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Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product)
Find out what you can do to ensure a successful product launch.
Show Notes
Disney recently launched its Disney+ streaming service. Unfortunately, the launch was met with some
problems as many of their 10 million subscribers couldn’t log in or couldn’t
stream videos.
After the launch, I read an article about how Disney
representatives said the outages of their streaming service were due to the way
their engineers architected the application.
That got me thinking . . . Is it really an architecture
problem?
While the outages were a direct result of the tooling
choices and the inability of the architecture to handle 10 million people all
trying to log in at once, I think there’s a deeper root cause here. To me, the root cause is a failure to
accurately forecast demand and understand the limitations of the architecture.
This is where we as Business Analysts, project
professionals, and change agents can help our organizations discover some of
the risks with a product launch and take steps to make it successful.
Let’s first focus on understanding potential demand.
When I first heard about the outage, I immediately thought “Where
are the business analysts? What kind of
nonfunctional requirements did this initiative have? Was their business case? What assumptions did Disney make it as far as
volume?”
Disney must have made some type of forecast related to
demand and I suspect that their forecast was off. Disney has the money and
people skills to be able to develop a solution to meet the needs for 10 million
customers. The problem is if they only
predict 2 million customers, the architect the solution in a way to meet that
need instead of the true demand.
I want to note that this type of demand and this product is
new territory for Disney. There are a
lot of unknowns and I’m certainly not faulting Disney for the outages. I’m using this as a case study for how we
could help our organizations.
What could Disney have done to better understand the real
demand? There are a few approaches that
other organizations have used that may or may not apply to Disney’s context.
One thing I would recommend for any type of product launch
is to make your assumptions transparent. You can use an approach such as
assumptions mapping to understand what assumptions are making and then run
experiments to validate or invalidate those assumptions. I discussed assumptions
mapping with David Bland in episode 99.
Depending on the type of product, another approach would be
to use a beta launch or pre-sell. A beta
launch involves launching the product to a limited group or limited area. This approach allows you to better understand
demand and discover any issues prior to a full-scale launch.
A pre-sell allows your customers to sign up for your service
or purchase your product before the actual launch. Services like Kickstarter help entrepreneurs
and organizations to understand customer preferences and demand.
Now let’s look at the other root cause; the need to
understand the limitations of the architecture.
Limitations in the architecture, tools, and skills within an
organization are all organizational constraints. Before we determine how we
will develop a solution, we need to understand those organizational
constraints.
We may be able to build a solution, but if we don’t have the
organizational capabilities to service that product, we won’t be successful.
As the launch of Disney plus was new territory for Disney,
it’s unclear whether they truly knew the limitations of their architecture. I’m
sure they load tested their software and performed many other checks.
As business analysts, product managers, and other
professionals, we need to understand our organizational capabilities and
limitations. We need to know how much volume our systems can handle. We need to
know how much volume our call center can handle. We need to understand all of the
constraints of our organization.
Making the constraints of the architecture visible and using
different techniques to understand the true demand may have helped Disney put
changes in place that would have avoided the outages. To Disney’s credit, they were able to quickly
adapt and change their application for the high volume of customers.
What are you doing in your organization to understand
constraints and validate your assumptions?
Launching a New Product
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
The post Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product) appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.
View all episodes
By Dave Saboe, CBAP, PMP, CSM | Certified Business Analysis Professional | Agile Coach
4.7
8282 ratings
Find out what you can do to ensure a successful product launch.
Show Notes
Disney recently launched its Disney+ streaming service. Unfortunately, the launch was met with some
problems as many of their 10 million subscribers couldn’t log in or couldn’t
stream videos.
After the launch, I read an article about how Disney
representatives said the outages of their streaming service were due to the way
their engineers architected the application.
That got me thinking . . . Is it really an architecture
problem?
While the outages were a direct result of the tooling
choices and the inability of the architecture to handle 10 million people all
trying to log in at once, I think there’s a deeper root cause here. To me, the root cause is a failure to
accurately forecast demand and understand the limitations of the architecture.
This is where we as Business Analysts, project
professionals, and change agents can help our organizations discover some of
the risks with a product launch and take steps to make it successful.
Let’s first focus on understanding potential demand.
When I first heard about the outage, I immediately thought “Where
are the business analysts? What kind of
nonfunctional requirements did this initiative have? Was their business case? What assumptions did Disney make it as far as
volume?”
Disney must have made some type of forecast related to
demand and I suspect that their forecast was off. Disney has the money and
people skills to be able to develop a solution to meet the needs for 10 million
customers. The problem is if they only
predict 2 million customers, the architect the solution in a way to meet that
need instead of the true demand.
I want to note that this type of demand and this product is
new territory for Disney. There are a
lot of unknowns and I’m certainly not faulting Disney for the outages. I’m using this as a case study for how we
could help our organizations.
What could Disney have done to better understand the real
demand? There are a few approaches that
other organizations have used that may or may not apply to Disney’s context.
One thing I would recommend for any type of product launch
is to make your assumptions transparent. You can use an approach such as
assumptions mapping to understand what assumptions are making and then run
experiments to validate or invalidate those assumptions. I discussed assumptions
mapping with David Bland in episode 99.
Depending on the type of product, another approach would be
to use a beta launch or pre-sell. A beta
launch involves launching the product to a limited group or limited area. This approach allows you to better understand
demand and discover any issues prior to a full-scale launch.
A pre-sell allows your customers to sign up for your service
or purchase your product before the actual launch. Services like Kickstarter help entrepreneurs
and organizations to understand customer preferences and demand.
Now let’s look at the other root cause; the need to
understand the limitations of the architecture.
Limitations in the architecture, tools, and skills within an
organization are all organizational constraints. Before we determine how we
will develop a solution, we need to understand those organizational
constraints.
We may be able to build a solution, but if we don’t have the
organizational capabilities to service that product, we won’t be successful.
As the launch of Disney plus was new territory for Disney,
it’s unclear whether they truly knew the limitations of their architecture. I’m
sure they load tested their software and performed many other checks.
As business analysts, product managers, and other
professionals, we need to understand our organizational capabilities and
limitations. We need to know how much volume our systems can handle. We need to
know how much volume our call center can handle. We need to understand all of the
constraints of our organization.
Making the constraints of the architecture visible and using
different techniques to understand the true demand may have helped Disney put
changes in place that would have avoided the outages. To Disney’s credit, they were able to quickly
adapt and change their application for the high volume of customers.
What are you doing in your organization to understand
constraints and validate your assumptions?
Launching a New Product
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
The post Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product) appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.
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