Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Hereâs a little game.
Pick a random in-progress âticketâ (card, story, task, etc.) in/on your tool of choice (e.g. physical board, Jira, Clubhouse etc.). Make sure it has no parentâŠit isnât an âepicâ for example. Now, attempt to connect that ticket to a big company goal.
Try this formatâŠ
Weâre working on that ticket to [the mission of that ticket] to help us [some higher level mission], which will help us [some even higher level mission], which will help us [some even higher level mission]âŠ.(repeating)
Keep going until you hit some meaningful 12â18 month company mission. You may run into a situation where that ticket enables multiple higher level missions. Thatâs OKâŠwork each âbranchâ until the endpoint.
Example:
Weâre working on Jira ticket ACT-1252 to predictively auto-fill transaction details, which will help us improve the efficiency of the bank reconciliation workflow, which will help us retain larger accounts with in-house bookkeepers, which will help us increase recurring revenue AND will help us market to larger prospects who we âlostâ when they trialed the reconciliation workflow
I could have been WAY more specific with the missions (e.g. increase recurring revenue by between $X and $Y in FY2018), but you get the idea.
If youâre feeling adventurous, describe the impact relationship between the two items:
Which will help us improve the efficiency of the bank reconciliation workflow BY saving between 15 and 20 minutes to finish the process
âŠand even venture into what you know and assume, first by swapping out âwhich willâ with âwhich we believe willâŠâ, and adding some data
Which we believe will help us improve the efficiency of the bank reconciliation workflow by saving between 15 and 20 minutes to finish the process because we know 80% of customers spend ~15 minutes per reconciliation filling out data we have a 90% probability of guessing accurately.
How did it go? Write out your response and hand it to someone. Does it make sense to them? Pay close attention to the number of âhopsâ. If you had <=3 hops, are you skipping intermediary steps in the chain of impact (e.g. going from a 1â3 day task, to a 6 month goal horizon, to an 18 month goal horizon)?
Above allââ being honest with yourselfââ does it all hold water? Are there huge leap-of-faith assumptions? Would you bet your own money on these impacts working out? If you are a PM, how would your team do at this exercise?
Please let me know in the comments how this worked out for you.
Hereâs what I have learned by doing this exercise in many different settings:
- Product managers (probably because they practice this kind of horizon juggling) are typically able to stumble through on the first try. But not with great results. Developers and designers flat out struggleââ not due to lack of skill, but lack of coherent up to date information.
- The âmessy middleâ is where things fall apart. The high level company goal is bold and coherent. The near-term goal makes sense. The ticket makes sense. But shared understanding of the middleââ the 3â9 month âwhyâ and the impacts both up and down the chainââ are often lacking.
- Real work typically doesnât fall into neat little quarter increments. And even when it does, a quarter goal is but one step in the chain of impacts. Also, depending on the industry, you can have coherent 4 hop descriptions and coherent 8 hop descriptions. Thereâs no hard a fast rule (except that that <=3 typically feels too simplistic).
- Once you get 3+ steps âupâ the chain, it is very, very rare to find a single team that has full autonomy over that impact.
- Once you get 2+ steps âupâ, you are in the realm of being able to solve the problem in multiple ways.
- FinallyâŠthe whole impact chain is absolutely filled with assumptions, even as you get up into the 3+ range. In my mind, this is what is missing from common goal setting frameworks. Thereâs no honest treatment of uncertainty. So the ânice roll upâ falls apart with any scrutiny.
So what?
Imagine everyone in your company being able to rattle this off for their work. And believe it (including believing how uncertainty is described). And have it guide their workâŠfinding more innovative ways to achieve the things that matter. Wouldnât that be awesome? Is that happening right now? Why not? If youâre using OKRs and they arenât providing this overview, why is that?
In my mind, this is a product team burden to bear. Go forthâŠ.
The Random Ticket Game was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.