2. October 24, 2017
1. It IS possible to advocate for continuous
improvement using an economic
rationale
2. Break cycles that add noise / inhibit
sensemaking
3. Features are temporary. The system that
creates them is longer lasting
Three Takeaways
3. October 24, 2017
1. @johncutlefish
2. https://medium.com/@johnpcutler
3. PM, UXR, Systems Thinker, Interested in
product development (all of it)
John Cutler
14. October 24, 2017
➢ Drift into failure
➢ Normalization of deviance
➢ Measurement as trust proxy / “carrot” (vs.
guide for continuous improvement)
➢ Lack of visibility. The “customer” work and
the “other” work
➢ No causal relationship framework
15. October 24, 2017
But no one really explained the problem
I thought they were just being alarmist
I spend all day hearing people complain
I spend all day getting asked for headcount
I figured they’d let me know when it was really serious
I want to hear about solutions not problems
We never had these problems back in the early days
Why didn’t they catch it earlier? CEO
16. October 24, 2017
I got too tired trying to raise the flag
So many new people were joining. I thought it was that
How can you compete with a huge sales deal?
Look at how messy the code is! Rewrite or bust
Well, if we had just gone with my suggestion
The last thing I want to do is to build a business case
At the end of the day it is about new stuff. Right?
This is business, I guess? DEV
17. October 24, 2017
To get budget, we need to work on visible stuff
Maybe we sort of do this on the side? Out of band?
Once THIS quarter is over, we’ll have some breathing room
We just can’t take drastic action. It is risky
I can’t really get a straight story from my teams
Maybe we’re slipping for other reasons?
I just get crushed at these executive meetings
Maybe we can set up a shared team for this? MGR
23. October 24, 2017
“Feature Work”
➢ Customer facing
➢ Tangible
➢ Something people pay for
➢ Valuable
➢ Stuff the business will understand
➢ Contributes to bottom line
35. October 24, 2017
Understand the current situation more accurately
Sense change more quickly/accurately
Respond faster / more effectively
Be bullheaded
Battle present bias
An apples-to-apples value framework
37. October 24, 2017
Speed to market (true lead time to business outcomes)
Employee retention / “engagement”
Customer retention
Time to onboard new hires
Cost to acquire innovation
Speed to adopt force-multiplier technologies
Experimentation cadence
Ability to attract talent
Ability to leverage more junior talent
39. October 24, 2017
Figure 3. Emergent conceptual model of salutogenic indicators for organizational resilience
Organizational
Resilience
Indicators Based
on a Salutogenic
Orientation
By SHANNON
TRACEY
41. October 24, 2017
Measurement for global
continuous improvement !=
measurement for blame, trust
replacement, punishment,
local optimization, individual
management
42. October 24, 2017
Forcing functions for continuous
improvement != forcing
functions for coercion, trust
proxies, gates,
micro-management
43. October 24, 2017
When was the last time you
celebrated a continuous
improvement win?
Does “the business” even know
what’s possible?
44. October 24, 2017
1. It IS possible to advocate for continuous
improvement using an economic
rationale
2. Break cycles that add noise / inhibit
sensemaking
3. Features are temporary. The system that
creates them is longer tasting
Three Takeaways
