Breaking Silos In Product Development

In this talk, I look closer at the negative consequences of working with dis-empowered teams in what has also become known as the feature factory organization. I will show how the most innovative product companies of today seem to work very differently and talk about two examples from my personal career that have been very eye-opening in that regard. With this talk I hope to encourage people with an engineering background to make themselves more familiar with “state-of-the-art” product management to help make our software product companies more successful together.

Presented at the Paris.rb Ruby Conference, Feb 2020

Transcript

1. BREAKING SILOS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Raphaela Wrede February 2020, Paris.rb Conference
2. RAPHAELA WREDE ➤ Ruby developer ➤ Turned engineering manager ➤ From Berlin ➤ Currently working @contentful ➤ Previously @travisci, @babbel ➤ Part-time student of sociology and political sciences ➤ Lover of Berlin Currywurst but also Haute Cuisine Française
3. +
4. + =
5. TWO REAL-LIFE PROJECTS
6. PROJECT A Scene from movie „Wrong“ by Quentin Dupieux, 2012
7. PROJECT B Scene from movie „Apollo 13“ by Ron Howard, 1995
8. „ The difference in team engagement and the unfolding development process, was very noticeable and felt very eye-opening to me.
9. „ Project B was also a lot less risky because of very early user testing.
10. „ Unfortunately, most products are still built like in example A in the software industry.
11. „ Project B had felt so creative, empowering and engaging. Like a much more mature and elevated way of working together in a team.
12. „ How are the really great companies doing Product?
13. RESEARCH ON HOW INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS ARE BUILT
14. Product podcasts Product books Product blogs Product conferences Product Evangelists Product talks
15. „ There is a huge discrepancy between how the mediocre and the great product companies do Product.
16. HOW IS PRODUCT DONE RIGHT?
17. DISCLAIMER There is no silver bullet!
18. BUT: ➤ There are some principles and patterns that great product organizations seem to have in common.
19. BUT: ➤ There are some principles and patterns that great product companies seem to have in common. ➤ Interestingly, those companies can have pretty different company cultures. Makes great product culture Culture A Culture B
20. 4 PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES
21. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Distinction between Discovery and Delivery workstream
22. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Distinction between Discovery and Delivery workstreams ➤ Collect evidence to separate the good ideas from the bad
23. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Distinction between Discovery and Delivery workstreams ➤ Collect evidence to separate the good ideas from the bad ➤ Series of experiments using rapid prototyping to discover solutions
24. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Purpose: Address 4 critical risks asap ➤ Value risk: Will the user buy the product or choose to use it? ➤ Usability risk: Can the user figure out how to use it? ➤ Feasibility risk: Can we build it? ➤ Business viability risk: Does the solution work for our business?
25. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Purpose: Address 4 critical risks asap ➤ Value risk: Will the user buy the product or choose to use it? ➤ Usability risk: Can the user figure out how to use it? ➤ Feasibility risk: Can we build it? ➤ Business viability risk: Does the solution work for our business? (see also in „Inspired“ by Marty Cagan) (User research/Analytics) (Design/UX) (Engineering) (Business Analysts/Marketing/Sales/Market Research)
26. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 1. Product Discovery vs. Product Delivery ➤ Purpose: Address 4 critical risks asap ➤ Value risk: Will the user buy the product or choose to use it? ➤ Usability risk: Can the user figure out how to use it? ➤ Feasibility risk: Can we build it? ➤ Business viability risk: Does the solution work for our business? ➤ Not more than 1/3 of ideas should make it into Delivery !
27. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 2. Experimentation mindset ➤ Short and time-bound bets: How much are we willing to invest in a solution?
28. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 2. Experimentation mindset ➤ Short and time-bound bets: How much are we willing to invest in a solution? ➤ Measure success of shipped work
29. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 2. Experimentation mindset ➤ Short and time-bound bets: How much are we willing to invest in a solution? ➤ Measure success of shipped work ➤ Kill unsuccessful features
30. PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 2. Experimentation mindset ➤ Short and time-bound bets: How much are we willing to invest in a solution? ➤ Measure success of shipped work ➤ Kill unsuccessful features ➤ Learning through failure is seen as a success
31. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 3. Empowered and autonomous teams ➤ Problems (not work) assigned to teams
32. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 3. Empowered and autonomous teams ➤ Problems (not work) assigned to teams ➤ Techniques: User story mapping / Design sprints
33. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 3. Empowered and autonomous teams ➤ Problems (not work) assigned to teams ➤ Techniques: User story mapping / Design sprints ➤ Trust: Management trusts their teams
34. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 3. Empowered and autonomous teams ➤ Problems (not work) assigned to teams ➤ Techniques: User story mapping / Design sprints ➤ Trust: Management trusts their teams ➤ Cross-functional teams staffed with people of sufficient seniority and competence
35. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 4. Teams Equipped With Business Context ➤ Avoids creative chaos while guaranteeing team autonomy
36. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 4. Teams Equipped With Business Context ➤ Avoids creative chaos while guaranteeing team autonomy ➤ Teams are grouped around a customer-centric mission: ➤ A part of the user journey / customer personas
37. COMMON PRINCIPLES OF GREAT PRODUCT CULTURES 4. Teams Equipped With Business Context ➤ Avoids creative chaos while guaranteeing team autonomy ➤ Teams are grouped around a customer-centric mission: ➤ A part of the user journey / customer personas ➤ Some form of OKR system ➤ Alignment through high level objectives ➤ Outcome-oriented vs. output-oriented
38. DIFFERENT LANGUAGE & TERMINOLOGY Versus Project mindset Product mindset Feature factory Scrum Output-oriented Outcome-oriented Experimentation mindset Work assigned Problem assigned Top-down Collaborative Product discovery Mission-driven
39. DIFFERENT LANGUAGE & TERMINOLOGY Versus Project mindset Product mindset Feature factory Scrum Output-oriented Outcome-oriented Experimentation mindset Work assigned Problem assigned Top-down Collaborative Product discovery Mission-driven
40. DIFFERENT LANGUAGE & TERMINOLOGY Versus Project mindset Product mindset Feature factory Scrum Output-oriented Outcome-oriented Experimentation mindset Work assigned Problem assigned Top-down Collaborative Product discovery Mission-driven
41. DIFFERENT LANGUAGE & TERMINOLOGY Versus Project mindset Product mindset Feature factory Scrum Output-oriented Outcome-oriented Experimentation mindset Work assigned Problem assigned Top-down Collaborative Product discovery Mission-driven
42. „ As Engineers we should care and know more about how great products are built.
43. „ We are impacted heavily by how software products are built in our companies, today.
44. „ It does not really matter with what technology we are building unoriginal products.
45. „ T-shape yourself with some Product knowledge!
46. „We need to break silos between Engineering and Product to help make our product companies more successful together.“
47. „We need to level up our knowledge about state-of the-art Product Discovery and Management to reduce the huge chasm between the mediocre and the great product companies out there.“
48. THANK YOU! Find me on Twitter @raphaelawrede. Pour Hélène ❤
49. READ MORE HERE Inspired: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/inspired-2nd-edition/9781119387503/ Nimble Leadership: https://hbr.org/2019/07/nimble-leadership The Lean Startup: http://theleanstartup.com/book Sprint - How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days: https://www.thesprintbook.com Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, 3rd Edition: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Facilitator%27s+Guide+to+Participatory+Decision+Making%2C+3rd+Edition-p-9781118404959 User Story Mapping: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/user-story-mapping/9781491904893/ 12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory: https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory Shape Up - Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters: https://basecamp.com/shapeup How to build a generative engineering culture: https://changelog.com/posts/how-to-build-a-generative-engineering-culture