The current speed of disruption within technology has only challenged teams to keep up with new waves of shifts. Companies need more agility and experience in managing the processes, tools, and people within. My experience highlights the approach and thinking I use to deliver and execute. Swiftly understanding the critical business needs, I have been able to generate measures to drive growth around achieving success.
Program Execution
Many Program Managers view their execution activities remarkably similar to managing individual projects, only at a grander scale. Hence their views are short-sighted, monitoring elements like on-time, quality, and costs as their key metrics. I view it very differently. Creating a playbook for a repeatable execution success requires a deeper understanding of the performance and risks you carry. This begins with an honest assessment and understanding of current business needs with the required supporting technologies. Only once you have a prioritized this understanding, found fitment for your gaps, and the required delivery efficiencies you are trying to achieve can you begin informing the program value.
Roadmap with Key Themes
Technology Needs
Delivery Models
Roads for developing and delivering technologies to a defined set of requirements and fixed budgets can be executed by many. Managing an Applied Research & Development technology division, however, is much different. An open canvas with no defined technologies, no existing customer base, or set preconditions can be extremely daunting to many and extremely invigorating to some. Unlike large enterprises, measurements here are based on business outcomes, innovation, integration, and clarity within aggressive timelines.
At NTTi3, a US-based Applied R&D division for NTT, I was required to do just that. My curious and creative side came out in an overly technical field. A great example of this was building out the cross-disciplinary development team that could execute these particular measurements. My team of 5 needed to act as 50. We created a model to do just that. We supported the product platforms and their product managers with an in-house CORE team and a remote FLEX team. Our core team members drove the user stories, stitched together prototypes, validated their design assumptions, and set design patterns to be exercised. Our flex team remotely supported the testing of these assumptions and built out the elements for validation. While our product managers sought and validated true value within the product, we would prepare our designs for scale & growth.
Core-Flex Team Model
