Eric Burd is a product manager who has worked at companies like The Ladders, SchoolNet, Hewlett Packard, and Apple Russia CIS in product and business development roles. He writes a blog on Agile methodology at www.ericburd.com. The document discusses picking a clear target focus to avoid constant pivoting. It also references concepts like risk mitigation in Agile versus waterfall methodologies and how sales, marketing, and finance functions relate to planning, budgets, and initiatives. Organization charts and timelines for planning cycles and next steps are also included.
4. problem…..
• ME: “We need to pick a clear target
and focus our efforts on that win”
• GM: “Why do we need to pick? The
entire dev team keeps talking about
pivots. We can keep pivoting”
12. Where are we in the planning cycle?
July August September October November December
OpPlan &
2010 TLC Planning Cycle Budget
Planning framework
New feature Development (NFD)
Set Budget Target (15/15)
1st pass of Budget Submission
Sept Mgmt Offsite
1st pass @ NFD card prioritization
OpPlan & Budget framework
OpPlan Target
October Off-Site
1st OpPlan submission
2nd Pass @ NFD card prioritization
November Mgmt Offsite
2nd OpPlan Submission
3rd Submission of BB cards
$100K Q1 Brand Spend
Germany
Final OpPlan & BB Card Submission
Management Offsite Review
BoD Presentation & Approval
Finance Freeze of „10 OpPlan
February 26, 2012 12
13. Next Steps
• Finance Freeze target of December 18th
• Reporting system upload week of Jan 1st
• Finance Updates and Finalizes Op Plan January 14th
• Finance completes FY 2009 Financials January 29th
Budget BB Cards Baseline Growth Prod/Tech
November 2009 3
S M T W Th F Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5: OP 2nd Pass Submissions Due
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 12: 3rd Cut (if necessary)
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 18: Mgmt Offsite 18: OP 2nd Pass Review ed
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 30: 4th Cut (if necessary)
December 2009 4
S M T W Th F Sa
1 2 3 4 5 2: OP 3rd Pass Submissions Due
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 7-10: Mgmt Offsite
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 18: Finance freezes Budget 18: Finance freezes BB Cards 18: Finance freezes OP
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
January 2010 5
S M T W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 14: Finance updates and finalizes Budget 14: Final Approval of BB Cards 15: Communication & Distribution of Final
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 2010 Budget, Op Plan and Approved BB
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 29: FY09 Financials Completed
31
February 26, 2012 13
14. Moving the org forward
1. Find a fire / start a fire
2. Listen to customers
3. Get sales in on the action
4. Train the executive team
5. Words matter
6. Small wins
19. The Importance of Level Loading
• What is Level Loading?
– Framework that results in a plan to make incremental spend (hires,
marketing…) in a balanced manner throughout the year rather than front
loading the spend
• Why is Level Loading Important?
– Allows for adjustments to be planned but not committed spend based on actual
performance
• If coming up short vs. OpPlan revenue targets, can adjust the rate of hiring, marketing
spend….to account for miss
• Mitigate the need/risk of headcount reductions, cut in benefits and services, adverse
impact on bonus…
– Often matches a company‟s ability to effectively absorb investments/spend
with planning best practices (i.e. even if we wanted to, we couldn‟t make all
planned hires in January 2010)
• What does it mean for you in terms of 2010 Planning?
– “Level-load” your investments when evaluating incremental spend in 2010
– Recognize dependencies, capabilities, bandwidth and the importance of timing
baseball card initiatives (not all projects can commence in Q1 – need to pace
them out over the course of 2010)
February 26, 2012 19
20.
21.
22.
23. Moving the org forward
• Find a fire / start a fire
o Problems require solutions
• Listen to customers
o Bring the executive along
• Get sales in on the action
o If a customer states a problem, Sales will champion the solution
• Train the executive team
o Show them the way forward
• Words matter
o Your words vs my words
• Small wins
o Small wins vs big bang
Lest you think that I am a PM, MBA with PPT skills. I spoke with others.
Some of the folks in the room wont care. They are at companies that are product driven, and they are centered around an agile method. For others, they have a bigger uphill climb.
What value does Agile bring to these other teams?
Perfect is the enemy of good is an aphorism or proverb which is commonly attributed to Voltaire
the rest of the company is oriented to a method that mitigates risk. Their cycle is driven by seeing projects and process as having a beginning, middle and end.
Jeff’s good work
Jeff’s good work
Unfortunately, the researchers found that the negative effect of setbacks was more powerful than the positive effect of progress on employees' psyches. In fact, the effect of setbacks was two to three times stronger."That's a common finding in psychology—that negative events and negative things tend to get people's attention more and tend to have a stronger impact on people's feelings," Amabile explains.1. Small Wins Show that Winning is Possible4. Small Wins are Exciting5. Small Wins Prepare You for Big WinsMcKinley Elementary in Compton, Calif. is one of the worst schools in one of the poorest performing districts in that state. Only 24 percent of its fifth-graders meet state standards for reading and math. Many McKinley parents are fed up with those lagging scores. They're wielding a new "parent trigger" law to force out the administrators and bring in a charter school operator.This is the second attempt to use the Parent Trigger in California, which allows parents to intervene aggressively in bad schools if they gather enough signatures from other parents. The first attempt was in December 2010, when Parent Revolution encouraged Compton parents to gather petitions and turn failing McKinley Elementary School over to a reputable charter operator, Celerity Educational Group.Because nonprofit Parent Revolution receives much of its funding from charter-school advocates such as Bill Gates and Eli Broad, CTA has tried to paint the nonprofit as a corporate mouthpiece.In the last two years, California, Texas and Mississippi have passed so-called "parent trigger" laws. In each, the law stipulates that if at least 51 percent of the parents of children enrolled in a school sign a petition, they can trigger change. The laws vary in terms of the specifics, but in general, the new law allows parents at persistently failing schools to fire the teachers and principal, and in some cases, turn the school into a charter school instead. Twenty-two other states are considering giving parents the same kind of power.Since its historic first passage in California in January 2010, Parent Trigger laws have passed in two additional states - Texas and Mississippi - and been considered in roughly 20 others.
