Lesson 10: Project to Product - A journey or a target
Namrata Chopra Datta
Agile CoE Lead| Director |Digital Transformation Coach | Product Coach |SPC
P2P - Project to Product is a hot & conversational topic as digital transformation now a days. It's a way beyond a conversation, as I started working with clients, teams, internally - I am discovering a new angle every time. The journey ahead always seems daunting. But the one learning that kept me moving was reflecting on - how far you’ve come and not just on how far there is to go. ( I Started writing this article on Jan 25th 2022 and publishing on Dec 27)
Working with Product teams, Agile teams, building products, Launching Products, Product lifecycle is not new for me. Have lived it and done it. In Scaling of ARTs or Tribes a flavor of teams around generating business value was always there. Then what's this wave of Project of Product. By now, we all have read & used the Gartner Report on Product Centric Organizations published in 2019. I will not go in depth of what's the need, why it's becoming popular but will focus on what's different that this approach is trying to highlight at Scale.
Thanks to Mik and his work, SAFe's Publications that talks about this Project to Product journey, how to scale etc. for further adding to our learnings/experiments that we have tried. Major detailing, I am focusing on and keep adding to this article is around - my experience, & role. I have put my personal experiences and Observations & it's not a POV from my Org side. To every story a narrator can have his or her way of sharing it. As an organization we are enabling all aspects, but this is my experience - Past & present...
Project to Product - Not@Scale
In Scenario one, suppose a client have shown interest in moving from Project to Product but no clarity on Why/what & how. Then as a coach starting simple & small has been my focus. Running an introductory workshop with leaders & then doing pilot has worked for me to begin the - Shift from project to product team journey. My workshop focusses on assessing the below parameters so that we can find the effort needed to kick-start this journey
So even when a small pilot has to be executed, we need to prepare a small version of discussion that how this change will happen and impact. Outcome of this workshop will be - " We are already doing a lot of stuff like this", if you are a coach, you would completely relate to this. Why we are not calling it Agile Team and Why Product team etc.
So now your Coaching & Clean language conversations starts with Powerful question. I really like AgendaShift exposure for those.. In short use these
Why are we doing this? Keep asking the agreement on outcome questions... Keep outcomes in the foreground and then keep finding new places for strategy to happen.
Response may fall around - "For Customer Centricity".
We gather so many ideas from business, market, trends, competitors, tech solutions, experts that actually we start forgetting about the real challenges/problems our CUSTOMERS are facing so the business agility focuses on giving true value to our customers that helps our business in return... so as we scale aligning all the teams to same objectives.
Your Coaching techniques like Engaging Stakeholders to identify real problem, how to measure success, what business really needs from " Our Product team" etc. will help you to form the Product Vision Canvas, Vision board, measuring success, Persona modeling, milestones/roadmaps
How will we measure success? Keep outcomes in the foreground
Using flow framework can be a great option to start with - I have tried many aspects from Scrum, Kanban, other models but to be brutally true to team that work they are delivering is of customer value and beyond the user stories/Velocity and number of releases is pretty scary, I have loved creating and using burn down myself. I know i have a great team if I see improvement in the velocity. But then for continuous value delivery Flow framework can be really a great addition. Courtesy Image Flow Framework
plus, you use some KPIs that are kind of addressing the SLA ask as well as showing how the product is getting used by the end consumers. Product Telemetry is also key. I will share my experience on Flow metrics in next blog
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Ok, then what are the steps we will need to take? Journey or a roadmap
This is where you will really see as a Coach/Scrum Master/Delivery Leader heat coming. Everyone when they ask for Product Model, Project Managers thinks there is no control and everything like scope, time, activities will be gone. It's a big Myth. When we are forming a Product Team there is a structure, Ways of working actually more discipline and value delivery showcased regularly.
For Example:
Of course, it's a big mindset shift and need Scrum Master, Coaches to help the team/Program in the beginning but once the Product team is stabilized, they might not need any extra role for ongoing value delivery
Project to Product @Scale
This is a complex game and will have multiple designs and patterns. It can take a Value Stream Route, Customer Journey, Functional Alignment in products but for sure not Technology aligned. This is where the domain and Industry also differs, some focus on taking SAFe route and then build Product and ART serves that Product grouping. Second route is like Order to Cash (O2C) as one functional area and now teams will be aligned to serve this may be in form of Tribe /Program. Third route is
Matrixed by design: When Product team number increases, like there are more than 4-5 teams that will support a Product or group of products(s) that is where the scaling have started. Now the re-design or a new design of Product team members may be matrixed into role-specific "chapters”(or CoPs) for learning, sharing, skills development and performance. While there is no one recipe for reporting lines in product teams, team members may be assessed by a product manager or owner, or by a role-specific chapter leader. Or, that assessment can be split/shared by the team and the chapter.
Focused management: Product teams are overseen by product managers, and the rest of the management and leadership structure is flatter than in traditional IT organizations
P2P - Operating Model Transformation
This is a very vast topic that includes great prep on - People, Process, technology and culture transformation. There are many approaches that industry is evolving so too early to write on this but I have started documenting my experience will share that too. I am using 2-3 concepts from Agile transformation, Lean Portfolio Management etc. Stay tuned for more
Want to read more, here are the google links, books