 What is the most adequate operating model for software products and platforms? A lot of companies today are choosing to aggregate their digital divisions with their traditional IT by bringing them into a single technology operating model. Combining digital operations -- in which cross-functional teams apply new technologies and ways of working, such as agile, to improve user experiences -- and traditional IT delivery (in which technical specialists develop and maintain core business systems according to traditional methods) makes a lot of senses except for the fact that moving to an integrated technology operating model does require significant cultural change: further, to achieve the technical agility of a digital native, it is often enough to form integrated, cross-functional technology teams, which define forward-thinking technology organizations. Part 1: Reorganizing technology teams Today’s software products can be summarized as technology-enable offerings used by customers and employees. Their immediate and primary purpose is to enable users to perform activities that create value, in line with a business’s objectives. For example, a retailer’s search product contributes business value by making it easy for customers to find items on a website or mobile app. Its effectiveness might be measured with conversion-to-sale metrics and enhanced by improvements to search algorithms. Whereas in this context, platform represent the backend tech capabilities, whether provided by individual systems or by assemblies of multiple systems, that power products, as well as the enterprise more broadly. The retail search product previously described, for example, might rely on an inventory platform that includes databases and integrations with suppliers. Typical platforms found at large companies would also include those for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, inventory management, and field operations. In summary, an integrated technology model centers on products and platforms – which are two separate technology activities in the company. Products
Platforms
Most companies launch their digital efforts with a focus on creating and improving products through a stand-alone organization that is separate or siloed from company IT. These separately funded digital units deliver user-experience innovations quickly by employing a mix of design and engineering talent, using cloud technologies, following agile delivery practices, and, often, fostering a different working culture and norms—an approach unlike that of a traditional IT function. However, it is important that these digital units and IT departments are closely integrated, with thoughtful coordination and planning between the organizations to prevent any bottlenecks. For instance, as digital efforts expand to cover more customer and employee experiences and incorporate new technologies, integration between digital and traditional technology solutions requires more extensive collaboration. Differences in culture and ways of working can make it harder for digital and IT groups to integrate new digital offerings with core systems. Teams from other business functions can also get confused about which technology groups to work with—and how. An integrated operating model helps resolve these differences by bringing IT and digital organizations into a single model for planning, delivering, and managing technology, reinforced by a shared culture and talent-management approach. In this model, digital and IT specialists work together on unified teams, each centered on an individual product or platform (Exhibit 2). In the integrated tech org model, teams support products, platforms, and infrastructure
To address talent gaps, companies often find it necessary to reskill existing employees or hire additional talent. Product teams, for example, handle all aspects of product development, from design to user adoption, so their leaders must be able to understand users, translate their needs into technical requirements, manage product road maps, guide engineering teams, and oversee releases. Few organizations employ enough technology specialists with experience across these disciplines, so they must either train the people they have or bring in new people who have experience as product managers or product owners. (to be continued) Credits:
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DM me @philmora on Parler, @philippemora on IG and Twitter My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Head of Digital Product thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader  Jeff Bezos replaced Powerpoints in meetings and replaced them with narrative memos. And magic happened. Here are three reasons. In his 2018 annual letter, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos repeated his rule that PowerPoint is banned in executive meetings. In his letter, and in a discussion at the Forum on Leadership at the Bush Center the same year, Bezos explained that "narrative structures" are more effective than PowerPoint. According to Bezos, new executives are in for a culture shock in their first Amazon meetings. Instead of reading bullet points on a PowerPoint slide, everyone sits silently for about 30 minutes to read a "six-page memo that's narratively structured with real sentences, topic sentences, verbs, and nouns." After everyone's done reading, they discuss the topic. "It's so much better than the typical PowerPoint presentation for so many reasons," Bezos added. Reason 1. Our brains are hardwired for narrative. We process our world in narrative, we talk in narrative and -most important for leadership - people recall and retain information more effectively when it's presented in the form of a story, not bullet points. Reason 2. Stories are persuasive. Aristotle is the father of persuasion. More than 2,000 years ago he revealed the three elements that all persuasive arguments must have to be effective. He called these elements "appeals." They are: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is character and credibility. Logos is logic--an argument must appeal to reason. But ethos and logos are irrelevant in the absence of pathos--emotion. Neuroscientists have found emotion is the fastest path to the brain. In other words, if you want your ideas to spread, story is the single best vehicle we have to transfer that idea to another person. "I'm actually a big fan of anecdotes in business," Bezos said at the leadership forum as he explained why he reads customer emails and forwards them to the appropriate executive. Often, he says, the customer anecdotes are more insightful than data. Amazon uses "a ton of metrics" to measure success, explained Bezos. "I've noticed when the anecdotes and the metrics disagree, the anecdotes are usually right," he noted. "That's why it's so important to check that data with your intuition and instincts, and you need to teach that to executives and junior executives." Bezos clearly understands that logic (data) must be married with pathos (narrative) to be successful. 3. Bullet points are the least effective way of sharing ideas. Bullets don't inspire. Stories do. The brain is not built to retain information that's structured as bullet points on a slide - we recall things much better when we see pictures of the object or topic than when we read text on a slide. Visuals are much, much more powerful than text alone. That's why, if you choose to use slides, use more pictures than words--and don't use bullet points. Ever. During his discussion at the forum, Bezos said he could have spent the entire event talking about narrative. That means he really studies this topic and is passionate about it. You should be too. Stories inform, illuminate, and inspire--all the things product people strive to do. Let me know what you think!
DM me @philmora on Parler, @philippemora on IG and Twitter My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Head of Digital Product thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader  Actions and behaviors a platform curator must nurture in order to have both producers and consumers extract value from the platform On the producer side:
Designing for Producers
How to onboard producers
Designing for Consumers
How to get Producers and Consumers to stick around Customization: to scale quality, better data, better filters -- In order to Customize, a platforms filters have to work ever better. Ideally, the platform should encourage users to make small actions that increasingly improve the filter, so it’s easier to customize the offer: this way, despite abundance, the platform can still deliver relevance. The filter should take the core value unit and match it to what a consumer wants based on:
Make sure long-term investment gives producers:
Make consumers stick around:
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DM me @philmora on Parler My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Head of Digital Product thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader |
i blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech, Experiences and anything holistic.
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