Size matters and size comes in different flavors like for example value, cost and time. All dimensions correlate somehow into results depending on the metric you’d like measure. Stop! Do you even measure one of those dimensions on a regular base? Do you make them transparent? For whom? Colleagues, your boss, your team, your organization or even to your costomers?
You are probably aware of the statement “undercomittment and overdeliver”. I doubt this is a good result. It is generally more seldom, because of overestimations of one’s own capabilities, extrinsic given requests which are not able to be fulfilled. Both ways aren’t good, because they miss reliability. But reliability only works if they come buttom up from the team doing the work, not top down. You will find similiarities in management misconceptions like “to deliver more with less”. All manipulations and lack in transparency won’t lead to trust. It’s even worse, it cost performance and real value for customers and employees.
https://twitter.com/Virtual_Patrick/status/855084237057339392
Think about adding value of your daily work to customers – real customers! You are right to take note of customers are internal departments and colleagues too. But the most important customer is the one who pays for your product and services – nobody else. The work you do should focus the customer using your product or service. Methods and ideas for your daily work:
- NPS (Net Promotor Score)
- Direct exchange with customers & partners and internal people who are in exchange with customers & partners
- What is the business value of the topic I am working on? Create a business value based on NURO!
- How much time did I invest to deliver what outcome? (ROTI – Return On Time Invested)
- T-Shirt sizing as agile estimation technique
- WSJF – Weighted Shortest Job First
- Product discovery (one of the best posts I have ever read)
- Visualisation
- System thinking
- Causal loop diagrams on Wiki and Guidelines for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams
- Design thinking
- Post-Its
- User Story Mapping
- Lean canvas
- Business model canvas
- Eisenhower decision matrix
- etc.
This list is not complete, pretty sure I miss a lot. It’s just meant for inspiration. The free programme comes with the mastery of all methods to make the difference and maximising the value and contribution to others. A nice example is shown by Jeff Patton how user story mapping is in context between strategy and tactics:
https://twitter.com/Virtual_Patrick/status/854721301755428864
What do you think? Would love to hear your opinion and methods for self-improvement.
Cheers,
Patrick
Patrick Sauerwein | @virtual_patrick 