In this episode of the 'Getting to Zero' podcast, we dive into the evolving landscape of product development with AI and LLMs. Our guest, Anthony Maggio, VP of Product Management at Airtable, shares insights on how AI is revolutionizing the software industry, the challenges faced in incorporating AI into products, and the importance of thinking big. Listen to Anthony discuss Airtable's approach to integrating AI, from new user onboarding to solving customer problems in novel ways. Discover the implications of AI for businesses and how Airtable is helping companies transform their processes. Don't miss this enlightening conversation!

Welcome to Getting to Zero, a podcast about digging into the biggest problems in software development and figuring out how people are solving them. Today, we're joined by Fabruce Bernhardt, CTO and co-founder of Theodo, a large software consultancy firm, and co-author of "The Lean Tech Manifesto."

Guest Bio:

Fabrice Bernhardt has forged an impressive career as the CTO and co-founder of Theodo, a consultancy firm with more than 700 employees and revenues surpassing $100 million. A respected thought leader and author, he shares his expertise in "The Lean Tech Manifesto." In his manifesto, he explains how to accelerate delivery and scale innovation within just one year. Bernhardt's insights into enhancing product development and maintaining agility across numerous teams have established him as a crucial figure in the modern tech landscape.

Show Notes:

00:01:00 - Biggest Problem in Product Development

The main challenge in product development, according to Fabrice, is maintaining agility while scaling. As organisations grow, they face significant issues with coordination and dependency management among multiple teams, which can hinder overall productivity and delivery.

00:02:00- Pain Points in Scaling Teams

Fabrice highlights that as teams scale, they often encounter problems such as an overload of internal work, code maintenance, and a lack of innovation. These issues stem from the need for extensive coordination efforts across numerous teams, which can slow down development processes.

00:07:00 - Implementing Lean Principles in Software Development

Lean principles like Kanban can help visualise bottlenecks and lead times. Fabrice explains how properly using Kanban allows teams to see work in progress and identify areas where improvements are needed to enhance delivery speed and quality.

00:10:00 - Right First Time Approach

The Right First Time approach focuses on detecting defects early in the development process. Fabrice emphasises the importance of continuous integration and early defect detection practices to maintain high-quality standards and reduce the need for extensive bug fixing later.

00:16:00 - Cultural Shift for Built-in Quality

Adopting a culture focused on built-in quality and systematic defect analysis is crucial. Fabrice explains how this cultural shift can improve team knowledge, reduce recurring issues, and foster continuous improvement in software development.

00:21:00 - Problem Solving Culture

Fabrice highlights the significance of fostering a problem-solving culture within organisations. By adopting a scientific approach to problem-solving, teams can systematically identify issues, formulate hypotheses, and experiment with solutions to drive continuous improvement.

00:25:00- Team Autonomy and Dependencies

Achieving team autonomy while managing dependencies is challenging. Fabrice advocates for full-stack teams and effective boundary management to reduce dependencies and enhance delivery efficiency. He shares examples of successful implementations and the importance of good APIs.

00:28:00 - Overcoming Organisational Resistance

Building trust and addressing anxiety in empowering teams is crucial. Fabrice suggests providing clear context and communication to reassure leadership and teams, ensuring they understand their roles and have the support needed to succeed.

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Guest Bio: Richard Dalton, Head of Design at Verizon, is a seasoned expert in the field of user experience and design. With a rich history at Capital One and now leading design at Verizon, Richard brings a wealth of knowledge on managing large-scale product development.

In our conversation, we discuss:

00:01:00: The Complexity of Coordinating Hundreds of Product Teams

Richard highlights the inherent complexity and messiness of coordinating and aligning hundreds of product teams. Verizon has over 300 Agile ACT teams, each managing its own backlogs, epics, stories, and priorities within a broad ecosystem of touchpoints, channels, and products. When projects get delayed or new products are added for release each year it requires a massive coordination effort involving thousands of people leading to huge waste for the organisation.

00:02:00: The Value of Visualisation with Jam Jars

Richard uses a metaphor to illustrate this complexity, comparing the 300 agile teams to 300 jam jars filled with water, representing their current workload. When a new product requires changes involving, for example, 42 of these teams, some jars overflow because they are already full. Resolving this requires lowering the priority of some initiatives, but since each initiative involves many other teams there are cascading effects that can be hard to understand. Richard is tackling this today using spreadsheets but is in the process of implementing a strategic enterprise portfolio management system to better balance capacity and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

00:08:00: Who Feels the Pain of the Replanning

Agile product owners and their teams feel the most pain from juggling multiple requests and managing overflowing workloads. The lack of a proper system forces each product owner to make difficult decisions on what to prioritise, often leading to inefficiencies and delays in product launches. They can try to coordinate the movements with each of the other 299 product owners but this is incredibly inefficient and results in significant business impacts.

00:30:00: Why SAFe Isn't Always Safe

Even though Verizon uses the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for structure and predictability through quarterly and product increment planning, Richard explains that SAFe isn't always effective in their complex environment. The framework's periodic planning cycles struggle to keep up with the rapid and unexpected changes that occur during a cycle. These changes create ripple effects across the entire portfolio, rendering static plans quickly outdated. Richard stresses the need for a dynamic system that can continuously adapt and re-prioritize in real-time to complement the periodic planning sessions.

00:35:00: Fixing the Plane Mid-Flight

Richard discusses the irony of trying to reduce overheads for teams by implementing a strategic enterprise portfolio management system which, during implementation, will increase the overhead for each team. He likens it to fixing a plane while it's in flight. Despite this, Richard is confident that the overheads will be paid back within weeks due to the improvement in performance across all of the teams.

Brought to you by: ZeroBlockers: Keep the high quality, fast product development of a startup while you scale

Where to find Richard Dalton: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddalton

Where to find Rory Madden: Website: https://zeroblockers.com

Twitter: @roryuxdx

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rorymadden

Welcome to "Getting to Zero," a podcast about digging into the biggest problems in software development and figuring out how people are solving them.

Guest Bio: Today's episode features Jod Kaftan, Head of Product Design and Research for Industrial Industries at Oracle, is a distinguished leader in the field of user experience and product design. Formerly the North American lead for Fjord Evolution, Jod brings deep insights into the interplay between business value and customer value in product development. His extensive experience in service design and enterprise environments makes him a valuable resource for understanding how to create compelling user experiences in complex organisations.

In our conversation, we discuss:

[00:01:00] Biggest Challenges in Product Development

The biggest challenge that Jod faces is getting involved in the early stages of a product to validate the core customer problems rather than being brought in towards the end to design the UI. Oracle only started it’s UX team six years ago so there are still a lot of organisational habits that need to be overcome to achieve the goal.

[00:06:00] Impact of UX Immaturity on Product QualityThe immaturity of UX integration leads to products being launched without thorough user-centred design which impacts quality. In traditional B2B products the customer was key but the end users were often short shifted. Jod explains why, particularly with the shift to SaaS, why Oracle now believes that their long-term success is aligned with better end user experiences. 

[00:11:00] The value of UX for Mature Products

Design can address usability issues and enhance satisfaction in mature products through iterative improvements driven by continuous feedback. Streamlining workflows, reducing complexity, and keeping products competitive by driving innovation and bridging the gap between user needs and business goals.

[00:14:00] Ideal State of UX IntegrationJod shares his ideal state which is a fully integrated, user-centred design approach throughout the product lifecycle, with continuous feedback, iterative improvements, and strong UX-product team collaboration. This creates intuitive, high-quality products meeting business objectives and user needs, ensuring satisfaction and competitive advantage.

[00:19:00] Juggling Existing and New Product LinesJod believes that companies need to be ambidextrous, running a dual operating system where one model focuses on innovation while the other optimises existing products. Jod shares how UX can help in both situations.

[00:22:00] Progress in Closer UX and Product CollaborationProgress has been made through initiatives like collaborative hackathons, fostering innovation and teamwork. These events align departments and drive problem-solving. Additionally, quarterly planning sessions integrate continuous UX design and discovery, creating a more collaborative and adaptive culture. 

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Richard Rodger, CEO and Co-founder of Voxgig, is a renowned authority in the field of developer relations. With a focus on merging outstanding software code with rigorous business logic. Richard brings a wealth of valuable insights and practical advice that can really help improve your development process.

 In our conversation, we discuss:

00:02:00: The Value of Developer Communities: Richard discusses the challenge of gaining executive buy-in for the importance of developer communities and APIs, crucial for developer relations.

00:03:00: Developer-First vs. Developer-Enabled Companies:The conversation delves into the necessity of robust documentation and community support for API integration, distinguishing between developer-first and developer-enabled businesses.

00:07:00: Friction in Integration: Richard highlights the detrimental impact of poor documentation on integration challenges, leading to increased costs, time, and frustration for both providers and consumers.

00:11:00: Leadership and Responsibility: Richard emphasises the necessity of high-level buy-in for effectively addressing challenges, necessitating the cultivation of trust and driving change despite lacking direct authority.

00:15:00 - Need for Change and Education: The software development industry needs to address challenges with a focus on education, professionalism, and improved processes despite human fallibility.

00:19:00 - Improvement Over Time: While technical challenges evolve and improve over time, people and communication challenges remain persistent.
00:21:00 - Balancing Transparency and Complexity: Providing transparency in software development processes to non-technical stakeholders requires careful consideration to avoid overwhelming them with technical details.

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