Loving Legacy

Making software is fun. Running software can be less fun. How do you do both and not go insane? How do you make sure you're not working all the time to keep your (virtual) baby up in the air?

The same rules apply whether you're a startup, a scale-up, a corporate, an individual, an open source project contributor. You're part of your own support problem.

This time I discuss what it's like to be a coder who wants to have it all - the good times and the bad times - but wants to limit the bad times to working hours only. I hope you enjoy it as much as I made recording it.

NOTES

XKCD 242 - The Difference:

https://xkcd.com/242/

Brian Scanlan about Intercom's approach to on call.

https://www.intercom.com/blog/rapid-response-how-we-developed-an-on-call-team-at-intercom/

And he talked about this recently on Adventures in DevOps:

https://topenddevs.com/podcasts/adventures-in-devops/episodes/reducing-on-call-engineer-burnout-with-a-volunteer-management-infrastructure-devops-121

Inspiring music that helped me write this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_%26_Kisses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading,_Writing_and_Arithmetic

QUOTES

01:25 - How did it feel the first time you wrote something in a computer language that maybe you just learned and it worked perhaps first time

02:50 - We're in that space where creation is flowing. But at some point reality bites. Then we need to do something with this thing that we've created.

5:05 - What is happening tonight? Mummy, why can't we go out to the zoo this weekend? I know guilt right. The point I'm really laboring here is that one should be proud of your creations.

05:18 - All of our creations need us. All of these things are calling for our time.

06:48 - Some of the most successful systems on the planet have been built on a knife edge of functional validity.

07:43 - Your job is therefore to minimize that risk and ensure that you can roll back or fix forward with the least possible effort.

09:21 - Be aware of your legacy as a coder. Think carefully about how your persisted data will be managed.

Welcome to the Software Delivery Club.

Every week, we explore different aspects of the business of delivering software into production. Talking to industry experts about how they get to keep their production software running, whether you build or buy, how they cope with new features and product changes, how they keep their customers satisfied while also keeping themselves and their engineers happy, what tools like they like and which ones they don’t as well as tales from the front line when it comes to delivering and supporting production grade software.

NOTES

This is the reboot of the podcast that used to be called "Automation for the Nation". The old episodes are still relevant but now we have a new name and new purpose.

QUOTES

00:39 "Software delivery club is the new name of this podcast." [RB]

00:42 "It used to be called automation for the nation. While it's not a complete reboot in terms of content, I wanted to draw the line in the sand between what I was trying to do a few months ago and where this podcast is now." [RB]

1:35 "the true magic we're looking for, I believe is at the intersection of software development practice, product and pragmatism." [RB]

02:51 "How do you improve your product, support customers and stay reliable? Software delivery club is about that." [RB]

How do we manage change? Assessing urgency and what does it mean when no-one is owning a (technical) systems problem? I talk about this common problem with projects and systems and how we can resolve it, touching on Incident Management and Product Ownership.

Secondly, I spend a few minutes talking about the book “Thinking in Systems: A Primer”. This is a classic text which describes in simple terms how interactions between systems can get so complicated. Great for those who've not thought about systems interactions before and need a basis for understanding how complexity can appear very quickly.

NOTES

Brief review of "Thinking In Systems: A Primer":

https://kislayverma.com/books/book-review-thinking-in-systems-a-primer/

Resources for understanding Change Management (ITIL) and Product Ownership (Scrum)

Change Management and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL

IT Service Management:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_service_management

and within that, IT Incident Managment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_management_(ITSM)

What is a Product Owner?

https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-product-owner

QUOTES

"Now, when I speak to those who tell me that they have a ‘systems problem’ it’s like they’ve almost self-diagnosed. They know that they have a problem but they also seem to be able to tell me almost how I can help them fix it for them. " [RB]

"Don't assume that a change to any system will fix a given problem without causing another problem, too. Don't assume that things work like they say they're going to work" [RB]

"Incident Management is a process whereby you can get your systems back on track with respect to a situation with any given system" [RB]

"the very act of fixing systems in itself requires a system and a process" [RB]

EPISODE SUMMARY

This week I talk about how to position your business through better systems. How to understand how important you are at the core of the message to your customers and how you can build a system of positioning that will allow you to play with marketing messages and land on what works best for you and your ideal client.

What systems do you need to support your positioning and marketing efforts and how they can help you understand what's working and what isn't.

EPISODE NOTES

Inspired by lots of reading and writing to create this podcast episode but mainly in reaction to positioning books and what I've learnt from Value Based Pricing and orienting yourself to favour the client over yourself.

Building a Story Brand: https://buildingastorybrand.com/

Obviously Awesome: https://www.aprildunford.com/obviously-awesome

Jonathan Stark Value Based Pricing bootcamp: https://jonathanstark.com/vpb

The main message is "don't forget yourself" in the rush to build a business that you think is the right one. Client doesn't come first when you're the one that's in charge.

Also in the recording I call the episode "Marketing Your Business Through Better Systems" but afterwards I changed my mind - this is so much more about Positioning than it is Marketing.

QUOTES

"How can you build it so that there is a funnel of work waiting for you every time you want to dip into it?" [RB]

"Finding your customer is essential. Differentiation is the core of your message. And your story must make sense." [RB]

"This is a six point list which enables you to turn your ideas into your business." [RB]

"The systems and automations or flow from the core decisions you make these will influence your systems and processes." [RB]

"Using analysis and tools such as MailChimp, or ConvertKit, you'll be able to see open rates of your emails, you'll be able to segment your market into locations, age ranges, demographics, perhaps, you'll be able to tag user behaviours" [RB]

EPISODE SUMMARY

When you first get a taste for working in a company you think you can change the world.

Eventually you realise that the world is just fine and it's you that needs to change - and sometimes this can take a long time. When you have a business and you want it to move quickly, grow and adapt, what things can you do to make sure you're maximising your opportunity?

This week I talk about the past and the future and discuss how your systems could be holding you back or limiting your success. I also discuss the Systems Conversation as a way of making sure that keep agile, keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible rather than just settling or having to make do with continuous bad news.

EPISODE NOTES

This week I was mainly riffing on new ideas so no links to share except the books that have perhaps inspired me:

QUOTES

"Systems are there to help us but they can very quickly make our businesses less agile, less able to compete." [RB]

"So make sure you have a systems conversation regularly." [RB]

"Understand what is constraining you and your business as well as what could help you." [RB]

"Without realising regularly the opportunities that your systems can afford, you're not taking full advantage of your size or scale." [RB]

"Systems are there to help you leverage. So have that conversation, even if it must be with yourself and understand what changes you need to be more effective in your next sales conversation." [RB]

EPISODE SUMMARY

What do Finance Directors (FDs) have to do with successful projects in organisations of all sizes? They control the purse strings, but they also control what happens and when. So can you have successful projects without FDs buying into the strategy for your business?

This week I explore this topic in brief. I also ask you to tell me what you love and what you hate about Excel and ask, is it all over your business?

EPISODE NOTES

QUOTES

"how vital it is to plan, 1, 2, 3 or possibly 5 years in advance for your systems and how pivotal a role the FD plays in that discussion" [RB]

"Excel. Like it or loathe it, it’s there in our organisations and it plays a large part in both finance and general administration processes for all of our departments" [RB]

"Systems get to end of life and need to be replaced, it’s natural to postpone these activities for as long as possible often due to BAU concerns. So work these into a strategy." [RB]

EPISODE SUMMARY

This week I'm talking drawing with Ingrid Lill.

Ingrid is a Brand Strategist with a Pencil who use Visual Thinking techniques to help her creative and entrepreneurial clients understand who they seek to serve.

I wanted to catch up with Ingrid after she helped me out with my positioning using her visual thinking techniques to sketch my 'ideal customer' and I realised that this wasn't my ideal customer at all. I talk to her about how she got started with visual thinking and how she has grown her brand and who she works with from CEOs of software companies to non-profit groups to entrepreneurs.

We speak about her background, her methods and technology as well as how using visual techniques help when it comes to deciding on a client, product or service offering for your business.

We also talk about how this works in a group setting and niching down on products and services.

EPISODE NOTES

Some more about Ingrid.

Ingrid's template is here and here is an example storyboard

And a link to Ingrid's course Find Your Message.

Donald Miller "Building a Storybrand"

Tim Urban. Wait but why?

QUOTES

"I am the guide who is helping them with my very specific product, which I call a game changer because it's much easier to communicate if you have a specific thing that that you are offering" [IL]

"So I find that personally quite challenging coming from a creative background myself, from an engineering background, well yeah, creating stuff. I like to do new stuff" [RB]

"However, to get it to really fly, I need to be able to put a system in place which enables me to work around it on a day to day basis. I think this is something that both, how can I say, approach in the right way? Personally, I find that I can't do these things in isolation, I have to do them all kind of simultaneously. " [RB]

"If I should define my psychographic people, it's people who have too many ideas. And I help them to map them out on paper" [IL]

“My clients have to be specific about their clients” [IL]

EPISODE SUMMARY

This episode is all about drawing pictures. Visualise your systems, the inability to visualise your systems and also how to map your business using pictures.

Last week I launched my free email course Know Your Systems. Signing up takes two seconds and you'll receive 6 days of daily content on how to understand and control your systems.

EPISODE NOTES

You can subscribe to my free email course Know Your Systems.

See my blog article on Professional Associations and Systems Mapping.

See Ingrid Lill's website here.

QUOTES

"This is exactly the point of system mapping. Lots of complex information conveyed instantly" [RB]

"Purpose of the picture or diagram in systems mapping is not to be completely accurate or detailed or even up to date." [RB]

"The most important part of mapping is actually deciding what you have and how it works with other systems and generating a conversation" [RB]

"The visual medium is designed to convey a lot of information quickly. It's the fastest way of communicating research" [RB]

EPISODE SUMMARY

We depend on systems in our life, in our business. Sometimes we don't even know that they exist. This week I'm talking about systems that work well, and systems that sometimes don't work well, and systems that can leave us in trouble if we don't know we depend on them. I also have a pop at Microsoft Excel as well as GitHub!

I'm also celebrating the launch of my 'Own Your Systems' free email course.

EPISODE NOTES

You can subscribe to my free email course "Own Your Systems" by going here:

https://richardwbown.com/own-your-systems/

QUOTES

"Systems that are so built into our ways of working that we don't even realise they're not working, sometimes the ones that we don't miss until they're truly gone" RB

"I was lucky enough not to be a middle manager for a very long time. But when that particular role finally caught up with me, I spent a lot of time preparing reports a lot of time converting things from CSV" RB

"In my consulting business, I use online tools, which are aware of 21st century priorities and ways of working. I use tools which save me time" RB

"GitHub is a great example of a high profile system that you've probably never heard of" RB

EPISODE SUMMARY

When it comes to our jobs or our companies we have some tasks that we have to do and some tasks that we want to do. But those can be the same on any given day. How do you know? How do you understand someone else's perspective at work? In this episode I'll explore the things we do and the way we do them to understand a little better how we can use the Machinery of Business - the tools we have - to help us.

EPISODE NOTES

If you'd like to create your own continuum of daily tasks then you can use this template to give you an idea of how it works.

As I mentioned in the episode, I found a couple of great Steve Jobs quotes here and here.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/05/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-technology-is-nothing-heres-what-it-takes-to-achieve-great-success.html

https://quotefancy.com/quote/911560/Steve-Jobs-You-cannot-mandate-productivity-you-must-provide-the-tools-to-let-people

You can sign up for the mailing list or get in touch with me from the website.

QUOTES

RB