The Executive Brief
“Plans are nothing; Planning is everything” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It’s kind of hard to argue with the guy who put together the largest amphibious assault in history, the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
And to think that it was done without computers, planning software, or any of the modern aids that we have come to depend on. They did have Tom Hanks so they had that going for them.
But seriously, I point this out to illustrate what can be accomplished by planning. Yes, there are those who feel that planning is another word for waterfall.
It isn’t.
Planning is a powerful tool that tech leaders should use more often. Read on to find out more.
Btw, before you dive into it, here are the most interesting bits in technology from the last week.
Google may be considering an offer for HubSpot. While it is just a rumor as of this writing, HubSpot’s share price rose sharply on the news. Regulators are expected to scrutinize any such deal closely.
This move would give Google the ability to complete with Microsoft, Oracle, and others in the CRM space. Something to watch if you’re a HubSpot customer or are looking for leverage in your next CRM renewal.The latest version of Google’s flagship LLM, Gemini 1.5, is now available in public preview. The biggest highlight for the new model is support from between 128,000 and 1 million tokens. The new model is multilingual and understands images, videos, and audio streams in addition to text.
Some really interesting things can be done with a million token context window. Developers will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on this latest offering. Personally, I expect a lot of Austin Powers Dr. Evil members that include the words “one MILLION tokens”.
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Make Planning Your Super Power
There’s a famous quote we all learn in Middle or High School that goes something like, “If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.” I think it was Ben Franklin or one of the other Founding Fathers who said it.
With the global (and some would say insidious) spread of Agile in the last 15 to 20 years, CPTOs have largely abandoned this fundamental concept in their zeal to embrace hyper-flexibility.
But what has this rabid enthusiasm for not planning brought Product & Technology Leaders?
Significant misses in terms of business value generation
Cost overruns
Disrupted teams, RIFS, and a multitude of people problems
Product scope mismatches
Product Market mis-fit
Time-based goals not met
Embarrassment & sadness
That doesn’t mean Agile is bad. It just means most leaders have completely thrown out planning in large part because of it. And this has done them, their teams, and their businesses a great disservice.
Just look at what 90% of Product Teams want these days: minimal roadmap commitments / no deadlines, no real scope adherence, massive cost-flexibility, and so on.
Most Product & Engineering teams don’t like to plan, and Agile is the perfect excuse for them to avoid doing it (to their detriment).
Here’s the approach under-performing Product & Engineering Teams typically take when it comes to planning on delivering major initiatives:
They don’t develop even a simple, high-level plan
If they do have a plan, they frequently ignore the plan and instead get bogged down with side issues
They don’t take the time to revise their plan on a periodic basis
When reporting on initiatives they don’t leverage the plan and instead provide updates using some other “source of truth”
Similar to #3, they don’t factor in changes to milestones or major dependencies quickly enough, so the plan starts to break down
They forget or don’t know how to socialize the plan with key stakeholders
They make unilateral changes to the plan that impacts business outcomes without communicating with stakeholders
On the other hand, what winning teams realize is that even lightweight planning together with Agile greatly improves their chances of success and therefore the act of planning is a skill that can be a team’s superpower.
(Before you lose your mind, remember that I said LIGHT-WEIGHT planning.)
The act of planning creates some of the following benefits for your business:
Benefits of Planning
Makes sure you align initiatives to business goals
Allows you to optimize your resources over time
Lets you manage / predict your risk
Enables you to communicate with external stakeholders
Keeps your priorities clear
Increases stakeholder confidence in your team
Helps map work to measurable goals
Forces you to think about the value you’re generating
Empowers your team because good plans create clarity
Closing Thoughts
Learning the superpower of planning and putting plans in place transforms Product & Engineering Teams from being reactive and constantly firefighting to a proactive force that efficiently navigates the complexities of product development, ensuring that they deliver value consistently. It's the compass that guides the ship through both calm and stormy seas.
Counterintuitively, planning doesn’t make a team rigid; it offers structure so that stupid flexibility is prevented, and smart flexibility is encouraged.
Of course this is the crux of the misinterpretation of Agile most Product & Technology leaders have made — that somehow planning is the opposite of agility.
In reality, Agile + clear planning is the way to win. So make sure to develop BOTH superpowers.