Going by the book and failing at Weblica

How do you support the exponential growth of your product without the exponential growth of your teams?

Portfolio management, Wardley mapping, and Domain-Driven Design are effective ways to “do more with the same” in fast-growing organizations, but going by the book won’t guarantee the intended outcome.

Join this session to learn why you need 9 allies, as well as many other things, to introduce these ideas in fast-growing organizations.

#WardleyMapping #DomainDrivenDesign #PortfolioManagement #Strategy

Transcript

1. huizendveld.com #weblica Going by the book and failing
2. huizendveld.com “Nothing is quite so useless as doing with great e ff i ciency what should not be done at all” — Peter F. Drucker #weblica
4. Marijn Huizendveld My company helps leadership teams at fast growing organizations accomplish more with the people that produce their software. marijn@huizendveld.com marijn.huizendveld.com
5. huizendveld.com #weblica If you have less then 5 teams…
6. huizendveld.com #weblica If you are new to Domain-Driven Design or Wardley Mapping…
7. huizendveld.com #weblica If you are interested in the mechanics of the techniques presented…
8. huizendveld.com …talk to me after this presentation #weblica
10. huizendveld.com TL,DR; #weblica
11. huizendveld.com Mechanical application of a technique without getting the intended result Going by the book and failing: #weblica
12. huizendveld.com Examples ✓ Lift and shift of old design to new stack instead of remodeling it ✓ Refactoring code instead of selling to 1st customer ✓ Accommodating dependencies instead of reducing them #weblica
13. Wh y d o e s t h i s h a p p en ?
14. huizendveld.com #weblica 👥 Social, 📦 physical, and 🤑 fi nancial Reasons are…
15. huizendveld.com People take the path of least resistance 1. Social #weblica
16. huizendveld.com Constraints limit possibilities 2. Physical #weblica
17. huizendveld.com Individuals act in their own interests 3. Financial #weblica
18. huizendveld.com “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old” — Peter F. Drucker #weblica
19. Re a d y fo r t h e t ric k?
20. huizendveld.com #weblica In theory
21. huizendveld.com The SolutionTM ✓ Wardley Mapping: Gain situational awareness ✓ Domain-Driven Design: Shift boundaries ✓ Portfolio Management: Constrain work in progress #weblica
22. huizendveld.com #weblica Theory ≠ Practice
23. huizendveld.com #weblica In Practice
24. huizendveld.com #weblica
25. huizendveld.com #weblica 🗺 Visualize problems, 👩⚖ decide, and 🔁 iterate Deal with reality
26. huizendveld.com Basically do what any techy does, just higher up in the stack #weblica
27. huizendveld.com #weblica It is hard to surrender to the constraint
28. huizendveld.com “It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently” — Tony Robbins #weblica
29. huizendveld.com It’s a life long journey, enjoy the view #weblica
32. huizendveld.com #weblica Constraints
34. huizendveld.com Constraints 🔩 High back-pressure limits ability to put the screw back 🪣 Bucket does not fi t below the radiator to collect water 💦 Volume of water retained in the system will all spray out #weblica
35. huizendveld.com The value gained or lost by our actions depends on the situation we are in. #weblica
36. huizendveld.com #weblica Until the leaking stops it is pointless to recon fi gure the broken radiator.
37. Wha t is a co ns t rai n t?
38. huizendveld.com The rock in a downhill stream that obstructs the fl ow of water Constraint: #weblica
39. huizendveld.com 🏳 Surrender to the constraint 🏳 #weblica
40. huizendveld.com If water is leaking onto the fl oor then it is rather self-evident. But less when it is an issue at work. #weblica
42. huizendveld.com #weblica A simple example
43. Are you s at i s fi ed wi th yo ur da il y s t and -up meet in g ?
44. huizendveld.com #weblica Average stand-up meeting
45. huizendveld.com Constraints 🤓 Available knowledge to act on steps to be taken ⏳ Available time to work towards the outcome #weblica
46. huizendveld.com #weblica Do it tomorrow → Only share something when your con fi dence changed Tip:
47. huizendveld.com #weblica Stand-ups ✓ People resist change so they don’t modify format ✓ Stand-up often fails to alleviate constraints ✓ Done to keep boss happy to guard self-interest
49. huizendveld.com #weblica A real example
50. huizendveld.com Imagine a CTO and a CFO of a fast growing company… #weblica
51. huizendveld.com Lack of situational awareness leads to painful situations when the market evolves #weblica
52. © Lukas Medvedevas
53. huizendveld.com Prioritizing the emerged situation is of little help, Because if lots of things receive priority, then nothing receives priority #weblica
54. huizendveld.com #weblica
55. © Ketut Subiyanto
56. huizendveld.com 🌈🦄 🌈🦄 🌈🦄
57. huizendveld.com The devil is in the details
58. huizendveld.com Constraints in the landscape limit what can or what cannot be done #weblica
59. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Billing Add-on Usage Service offering Subscription Growth hacking Price experiments Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
60. huizendveld.com Situational awareness increases constraint awareness #weblica
61. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Billing Add-on Usage Service offering Subscription Growth hacking Price experiments Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
62. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Billing Add-on Usage Service offering Subscription Growth hacking Price experiments Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
63. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Usage Service offering Growth hacking Price experiments Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
64. huizendveld.com #weblica Direct dependency on Billing-as-a-Service
65. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Billing Add-on Usage Service offering Subscription Growth hacking Price experiments Anti-Corruption Layer Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
66. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Usage Service offering Growth hacking Price experiments Anti-Corruption Layer Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
67. huizendveld.com #weblica Needs an intervention by management
68. huizendveld.com Use Wardley Mapping to ✓ Gain situational awareness ✓ Identify constraints ✓ Iterate on strategy #weblica
69. huizendveld.com Going from a paper reality to implementation is real work #weblica
70. huizendveld.com Align systems to the value stream and surrender to the constraint #weblica
71. huizendveld.com #weblica Ple as e re ser v e ve hic l e Res erva ti on Sy s t em Veh icle wa s re ser v ed Mak e a m o de l tha t h i d e s com p l e x i t y
72. huizendveld.com #weblica Refactoring works, but it also takes time
73. huizendveld.com Shift boundaries in due time with high-quality engineering
74. describe('Please reserve vehicle', () = > { test('Vehicle is available', async () = > { return (new CommandHandlingScenario<AnyReservingEvent, AnyReservingCommands>()) .given( aVehicleEnteredOperation() .with('vehicle', 'NL : GHC-12-A') .andWith('vehicleClass', 'long distance trips') .toObject() ) .when({ _named: "Please reserve vehicle!", vehicle: 'NL : GHC-12-A', reservedBy: "customer:11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111", when: ZonedDateTime.of( LocalDateTime.parse("2024-11-02T20 : 19 : 52"), ZoneId.of("UTC+2") ) }) .then({ _named: "Vehicle was reserved", vehicle: 'NL : GHC-12-A', vehicleClass: 'long distance trips', reservedBy: "customer:11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111", when: ZonedDateTime.of( LocalDateTime.parse("2024-11-02T20 : 19 : 52"), ZoneId.of("UTC+2") ) }) .assertScenario(runAssertionOnDecider(decider)); }); });
75. huizendveld.com Surrender to the constraint
76. huizendveld.com #weblica 🗺 Be conformist, ➡ change needs There are di ff erent ways to surrender to the constraint or 🫳 alleviate the constraint
77. huizendveld.com “Once you eliminate your number one problem, number two gets a promotion” — Gerald M. Weinberg #weblica
78. huizendveld.com Use DDD to ✓ Hide problems behind abstractions ✓ Shift boundaries in due time with high-quality engineering ✓ Surrender to the constraint #weblica
79. huizendveld.com #weblica Billing & Subscription Management ✓ Least resistance change is introducing an ACL ✓ Constraint remains, price changes require techies ✓ Management wil preserve their intervention budget ✓ Leadership will fi nd out when it is too late
81. huizendveld.com #weblica Portfolio management
82. huizendveld.com Organizations have limited resources but in fi nite ideas to improve. Portfolio management is the process to resolve this tension by picking and evaluating initiatives that yield results. #weblica
83. huizendveld.com Organizations have limited resources but in fi nite ideas to improve. Portfolio management is the process to resolve this tension by picking and evaluating initiatives that yield results. Organizations have limited resources but in fi nite ideas to improve. Portfolio management is the process to resolve this tension by picking and evaluating initiatives that yield results. #weblica
84. huizendveld.com “Yet another thing we have to do, on top of agile, OKRs, 360 reviews, etc., etc., etc.” – anyone #weblica
85. huizendveld.com #weblica You are already doing it, perhaps not intentionally
86. huizendveld.com Constraints alleviation should drive sequencing of initiatives in portfolio management #weblica
87. Visibility Genesis Custom Build Product (+ rental) Commodity (+ utility) 2020 Company Grow revenue Billing Add-on Usage Service offering Subscription Growth hacking Price experiments Billing as a Service Component Pipeline Anchor Line of the present Needs Line of the future Future component
88. huizendveld.com #weblica Surrounding teams and initiatives need to subordinate to the change
89. huizendveld.com Use portfolio management to ✓ Allocate resources to initiatives with better chances to succeed ✓ Sequence the work based on constraints ✓ Limit work in progress to prevent overloading the organization #weblica
90. huizendveld.com #weblica In Practice
92. huizendveld.com “In portfolio management you are either grieving or lying to yourself” – Romeu Moura #weblica
93. huizendveld.com #weblica © Binyamin Mellish
94. huizendveld.com #weblica Leadership Management Team Engineering Product Business
95. huizendveld.com “Between you and me… We are really bad at this” - Any of your nine allies #weblica
96. huizendveld.com Praying… in the form of plans #weblica
97. huizendveld.com “We have a strategy” - Any of your nine allies #weblica
98. huizendveld.com Mistaking… ❌ Plans for strategy ❌ Scrum rituals for agility ❌ Saying for doing ❌ Patterns for design ❌ Consensus for success ❌ Output for outcome #weblica
99. huizendveld.com Deal with reality ✓ Make problems visible: in portfolio management ✓ Make tough decisions: be human, but clear and decisive ✓ Iterate on implementation: adjust strategy ongoing #weblica
100. huizendveld.com Basically do what a techy does, just higher up in the stack
101. huizendveld.com #weblica This is the organizational equivalent of going to the gym
102. huizendveld.com #weblica Dreams © Binyamin Mellish
103. huizendveld.com #weblica Reality
104. huizendveld.com Final words
105. huizendveld.com #weblica
106. huizendveld.com Portfolio Management o ff ers a structure to be a good manager #weblica
107. huizendveld.com “A manager’s task is di ff i cult, but simple: […]” – Scott Galloway #weblica
108. huizendveld.com “[…] allocate fi nite capital to generate a greater return than their peer group gets” – Scott Galloway #weblica
109. huizendveld.com #weblica Surrender to the constraint 👀 Make problems visible: in portfolio management ⚖ Make tough decisions: be human, but decisive 🔁 Iterate on strategy: adjust ongoingly
110. huizendveld.com Continue your learning 🔗 Conway’s Law Doesn’t Apply to Rigid Designs by Verraes 🔗 Wardley Maps by Wardley 🔗 The Anatomy of DDD by Millett 🔗 Antifragile by Taleb #weblica
111. huizendveld.com #weblica Did you like this presentation? Tell your friends Tell your boss Tell the internet
112. Design for tomorrow, bene fi t today Learn how ANN helps you design executable speci fi cations that can be implemented, and deployed with the click of a button. Meet me for a demo. tryitwithann.com