The Mindset

Have you ever came out of a project kickoff meeting without a clue on how the product should look like and what it should do?

The project kickoff meeting is a good opportunity to present an overview of the project, give a high-level schedule and introduce the team. But sometimes the owner of the product forgets that most team members don’t really know what the project is all about. Soon they will be up to their neck in architectural discussions, design meetings, coding and testing. But they might not have the big picture in their heads.

So, what is the big picture? If you are going to be part of the development of a new product (or a new feature in a product) you must understand what you are going to build. Not just in terms of bits, bytes and XML chunks, and not even in terms of components and interfaces. You must have a clear vision of the product and how it is going to be used.

A few years ago, when .NET was still in early Beta stages, I attended one of Microsoft’s fancy conferences. I don’t remember any of the technical sessions, but I do remember a five-minute video illustrating their web services vision. The video showed a young woman scheduling a doctor appointment from her PDA. After typing the type of physician she was looking for and her preferred appointment time, she received a list of physician in her neighborhood who were available at the desired time. She tapped on one name, and her details were transmitted to the physician’s office. Meanwhile, in the office, the secretary browsed her boss’ schedule, and saw it being automatically updated.

This five-minute concept video immediately brought the dry technical details to life. Until then, all I knew about Web Services revolved around the technical details. But the minute the video ended, I understood the concept and the vision. I even started to understand how the technical details fit in.

Presenting such a video to the development team will provide them a clear sense of where they fit into the bigger picture. They will be able to understand complex concepts in seconds. No, they will not know exactly how to implement them just yet. But they will know where they are going, and this knowledge is extremely important if you really want to get there.

But that’s not all. A concept video describing the product and how it will be used is also extremely motivating. Such a visualization will help you, the product owner, share your vision with the development team. Everyone watching it can immediately be part of this vision.

I know not every project has the budget to produce a concept video. So, I guess you’ll have to be creative: draw a comic strip, or do a funny little play. Just do something to turn the abstract technical details into a clear vision. 

Providing the team a clear vision of the product is invaluable. Without a clear product vision every project looks the same, and this is kind of boring. In that sense, you should approach your development team just like you approach your customers: turn then on. Make them as enthusiastic as you are about the product.

Let the development team look out through your eyes and see the exciting vision as you see it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 6:19 am and is filed under Vision, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.