Perfect picture moment

I was just checking my children photos. Out of 10 clicks, one photo had me glued taking me to the moment of the picture. The only realization of present was the wetness in my eyes not letting me gaze longer that I long for that very perfect picture moment

Why so!. Why not the remaining 9 ?

The answer was available when we met one of our customers steering committee. True, this project and customer has made me "unlearn" me many heuristics that is for better.

The project was to convert their SOP to e-Learning training manuals. Now, there was just one topic, which is conceptual in nature. The customer wanted it to be treated differently. We tuned to the ways of standardization and reusability, got the delivery which had the meaning explained well. There was a silent acceptance with indications that more was expected for this topic, yet the direction remained unclear.

Knowing that we need to stop, rewind, revert back to creativity for this module, back in drawing board, we talked, iterated, scrapped ideas, and came up with what is an acceptable profitable proposition for both in form of a complete story. The end result was demonstrated in the steering committee, with personal accolades coming our way.

There, 3 of us were standing, staring at the gamble thinking what went right, while receiving compliments, with an all time high in customer satisfaction.

The perfect picture moment, was when the COO congratulated us with a firm hand shake and trade mark briskness with a smile.

Personal or Professional, strive for that perfect picture moment which freezes you in time. It should make you realize the loneliness of the present, and wanting the moment etched in memories back.

Communication with multiple stakeholders

The biggest challenge faced in my current project is the multi channel communication and the variety of content that need to be dealt with.

Different businesses together are required to own a project part and with no relationship of their users with other business users. Thus, this is still difficult, as one process and one set of styles are not acceptable to the other divisions.

Further more, the integrated team which conceived the project is not the end target audience nor has convinced them about this importance.

Amid such tough challenges and constrained timelines, the only silver lining is creation of another IP within the group.

Hope at end of this project I would be able to post some answers.

Tension Elasticity: A Management Framework for small teams

Not PMP, PRICE II, ITIS. I work with small teams and the most simple framework is something not for managers but to make team members self manage themselves. Hence the idea needs to be in the term and not in an explanation for terms. The framework is simple. Every project and team members goes through 3 phases:

1. Concern Phase,
   
2. Breath Easy phase and
   
3. Elongation phase

What you need to do is bring the project to "Breath Easy" phase all the time.
Why is this a framework and what worth is it to say what every one knows. The importance is in the "tension" inherent in the phases. As long as you maintain the "tension" to "breath easy" phase, the project will always be a good place to work giving you lot of experience. Why it does not seem to be worth given a consideration is that the "tension" is never realized.

When the customer raises a concern, we firefight till customer cools down or till the customer forgets "Temporarily" about the project. We never move the project and do things that get us back to "Breath Easy" ways of doing work. Mostly we move into "calm" phase than "easy" phase. The more you breath easy the more sustainable the project team will be and more satisfied your employees would be.

Hmm, how do you know that you "breath easy" and not "calm" phase ? The answer is in delegation. Are you dispensable in whatever your role on the project demands you today ? Can you get a fresh recruit, share the hard coded files, documents, explain the work in a couple of hours and relax googling for the rest of day ? If yes, the project is in "Breath Easy" phase. Which can be judged by the fact that the scalability and bottle necks are non-existent on the project.

When are you in concern phase ? It happens at all stages in project.

1. Whenever you are sure there is an impending fire that you are allowing to subside with time.
   
2. It could be a seemingly simple comment that customer would have made, that you took it lightly.
   
3. It could mean a request that potentially, without analysis looks good to deliver, but consumes more time than anticipated,
   
4. Could be a feature, you have no experience with that you theoretically think is possible, something the team considers as a value add while the basic needs of the project are still not delivered while you press for delivery of value add first, etc.
   
5. You can always feel, that you are in concern phase, if you do not get a systems view of the work, be it lack of information, time, resources, experience, expertise, support, tools, etc.

Elongation phase should then be same as concern phase - rite? Yes, as far as tension is concerned, it is in same league and you need to move in to "Breath Easy" phase fast. However, elongation phase is more painful than mind mapping a concern phase. In Elongation phase you need to manage reality and perception differences as well. In a recent project, I totally believed the customer is taking more time, while we deliver as per the last 3 month old project plan asking for the turnaround time dates. However in last sales interaction, I got the feedback that 'damage is already done'. Well, to bring the project to "Breath Easy" phase, we are trying to complete them to the satisfaction, while another "breath easy" option is to to write off the small amount based on the reality or facts submitted to client.

Fundamentally, elongation phase starts when there is a miss from deadlines and scope. When value add becomes a priority, and many times I falter this principle not to entertain them till the scope is closed.

Any ideas on how to "Breath Easy" often in project teams?

Project Outsourcing Commandments

Customer is king. Customer decision is final. King's deliverables should be good and on time. There can be many statements validating customers importance. Yes, it is important to drive the point to ensure greater customer satisfaction. But it is equally important for customers to know when and how projects can be turned downside with their own actions/statements.

Few don'ts advice to my customers and prospects will be:

1. Never give a project without internal commitment: Who needs to review, who needs to approve, who needs to be involved, who will pay the invoice, is important to be on board from first time.

2. Never give feedback more than twice on a file: First time, the delivery has all the passion in it. Second time, the feedback on issues seen are considered learning, third time, the moods/mindset and expectations are understood. But from this time on, more feedback will only add to low motivational work. The fixes would be done just to satisfy you, without any passion or brain behind it. If the release is not up to your expectations, send email that you do not consider it as a release at all, and still keep only 2 review cycles.

3. Treat Review cycles with seriousness: Ensure you dedicate time, stop reviews after a optimum batch size(say 25 local issues and/or 5 global issues) in one review cycle, 5-6 localized issues in second review cycle. Period. Validate issues fixed please.

4. Delay the start of the project, but never delay the completion date. The date committed during project start is known to all (senior managers of both companies), but changed dates are hardly communicated unless in case of escalations. The initial buy-in will see to it that projects are on review radar, but past initial deadlines, it is left on excel sheets/Gantt charts within project teams.

5. Escalate without bias: Never escalate only when there is a problem that is discomforting you. Escalate and demand when normal, routine deliverables are missed. Treat escalations for support deliveries as well, like meeting minutes, discussion notes, future commercial implications, tracking requests for fix, changes, etc.

6. Ask for senior management attention, what ever your size be: The seniority can be decided by the vendor. But a non-project senior person is necessary to provide attention and consultation on project from both sides. If this is not there, project teams will tend to do things comfortable to them but not to their respective organizations.

7. Praise the team: US customers do this. We love it. But in India, these are more subtle. A behind the scenes word of mouth is very nice for managers and seniors, but a word of applause is required for project team workers.

8. Accept for delays and contingencies at both ends: You do not need a status report to tell you who is delaying what. Delays are inevitable at both sides. It is important to acknowledge or force an acknowledgement in email, so that they do not become a habit.

9. Provide enough references/source/stories: Well, this sounds like why i need to give the project to you. However think about it differently. Giving a project is no letting go of your commitments. It is to do things smartly and differently. Smart way, is to outline your needs progressively based on vendor thoughts. What you have in mind is validated/invalidated by similar prior experiences available with vendor. What you need is executed differently with added bonuses of giving away the maintenance and support hassles.

References/Source examples/Stories gives better clarity on expectations and aid in realistic schedules and deliverables matching expectations.

10. Prioritize what you need: As a vendor I can be willing to give a "free" lunch. But it is free only for a day. What lies ahead is more investment. Hence prioritize and do not ask for "free" lunches unless there is a need for the same. Example, You ask for a blog engine, I give "content engine" free. To manage, govern and administer the content engine, is really additional investment from your side. Do you really need it ?

11. We work mutually for better appraisals: You may hate me saying this. But at the end of the year, my project and yours too will be evaluated for WIN. Hence WIN-WIN is a must for a serious engagement. When either of our appraisals and more money is in danger of getting lost, we will not be able to get together at any levels - professional or personal. Hence mutual respect is governed by more serious personal money at stake.

Can we strive for a better appraisal partnership please ?

And few more, may be in next posts.

Cognitive Load - Part 2

If there needs to be a simple measure for the work/services/deliverables rendered then you can self-evaluate yourself using "Cognitive Load" concept.

Cognitive Load simply attempts to answer the question - Does the work give me confidence that it increases my productivity or does it put more responsibility on me to review/check the work thus extending by dependency ?

Cognitive Load is a self-perception quality. How do you do it ? Here are few pointers.

1. Stand up, step back and view the soft copy of the document: Are you happy with it ? Hmm you have done your best, you say. So don't want to comment on it. Better, call a peer and ask what they make out of the delivery from the same distance. Can they point out the distinction in the work ? Can they assume what you have done ? Can they tell the mood of the work ? If there is at least an answer, then there is a good deal.

2. Take a Print of a sample: Going green means do not waste paper. So take a few pages out and see the results in black and white. Do the areas get highlighted properly? Is there a depth that is spotted. Is it easy to read the print copy with minimal attention rather in a distraction environment.

Meaning, is your file now visible to users and can they see the difference that they spotted for you in color soft copy ?

3. Try out an alternate: If there is a paragraph, put that in bullets. Are you impressed? If you have put them in bullets try separating them in a table row and see if they are impressive ?
If you are working on an excel sheet, have you color coded columns or color coded rows ? Are you impressed ? If not, try playing with border styles, colors, thickness ? Still feel you could do better - Did you try fonts sizes and colors ?

4. Give yourself a try: Try showcasing your work and highlight the important user friendly elements. Specifically highlight the following to your peer:

1. Are the users reaching the right spots with the right cues ?
2. How many places should the user look around to spot the information ?
3. How many times you will ask the input for a specific information - Meaning how many forms and fields needs to be filled in by user in one sitting ?

4. Optimize the batch: One of the major foundation blocks that e-Learning business address is the granularity and independency of content as 2-3 minute capsules. Follow this rule. Split your deliveries in multiple chunks and send it for review/approval. If there is a huge delivery,stagger it on a weekly basis. This way you let your managers rest easy and you can work at ease by getting your confidence back.

5. Can you reduce the intermediate sign off posts - This suggestion coming from a manager might sound counter intuitive and surprising. Many milestones are actually intermediate sign off posts to keep project in track. However think about the over heads associated with each intermediate delivery. You need to spend time in reviews, packaging, communication, solicit feedback, rework on the delivery and submit it again going through the release process. Is it worth the effort to do these or take a calculated risk of proceeding further with a commitment that the deliveries are on track. The amount of changes/issues in a major milestone will not exceed the time spent in intermediate deliveries. Hence be careful in setting milestones (refer above point on batch optimization). Think if it is really a milestone or is it part of intermediate delivery in the name of showing progress and achieving a billing point.

The least cognitive load is the best form of process optimization. Do you prefer a Government bank asking you to come over and sign forms or do you prefer a private bank who does the service of collecting documents, photocopying them, obtain your signatures at you convenient place ?

The difference is considered user experience, but in the underlying deal, it is lesser cognitive load that matters.

Cognitive Load - Your Take - Part 1

What is the real worth of your work ?
Have you ever considered that you take up a task to complete something that someone else needs to find it easy for their progress?

Do you deliver a physical asset at the end of your task ? If you claim you deliver an asset, then have you defined what the asset is worth ?

Try yourself and tell me the answer.

Angel Bullet Points, Devilish Details

Often do you get into a session where you are told that life is all rosy and no thorns? You have all solutions and no problems anymore ?

Have you often been in situations especially after power point presentations where the bullet points sound great positive statements OR a client gives you a presentation which seems a very comprehensive requirements spec and all is expected is to dive to work and deliver exactly what is told ?

Well, experience has taught me to always see "dangling carrots in air" without getting the sweetness of a bite and the freshness of it.

What corporate culture does not teach you and so does your education is to differentiate between "negativism and criticism". Hence we tend mostly to accept/believe the angelical bullets, so as not to send the impression of a pessimist. Thus the devil escapes always hidden in the context or details and comes out when you already know where you are.

To clear the conception, here is my 'criticism'.

1. Negativism is an argument while criticism is discussion.
2. Negativism is a body language while criticism is a thought language.
3. Negativism is perception while criticism is lack of belief due to absence of data.
4. Negativism is indiscipline while criticism is discipline with conviction.
5. Negativism is drag while criticism is a pull factor.
   

I find it always illuminating to see and work with data than presenter interpretations. I arrive at my own conclusions and wait to see if the presenter rallies upon the same interpretation sequence but intelligently detours to give a different perspective.

Consider meetings, such as these:
1. Target setting and business climate presentations - They definitely sound great, where everything is "BIG" and challenging. But should not the data about the current team SWOT be the most pressing bullets for setting targets and driving action.

2. Justifying a decision that affects emotionally - Should not the data about speculations doing the rounds be addressed in bullets, rather than giving a management spiel of a strategic decision/direction necessitating such decision? Can you be counted as a "on-board person" for such reasoning ?

3. New business initiatives - Well, even I do this many times. Google for public market research data and mostly you get them in free domain after their validity is out of date. Use them to show graphs, data, impressive quotes from various people, to justify our entrance and a strategy to corner some business.
Rather should not the initiative be based on whether you have let such opportunities pass, how many of them and what is your reasonable guesstimate of opportunity cost, the wishes of team, the readiness of sales force, operations team, availability of talent pool, cost overheads required and best of all the corporate patience ingrained in the culture ? But how many times does this approach give you the "buy-in" required ?

4. Solution Architecture diagram: How many times as a consultant have you made a slide on disadvantages and overheads required to make the solution work ? When a solution can deliver all goods, then where would be the case for repeat business and business excellence and continuous improvement ? If these devilish details are not covered, then how do you believe in Angelical bullets ?

In the absence, I prefer pessimism, if that is what needs to be term used to call "ground zero validation".

Why is it always "preaching" as a presenter in most cases is about good and no bad at all? Isn't it disconnected with the ground and what purpose does this achieve ??

Estimation - A near correct approach

Isnt it any company dream to have a correct estimate, correct price with normal profit and earn it upon delivery ?

Well, after much experience with simulation training models, we have intrepreted our experience to address this common problem. Infact the delivery team this time felt that overruns, over time and over work is killing their creativity. Hence came up with near to accurate tracking times and days required for their work.

Having emperical data is always a master stroke. Here it is a doubly sharp as data is accurate enough to be tracked and reported immediately with as many minor tasks that can be reasonably captured. The estimation technique has been refined with various baselines across multiple projects, that now our estimation technique of any simulation exercise is
= number of clicks determined*$ value for efforts.

Number of clicks is a very obvious number to measure during proposal stage. The value size is so granular that the % of assumption error will hardly be 5-10%. While traditional estimation models with the same error margin result in 15-20% normal variances, in this case, you can cover the variances in the cost, which is fraction less than normal costing models.

Our experience which is being field tested is hoped to confirm our postive thinking of acheiving 20% lesser cost and 15% less schedule time for delivery.

You wonder about the compromises made in the solution - Very minor which has not been enabled for want of time to deliver projects and not because of any technical limitation. However as my boss said today - you better revise your ID strategy for better communicating instructions than making them look machine instructed sounds.

Thanks to timely boss reminder that we are taking course correction to the ground principles that any e-Learning is not about technology but enable better visibility to Instruction principles through proper application of technical solutions.

What is your Story?

One of my first assignments/meeting I took part in this company is to create a "service definition" for our "e-Learning Practice". The practice was 6 months new to the company and we were actively in business - Thanks to the "inorganic growth" and the customers who remained with us with the management change. The "service definition" is part of our quality process and systems. The compliance and audit trail will map and match this definition with practice work to ensure we stay on course. Hence falling under the purview of quality assurance team, we were meeting the quality head of the company for mentorship on the thoughts and the steps to create our "service definition".
When the meeting started, we were expecting templates, devilish level of details and forms to be filled in, the non compliance areas and penalties, the drills and procedures, what micro level do we document, track and trace, etc. However, the opening statement is a 2 minute pitch and it was on these lines. (Not reproduced verbatim)
"You are hiring a consultant in a distant location and will be airborne to a client site immediately on offer. What will you tell him and how will you ensure that he does a good job and satisfies the client. The consultant is experienced in the domain but not on the "way" that you expect to "Wow the customer". So how will you communicate the way to the consultant."

Sounds simple? Look at the details - It requires
1. Every single step mapped out,
2. Every single document listed,
3. For every document - a template created,
4. For every template - a design and thought applied,
5. For every design and thought, a checklist prepared,
6. For every checklist, an audit planned, and from here on
7. "A great improvement-fixes-validate" cycle steps declared, defined and detailed.

Did we care for these details when the quality head told this story? Not me atleast, but it was impressive enough to dive into details and start work. But only when we got the job, the "full story" came through as sunrise on a sunny day.

Did the story motivate me - Well "yes" - wouldn't it for you if you are starting a practice or a company on one service ? So can we identify the merits required in storytelling from above case: 1. Make a compelling context bordering on "Worst Case" hypothesis: In this case, sending a fresh hire, however senior to a project and that too on a client partnering role is bound to be scary for every manager, handling projects and clients. However there is always a realization that this could always be a reality in many situations. Hence any document or details required for such a target audience is always going to address all important points in the priority list order.
2. Do not explain the details: The story makes an impact only when felt and not told. For every question or solution, anchor your response to the questions posed by central theme of story. Repeat the story and ask if the Q/A context fits the central question of the story.
3. Practice the delivery: Amitabh and Rajnikanth are iconic superstars for their styles of dialog delivery. Hence the story you say, must be ,with your own conviction and importantly true to your style.

Have you told your story for getting work done?

The best Marketing Tool - Projects

Our main source of business is repeat orders. The nature of our work is to develop e-Learning courses. In India, this is a commodity service with lots of competition having similar offerings and at various price points.

When clients stick to a vendor, there is more to deliveries that would be required to bag the repeat order. One major area is "comfort" factor. So far, I believe the "comfort" offered by us is timeliness, quality(many deliveries are deemed accepted on delivery), support and thought alignment (more on this later). leading to trust and desire to continue with us when more projects are available.

As with marketing tools, projects enhances "recall" value of a service, and gains the mind share for future business prospects. This leads the customers to classify you as a chosen vendor in one area (in our case e-Learning) while an allied service that is offered by my company still requires a complete sales cycle.

This being the case, project managers do create a brand identity of their own and of the company through project execution.

Isn't projects the best marketing tool and project teams the best marketing team for a company ?