It's the Empathy, Stupid!

Bill Clinton had the campaign slogan “It’s the economy, stupid”. The underlying idea is that healthy economy is the groundwork for a healthy society.

Some of us forgot what the groundwork of a healthy organisation is. As agile and product missionaries we bothered our boards and C-levels with practices and methods we believed in. But we couldn't convince them. Instead, they were always talking about numbers, revenues and economic aspects. I must admit that I myself am guilty as charged.

Therefore, we must change the way we try to communicate with leaders, boards and C-levels. And empathy and economic thinking are corner stones for that. What does my counterpart want to achieve? What’s important for them? Who do they report to? What’s important for their bosses? What are they measured against? How can I connect my goals to theirs and argue based on economic facts?

This talk should help you to be more successful by making others successful.

Transcript

1. Konstantin Diener | konstantin.diener@cosee.biz Learn how to convince your leadership It’ the empathy, stupid!
2. https://t1p.de/aku0n
3. Konstantin Diener CTO and Co-Founder of cosee
5. 1. We won't be getting a license for XYZ. 2. Only a small part of the team is allowed to take part in Sprint Reviews. 3. Features from sales always win. 4. We’re not allowed to update dependencies, since there always are important features. Situations
6. How did you react?
8. How did we end up here?
10. But why?
11. Sender (you) Receiver (Leadership)
12. https://xkcd.com/2501
14. Maybe your manager has no clue about your domain (yet).
15. Kenneth Hopper, William Hopper The Puritan Gi f
16. How did you React?
18. Did that feel good?
19. Do you want to change it?
20. You have to change yourself first!
21. … in terms of how you communicate.
23. I have always been successful when I helped my bosses succeed. Christoph H., Team lead at a former customer of mine
24. What motivates the person you're talking to?
25. Board meetings are all about costs and revenue – and acquisitions. Silke Kanes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPk2teEBN00 (German)
26. Business people don’t understand sentences that lack a currency symbol. Rich Mironov
27. Revenue - Cost = Pro fi t
28. And that’s just fine!
29. The P in my P&L stands for freedom. Jason Fried
31. 1. Increasing revenues 2. Decreasing costs 3. Increasing new business and market share 4. Increasing revenue from existing customers 5. Increasing shareholder value Business goals
32. days to weeks weeks to months quarters to years
33. In order to convince your leadership …
34. … you must argue within their horizon …
35. … and you must use their language.
37. Revenue - Cost = Pro fi t
38. 1. We won't be getting a license for XYZ. 2. Only a small part of the team is allowed to take part in Sprint Reviews. 3. Features from sales always win. 4. We’re not allowed to update dependencies, since there always are important features. Situations
39. 1. We won't be getting a license for XYZ. 2. Only a small part of the team is allowed to take part in Sprint Reviews. 3. Features from sales always win. 4. We’re not allowed to update dependencies, since there always are important features. Situations
40. Revenue - Cost = Pro fi t
41. Costs (whole team participates) Costs (2 emissaries participate) 600 € 6 * 1h * 100 €/h 200 € 2 * 1h * 100 €/h
42. How will the rest of the team be informed?
43. 600 € 6 * 1h * 100 €/h 650 € 6 * ¾ h * 100 €/h Costs (whole team participates) Costs (2 emissaries participate)
44. What happens to questions they raise?
45. Cost (zwei Vertreter) 600 € 6 * 1h * 100 €/h 750 € 2 * ½ h * 100 €/h Costs (whole team participates)
46. 1. We won't be getting a license for XYZ. 2. Only a small part of the team is allowed to take part in Sprint Reviews. 3. Features from sales always win. 4. We’re not allowed to update dependencies, since there always are important features. Situations
48. In Q3, we aim to acquire 15% new customers. Pick-Up and Drop-O ff are quite problematic. I didn’t know that ride sharing is cheaper. Compare prices You save X euros using ride sharing … Deutsche Bahn is too expensive. I don’t feel safe. I didn’t know ride sharing yet. SEA
49. You: The „You save X euros using ride sharing“ feature will increase conversion by 15%.
50. Sales: A display-ad feature will increase monthly revenue by 30k €!
51. Revenue - Cost = Pro fi t
52. „you save …“ (from your team) 30.000€ per month ? per month display-ads (from sales)
53. But we are very convinced!
54. <growth of customer base> * <Ø cost per trip> * <fee>
55. 20.000 (additional rides) * 25 € (ø cost per trip) * 0,12 % (fee) = 60.000€
56. „you save …“ (from your team) 30.000€ per month 60.000 € per month display-ads (from sales)
57. Where do all these numbers come from?
58. Scientific wild-ass guess (SWAG) is an American English slang term meaning a rough estimate made by an expert in the field, based on experience and intuition. It is similar to the slang word guesstimate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_wild-ass_guess
59. Sales is doing it exactly like that either.
60. 1. We won't be getting a license for XYZ. 2. Only a small part of the team is allowed to take part in Sprint Reviews. 3. Features from sales always win. 4. We’re not allowed to update dependencies, since there always are important features. Situations
61. We must update dependencies. It’s important !!!!!
62. Revenue - Cost = Pro fi t
63. How can we attach a number to that?
64. <# vulnerability> * <harm in €> * <likelihood>
65. If we don't update these libraries, we risk penalties of up to 2 million euros.
66. loss aversion is a cognitive bias in cognitive science and behavioral economics in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. Wikipedia
68. These topics are above my pay grade!
70. In the age of AI coding becomes less important …
71. … while creating value for the company becomes more important.
72. Matt LeMay in „Impact-first Product Teams“ Quantitatively, team goals should be no more than one mathematical operation away from company goals.
73. Value Assessment Discuss a real example! Do you have an issue convincing your management? Want to clarify your team’s value/contribution? There are 3 free assessments, grab one soon! ✅ ✅ ✅
74. • Leaders are (almost) exclusively interested in revenue and costs. • Find out what’s important for your leader. • Your argumentation must always base on profit growth or cost savings. • Tell stories within their horizon. • Use SWAG. Everybody else is doing it either way. • Always think about loss aversion. cheat sheet
75. konstantin.diener@cosee.biz Konstantin Diener Bildnachweise: inks: Maximilian Kanfanke, Maximalfocus Photography