P2P (1): What is Necessary Right Now?
I have been working on a toolkit that will help out with “program management”. I wanted to jot down some things that I’ve discovered along the way that I thought others may find useful.
As I wrote this first entry, I realized that I had more to say than I originally planned. Thus, I’ve decided to split these apart into the first series on this blog. “P2P” stands for “Product to Program”. But, I digress.
The largest piece here is knowing that, yes, while you are establishing a whole big vision and set of things that you know are really going to help out, make sure you are clear on what’s short-term and what’s long-term. This is especially true if you are in a small, start-up environment. The last thing that’s needed is lumbering process and unncessary steps / tools that are going to bog down development and cause people to feel constrained and generally crappy. Blech.
With that out of the way, I’ve found that starting off with a simple set of goals is the best way to go. Yes, they can be lofty, but within the understanding of all parties involved in creating and using the tools being constructed. The communication of these goals, and the inherent vision, gets everyone on the same page and working together (fingers crossed).
Once you know what you want to do, the items that follow are a little interpretive. That may sound like a cop out, but it’s not — there are plenty of things that can be done, but it depends on the situation at hand. As opposed to using a specific example, I figured going through a set of questions that have helped me could be interesting.
- What is necessary immediately?
This first one can mean many different things. From my experience, it usually relates to having a bunch of stuff going on that key folks within the organization are unaware of, but should know about? If so, the solution is simple: write down what’s being worked on - the key stuff — nothing that a developer hasn’t touched and is still six months down the pipe. List creation is fun; a summary of each task, which can come right from your defect tracking system, a percentage of completion, who owns the task, its priority, and estimated timelines.
To be honest, if it’s the first time you are implementing this in a company, the list will go a long way — both up and down the line — and help out day-to-day. However, it’s critical to remember that once you’ve started to execute, expectations have been set. You will need to continue to execute regularly. We’re not talking every single day, in a regimented “same bat time, same bat channel” type deal. Casually works best, every 2-3 days, chat with those that have priority tasks being worked on.
Next post is question 2: How is the workload handled?
Selecting From a Toolbox
I spent the last week diving into a new environment, and really getting my hands dirty. It was all fun, lots of having my nose to the grindstone. Just a set of great feelings, vibes, and people around me in general. It makes things all tons of fun, effortlessly.
In working through many of the tasks that I needed to, I realized that being able to pull from a personal toolbox is invaluable to performance.
What exactly is a “personal toolbox”? I define it as the materials, relationships, and experiences on which you can call on in order to conceptualize, envision, and ultimately, execute. While I’m still pretty young, I’m already feeling the effects of what I’ve been able to learn.
I won’t lie - there’s no way I’d define myself as seasoned / experienced or anything like that. There are those folks that do exist, but I’m not one of them. I’ve either read, been through, or seen everything that I currently know to this point.
So, I suppose my point is, if you are in a position right now where you don’t feel as though you are contributing or part of something exciting, take another quick glance around you. You may find that you are building an solid personal toolbox of your own, that will only continue to help.
Welcome to Flasche Gedanken
Flasche Gedanken, welcome and thanks for the link! Good luck on your blog, and thanks for reading!
Small Form Factor
I’ve written before on keeping things simple; it’s important, especially in a start-up. But there is an element beyond that, after things have been stripped away to the most basic — building what needs to be build.
Let’s take an example where standard status reports don’t exist.
Up front, it’s useless to start putting a huge, lumbering process in place that tracks all development projects going on, with schedule variance %’s, time tracking to measure a cost variance, and other things. What IS important, is saying, “here are all of the projects, here’s the priority of each one, and here’s some estimated start and end dates, as well as status info”.
Sounds simple, right? It is — there is nothing hidden in there. It’s as easy as creating this spreadsheet and getting updates for all those involved in each tracked project every 2-3 days. What does this accomplish? In addition to capturing great details, a much broader goal is also accomplished - transparency.
It’s critical that those involved in the operations of a business know what’s going on so things can be aligned. For example, start-ups can change direction or branch out into unexpected strategic avenues at the drop of a hat. For that reason, the priorities of those actually making a change possible must be aligned to ensure nothing is going overboard. Sorry, but I love this and think it’s really cool. Like writing a solid piece of code, it’s the excitement of starting to see things come together.
Yes, there is room for cool stuff to be done. Don’t get me wrong - I love cool stuff.
What does this have to do with Product Management? You may be thinking this is a Program Manager’s job. Well, I guess. But, Product Manager’s can just as easily serve in this capacity. I happen to like taking part because of the insight it provides, and you get to work with folks and hear any roadblocks that may be preventing them from finishing something. It’s not always important to be the champion of something, but at the very least understanding how it all works allows you to be more involved in the business and operations.
And at the end of the day, don’t most of us want that? Maybe it’s only for geeks (on both the tech and business side) like me; I’ve only encountered this scenario twice in my career now and that’s been the case both times.
But, I could be crazy…
Great Story
This is one of those stories that you can’t take your eyes off of. Kevin Smith has been chronicling the entire history of Jason Mewes and how he overcame his drug addiction.
I’ve been reading it intently and it’s up to the eigth part. Check it out. Even if you aren’t a Kevin Smith fan, the story is still very well written and in my opinion should be put into a book. Maybe we are seeing the script for the next Kevin Smith movie right before our eyes….
