the playbook part 0: forward & contents
sunk thought’s - the playbook
“the playbook” is a mini-book delivered in 8 posts (the forward and seven chapters.) It’s the tiny seed from which growing an innovative product engineering organization becomes possible.
the forward: I have 21 radical ideas
I’ve had the pleasure to work with and befriend a number of incredibly talented, thoughtful, and eloquent people over the years. The biggest perk of this is having someone say or publish something that you immediately recognize is what you believe, but have never been able to describe so succinctly. Kris Gale, former VP of Eng at Yammer, did just that when he published his “21 radical ideas” many years ago now.
Those 21 radical ideas (order slightly edited from the original version) are:
People have valuable insights, regardless of seniority.
No matter what your title, everyone in your organization is better than you at something.
The total cognitive capacity of the people at the bottom of an org chart exceeds that of the people at the top.
Leaders can drive better results by empowering and aligning than by managing.
Leadership is a role, not a rank.
Making the system work better is more effective than making the people work harder.
People are intrinsically motivated to work harder in a better system.
Process prevents mistakes while also preventing innovation.
Ambiguity provides opportunity for innovation.
Efficiency is not a goal; it is a means that should be weighed against other means of increasing output.
When managers are responsible for people and directly credited for their output, perverse incentives abound.
Reporting structures do not need to dictate workflow; these can be decoupled.
Speeding up feedback loops is more effective than improving analysis quality.
A plan’s value decreases with time, even as the plan is being executed.
Planning only in increments provides opportunities to test assumptions and discover new strategies; this does not preclude having a long-term vision.
You must trust everyone you employ to do a good job; trust issues should be dealt with directly, not mitigated by constraints.
Solutions that come from people close to problems tend to be best.
Individual ownership of domains creates opaque silos, while rotational assignments break them down to increase transparency.
Consistency and quality emerge from transparency and empowerment.
Processes, reviews and standards that enforce quality and consistency limit them to local maxima.
A system can be built to take advantage of all of the above in any field, in any industry.
I would add: One can build an effective team culture/system that takes advantage of the above, even with limited authority (e.g. middle management.)
Over the next 7 posts I’ll lay the groundwork I think is required to build a human operating structure that takes advantage of the above, from the point of view of my personal experience and perspective.
These should be useful for people in any role within an product engineering organization, executive, manager, or engineer. My hope is to keep it short enough to be read in one sitting, leaving the details vague enough to enable you to envision a system to fit your own needs, while also being specific enough to actually teach something worth learning.
The Table of Contents
Relationships of Trust
(Handshakes and Tokens in the Real World)Codifying Your Culture
(and Running That Culture “in Production”)People Management
(Hiring, Engaging, Growing, and Retaining Talent)A Punk Rock Guide to Products
(Applying the Scientific Method to Your Business)Engineering Ain’t Easy
(Embracing the Means of Software Production)A Growth Rosetta Stone
(App Scaling Patterns :: Org Growth Patterns)Smile into the Fog
(“Product Managing” an Innovative Operating Structure)
