When there is higher ambiguity, more importance is placed on processes.
Ambiguity in goals, priorities, or vision from leadership often reflects a systemic issue, forcing processes to emerge from the bottom up as a way to compensate for the lack of clear direction.
Good process serves you so you can serve customers. But if you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can happen very easily in large organizations. - Jeff Bezos
Empowering people isn’t about making them happy; it’s about trusting them to make better decisions than you.
Why not do the minimum effort now and expand later?
Lower the bar.
Get the MVP, draft, or idea out.
Being a leader, you might unintentionally hinder fast growth and change if you’re involved in too many discussions and decisions. Reluctance to delegate often comes from a fear of losing control. Instead of worrying about what you’re missing, focus on your role in the delegation process. Delegation isn’t rigid or black-and-white; here are seven flexible ways to approach it.
When delegating: Instead of thinking how you’ll miss out. Think about how you want to be involved.
Remember the mobile-first revolution? It changed how we design websites by focusing on essential features. Now, it’s time for a similar shift in data collection and analytics.
Once, desktop users ruled the web. Websites were feature-packed playgrounds. Mobile users got the short end of the stick with stripped-down “m.” versions. Then the mobile-first revolution hit. It prioritized mobile users and essential features, leaving the extras for desktop.
Today, data privacy laws like GDPR, CCPA and ePR have changed the game. We can’t hoard user data anymore. This new landscape calls for a “data-minimalist” approach. Collect only what’s necessary. Treat additional data as a luxury, collected only with user consent.
Tracking users from start to finish is over. Regulations demand a level of transactional anonymity. It’s like walking into a store. You browse, choose, and buy. No prying eyes. Only essential data points, maybe some context if the customer opts in.
In a world of limited data, we need to put User Experience and qualitative research in the spotlight again. UX isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. It’s about understanding user needs and behaviors with the data we can ethically collect. Qualitative research adds the human touch that numbers alone can’t capture.
AI comes into the picture here. It can analyze limited data sets and extract meaningful insights. Combine that with UX findings, and you get a complete view of what users really want and need.
It’s not just about less; it’s about better
The mobile-first revolution taught us to focus on essentials. Now, let’s apply that to data collection. As we adapt to new privacy norms, UX and qualitative research will become crucial. They’ll work alongside AI to help us create ethical, transparent, and user-friendly platforms. It’s not just about less; it’s about better.
We’ve all heard it: “Data is the new gold.” It’s a catchy phrase that highlights how valuable data has become. It highlights the immense value that data brings to businesses. But is ‘gold’ the best metaphor to describe the vast, dynamic potential of data? Let’s think about this a bit differently.
Gold is shiny, valuable, and always in demand. Much like data, right? But there’s a catch. Gold just sits there. It doesn’t grow or change. Data, on the other hand, has the potential to transform our businesses in amazing ways and this is where the gold analogy may fall short.
Imagine that we shift our perspective and compare data to seeds. Under the right conditions a seed can grow into a tall tree that bears fruits for years. Data holds a similar dynamic potential. A potential that can only be realized with the right nurturing.
Just as a seed needs soil, water and sun, our data needs tools, the right people and timely action. If we don’t use or analyze our data, it’s like letting seeds go unplanted.
Farmers know the importance of starting with high-quality seeds. Similar to data, garbage in means garbage out. If we start with unreliable data, our results won’t be trustworthy.
There are countless types of seeds, and each one grows a different plant. Similarly, each type of data tells its own unique story. By understanding what each set of data can offer, we can make the most of it.
Thinking of data as seeds gives a forward-looking view. It emphasizes nurturing, growth and realizing potential rather than mere storage. It’s a call to action: to not let our data sit idle but to cultivate it, nurture it and watch it flourish into strategies and insights.
The world of product management and organizational alignment has found its melody in Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). They’re designed to be our guiding score, ensuring every department and individual plays in tune with the company’s vision. Yet, as with any musical composition, there can be missteps or discordant notes. The key is recognizing these and adjusting for a harmony.
Using OKRs should be reminiscent of orchestrating a symphony. Each element, whether it’s an instrument or a goal, plays a part in creating a unified, captivating performance.
One, if not the most, important part of OKRs is to focus on what truly matters. If every department or team has its own objective, you are diluting the overarching company vision.
Imagine an orchestra where each section plays its distinct solo simultaneously. An overflow of objectives risks discord instead of harmony.
Going deeper, if each member charts their own course, the essence of collaboration and alignment is lost. OKRs should unify, not segregate and create isolated islands of individual goals.
It’s comparable to each musician playing their own tune. The outcome? A confusing mishmash of sounds.
It’s a misstep to think only in departmental silos. Cross-functional OKRs ensure that teams collaborate and break down walls. They push for a unity that’s essential for the larger vision and ensure that the organization’s various parts move cohesively.
If the woodwind section ignored the strings, the result would be disjointed. Collaboration across all teams is essential for a full, rich sound.
If all musicians only knew the finale, like reaching a C#, and then individually navigating there. Then set off to work towards that end note in whatever tempo and rhythm pattern they felt like. The performance would be erratic. Similarly, alignment discussions during the planning phase are crucial to ensure everyone is on the same page.
What if alignment occurred mid-performance? Each section would be on its own journey, but to reach that climactic crescendo, they’d need to synchronize both in tempo and their position within the piece. Alignment should be foundational, not an afterthought.
Envision a symphony dwindling from a full ensemble to solo drums. The music loses its essence. Similarly, in OKRs, the cascading model, where objectives trickle down layer by layer, risks distorting the primary goal. Instead, OKRs should be co-crafted, engaging every tier from the beginning.
In essence, the value of OKRs, much like a symphony, lies in alignment, cooperation, and clarity. They are the guiding script for an organizational magnum opus. If your organizational tune feels amiss, perhaps it’s time to fine-tune your OKRs.
Work at your own pace, according to your own schedule with no need to co-locate to be able to collaborate.
Without the pressure of “thinking on the spot” in meetings, you are able to think deeply and develop creative solutions.
Ideas, feedback and solution are documented in one single document
A tool such as:
Answer the questions above alone or with another person.
Share the document, ask for comments and set a deadline.
Done!
We’ve all been there, dreading this awful retrospective of a project or sprint gone completely off the rails. We probably learnt a lot, but the main gut feeling can be summarized in “Ouch”.
Running a successful retrospective in these situations can be somewhat challenging, especially if you want the team to continue being a team at the end of it.
Here are some important elements on how to run a retrospective that will not end in disaster.
Whether you have your retro in the morning, in the afternoon or late in the evening, people need to reset their heads to the retrospective. Maybe they’ve had a crazy commute, had to wait for lunch for 30 minutes and then wolfed it within 5 minutes.
Asking icebreaker question is an easy way fast way of resetting your mind. Some dislike them and think the icebreakers are a waste of time, even then, the moment they start to think about “how silly the icebreaker are”… that’s when it has done its magic. It made them focus their thoughts on something else.
Make the retro a safe place for improvement by stating that we believe and trust that everyone did the best they could with the information and knowledge they had at the time.
Every now and then I state the The Prime Directive written by Norm Kerth in his book Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Reviews.
Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.
This is one most important part of this retrospective. It is super easy to go into all things negative about a disastrous project, but by focusing on good and great achievements as a separate part of the retrospective we will have a record of what we experienced or learnt that felt important to the team.
Run an exercise writing stickies on the topic of everything good about the project.
Before we get going with the nitty gritty of the project we need to remind ourself of everything that was really good with the project, so that we do not forget it.
Let each member walk through their positive learnings from the project.
Group the stickies and ask the group to reflect on them and ask if there is anything that we need to add, again “so we don’t forget about it”.
With some positivity towards the project you can now run a usual retro, such as “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly”, “Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For” or “Keep, Add, More, Less”. But remember that there is no need to run “The positives” from those retros, since you’ve already asked for them.
Similar to the previous, let each member walk through their notes. Group and reflect. Are there any action points to bring forward to the next sprint or project?
Now you hopefully have a whiteboard full of notes. Positive learnings, bad experiences we don’t want again and things we can improve.
Summarize and end the session by stating: This was a challenging sprint/project, we are pretty awesome that pulled through it. Re-iterate the action points on what we can do to get better, and focus a bit on all the things we’ve that was good and great at the end.
In smaller companies and start-ups it is fairly common that everyone does everything and try to chip in to stay alive. CTO, CPO, Head of Product and Head of Engineering is probably even the same person.
As the company grows, the need for more clarified positions comes apparent. Someone that used to be Product Manager, Team Lead and Engineer now needs to focus fully on where they make most value and this opens up for others to fill their shoes with any of their other roles.
Filling the shoes of a previous multitasker can become quite tricky, since the people who depend on you could hold you responsible for many of the responsibilities the previous person had.
Enter the Roles and Responsibilities workshop to clarify this.
I’ve run a couple of different session’s of this workshop and it depends a bit on the attendees current roles. With plenty of people and many roles you try to dissociate the person from the role to identify the things they do, that probably needs to get done, but might not part of their role. With plenty of people with the same role you focus on what some people do in their role that others don’t.
Both of them is to clarify what is expected within your role and to clarify what else you do that is not part of it.
1. Add all names to a board.
Fairly simple, no explanation needed.
2. Take 10 minutes and write up everything that you feel you are responsible for
A lot of stress comes from uncertain responsibilities, things you think you are accountable to do but possibly don’t have a mandate to do.
3. Take 10 minutes to write up responsibilities that you think the others have.
Now it’s time for the other members to give their point of view of what is missing or needs highlighting.
4. Switch the names to the job title that person has
The twist comes when you dissociate the person with their role.
5. That should not be part of your role!
With the roles, instead of names, on top of the column the team goes through all notes and identify the odd responsibilities. Should they be part of that role? Should someone else do it?
Closing the session you identify next steps. How do you follow through on the changes in responsibility?
1. Add all names to a board
Yup, just do it.
2. Take 10 minutes and write up everything that you feel you are responsible for
A lot of stress comes from uncertain responsibilities. Things that you feel that you are responsible for but possibly not have a mandate to do.
3. Switch the names of the columns
Similar to plenty of people and many roles session there is a twist! Instead of changing the name to role, you change columns between you all.
4. That’s not part of my role!
Look at your new column. Do you think all of these tickets should be your responsibility? Or they part of something else that the previous owner has responsibility over.
Closing the session you identify next steps. How do you follow through on the changes in responsibility?
“With awareness come responsibility and choice” Amanda Lindhout
By being aware of what others think you are responsible for and setting the right expectations when you are not responsible, will make your life much easier.
And remember, that stuff still needs to get done and even though tasks might not be part of your role it still might be part of your job.