How do you know when you deeply enjoy the work you do?

For me, I show up early to work, even on Friday morning!

One of the most rewarding aspects of my consulting experience is when a client asks, “how could we. . . ?” or “is it possible. . . ?”

Open-ended questions that allow us to explore our options are fertile ground for innovative solution development.

As product development teams look across their available options, they should consider two, often opposing, concept combinations.

1️⃣ Impact vs. effort
2️⃣ Fit for purpose vs. fit for use

Being able to assess the combination of these elements may lead to innovation in a business segment.

I like to think of solutions in terms of Lego blocks. A solution may have many blocks, and each block may have several purposes.

As we combine blocks in different ways, we are operating in an innovation space. Each new combination may yield a novel solution to a unique problem.

As well, this may lead to increased business agility, allowing an organization to meet an unmet need in the market based on being quicker to market than their competition.

What is your view of innovation? Do you think I’m on the right track?

It is important to have grand ambition.

Equally important is to learn how to break the ambition down into actionable steps.

Product development teams need a clear goal to move toward when building. That stands for both the “grand ambition” and the daily work.

A key part of teamwork is learning what work should be done by the group.

When the group focuses on the work that is tied to the goal, it usually gets done. That work should be the work that only the group can do together.

Team members should try to avoid prioritizing their individual tasks ahead of the team’s efforts. This can avoid friction and conflict while remaining focused on the immediate and midterm goals.

Sunday had a wonderful start and then . . .

. . . it rained. It rained most of the day.

I used to be disappointed when by the rain. Generally, being wet and cold are not a desired state in my opinion. But that has changed over time.

Now, I recognize rain as a needed solvent to help clean up messes that are made and nourish the natural world.

In product development, there may be occasions when a team needs to declare “backlog bankruptcy”. Think of it as a rainstorm cleaning up messy backlog items that are no longer relevant to the product being developed.

At times, teamwork is need to take a hard look at work forecast and apply empirical measures. Team’s should consider periodically inspecting their backlogs and adapting them to not only client, customer, stakeholder, or user feedback, but market feedback as well.

Through the process of inspecting and adapting, teams may discover their work has changed significantly over time.

Consider that moment as the rainstorm opportunity and make use of it to clear the backlog and start fresh.

It takes courage for a team to clear their backlog and start fresh. If starting with a fresh backlog allows them to focus better, then so be it.

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