Category Archives: Project Management

Product Coaching Framework

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We looked the kinds of coaching methodologies earlier.

The aim and focus of Product Coaching is completely different.

While coaching models focus on individuals, Product Coaching focus’s on the Organisation, Product and the Human capital.

Can coaching really help in becoming successful? Let’s be honest. Nothing guarantees success than commitment, and hard work. However, when we focus on something, there are many a times we loose track of time or money or resources and rework to bring them back together.

When an organisation is building something, there are many stakeholders. Especially startup’s and SME’s cannot afford to loose they money or time. One of the things which can help keep the idea on track is someone who can keep the three forces together and bring everyone on the same page.

I worked for a little of 12 Years in a company called Cerner Corporation (now Oracle Cerner). The vision is so powerful, that even today (after leaving Cerner 7 years ago) I can recite the Vision statement in my sleep. It was so powerful and they ensured it connects with you. This gave me a purpose to work on. Cerner’s vision statement read*, to connect the appropriate stakeholder and resources with just-in-time information to enhance the quality of care.* This changed today, but what we connected with was the simpler and powerful vision. This brought many people together. Each role was important because end of the day our work is being used for some patient in some hospital somewhere in the world.

Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to spend time with their teams to help keep focus in them. Founders and Leadership don’t have a lot of time because they are in the pressure to make things work. So, how do you bring all your resources together for optimal outcomes?

At least few members from each team should always focus on the future, believe in the company’s vision to ensure that teams are not going off-track.

Product Coaching derives its framework based on 3 key aspects – Human Capital, Product (Offering of the company) and the Organisation itself.

Human Capital

The soul of any company are its people. It is important to bring the right people on to the team. However, while hiring since there is only so much one can do, deploying a powerful induction program can play a huge role in setting the tone to how you want your team to think and operate.

Product

For any product or service, there are 3 key aspects to enhancing its value – Efficiency, ROI and its Value. How do you build a product which aim’s at these three? By enabling winning thinking among teams.

Organisation

The value of the solution for the problem its solving, its vision, mission and culture.

Coaching Models

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There are various coaching frameworks available, let us take a look at them:

LAISE

L – Listen

A – Acknowledge

I – Inquire

S – Share

E – Explore

GROW

G – Goals

R – Results

O – Opportunities

W – Way

OSKAR

O – Outcome

S – Scale

K – Know-How

A – Affirm & Action

R – Review

CLEAR

C – Contract

L – Listen

E – Explore

A – Action

R – Review

AOR

A – Activities

O – Objectives

R – Results

FUEL

F – Frame the conversation

U – Understand current state

E – Explore desired state

L – Layout a Plan

WOOP

W – Wish

O – Outcome

O – Obstacle

P – Plan

STEPPA

S – Subject

T – Target

E – Emotion

P – Perception

P – Plan

A – Action

OSCAR

O – Outcome

S – Situation

C – Choices

A – Actions

R – Reviews

All the above models are oriented towards individuals and the kind of coaching – few can be for personal improvement, few for professional growth, few for emotional stability, few for achieving success or can be anything else.

Are there any other coaching methodologies other than the above?

The Psychology of Completion

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In a conference, Seth Godin was speaking about how he managed to bring out so many books, articles and columns which made an impact. He said “The key to being a failure is shipping. Keep shipping your product, article or book even if in your mind its not completed. In the many failures I have had, one of the key things I did was to keep on shipping my work”.

Knowingly or unknowingly, I think even i am doing the same thing. After i decided to write each day for 100 days, no matter if it makes sense or does not, I am writing. Its almost 60 days now and I have not stopped. I have not gained many followers nor did people start interacting with me on my expertise, but all it takes is one good article and one good day, am sure i can make an impact.

Coming to Entrepreneurship or even personally, the key to achieving your goal is to keep on shipping out what you do. It might not be complete, will never be, but you will be making an impact.

There is nothing called completion for any individual, its an ongoing process. Be it a product (thats why we have versions coming out regularly) or writings (updated books are reprinted), the completion is never there. It keeps going.

So, the next time you embark on solving a problem, keep trying out the result every day, don’t procrastinate. Keep it going. It will be a mental pressure for you indirectly and you will keep pushing yourself to bring it to shape.

Introduction to Strategy

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Strategy is a very commonly used term, but not many actually use the word in a meaningful way. In simple terms Strategy is a long term action oriented plan to achieve something. For instance, Apple never started as a computer company, what Apple started was to make technology simplified and beautiful along with building an ecosystem. As times progress, there were many products which came along from Apple which fit into building the ecosystem. When Apple started, no one had an iPhone or Apple Watch or AirPods in their product lists. It all started with a Microcomputer. Later as times went by many products came into existence.

So, what was the strategy for Apple Initially? Building computers which are simple to use and beautiful and when people started using them, become part of the ecosystem.

For everything, we can come up with Strategy, but ensure there is a bigger goal.

Another example I can come is my previous employer Cerner. Cerner started as an EMR company and over the period of time, its founder, Neal Patterson wanted to make HealthCare Technology more reliable and robust so that automation can help better patient care. The next 45 years saw Cerner becoming one the worlds largest HeatlhCare ERP company until it got acquired by Oracle.

If you are someone who is very strong on having a good strategy, consider the following principals:

  1. Just start doing what you want to do, don’t spend a lot of time deliberating what happens next.
  2. Don’t focus on achieving perfection. It will never happen. Focusing on doing a good job. That’s all.
  3. There will be times when you have to make tough choices. So, be open to them.
  4. Build an effectuative mind-set. Let mistakes happen and learn from them.
  5. If you stuck in a situation, don’t see it as the end, but as a new beginning. Try different things to make things happen.
  6. When something is not working, move on. Decide when to stop or keep going.
  7. After you identify a solution, start building and keep correcting.
  8. The big picture for you or your company might be complex, but that does not mean you cannot start by solving small problems.
  9. Try adopting Servant Leadership philosophy. This will help bring your teams to buy into your idea.
  10. A grounded leadership will help you achieve your strategy, so, coach your teams to be practical rather than illusional.

The ABC’s of Forecasting

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  • What is forecasting? It is the art and science of prediction.
  • How can you predict? When you understand the patterns.
  • What are patterns? How humans or things react in certain conditions.

What are the kinds of forecasting?

Different people use different terminologies to understand or practice forecasting. Few call them Structured, Quantitative, Casual and Simple. Few use the terms Autoregression, Differencing and moving averages. Few use straight-line, moving-average, simple linear regression and multiple linear regression.

What ever the terminology is, the end result is going to be the same, give you a forecasting model. However, not all methods are suited for all the business models. So, one has to work on identifying which models work for them and come up with their own framework.

How to forecast?

Step 1: Define the problem.

For curating a good forecasting model, you need to understand what you want to forecast. For instance, if you a SaaS company, you will need to define how many users are going to come to your site and when? For instance, if you are a software for managing POS sales, then probably weekdays, public holidays and during festive season, you might have increased footfalls. So, you to gather data from similar applications to understand the load on your software.

Step 2: Gather as much data as you can

Gathering data is a complex activity. Engage analysts who have done this kind of work before and tap into their expertise.

Step 3: Do the preliminary analysis

With the data gathered, use techniques to predict sales of your product. Start using this as a base and start your sales. See how that is working. If need be, then make adjustments to your algorithm to predict the results.

Step 4: Experiment with models

Once you get the results, see how they are mapping up with your sales. If its close to what you are experiencing in terms of sales, continue the model, else try another model.

Step 5: Structure the forecasting model which works for you

As you keep doing this, one day you will get to a point the prediction model which works for you. Keep refining this model until you can absolutely base your sales.

Defining and designing a forecasting model is a long process, you need to be patient and also involve people who are experienced in modelling.

Kokoro

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Destiny favors the prepared in Body, Mind and Spirit.

We tend to start our journey with an objective in mind. We do various analysis and design a way to accomplish the task. At times we Succeed, at times we fail. We take the learnings from both of the outcomes and go forward.

What is important is just not the action, but conviction from the heart. More than hard work and determination to accomplish something, it is the feeling in the heart which plays a bigger role. You believe you can accomplish, you can. If you do not believe and you do not listen to your heart, you cannot.

When we have an idea, the usual tendency is to ask people around and go with what they think. In this process, we forget our feelings. Listen to your heart. Apart from being a component of your body, the heart has a feeling and this is called Kokoro. Listen to it and you can do wonders.

Checklist thinking

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Thinking is an art.

Winston Churchill once said “Most people think once a year, I practiced to think twice a week and that is why I am here”. So, what is so different and difficult in thinking?

Thinking is simple, but yet very complicated. If we just read what Churchill said, we can understand that there is something more to thinking what we do each day. All of us think, each day, each minute and each second. We are thinking of various things and we are thinking on how to solve problems.

We stop at thinking when we find an appropriate solutions, not necessarily the right solution. Many a times we restrict our thinking because we are given a checklist to think.

If you look at a developer, he starts coding when he receives Low Level Design and Algorithm. He will understand the problem, LLD and the Algorithm, but he might not necessarily know how to solve the problem. He has the blue print of the solution and his thinking is mostly towards writing code, based on the design and algorithm. What is wrong with this?

Limited thinking. That is the key here. Fortunately or unfortunately many of us are in this mode. We receive instructions and immediately our thinking stops. We follow the instructions. It is good and many a times it is encouraged to follow the laid out plan, but it is also very important to practice thinking and solving the problem.

In aviation, the Pilot has a series of checklists for any kind, for flying the airplane. There is a checklist for starting the engine, taxing to the runway, takeoff, crusing, decending, landing and parking the aircraft. Is the pilot not thinking then? He thinks. They are trained to think in simulations. Even though they follow the checklists, it is left to the pilots discretion as to how to handle the situation. This is checklist thinking.

I am sure many of you are aware of US Airways 1549 when Captain Sully landed the plan on the Hudson river. Take few moments to see the below videos.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1fVL4AQEW8&t=11s

Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2njlF0OOftQ&t=86s

Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6HYMpmxdaA

Part 4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Ht6y0XA4c

What do you think? Was the pilot not thinking? He followed all the checklists and then made his judgement calls. That’s how he saved all the souls on board.

Checklist allows you not to forget simple things, and allows you think bigger.

Even though we have set guidelines to perform any tasks, what we need to practice is how to effectively solve the problem/address the situation following the checklist.

Asking the right questions

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All of us ask questions. Is there a right or wrong way to ask? I am sure once in your life you heard – “That’s a very good question”. How do we different the questions? Is there a logic behind asking what we want to ask.

The answer is Yes. There are patterns in which we ask questions. Few ask to know if the other person knows the subject or not; few genuinely ask; others ask to confirm if they understanding is correct and few ask for the sake of asking.

If you have taken a course on How to do presentations or teaching a class, you would have definitely covered the topic on how to manage your audience. Based on the tone and involvement of your participants, you know the genuinity of the question.

Asking the right question comes with the understanding of the subject. If the subject is new, the questioning pattern comes from inquisitiveness.

Based on my experiences, I identified 3 attributes which make it best.

– Start with the situation (Set the stage) – Before you ask a question, it makes it easier for the narrator/speaker to understand the context. So, highlight what he/she said and then start the question.

– Repeat what the other person said before you ask the question (Providing clarity) – After setting the stage, ensure you repeat the last line what you heard and then start with your question. This will help in connecting the story with the situation.

– Close the question with your understanding (if possible) – After the question is answered, close it by repeating what you have understood. This gives confidence to the speaker that their effort is valued.

What kind of Leader are you?

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Being an entrepreneur is not just about finding the right idea. Once you have the idea, developing yourself as a Leader becomes very important. You have read about many entrepreneurs being pushed away from the CEO role to a lesser role because they could not fit the investors bill or the company is unable to grow. Along with building your product or service, you should develop yourself and I highly recommend you getting yourself a Leadership Coach. All CEO’s have coach’s (might not be public information, but they do). Today, many companies are also bringing in coach’s to help mould their next level leaders.

Kinds of Leadership Styles

Autocratic

The most common leadership you will see around you. Leader feels he knows everything and anything and he does not believe in getting support or hearing to people around him.

Laissez-Faire

A leader who is hands-off. Does not provide the required coaching to his team and is predominantly hands-off which gives him time to focus on other things. However, when things don’t work, thats when problems arise.

This leadership style is suited when you have people with the right skills in responsible positions.

Democratic

A combination of Autocratic and Laissez-Faire styles. These leaders work with their teams and have a 2 way communication with respect to the functioning.

An efficient leadership style, provided the right people are in the right positions.

Transactional

As the name says, its transactional. These leaders reward people who perform or be a “Yes Boss” kind. If its the first, then its good, people who are worthy of the reward are rewarded and hence business flourishes. But if its the latter, then it’s a concern, because wrong people get rewarded thus demoralising the efficient ones.

Transformational

A transformation leaders consistently improve himself and also pushes his team and employees to push themselves. This is a very good approach, but at times employees might feel over burdened and performance gets effected.

Servant Style

A Servant style leader focus’s on helping his employees achieve their goals. This is time taking and might burn out the leader to think strategically.

Coaching

One of the best styles of leadership. The Leader identifies the key strengths and weaknesses of his team or employees and works with them to bring out the best in them thereby ensuring the success of the business.

So, what is your style of Leadership?