Get it right the FIRST TIME (1)
Part 1 - The problem
This is the first episode in a series of articles, that will address the question of defining products and planning their development. The two not only go hand in hand as we will see, but it is crucial to address both in unison to squeeze time to market, and boost teams productivity!
The Journey towards releasing a profitable product in the market is not linear. The process seems more like solving a puzzle with pieces that keep changing all the time!
Unfortunately, professionals and executives have developed a cognitive bias that deviation is inherent to complex projects, because unexpected obstacles are inevitable. They think that projects that meet timelines and budgets are only good in theory or in a utopian world.
THE SYMPTOMS
It is usually difficult to identify a root-cause problem, and we tend to address the superficial symptoms first. However, identifying those symptoms is a good step towards unveiling the deeper issues, and provide insight into what you need to improve or fix.
If you are the manager of a team or the founder of a business,
here are some symptoms you may want to observe around you,
or maybe you can see other examples:
Do you keep worrying about unexpected setbacks?
Do your teams often need to redo earlier “done” work.?
Do your teams need to work harder before a major release?
Do you trust the developers’ timelines and budget?
Do you avoid planning because it’s a waste of time, or just icky?
Do you have cynical team members?
Are you always on the pulse (micromanaging)?
Can you project with confidence your reports to management, board, or investors?
Are deviations in time and budget a recurring theme?
Can you generate consistent outcomes of quality and productivity?
Are you and your team clear on your next burning step or goal?
simple wins
There are relatively straightforward processes and project management techniques to keep development on time and on budget, Here are five activities I consider the most important ones:
1. Early discovery of risks and mitigations: I cannot express how crucial this is; if you never did it, approach a professional or a subject matter expert to guide you through it.
2. Set expectations: Including clear assumptions, goals, and milestones, as well as clear responsibilities, and coordination mechanisms.
3. Pursue clean progress: Ensure what’s done is done; by utilizing continuous integration, reviews, and Done definitions
4. Traceability: Measure your progress as you go, to ensure that you are completing everything needed. You’d be surprised how many times I coached teams that missed out features or forgot to address a risk! Moreover, traceability is tricky if you did not maintain the other points, especially clean progress.
5. Periodic maintenance and reports: Mostly projects planning and processes are set or reviewed at early stages of a project, then abandoned. Given the changing nature of projects this is a counter-intuitive behaviour; it is like setting your GPS and never using it along the journey!
Time and budget:
not the (main) problem
I believe that putting the main focus on time and budget is the wrong focus when discussing successful delivery of projects and overall time to market. A project completed on time on budget, does not necessarily create a product the market loves, or a product that ensures success of the business!
Teams and managers do the wrong thing by focusing their attention on improved tools, advanced development methodologies, and sophisticated performance measurements. Not that they shouldn’t, or because it’s not important, but because good process should not assume the main focus and become the distraction.
To make a point, the PMI pulse report (2018) indicated that underperforming teams generate x21 times(!) more waste than successful teams, for every dollar spent. I’ve never encountered a team that improved their performance by a factor of 20 (2,000%) through adopting a new methodology, I also don’t believe anyone advocates this is a possible improvement by adopting a new tool or framework at work, say because you move from Waterfall to Agile.
Communication breakdown!
In my experience pushing out 30 products and MVPs to market successfully, and helping many teams improve their focus and productivity, I noticed time after time that problems mainly occur for two reasons:
First, due to lack of communication.
Second, due to lack of the right type of communication.
Clearly, when discussing product development, we tend to immediately think about communication in terms of management styles and organisational culture, and these are crucial. This is what I call the connectedness measure in an organisation: how the span of communication is spread through the organisation.
Additionally, the other dimension to communication has to do with congruence. Do you discuss the superficial “tip of the iceberg” issues, or deeply immerse in each other’s considerations to find the proper win-win solutions, and thus develop a winning product?
Disruptive communications:
Bureaucratic: My manager will talk to your manager to discuss this
Doubt: The managers don’t know what they’re doing
Jargon: Fill the XYZ form before the TTT meeting
Blame: They should have done better
Condescending: It works for me
Dismissive: Why would anyone use it this way
And the list goes on: Cynical responses; Opinionated discussions; Praising outcome over effort; etc.
Disruptive Approaches and Beliefs:
Bad Luck (upon failure) and Good Luck (upon success)
There is no good time for a vacation
Keep your head down, and don’t suggest improvements
The process must be fixed to avoid these problems in the future
Focus on “what” and “how”, instead of “why” (teams are not encouraged to ask: why this plan, why this timeline, why these features, …)
And many more: Micromanagement, Champion individuals not teams, Commitment to plan over doing the right thing, ..
In the next blog I will discuss how communication in its both dimensions, connectedness and congruence can help teams better define products and plan their development.
Congruent and connected teams not only trust and understand each other, they can advocate for each other’s points of view. When we see the same problem, and come up with a suitable solution, the remaining discussion can then focus on tools and methodologies.
NEXT STEPS:
Observe:
The symptoms in your organisation, and what communication disruptions you have.
Don’t:
Accept the cognitive biases about what is “acceptable” and herd approach to waste and deviation in projects.
Do:
Discuss with your teams and prioritise what problems are hurting the most (hint: you can start with the 5 activities in this article)
Watch:
“Love the Problem” – Ash Maurya's 37 minutes video:
https://leanstack.com/series/talks?wchannelid=67zrf2d06u&wvideoid=dwluhzcgrm
