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Author: estebanf

  • Long term product management

    Everybody loves to innovate. The excitement of envisioning and creating a new product is what drives us in this space. But longevity matters and it will not happen if you do not aim for it. It takes discipline and commitment from the whole organization to be able to evolve a product in a sustainable way.

    Here are 4 core principles to follow if your product will survive the test of time.

    Processes matter

    As the team grows and the feature list of your product gets larger, there will be a natural tendency to chaos. It will be easy to justify doing things in a messier way. Focus is critical, not only on growth but on those qualities that are most important to have.

    Identify the core qualities that the drove the creation of the product. Put in place enough steps to ensure alignment to those core principles.

    Justify changes.

    You need to be able to answer why something must change. Every idea needs to pass enough challenges to justify getting done. It might be easy to change the UI or add a new library, but you need to ensure that it should get done.

    Test every idea or change to see if they will pass a budget challenge: If you could only afford one, is this it?

    Quality is a commitment.

    Setting the bar high is the pillar for a quality product. It starts with the feature definition. Each one of them needs to be defined and redefined as many times as needed to ensure that the capabilities and experience it delivers has high standard. Keep the high expectations through the whole development. It is better to take the cost of removing a feature that is not up to par than compromising the product quality.

    Technical debt will come back and haunt you.

    Be willing to take a step back and test where your product is. Get in the habit to carving out time to pay down technical debt from your innovation efforts. The opposite will faster than expected erode your product and become unmanageable.

  • Getting EA beyond tactical

    Making EA programs strategic is often a challenge for enterprise architecture teams. Often organizations fail to embrace with EA as an influencer across the enterprise.

    Here are 5 questions to ask yourself to find out if your EA team is heading in the right direction:

    What are the steps to increase the organization EA maturity?

    Even if you know where you are weak, a CMM-based EA maturity model may not be enough. It will take well identified ordered steps addressing those weaknesses to find a place in the strategic plans.

    Are EA goals aligned with the Business Architecture plans?

    Systems reuse, modernization or simplification need a 1 to 1 correspondence with the BA tactical plans to become part of the strategic planning.

    How are you representing the IT planning model?

    The focus is on the services that IT provides. An effective IT planning model will ingrate technology architecture, software delivery and value key indicators with strategy management and business architecture. But a model that can influence the strategic planning will present itself in a way that highlight how will support and enhance services providing from IT.

    Is your delivery organized in business areas?

    A well-thought delivery plan with high chances of success is organized by business areas and prioritizes those that will receive most support from the leadership.

    Are you engrained with the project’s operations?

    A disconnection between the project management office and the EA team encourages a silo mentality. Instead, a successful approach is to ensure EA guidelines and goals can be represented across the active and pipeline of projects. Achieving this dynamic requires a close relationship between business architects, project managers and the enterprise architecture team.

     

     

     

  • Boss management

    When it comes to organizations, success and failure are hereditary. There are caveats, but it is in your best interest to take care of the chain of command above you. Managing up is as important as being a trusted leader for your direct reports.

    These are a few ideas that you can incorporate today.

    It is all about what they care the most.

    What does your boss want and need? What lenses does he/she use to evaluate work? Identify that focus and tap it. Make sure to present your work and achievements with what matter the most.

    It is tempting to focus on your own problems but finding how you can solve your boss’s problems is key. Find what can you take off their plate so they can focus do more of what they value.

    Nobody likes surprises.

    Better be the one that over-communicates that the one that drops the bomb. It may feel like you are bugging others with constant, timely communication, and that is ok. By offering a constant stream of updates, you are letting your boss decide what to do with it. You are giving a choice to either act or sit on it.

    Hail Mary plays are for football. At the first sign of risk be upfront and communicate without filters. Anything left unmanaged will most likely escalate. Bring up to speed your boss and other stakeholders early!

    Embrace feedback.

    Listen and pay attention to all feedback, even when it is not verbal. Pay special attention to constructive criticism. Always assume good intentions and not a personal attack. Try to understand what your manager is struggling with. Understand what they want you do different and take steps adjust as possible.

    When feedback is positive there is only one appropriate response: “Thank you”. Let them deliver the praise, do not interrupt, contradict, or minimize their feedback.