Neon Product Dreams

Sitting in a Zoom today with two of my favorite partners in crime at work, we started talking about where we're going with our careers. They have pretty clear directions, even if they don't think they do. I, on the other hand, am having a mid-career crisis and am looking for a new challenge. I've spent many years working in areas around product management. Development, UX, Product, Strategy, and Program Management. Throughout this journey, I (and my colleagues) see the same problems over and over again. So to help with my "what now" career struggles and just to share ideas with the internet like every good millennial is wont to do, I thought "let's blog about it". So welcome to my brain dump of product challenges! Today I'm going to start with monumental projects.

Building Monuments

We began that call today by discussing challenges on a project we're planning out. From a development perspective, it's complicated. There is going to be an insane amount of teams this project touches. Coordination and technical complexities are going to bog down our various teams for years. But that's ok. We're doing this intentionally and with a data-driven purpose that will pay off both technically for us and in ease-of-use for our customers. So the investment here is worth it, albeit not immediate.

don't build Rome all at once

Big projects always come with big challenges. My engineer friend will totally laugh here, but the technical challenges are the easy part. Is the coding going to be difficult? Totally, but the harder part is keeping the business engaged and committed during this long ride. In our move fast and break stuff world, most orgs don't have the stomach to tackle multi-year projects. So we're working with our primary architect to build a good plan. Key to that is flexibility, there is no way we could possibly think of every technical hurdle this far out, nor can we anticipate the market moves or business shifts we'll encounter along the way. But we can bet we'll hit both. Leaving space in the plan to pivot or find better solutions mid-project is a big part of our plan. We want to be delivering incremental value that will be helpful to the big picture but isn't wasted if we have to shift to something else or delay work for another project. Everything builds on the things before it, but each piece is worth something. Yes, this is Agile, but not everyone plans their projects to be agile. Executives love to have options, so the more room for different options you can prepare for will ensure the project is always part of the bigger plan. Try to choose technical solutions that give you options when you get to the 9, 12, or 18-month mark i.e. don't build Rome all at once.

The next major challenge is messaging. The project isn't one of those huge sexy projects like "AI" or "Blockchain". We have zero cool buzzwords for this project. So rallying the troops can't be done by telling them how exciting it is because it's not. Instead, we're having to pull people along with good ol' fashioned data. "But why can't we just yeet this over there?" is a constant battle.

What if we don't do this?

So we've formed an impenetrable wall with the detractors. This wall includes usage data, two years of requests from customers, market data, and both costs of doing and not doing the project. That last part is so often overlooked when deciding on projects. "What if we don't do this?". I saw an episode last night about an abandoned bridge in Alaska. J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family wanted to build this bridge in the middle of nowhere Alaska that cost $1.4 million dollars over a river that flowed from two huge glaciers. As complex as building a bridge in Alaska is, this streamlined exporting the copper they mined to the coast. That bridge allowed them to ship out $200 million worth of copper ore. This project is like that. Yeah, a million dollars for a random bridge in Alaska in 1907 is insane, no you won't see the payoff for a while, but not building the bridge would have cost them time and other resources on slower routes.

Standing at one side of our own massive bridge project, we want to make sure everyone understands why we're doing this project. Messaging becomes like banging a drum. It's constant, it's consistent amongst the project leaders, it's tied back to the data we gathered, and emphasizes the benefit at the end of the project we set them on.

Our last pillar in this monumental project is resources. Every team, every product, and every company has resource struggles. This bus is well-traveled. Particularly post-pandemic in the tech world people realized they can work from wherever...why not find a job that lets me do so? The market is dripping with job openings so people shifting between companies is happening at a breakneck speed. So through all that, we're seeing people leave and lots of new faces coming on board. As those shifts happen the org has other priorities (and other awesome buzzword-worthy projects) they're investing in. Lost in the fray are projects like ours. Our job has become a chicken little balancing act. We don't want to shout about the sky falling if it's just raining on our parade a bit. But we also don't want anyone to think we're ok when the project might be in jeopardy.

what if we used these resources elsewhere?

Resourcing is probably the most challenging thing I deal with in my various product-esk jobs. I have plenty of experience getting scrappy to get something delivered, but there is a fine line between that and poor investments. So making sure that if resourcing were to ever get too low, we're highlighting the real effects on timeline or quality. Every good product/program manager will also consider what if we used these resources elsewhere? If I don't use this money or these people on this project, what can I/the business gain elsewhere? Does that fulfill a bigger need elsewhere, and therefore I should go with this sacrifice? Or is this project a higher priority for less apparent reasons, and thus I should fight for them? I've seen product managers get blinders for their projects before, forsaking all other needs in the wider plan. Don't be that PM! But do make sure you're not starving your project to the point of being pointless.

So what now?

Where'd we land today? The same place we've been for the past few months as we researched the project honestly. Keep pushing ahead, look for better solutions than what we've come up with. Mitigate the challenges within our control. And keep on preaching the vision. Each day the project throws new challenges our way and we keep going back to why we're doing it.

My best advice for big projects like this: Semper Gumby, always flexible! Have a plan, have a backup plan, have a plan for when the plan needs to shift, and have a plan for a quick project exit if priorities shift hard. It will never go how you think it will. Do your best to maximize your investment at every stage so you don't waste time or effort. Remain a champion for your project, but don't get lost in it. Your ultimate goal is what's best for your business and your customers whether that's your project or not. And above all else, keep your team motivated. Let them see how their hard work benefits the product, even if it's not shiny.

So what are your thoughts on monumental projects? How do you handle the planning, coordination, messaging, and resourcing? I'm always looking for better ideas.