All the Rules have Changed!

A Wakeup Call for Product Development within the Enterprise

I facilitated a working session recently with a team of executives from one of the largest media companies in the world.

They were in the process of planning their 2011 product roadmap and asked Appfire to make a presentation focused on the introduction of Agile and a supporting set of ALM tools. Each of their respective management teams had already selected and budgeted for the full Atlassian suite of tools. The teams also reinforced that the introduction of these tools was their #1 initiative for 2011.

A recommendation was provided to the executive team that they speak with Appfire in order to understand "Why?".

I started the session by handing each participant one of 10 giant-sized index cards. I asked everyone to read the card they where handed, then to pass each card to the person sitting to their right until everyone had read every card. As each card reached the last attendee, I hung it on the wall next to the presentation.

During my Atlassian Pilgrimage this past year, I threaded the same content into many of my tweetups. It traveled with me on 10 mini index cards wrapped in a big rubber band. I'm always looking for ways to help an audience retain the data that's being presented. A good rule of thumb is that people will typically remember about 20% of what's presented when using standard audio / visuals. However, I always like to try for a higher percentage by adding the interactive impact of tangible items like these cards.

The Rules have Changed.

Each card presented one of the following statements:

•  The product world has transformed and will never be the same.
  
  
• The way business is conducted, the way products are launched, ...the rules have all changed.
   
• Market pressures and the overall business climate have made it difficult to justify the investment levels necessary to support long product development schedules.
  
  
• In order to remain competitive as a business the time from inception to market must be significantly reduced, and you need to become far more accurate with your results.
  
  
• You will be critically judged by stakeholders at every stage.
  
  
• Resources will never again be truly dedicated to a single project.
  
  
• You need to work with what you have, and constantly streamline your processes.
  
  
• You no longer really have a title, nor do you feel like you have a clear set of roles and responsibilities for yourself or your team.
  
  
• You find yourself working harder. You used to put in more hours to get ahead, now you're doing it just to keep up.
  
  
• At times you feel overwhelmed and wonder how you're expected to produce a quality product under these circumstances.

After all the cards made their way up to the wall, I read each one aloud. I then asked if those were some of the top issues they were currently facing? A resounding "YES" filled the conference room.

Then one executive turned to me and asked: "How did my competitors answer?". Everyone laughed. (Ironically that very question, which was posed by a key executive, represents a fundamental problem that I believe is impeding many product development teams within big business today. I'll be blogging more about that in the weeks to come.)

Adjusting to the New Rules

As the three hour session continued, I explained how Appfire firmly believes these challenges can be addressed with the addition of proper tooling, and the combination of adjustments made to existing methodologies and human behaviors within your organization. I also advised that their future successes will be dependent on their ability to:

1. Make immediate adjustments in the way they operate day-to-day
2. Work transparently
3. Set proper expectations within their organization and make schedules more predictable
4. Hold yourself and your team accountable for the commitments you make
5. Introduce a level of traceability throughout your process

Fortunately, the Atlassian tools do a fantastic job of providing support around each of these. It's why this company's collective management teams had selected the products in the first place.

The session closed with the executives asking if they could keep the 10 large cards.

Maybe I found a way to beat the 20% retention rule after all.

The Magic of Cards.