Michael Robinson

Implementing a process in an organisation that doesn't like processes

A personal view

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Michael Robinson

Setting the scene...

• Start-up company

• Growth from success of initial product

• However with new products...

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Second Product

Syndrome

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We need a product manager!

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... and you get the job

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Who you may encounter• The Hippo

• The Zebra

• The Prophet of Doom

• The Goldfish

• The Lemming

• The Bad Pirate

• Jeremy Clarkson

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The HippoHighest

Paid Person's Opinion

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The ZebraZero

Evidence But

Really Arrogant

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The Prophet of Doom

The world will come to an end if we don't implement <insert feature here> immediately

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The GoldfishOpinion on product strategy comes from last customer

meeting

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The Lemming<Competitor name> has this feature, we must have it too!

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The Bad PirateInspired by Steve Jobs "It's better to be a pirate

than join the navy"

Hasn't found much treasure recently but has almost sunk

the company's ship...

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Jeremy Clarkson

How hard can it be?

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...and none of them are that keen on process

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Culture eats strategy (and process) for breakfast

Understand culture and people before worrying about process

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For example...

• A Hippo (company CEO) thinks process slows everything down...

• ... but is more worried about:

• lack of visibility and control

• being too reliant on a few key individuals

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Techniques

• Fight opinions with data

• Transparent prioritisation

• Deflection

• Build Allies

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Fight Opinions with Data

• Search out and make friends with the people who can provide you data

• Get perspective from multiple customers

• Even if information is qualitative, quantify it

• Use stories and pretty pictures as well

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Transparent Prioritisation

• "Democratic" contributions to backlog / ideas list

• Maintain backlog / roadmap with rational approach to prioritisation and resource allocation

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Deflection

• Choose your battles

• Buy time to do your job

• Allows considered response based upon data and rational impact to roadmap

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Build Allies

• Culture beats strategy

• Leverage others' expertise to shape priorities

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And now to process...

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Pick a process, any process, there are lots to choose from…

Source: 280 group

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The Reality

• Strip the process down and focus on the essentials

• Minimal set of checklists & simple templates

• Decision makers and decision making forum

• You'll need tools to manage the process... but don't expect anyone else to use them!

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Michael Robinson

Summary

• Understand people and culture before worrying about process

• Transparent and rational decision making

• Simplify everything

Need to find suitable graphic

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