issue 20 - week of january 15, 2024

Editor’s Note

Happy belated MLK Day, Fam!

Short note today.

In today’s issue, you’ll see the musings of me trying to stop answering the same questions every time we discuss the delivery of digital products and services.

Make sure you check out the rec’s section for a new AI project management assistant that’s available for use! #coolstuff

As this community grows, I would love to hear more from you! You’ll see a nice call to action to reply to this email with any resources or recommendations you want to share.

I appreciate all of you on this journey with me.

Until next Wednesday,

Phedra, Founder at HCPM

this week’s picks

recs for your delivery goals - uncommon sources with nuggets of wisdom

1. 📺 Watching: A good reminder on critical path identification for project and program leads. In all the Agile fun, people get caught up in ceremonies, story points, and planning - but what’s the path to done (or even completing a milestone)? Roadmaps are typically fairy tales & backlogs are often poorly managed. Sometimes, it takes old-fashioned 👵🏽 technical approaches to project management to get the team on the right track. Hoping this helps steer conversations back to delivery.

2. 🎧 Listening: It is mind-boggling to me how many PMO leaders don’t believe in portfolio management. Folks rarely invest in the appropriate software (it’s not Atlassian) nor monitor any metrics above iteration velocity. If you want to help steer organizational goals, this podcast is a good reminder of how portfolio management can drive impact at your company.

3. 📚 Reading: The Law of Success. Napoleon Hill is known for “Think and Grow Rich”, but I prefer this book because it’s more about frameworks. Not only do I like the references to making a $40/month salary in the 1920s (what a time to be alive), but 100 years later I love his takes on the importance of tolerance, cooperation, going above and beyond, learning from failure and tons of other lessons for work and life.

4. Trying out: Need an AI-powered personal assistant trained in the best project management practices? PMOtto.ai is in beta and has been trained on thousands of published writings (with approval) to make project management more accessible to everyone. The next iteration will include all corporate documents, methods, past project data, financial information, performance measurements, OKRs, on the top of our knowledge base available on OpenAI. #cantwait

Have a recommendation? Send it to: [email protected].

feature: is there a blueprint for delivery?

To be honest, Idk. Not the answer you were looking for.

I’m trying to define one for digital products & services. Maybe it could apply to other endeavors.

However, there are so many competing ideas about delivery. Is it Scrum, SAFe, or dual-track agile? When do design sprints make sense? And by Beyonce - who is accountable for it all? Is it Product? Program? Engineering? Or Cross-functional leadership? How would that even work b/c RACI’s say we only hold one person accountable?

The things that go through my mind while showering.

In a perfect world, I would love a model that’s:

• Biased towards moving fast without extensive planning to quickly validate client expectations or product market fit.

• Incorporates multiple frameworks that promote best practices and allows the team to ask the question continuously: is there a better way to do this?

• Is not dogmatic on sequencing of events, timelines, ceremonies, checking of boxes, or job titles.

• Forces everyone to make data and customer insights part of the delivery operating model.

So in the spirit of shipping proof of concepts fast, I took a few hours and came up with this: HCPM Delivery Operating Model. [link to miro board]

It’s intentionally vague, LOL.

BUILD

I didn’t want to use phrases that had words like planning or launch because it starts the wrong conversations. (fight me)

This model starts with:

• a tiny mighty team

• customer discovery

• building awareness

• shipping a proof of concept

I’ll make the argument that this entire phase could be done in as little as a week with the right people.

BLAZE

I’m big on not defining the MVP until we know the proof of concept is on the right track. The MVP should be tested in an actual market or with users in production (depending on what you’re building).

This phase is where you can start defining features (if you want). However, equally important is how are we measuring success. There should always be marketing and change management even if it’s an internal project. Lastly, how do you get users to adopt this new tool or product?

Lastly, a spicy take. 🌶 Agile really doesn’t need to be part of the conversation until after you launch an MVP and need a mechanism for enhancement. It could be all lean product playbook building an MVP, but let your team decide.

How do you build an MVP without agile or scrum? Take your learnings from the proof of concept (maybe even a design sprint if you’re jazzy), co-author a quick spec, and build together a few hours a day. You don’t have to overcomplicate this. It’s meant to be a little rough around the edges. It’s fiiiine.

MVPs could be done in 30 days or less using modern software development principles. #justblaze

BOOST

Now we’re ready for more formality.

Expand the team.

Create the roadmap.

Fill the backlog.

Participate in continuous planning.

Learn from data.

“Do Agile.”

Continue lots of usability testing and user research as you iterate. (continuous discovery)

Rollout your new operating model and reinforce the changes (change management).

Achieve product market fit and delight your customers.

I also recognize BUILD - BLAZE - BOOST is corny. But in the spirit of embracing imperfection, it’s a starting point. 🤣 🤣

tryna save y’all money like

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