Embarking on this journey, I thought I’d spill the secret sauce —a blend of Ukrainian military tactics sprinkled with Agile magic. So, buckle up, and let’s unravel the secrets:

Steps to Navigate the Product Realm:

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1. Scouting and Intelligence (Research): Imagine sending out your best scouts to gather crucial information. It’s like preparing a detailed map of the terrain before a big journey.
2. Area Assessment (Outline Playground Processes and Rules Set): Picture yourself examining the playground before the game begins. It’s about understanding the lay of the land and the rules of engagement.
3. Defining the Process and Obstacles (Confirmation with Project Members): Think of it as a strategy meeting, ensuring that everyone agrees your plan is comprehensive and accurate.
4. Goal or Task: Setting a clear destination on your journey, and understanding the purpose of your quest.
5. Building Out the Plan and Risks (Outline Potential Ways and Problems): Consider this as drafting your battle plan. Highlight potential paths and identify potential pitfalls, detailing how they can be navigated.
6. Implementation (Start Working in Iterations): Now, imagine starting your mission, working in iterations, and constantly reviewing your progress, much like reviewing the footage of previous attempts.

With this strategic playbook, we can approach any challenge with a clear vision and a well-thought-out plan, ensuring success in our endeavors. Time to execute the mission!

Let me chime in here that the steps above are not done now iteratively. At best we do that once the project starts. Mostly never again if any changes did not occur.

Let’s sprinkle a bit of wisdom on the matter, all while keeping it fun and fresh for our youthful minds.

Comparisons Galore:

So why do we need the change? Imagine a sprint retrospective as your car’s rearview mirror. It’s like glancing back while cruising through your project road. But here’s the catch — it won’t magically transform your car into a spaceship or a batmobile. Why? Because retrospectives, as awesome as they are, and all agile processes, aren’t designed to overhaul the entire process or adapt to the ever-changing environment. We are so good at reviewing and improving the development process but the issue is that the development process with stakeholders changed, the business goal changed. It’s a bit like trying to teach an old dog new tricks — it might fetch the ball, but what if you traded the dog for a horse? Suddenly, the whole fetching thing takes an unexpected turn. But the thing is that the Team does not yet know that they have a horse. In order to understand that a review of the project should be done. In recent recession cycles we are trying to use the same car to drive, though the team changed, so should the car, right?

To add here We are not doing any research on other teams, processes, and achievements. So In our Product work, we tend to focus internally on the team, not accounting or cloning great processes set in other teams or companies.

Some examples of this: Imagine our product works as a magical kingdom where each team is a knight, wielding its unique sword (process). But here’s the catch: we’re so engrossed in our own knightly adventures that we forget to peep over the castle walls and see what epic swords others are wielding in different kingdoms. It’s like having a treasure map but only looking at the corners. So we are wasting lots of opportunities.

The Quest for Adaptation:

It’s time for us to adapt to where we are and agree that in a world of constant changes and adaptation, the only constant is change. So in order to keep up we need to adapt.

That’s where our iterative review of the project, achievements, and approaches swoops in like a superhero cape.

From my two years of navigating the product landscape, it’s crystal clear that holding on to old processes will hold us up in times of constant change.

Сonclusions:

In the vast landscape of product navigation, clinging to old processes is like trying to catch a train while someone else is building a spaceship. And not just any spaceship — it’s got blackjack, cool gadgets, and all the things Bender likes.

Out of the Ukrainian military, If they would not be constantly adapting to the shifting environment and changes they would be killed. Let us learn from their experience and use it in our work.

Items to consider :

• Iterative review of the business changes and goals each 4–7 sprints
• Generate achievement reports each iteration.
• Sync ups with other teams to gather best practices based on achievement reports
• Gain intel for other teams in other companies on the processes and setup.
• Sync up with stakeholders to gain their acknowledgment of teamwork, and changes that will take place in order to adapt.
• Constantly conduct a retrospective of work completed by the team and find patterns to improve the process. Considering Tech and social sides.

There is no more time to waste on processes that are not adapting. Or you will pay a big price for this.

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