O.K. Mary, I accept the challenge. Many books and courses have been taught in product development, but there are some very potent factors which never seem to be covered.
1) Swing for the fences: build the vision
I tried a safe project once. Nobody cared. Instead take on a big problem and come up with an ideal "after our product" scenario. Then everyone on the team "gets" the big picture and you will have outstanding results. Working within a large corporation, I kicked off the development meeting with our primary objectives. Instead of "meet product requirements, stay within budget <yawn>" ours were "We want product of the year in....." And yes, we did it in 5 countries.
2) Fire comes from friction, friction comes from diversity
It takes a community to build a product (tacky, but true). You need the sage experienced types, the cynical, the historian and the can do people. But you don't always get to choose the actual members. Remember the best team to build a product is the team you've got. Instead reach into each member and develop those diverse attributes. And they don't have to be on your payroll. Pull in your suppliers and partners into the process.
3) Go anal, then back off
Plan, plan, plan up front. Look for those land mines and external dependencies. As long as the team is involved and agrees, you really don't have to worry about it. On our latest project we looked at the original work we had done 6 months ago, and guess what? We were on track. Because the team believed in it.
4) Never challenge, tell stories
Your team will make assertions as your project goes along. I cringe anytime someone challenges those assertions. "Why do you say that?" Bad vibes. If you're not sure about the assertion, tell a story about how a user might use the product and simply ask how it would work. That way you're both on the same side of the table.
5) The wheels will come off sometime, be gracious.
This is a certainty. Something always happens. Don't snap, don't bark. Just smile and ask "So what are we going to do about it?". My favorite was 2 weeks before full production, an engineer was testing the product and found all the SCSI cables were 1 inch too short. I laughed. We fixed it and made the ship date.
And for you in big corporations, and added bonus:
Never nick a King or a Queen, they'll get better.
Pay attention to the politics of the organization. In the effort to stay on track when someone in power makes a mistake we are tempted to nail them. Well guess what? Payback will happen. So be very careful to give them a way out. You will need their help in the future.
Or, if it's really necessary to go after the King or Queen (and sometimes it is), make sure it's a clean kill.
Posted by: Mary Schmidt | 10 January 2007 at 01:47 PM