More thoughts on how “Good PMs” ship

More thoughts on ways that PMs can help ensure the team ships the product on time are below, in no particular order.  Patterning this like the famous Good PM, Bad PM article by Ben Horowitz.

Clarify the “what” with the builders

Establish a team meeting to review designs/functionality, upfront. 

Walk through what you’d like to deliver, and the various “stories”, or chunks of work you see to achieve those expectations.  Meetings usually aren’t fun, but for a team with a poor delivery track record, this is justified.

• Good PMs will:
  • Think hard BEFORE the meeting about potential complications, document them, and raise them during the meeting (even at the risk of looking dumb).
  • Make the sequencing of work crystal clear, and will explicitly document any “long poles” or dependencies.
  • Own this process of bringing clarity to what’s being built.
  • Adjust the granularity of the discussion as needed.  Poor delivery track record means you need to get very detailed.
• Bad PMs will:
  • Discuss sequencing of tasks once the work is underway.
  • Frequently be surprised by blockers.
  • Wait to discuss go-to-market and release plan with stakeholders until development is already underway.  Does it need to be behind a feature flag?  A/B tested?  Etc.

Expect the “last mile” to be a long one

I’ve been a part of several releases where the team got caught in a seemingly endless cycle of testing, finding, and fixing bugs.  There wasn’t much confidence that quality was being delivered.  Things felt brittle.

• Good PMs will:
  • Take into consideration time needed to update test suites, and for bug fixing.
  • Ensure devs have time carved out to handle release tasks (merging, dealing with build issues, etc.).
  • Take both of the above into consideration when communicating dates to stakeholders.
• Bad PMs will:
  • Not ruthlessly prioritize bugs found during testing.
  • Blame developers for delays.

More about scope reduction

I wrote about this previously, but creating a Scope Reduction Plan will go a long way toward helping you deliver on time.

• Good PMs will:
  • Think hard about the core problem, and the minimum viable way to address it.  If you had just 25% of your current resources, what would you change?
• Bad PMs will:
  • Be “reactive” when dates start slipping.  Make emotional decisions.
  • Surprise their stakeholders when reducing scope.

Your team should take pride in shipping

At the end of the day, building products is a team sport.  In the long term, having a culture where your team is proud to ship will result in people going the extra mile when needed, without burning out.

All of your processes and planning will result in more accurate delivery estimates, happier stakeholders/team, and a reputation for being a team that can execute.

• Good PMs will:
  • Go the extra mile – be a PM who unblocks and helps the team focus.
  • Celebrate victories and publicly recognize strong contributions.
• Bad PMs will:
  • Focus on one-off delivery dates, instead of shifting the team culture.