Technology Personas for Organisational Success

Introduction

Many organisations keep failing the ongoing challenge of assembling high performing teams with diverse and highly specialised skill sets despite their best efforts. Whether it's Data, Software, Cloud, or AI, the array of roles has expanded to match the complexity of modern digital ecosystems. Surprisingly, the application of a framework for understanding this diversity can be drawn from Microsoft's lesser-known developer personas - Mort, Elvis and Albert.

Originally created to categorise software developers, these personas offer a universal template for understanding and managing roles across various technology domains, helping organisations structure their teams for maximum effectiveness. While this does not guarantee success, it is a powerful way of looking at your team composition that is often overlooked. By examining the distribution of Mort, Elvis and Albert personas within your teams, organisations can gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their current setup.

This framework helps identify gaps in skills, reveal opportunities for strategic hiring, and highlight areas where the team might be either too risk-averse or overly focused on innovation without a solid foundation. Using these personas as a guide, organisations can more intentionally align their talent with their strategic objectives, ensuring that they not only have the right people in place but also that those people are positioned in roles where they can deliver the most value.

Landscapes of Organisational Skills

Technology roles have evolved significantly, becoming more nuanced and specialised. In domains like Data, Cloud, and AI the breadth of responsibilities now ranges from basic operational tasks to cutting-edge innovation. As organisations grow, the need for balanced skill sets - incorporating both deep technical expertise and practical application - becomes increasingly vital. This dynamic environment demands a strategic approach to talent management, where recognising the unique contributions of different personas can help in forming effective teams that align with organisational goals and value streams.

Introducing the Microsoft Developer Personas

Microsoft originally conceptualised three developer personas—Mort, Elvis, and Albert—to categorise software developers by their approach to problem-solving and skill levels:

Mort: The pragmatic doer, focused on quick, effective solutions. Mort values simplicity and prefers to get things done without getting bogged down in complexity.

Elvis: The power user, possessing a deep understanding of technology. Elvis crafts robust, maintainable solutions, often delving into the intricacies of system design.

Albert: The visionary innovator, who pushes technological boundaries. Albert is involved in creating new paradigms, frameworks, and advanced solutions.

These Mort-Elvis-Albert (MEA) personas, while rooted in software development, have broader applicability across various technology domains, offering a framework for understanding and leveraging diverse talents in your organisation.

Expanding MEA Personas Across Technology Domains

These personas can be mapped effectively to other domains like Data, Cloud, and AI, demonstrating their versatility:

Mort Across Domains:

Data Mort: Operates in the realm of basic data analytics using SQL and ETL tools to generate quick insights for the business.

Cloud Mort: Utilises pre-built cloud services for straightforward data storage, integration, and basic cloud operations.

AI Mort: Applies pre-trained AI models for quick AI implementations, using tools to automate simple tasks without deep customisation.

Elvis Across Domains:

Data Elvis: Develops complex data pipelines, models, and architectures. Balances scalability, performance, and maintenance in data solutions.

Cloud Elvis: Designs and manages sophisticated cloud infrastructure, leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps practices to build scalable cloud environments.

AI Elvis: Fine-tunes AI models for specific business needs, integrating AI into products and workflows with a focus on achieving high accuracy and reliability.

Albert Across Domains:

Data Albert: Innovates in data engineering by creating new tools, frameworks, and methodologies for processing and analysing large-scale data.

Cloud Albert: Leads cloud-native platform design, developing advanced cloud systems that set industry standards in performance and reliability.

AI Albert: Engages in cutting-edge AI research, creating new algorithms, developing custom AI frameworks, and driving advancements in AI ethics and governance.

These MEA personas capture the range of skill sets required in modern technology roles, providing a blueprint for building teams that can meet both immediate and long-term organisational needs. Plus, as a product manger assembling a new team you can quickly internally express that you need two Data Morts, an AI Albert and an Elvis.

Creating Balanced Teams with Mort, Elvis and Albert

In the context of team topologies and value streams, understanding these personas is key to creating balanced and effective teams. Depending on the goals and complexity of a project, an organisation may need to structure its teams differently:

• Quick-Win Teams (Mort-Heavy): For projects focused on delivering immediate business value, such as creating dashboards, automating routine tasks or implementing straightforward cloud solutions, a Mort-heavy team is ideal. These teams excel in providing quick solutions that address immediate needs without the overhead of complex planning.
• Sustainable Development Teams (Elvis-Heavy): For initiatives requiring robust, scalable and maintainable systems, such as developing a data platform or building a scalable cloud architecture, an Elvis-heavy team is essential. These teams can design and implement sustainable solutions, ensuring long-term reliability and adaptability.
• Innovation Teams (Albert-Heavy): When the goal is to explore new frontiers, such as developing a new AI model or creating a cutting-edge cloud-native platform, an Albert-heavy team is required. These teams are filled with visionaries who push the boundaries of what's possible, laying the groundwork for future advancements.

Are You Distributing Skills Appropriately?

Take a moment to reflect on your organisation’s current team composition. Are you excelling in certain areas while struggling in others? Often, these successes and challenges can be traced back to the distribution of skills within your teams. Microsoft’s research into their developer personas found that within most technology teams, the distribution tends to be approximately 80% Mort, 15% Elvis, and 5% Albert. This curve suggests that while Morts are essential for addressing the bulk of operational work, organisations often underutilise the potential of Elvises and Alberts.

Ask yourself: Are you spreading your skills personas appropriately across your teams? Are you budgeting to hire the right mix of talents, or are you falling into the trap of hiring to the lowest common denominator and filling your teams predominantly with Morts while expecting an Albert-level outcome? The success of a technology team, and by extension the organisation, hinges on a balanced persona distribution that aligns with your strategic objectives.

If you neglect this balance, you may unknowingly create teams that are not set up for new product or operational success. For instance, a team comprising primarily Morts might excel at delivering quick solutions, but it could struggle with building scalable systems or driving innovation. Conversely, a team with too many Alberts and not enough Morts might become stuck in perfectionism or strategic visions without the operational capability to implement those ideas quickly.

In fact, a well-thought-out team composition should mirror the needs of your project and organisational goals. A stream-aligned team developing a new AI product might need a healthy mix of AI Morts for rapid prototyping, AI Elvises for refining and scaling, and an AI Albert to innovate and future-proof the architecture. Without a strategic approach to skill distribution, the organisation may face inefficiencies, missed opportunities and an inability to keep pace with the market.

Leveraging Team Topologies and Value Streams

The Team Topologies model emphasises the use of different team structures to optimise the flow of work through value streams. By incorporating Mort, Elvis, and Albert into this framework, organisations can strategically deploy different personas to maximise efficiency and innovation:

• Stream-Aligned Teams: These teams are aligned with a specific value stream, such as a product or service. A balanced mix of Morts and Elvises can ensure that while the team delivers quickly, they also build sustainable and maintainable solutions. For example, a stream-aligned team working on a customer-facing AI product might consist of AI Morts for rapid deployment of pre-trained models and AI Elvises for customisation and integration.
• Enabling Teams: These teams support stream-aligned teams by helping them adopt new skills, practices, or technologies. This is where a few Alberts can be brought in to introduce advanced methodologies or complex subsystems. For instance, a Cloud Albert might work with a cloud-focused enabling team to introduce advanced cloud-native practices, like serverless architectures or multi-cloud strategies.
• Complicated Subsystem Teams: These teams focus on parts of the system that require deep expertise. Here, Alberts are the key players. For example, a data platform team dealing with real-time analytics at scale might include Data Alberts who can innovate in data processing techniques and architecture. Their role is to tackle the system's most complex aspects, ensuring high performance and setting new standards.
• Platform Teams: Responsible for building and maintaining the underlying platforms used by other teams. Elvises and Alberts in these teams create the foundational services and tools that enable Morts and other teams to work efficiently. A Cloud Platform Team might have Cloud Elvises developing scalable infrastructure-as-code templates and Cloud Alberts pushing the envelope with advanced cloud management tools.

Aligning Personas with Value Streams

By recognising and deploying the right mix of personas across teams, organisations can achieve a strategic advantage:

• Enhanced Collaboration: Understanding the roles and strengths of each persona allows for better collaboration. Morts provide the agility to implement changes rapidly, Elvises ensure those changes are sustainable, and Alberts innovate, pushing the team towards new frontiers.
• Optimised Flow: Deploying personas according to team topologies helps optimise workflow within value streams. Stream-aligned teams can work more efficiently with support from enabling teams, ensuring a smoother flow from ideation to delivery.
• Targeted Innovation: By strategically deploying Albert-heavy teams in areas of high complexity or where innovation is critical, organisations can lead the market in technology advancements while managing risk effectively.

Conclusion

I admit that is a lot to digest! But in the modern technology era, success hinges on the ability to recognise and leverage diverse skills across various domains. It is funny how the old Microsoft's developer personas of Mort, Elvis and Albert still provide a versatile framework for understanding and structuring roles in organisations.

By aligning these MEA personas with team topologies and value streams, you can build teams that are not only balanced but also strategically optimised to drive innovation, sustainability and efficiency. So whether you are assembling a quick-win team to deliver immediate value or deploying an innovation team to explore new horizons, the key lies in harnessing the unique strengths of team personas to navigate the complexities within your projects.

Given the emphasis we place on understanding end-user personas, isn't it time we apply the same focus to our own teams?