adaptivework-for-agile-project-work https://prodsens.live/2023/08/03/configuring-adaptivework-for-agile-project-work/#respond Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:25:06 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2023/08/03/configuring-adaptivework-for-agile-project-work/ configuring-adaptivework-for-agile-project-work

Embrace the Agile Paradigm: Bid Farewell to Traditional Project Management! The Basics of Agile The traditional approach to…

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Embrace the Agile Paradigm: Bid Farewell to Traditional Project Management!

The Basics of Agile

The traditional approach to project management typically referred to as the “Waterfall Methodology”, entails documenting a full set of project requirements at the start of the project, throwing those requirements over the wall to resources who likely had little involvement in the process of creating them, and hoping that the output of those resources aligns with the original goals of the project.

This approach has obvious risks; over the years, many strategies have been developed to mitigate them. Particularly in the software development domain, the pitfalls of the waterfall approach became so painful that an entirely new methodology was developed to supplant it.

In 2001, seventeen leaders in the industry who practiced and advocated for various lightweight development methodologies met in Utah to share ideas. The outcome of this conference was the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” which encompasses four values and twelve principles to guide Agile project work.

These agile principles (outlined below) allow companies to build a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, and customer-centricity. By empowering their teams and embracing change as an opportunity, they can achieve greater efficiency, higher customer satisfaction, and a competitive edge in the dynamic software development landscape.

Agile Software Development Values

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan
Agile Software Development Values

Agile Software Development Values

 

Agile Software Development Principles

  • Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  • Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
  • Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months).
  • Close, daily cooperation between businesspeople and developers.
  • Projects are built around motivated individuals who should be trusted.
  • Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location).
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  • Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace.
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
  • Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.
  • Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  • Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective and adjusts accordingly.

 

Agile Software Development Principles

Agile Software Development Principles

 

Software development entails countless hours of meetings, documentation, focus groups, mockups, etc., to produce a fully vetted set of requirements.

By the time the requirements are ready to pass on to developers, the market has already undergone changes, key stakeholders have moved on to other positions, and their replacements have different priorities. Worst of all, if anything was missed or misinterpreted by the developers, no one will find that out until the development is complete and the QA team starts UAT.

By contrast, agile methodology is regularly delivering work for review and feedback and making course corrections as early as possible. The same approach can be applied in many cases to domains outside of software development. In this blog, we will examine how AdaptiveWork can be configured to support an agile approach to project management using the Scrum framework.

As a result, Agile became a powerful methodology driving successful projects and transforming the software development industry as a whole.

Mastering Agile’s ‘How” for Stellar Project Management!

What is Scrum?

Agile is a set of guiding principles, whereas Scrum is a set of roles, workflows, and artifacts that collectively enable the effective implementation of Agile practice. Agile is the “what and why,” and Scrum is the “how.”

Scrum involves a regular cadence of work cycles called Sprints (typically 2-4 weeks but can be longer depending on the type of work). We will look at how this works in the software development domain and then explore how these practices can be applied to other types of work.

Assume that you work at a startup company developing a new mobile application to manage the internet of things for the average consumer. You might break the project out into features or sets of related features called “epics.”

An epic would then be broken down into stories, commonly written as use cases that describe how the user will interact with the app. The stories will be added to the backlog to be refined and assigned story points, which is a numerical representation of the size of the effort.

The goal is to get a minimum viable product (MVP) out into the market as early as possible and then continue to expand and improve the app’s capabilities over time. If your scrum team has a capacity of 100 points per sprint, then the product owner will work with the scrum team to identify which stories would provide the most ‘bang’ for the 100 points.

It might take multiple sprints to get to an MVP, but once the app hits the market, each subsequent Sprint should result in new features and or bug fixes that can be delivered to the market.

Sprints to Get to an MVP

Sprints to Get to an MVP

The preceding is a very condensed overview of what Scrum looks like in the world of software development, but we can apply these same concepts to other types of project work. In the sections that follow, we will explore each aspect of Scrum and show examples of how AdaptiveWork can be configured to incorporate these principles into your project approach.

Scrum Roles:  Empowering Agile Efficiency with AdaptiveWork!

Roles

Below is a list of the primary roles that are commonly used in Scrum. We can employ profiles in AdaptiveWork to tailor the user interface (UI) to align with each role’s responsibilities.

Product Owner – The product owner is the liaison between the business and the project (or product) team. They understand the vision behind the work being done and help to keep the team aligned with the stakeholder priorities. They are typically responsible for determining which stories get prioritized in the upcoming sprint.

Scrum Master – Responsible for ensuring the team knows and follows the rules of engagement and leads the various meetings, such as the daily scrum, backlog refinement, and sprint retrospective.

Scrum Team – The individuals who will complete and validate the work represented in the stories.

Common Scrum Roles

Common Scrum Roles

Streamlining Backlog Management with AdaptiveWork: From Idea to Action!

Product Backlog

As mentioned previously, the product backlog (or project backlog if we are not developing software or a physical product) consists of stories that have been identified to date as needing to be implemented in order to make progress toward the completion of the project.

The backlog stories can be in various stages of refinement, moving from an initial idea or suggestion to a clear and unambiguous user story that has been estimated and is ready to be worked.

AdaptiveWork has the concept of ‘To-do’ tasks that are not associated with a specific project. We can leverage to-do tasks and use filtered views to help manage the process of grooming the backlog (Backlog Task View).

Alternatively, we could use the Request object to initiate a new backlog item that would later get converted into a task via workflow. For this case study, we will assume that the project we are working on is “Configure AdaptiveWork for Scrum”.

We have begun creating a backlog of stories that will need to be refined.

Backlog Task View

Backlog Task View

We have added a value to the standard “Task Type” field called “Story” and are using this as a filter. We also order the list using the standard “Importance” field to put the highest-priority stories at the top. The Scrum Master can bring up this view in refinement meetings to review with the team. The “Add Story” custom action provides a convenient way of adding new stories to the backlog.

'Add Story' Input Form

‘Add Story’ Input Form

 

We can use this form to collect some basic information for the team to review during refinement. In the background, the Custom Action will set the Task Type value to ‘Story’ so that the task shows in the Backlog view.

Unleash the Power of AdaptiveWork to Revolutionize Sprint Planning with Dynamic Layouts!

Sprint Planning

During the Refinement Meeting, clicking on a task will open it up in the Item Detail view, but we have utilized Dynamic Layouts to display the fields on the property card that are most relevant to refinement.

Dynamic Layout for Stories

Dynamic Layout for Stories

 

The “Sprint” field is a reference to the standard Project object that is filtered only to show projects with Project Type “Sprint.” As soon as a Sprint is assigned, a workflow is triggered that moves the task to the project referenced in the Sprint field.

We have created a hierarchy such that the parent project represents the overall project effort (“Configure AdaptiveWork for Scrum” in this case), and each Sprint is a Sub-project. We are using ’70s rock bands for our sprint names.

Project with Sprints as Sub-Projects

Project with Sprints as Sub-Projects

 

Dynamic Work Management Using Agile Epics!

Epics

We created a Custom Object called “Epic,” which could also be represented by a standard Program or Objective. The “Epic” field is a Reverse Reference to the Object field, so we can see all of the related work items from the Epic’s related items panel in addition to being able to see the Epic from the work item.

Epics and Related Work Items

Epics and Related Work Items

Dynamic Daily Standups with Hybrid Work Management and Custom Fields!

Daily Standups

The daily standup meeting typically takes about 15 minutes. The scrum master will display the Kanban Board and call on each member of the team to answer three questions:

  1. What did you accomplish yesterday?
  2. What will you work on today?
  3. Are there any stories you are working on that are blocked for any reason?

If there is anything blocking a story from moving forward (waiting on approval, dependent on some other task, task requires a skill the assigned developer does not have, etc.), then the scrum master will work with the team to determine what needs to happen in order to ‘unblock’ the story and follow up as needed.

To facilitate the daily standup, we can open the current sprint project using the Hybrid Work Management view

Hybrid Work Management ('Cards' View)

Hybrid Work Management (‘Cards’ View)

 

To leverage this view, we needed to make a few configuration changes

  • Created a custom picklist field on the Work Item object called “Column” with values “To Do,” “In Progress,” “Ready for Testing,” “In Testing,” “Ready for Acceptance,” “Accepted and Done.”

In the View Settings for the Cards view, we use this field as the “Group By” to create our board columns.

  • During the daily standup, it is helpful to be able to filter the board by the assigned resource. However, we cannot use the “Resource” field as a filter because it is a many-to-one relationship, and AdaptiveWork will only allow us to use one-to-one fields for the filter.

Therefore, we created a “Developer” field and a “QA” field that are both one-to-one. For the stories that are in development, we can filter by the developer user, and when they are moved to ‘In Testing,’ we can filter by the QA User:

Filtering the Cards by 'Developer'

Filtering the Cards by ‘Developer’

 

Cards can be dragged and dropped into the appropriate column as needed during the meeting.

Promoting Agile Growth: The Importance of Retrospective Meetings and Custom Field Enhancements

Retrospectives

A common practice in Scrum is to schedule a Retrospective meeting at the end of each Sprint. Continuous Improvement is a guiding principle of agile and Retrospectives are an opportunity to identify what worked well during the previous sprint and what we can do better going forward.

We have created a “Retrospective” custom rich text area field on the project object that can only be edited via a custom action. We have added a validation rule that prevents a Sprint project from being marked complete if the retrospective field is blank.

Sprint Completion Validation Rule

Sprint Completion Validation Rule

Retrospective Custom Action

Retrospective Custom Action

Retrospective

Retrospective

AdaptiveWork: A Hybrid Solution for Agile Project Management and Beyond

If your organization exclusively undertakes agile software development projects, there may be more optimal solutions for your specific needs than AdaptiveWork. However, if your organization manages a diverse range of projects and desires to incorporate an agile approach where it fits best, then AdaptiveWork is highly suitable for offering a robust hybrid approach.

By leveraging its flexible features and mature project management capabilities, you can effectively combine traditional project management methodologies with agile practices, maximizing efficiency and achieving successful project outcomes.

At Kolme Group, we bring extensive experience working with Planview AdaptiveWork as a PPM tool. Our years of expertise have equipped us with the know-how to optimize this powerful tool for your enterprise company.

Our team can guide you through the configuration and customization process, ensuring the tool seamlessly aligns with your requirements. We offer a range of services that can help your organization leverage AdaptiveWork’s potential to the fullest, enabling you to implement a successful hybrid approach to project management.

In upcoming blog posts, we will delve deeper into the capabilities of AdaptiveWork, exploring how we can leverage its features, such as snapshots and time-phased data, to replicate common agile reporting metrics like burndown charts, velocity graphs, and cumulative flow diagrams. This will further enhance your organization’s ability to track progress, make data-driven decisions, and optimize project outcomes.

With Kolme Group’s expertise and support, Planview AdaptiveWork becomes an even more valuable asset for your organization’s agile workspace setup. Embrace the hybrid approach and harness the full potential of AdaptiveWork to drive your projects towards success. Contact us today and let our team guide you on your journey to agile excellence.

 

Work with Us

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Every Tuesday we round up the previous week’s top posts based on traffic, engagement, and a hint of…

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Every Tuesday we round up the previous week’s top posts based on traffic, engagement, and a hint of editorial curation. The typical week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, but don’t worry, we take into account posts that are published later in the week.

7 DEVs Writing Quality Content About Your #Career

@jmfayard recently shouted out 7 inspiring #career writers that you definitely need to check out. This kind of list could never really be complete, so add your favorite DEV writers in the comments of this amazing post!

Top 20 Must-Know Tips for Web Accessibility

This awesome post by @ismaestro aims to provide you with essential principles, practical advice, and examples for creating accessible websites. You’ll learn to create clear descriptions for images, explore the world of navigating using only the keyboard, and much more, so that everyone can browse your site like a pro!

Please Don’t Write Confusing Conditionals

Here, we’ll discuss with @somedood how confusing conditionals manifest in our code. Along the way, we also explore different refactoring techniques for improving the readability of conditional control flows.

The Magic of Empty Git Commit

Although seemingly counterintuitive, empty commits can offer valuable benefits for documentation, triggering automation. @pradumnasaraf demonstrates how to create and push an empty commit using Git.

A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide to NPM: Simplifying Package Management

This fully beginner-friendly guide from @abhixsh will take you through the fundamentals of NPM, providing you with a solid foundation for simplifying package management and streamlining your development process.

Real DOM, Virtual DOM, Shadow DOM, What’s the Difference?

It can be hard to keep your head straight between real DOMs and virtual DOMs and shadow DOMs, and how they all work together to create a clean, performant Document Object Model. Let’s dive in with @lyndsiwilliams!

Introduction to CSS Grid: A Comprehensive Guide

CSS Grid is a layout system that allows you to create complex, grid-based designs with ease. Here, we’ll explore the key concepts of CSS Grid with @joanayebola and demonstrate how to use it with practical code examples.

That’s it for our weekly Top 7 for this Tuesday! Keep an eye on dev.to this week for daily content and discussions…and be sure to keep an eye on this series in the future. You might just be in it!

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