The digital urgency

Software is disrupting business.

The days of stating things like, "We are not a technology company, we do X," are over. (Fill in your choice of traditionally non-tech domains for X: finance, farming, etc.)

Every company should have a digital urgency: a healthy dose of paranoia, knowing your business can be severely disrupted by a more nimble and tech-focused firm.

PayPal was not invented by a bank. Uber was not created by Yellow Cab. Blockbuster did not invent Netflix. Disrupters can come from anywhere and anyone.

If your leadership does not believe your company is a technology company, you must act fast. Otherwise your business may not exist in 5 years.

Here are some thoughts on how your company can stay relevant and use technology as a business driver.

IT is no longer a back-office function
Most great IT departments help deliver key business solutions which drive down costs, improve productivity and efficiency, enable scalability, and increase security. The continuous improvement mindset of great IT employees is something which is hard to teach, but exponentially valuable. Combine that with the "anything is possible with technology" attitude, and you have found a powerful digital engine that is capable of being at the front-lines of business decisions.

General Electric (GE), the traditional industrial juggernaut, is now a digital-first company. Their Predix platform helps power what they call the Industrial Internet. It enables asset and operations optimization by providing a standard way to run industrial-scale analytics and connect machines, data, and people.

Jeff Immelt, GE CEO, talks about how the GE Chief Information Officer (CIO) role has changed. Immelt recognized the amount of technical expertise GE had in-house, and combined the CIO's org (IT) with the engineering org (OT) to make a new Digital org driving revenue for the company through technology. Listen to his keynote address at GE's Minds and Machines conference where he describes their transformation.

External strategic radar
Every company should have a constant pulse on the external technology landscape: trends, start-up activity, etc. However, it needs to be structured. Thresholds should be created to know when the company should take action in a particular direction. When is a new concept really worth the investment? How early do we want to be on this trend?

The list of trends can be specific to your company's domain, but can also contain a few outliers that may not be initially obvious to how it may eventually fit into future plans. The list should be regularly monitored and reviewed at senior levels, and be visible to management at all levels.

Internal innovation: Hack Days
Autonomy is quite possibly the single most powerful "tool" for bringing about innovation and creativity from individuals. A Hack Day (or days) can further enable this.

Mentioned in my previous post about motivation, some companies, like Atlassian, give their employees the complete freedom to work on whatever they want for a short amount of time (24 hours each quarter, in Atlassian's case). They have seen new product ideas, enhancements, and other improvements come as a result of these.

I propose variants of this to see what works best for your organization. One variant might be to have an idea capturing tool used prior to a Hack Day, and participants can choose which of the top ideas they want to be a part of creating during the Hack Day itself.

The key is for management to be on board with giving their employees the time to do this. In addition, management must make this visible and regularly commit to helping fund or enable some of the best ideas to fruition. This is not a one-time event. This must become part of the culture.

In summary, the digital threat is real. The need for digital urgency is required from all levels of all organizations. Make the time to get the best out of your technologists, constantly monitor the external landscape, and enable creativity and innovation from within.

Multi-tasking and context switching

We all want our teams to be 100% utilized. Why hire someone if they only will be working 75% of the time?

As a result, many managers ensure individuals on their team always have a full plate of tasks to complete. However, the size of a task rarely is calculated with context switching costs in mind.

Context switching costs
Neurologically, our brains are not wired to be multi-taskers. The brain simply switches from one task to another rapidly.

That shift comes with a cost. Our brains take time to re-adjust and focus on the new task.

Some neurologists say 10-20% of the time a task takes to complete can actually be wasted through context switching.

Take a Java developer for example. They may have a lot of variable names, functions, API's to remember for a particular product. Moving to another product requires almost a clean wipe of their short-term memory, and a gradual ramp-up of the knowledge of the new project.

Therefore, the goal is not piling on many tasks to ensure 100% utilization. Rather, it is to improve productivity through reducing context switching.

Reducing context switching
Ultimately, working on one thing at a time is the most effective way to reduce context switching. Other tips to consider:

• Asynchronous communication -- When things are not urgent, writing an email, for example, may be better than an IM or phone call. This allows the individual to stay focused on the task and respond when they are ready.
• Setting aside time -- Following on the item above, emails can become a distraction. Dedicating a set block of time during the day for emails or other non-project related work can help keep focus high when doing project work.
• Set expectations -- Let your colleagues know at certain times you may not be quick to respond. This can help take pressure off you to feel the need to constantly check emails.

Agile plays a huge part in minimizing context switching from a software development perspective. More on Agile in a future post.

The Kanban approach is also useful here. It stresses the important of a work in progress limit. Each individual can only work on a certain amount of tasks each day. Any more than that is added to the backlog. All tasks are prioritized, so there is no slow-down to figure out what to work on next. Our DevOps engineer uses Kanban, and he has a work in progress limit of two. More on Kanban in the future, too.

MVP: failing fast is a good thing

How many times has your team had a scenario similar to the following example?

A senior client says a product cannot launch until one particular feature is added. Her reasoning: "No one will ever use this product unless this feature is included."

Although small in size, the feature is quite complex and would require another 2 months of development effort. The team works tirelessly those two months, and launches the product shortly thereafter.

A few weeks after go-live, the analytics demonstrate an unfortunate reality: while the product overall is getting good traction, no customers are actually using the feature suggested by the senior exec.

This scenario is exactly what Eric Ries' book, The Lean Startup, tries to address. In it he assesses how successful software development companies build and launch products.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Ries describes the MVP as the product whose minimum set of features allow for learning from early adopters. Using the MVP, we are able to avoid building products no one wants, and maximize the learning per dollar spent.

The image below takes us through Ries' build-measure-learn feedback loop. An idea is formed and then built and released as an MVP. That MVP contains measurements or ways to pull data which we can learn from. From there, the product team is prepared to act on that data, and pivot or iterate.

Through small increments we can continue to test hypotheses and build a better product by minimizing the time through the feedback loop. If a particular feature or iteration is not successful, we learn early in the process through facts (analytics, metrics, user feedback, etc.).

This means failing fast is a good thing! Validated learning means we do not have to wait months before we find out no one will use a particular feature. We spend more time on things we know the users will want.

Image credit: Eric Ries, TheLeanStartup.com

Putting it into practice
I like to think of MVP as happening at each phase of the software development life cycle, in addition to the product viewed as a whole.

Take the design phase, for instance. Low fidelity mock-ups (think black-and-white, hand-sketched) are key because they speed time through "the loop." The goal is to get feedback fast -- how can you get fast feedback if you're spending time perfecting the shade of blue a button should be?

When it comes to the product owner's vision for features in release planning, how many of them build on top of an unvalidated hypothesis? What can be built and released quickly as an MVP instead?

Teams must be prepared to iterate. This means we cannot launch something and forget about it. We must release our MVP's, analyze the results, and pivot (move in a different direction vs. our hypothesis) or iterate based on our learning.

It is important to remember software has no value until it is in the hands of the user. The MVP approach gets more engaging software to the users faster by adapting incrementally.

Creating the time to innovate -- Part I

I am frequently approached by leadership from other divisions asking how my teams find the time to be so innovative. I propose that it is not finding the time, but rather creating the time. We all need more time in the day, but if you create a culture which inspires quality, you will naturally have the time you've been looking for.

Culture
A culture of continuous improvement runs through my team's veins. When inefficiencies arise, the team identifies solutions to improve productivity.

Team members are encouraged to give back to the team (I call this "team community service") by proposing and implementing better ways of doing things. Generally it's about 20% of their time (equating to about 1 day per week).

The key is not assigning tasks nor me saying what to do, but rather giving each individual a blank slate to identify and contribute to the areas they are most passionate about. (See previous post about motivation.)

Quality
Where do we get the time to implement these solutions? We have a constant pulse on things which prevent us from working on value-add tasks. From here we identify where we need to simplify or improve quality. These improvements in quality add up to very large time savings.

At first the team uses this extra time to catch up on value-add work and achieve a consistent flow. However, once we achieve optimal flow, we use the extra time gained to continue to innovate, gradually reaching the magic 20% time for each individual.

Suggestions to get started
Analyze your team's errors, production bugs, defects, and other distractions which require someone to stop what they're doing and spend time fixing issues. Use the 80/20 rule to determine the 20% of items causing 80% of the issues, and start to eliminate them.

It may be difficult at first, but leverage key team member strengths and passions. Some folks will not mind putting in extra effort, especially if it means helping the team in the long run and working on something they enjoy.

Be sure to track your team's progress. Take a baseline of key metrics today (number of production defects, average time spent fixing issues, etc.), and track improvements along the way.

The key is to have a tipping point in mind: when do you stop giving the time saved back to "business as usual" work and start giving it to "team community service?" Some individuals may only be able to reach 10%, while others may reach 20% or more.

You will see that 10-20% of time spent on innovation and continuous improvement will produce 2-10x gains for your team in the long run. Create the time to do it.


Update: Read Part II of this topic here.

What motivates us

Daniel Pink challenges the conventional way of thinking about motivation. He points to research demonstrating larger rewards do not necessarily lead to better performance for tasks involving conceptual and creative thinking.

So what does motivate us?

Autonomy
No one likes a micro-manager. When things are 100% planned it equates to zero innovation. Self-direction, on the other hand, drives engagement.

Software company Atlassian provides developers 24 hours once a quarter to work on whatever they want, however they want. The only thing they must do is show their results to the company at the end of the 24 hours. This quarterly event has produced many new products, bug fixes, and productivity improvements which may never have emerged otherwise.

Mastery
Why do people play musical instruments? I learned to play the piano after college, not because I was getting paid for it (I wasn't), but because I enjoyed doing it and seeing my progress along the way.

Open source projects are another example here (think Wikipedia or Linux). Contributors to these projects do not get paid, many already have jobs, but challenge and mastery spark their desire to contribute.

Purpose
We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. This goes hand-in-hand with my post about the power of "why."

Skype's founder said, "Our goal is to be disruptive, but in the cause of making the world a better place." That is quite a purpose to get up and go to work for every day.

It is important to note that money is in fact a motivator. If you pay someone too little, that can be severely de-motivating. Pay someone enough to get the issue of money off the table and they can focus solely on their work.

The power of "why" in leadership

Simon Sinek explains it's not what we do or how we do things that makes us a great leader; it's why we do it.

Sinek describes how our brains are hard-wired to follow those who believe what we believe. It is this connection which inspires others to take action, not because of what we're doing, but why we're doing it.

In the business world, great companies rally around leaders with big visions. Steve Jobs said he wanted to "put a ding in the universe" and go to bed each night saying "we've done something wonderful." Instagram set out "to change the way we see the world." These purpose-driven statements call on something more than just what the product is, or how it's made. They drive action through inspiration.

Sinek points out that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the "I have a dream" speech, not the "I have a plan" speech. 

People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Practicing emotional first aid

Your mind has the power to hinder you; negative thoughts, fear, and anxiety can lead to negative outcomes. Your mind can also unlock unlimited potential. Having a grasp of emotional intelligence is a key component to success.

In the TED Talk below, psychologist Guy Winch describes how to practice emotional "first aid." He suggests taking care of our minds just as much as we take care of our bodies.

Interview prep and tips to land your dream job

Having been trained by a Fortune 10 company in interviewer skills, and conducted countless interviews, I am often asked for interview help. Here are some of my tips to help you earn the call back from your future employer.

1. What are they looking for? 
List out the top 10 traits the job requires. Do this from the employer's perspective: look for clues in the job description, learn from the company's website and online material. (Examples might be: great communication, team player, or fast learner.)

2. Your example stories
For each one of your traits, think of two work-related examples of you demonstrating those traits. Each story should focus on you, and have a positive outcome or learning. You should have 15-20 stories.

These stories will help you answer almost any behavior-based question you are asked. The trick is not to focus too much on the question you are asked (i.e. do not think, "Are they asking about communication here?"), but rather having the best examples top of mind to demonstrate your candidacy.

3. Prepare for the common questions
You can find hundreds of interview questions online, but odds are you will not be asked those because every company and interviewer is different. However, there are a few questions which I always prepare folks for:

• Tell me about yourself. The most common answer I get to this question is a regurgitation of the candidate's resume, which is boring (I already read it!). The best answers have been given by candidates who describe things about themselves not on their resume. A client applying for a coaching position spoke about his beliefs on how coaching positively impacts youth's lives. It was genuine and heart-felt, and made a big impact on the interviewers, especially because it was the first question they asked.
• What would you bring to the team/company? You know your strengths, now articulate them in ways which align to the key traits the company is looking for. 

I usually spend a few hours split across 2-3 days about a week before the interview with those whom I assist. The key is to refine the example stories (short, to the point, demonstrating the value), do some mock questions, and get comfortable speaking positively about oneself.