The Beautiful Mess

Sunday morning musings… Team A writes a 1-pager as part of a heavyweight annual planning process. No 1-pager, no budget. Hurry! Hurry! The leadership team has a hundred 1-pagers to review! Be first in line! What have you got? Does this fall into investment bucket 1 or 2? Hurry!

Over the years, I have observed many instances of this situation: There is a general agreement about what great looks like. There is disagreement about the "root cause" or "problem definition." The team gets bogged down in analysis paralysis and political maneuvering or has a string of failed efforts to "fix" the problem and loses confidence. What's going on in some cases?

Here’s a list of potentially helpful questions (and multiple-choice answers) to help you explore the ideas, strategies, opportunities, problems, bets, initiatives, and projects on your roadmap. Some notes: Embrace uncertainty. Saying “I don’t know” is a great outcome.

RACI might be a good tool if you are experiencing one or more of the following dynamics and you lack the time (or support) to address these issues in other ways: People working in a workgroup, not a team People working together on a temporary/ad-hoc basis

I will be in Dublin, Ireland, this week: March 23rd—UXDX community event discussing product enablement principles. This event will be streamed everywhere. March 22nd—Industry discussing product mindset, sense, and thinking. If you're around, say hello!

Saying “we need to lower work in progress” is like saying “we should do less” (to people who aren’t versed in the underlying theory). It doesn’t go over well! Instead, it is better to talk about multi-tasking, context switching, plans going stale, and delaying delivering valuable things.

"Do you have any specific examples?" The question can be both helpful and triggering. Consider two examples: Performance Feedback: You're in a performance review situation, and your manager makes a broad statement like, "You need to slow down to bring other people along on the journey!" What do you do? Your chest tenses up, and you feel threatened. The broad, sweeping statement cuts deep. You ask, "Could you give me an example so I could better understand?"