I have had the opportunity of being part of scores of programs till date. However a recently completed program to develop a product for operation users takes the cake for being one of the best executed. The product was delivered in 11 months starting from conceptualization to production launch. It won exceptional reviews from sponsors and other stakeholders for the efficiency with which it was delivered. It was adopted by thousands of users in record time supporting a high volume of throughput. I have endeavored to summarize the key factors which made this program a success.
To get the basic out of the way, we followed the agile methodology for product delivery. Let me say it is a hybrid approach before the Agile evangelists vent out their ire on me. We leveraged the gems of Agile methodology like the delivery in shorter sprints, sprint reviews, backlog refinement etc. But we also had a dedicated team of quality analysts who were responsible for vetting the product before the release. And had milestones to achieve and deadlines to meet, which quite frankly, can never be wished away. And there were other processes that will be highlighted here which does not fit the Agile descriptions. Agile or not, the objective was to deliver and deliver well in a transparent manner.
The 5 factors which proved to be critical in the delivery were:
1) Clarity of purpose – “Clarity is power – The more clear you are about exactly what it is you want, the more your brain knows how to get there.” – Anonymous
From start to end we ensured that we were clear in what was required to be delivered. The program sponsor clearly laid out the objective of the program right at the beginning. The epics and stories that mapped to the overall objective was identified early. And these stories were constantly reaffirmed and shared with all sponsors, stakeholders, product, technology and testing teams. This helped creating a shared vision and understanding with everyone involved. The path to completion was well laid out through a set of stories.
2) Transparency – No product ever gets delivered by an individual alone. The iPhone was not delivered by Steve Jobs alone. He had an army of people working behind the scenes.
The problem with having an army of people is that confusion can creep in easily. And matters get worse when the teams and stakeholders are spread across multiple geographies. To avoid this and ensure there is transparency on the progress and target delivery, a governance process was created. There were two meetings set every week for managing every aspect of the delivery. The meetings focused on reiterating the target deliveries, refining the stories, demonstrating the work completed and highlighting the risks and issues. Every meeting was religiously attended by the primary sponsor, key operation stakeholders/representatives and team members from product, UX, technology and quality.
There were no silo talks, no hidden agendas, no cross talks. All updates and every discussion topic including risks and issues were tabled in these meetings. This resulted in transparency throughout the program and built trust among everyone involved.
3) Collaboration – “Collaboration equals innovation” – Michael Dell
Collaboration,in a way, was a by-product of transparent process that was followed. When every aspect of the product build process is clear as water, every participant knows exactly where his/her role starts and ends. There was mutual trust among participants and the trust translated into expressing openly and freely.
Collaboration provided us with great insights and suggestions from the participants. Individuals and teams were comfortable expressing ideas, issues, criticisms and suggestion. Every point was taken on its merit and resolved/incorporated.
It also ensured that each team had a clear idea and ownership of their responsibilities. This was very important. You can see the merits of collaboration when there is a seamless input/output from all teams involved
4) Be aware of the limitations – When we started with the product build, we were very clear about the limitations around which we need to work. For the start, the platform that we were building on had some inherent challenges. Deep knowledge of the platform enabled us to clearly articulate what was feasible and what was not. This meant that some of the wishful thinking and aspirational requirements had to be parked. The user experience input was considered for every requirement delivered. But due to platform challenges, we parked the idea of creating a visually stunning product for subsequent deliveries. The target was to deliver a minimum viable product which will solve a user problem and lead to adoption.
And we could deliver on the target by being aware of the limitations.
5) Swift Decision Making – ” Courage and Confidence are what decision making is all about” – Mike Krzyzewski
During the entire journey, the factor which helped greatly was quick decision making. As with any project, there were hundreds of instances where decisions had to be made on the go. These decisions were related to requirement, architecture, resources, testing, risks, issues,scope etc. The key sponsor and functionality expert, a very experienced and senior operations head, was spontaneous with the scope and requirement decisions. The leads from the product, technology and testing were empowered to take well deliberated yet fast decisions. And the factors that facilitated decision making are the 4 factors – Clarity of Purpose, Transparency, Collaboration and Awareness of Limitations- mentioned above.
These were the factors which helped us deliver a fit for purpose product on time and to stakeholder’s satisfaction. The product is helping thousands of users go about their work in a more efficient and organised way. And they are loving it. Now we are diligently working to deliver upgrades based on user feedback and next round of stories. And as we work on the upgrades, we continue to keep the 5 factors at the heart of the delivery.
ProductSME 