Lost in Space

"Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do." - states the infamous Steve Jobs quote. Sometimes leaders in tech interpret it as "We know better what our users and stakeholders need, and how they should use our product." Unfortunately such attitude does not lead to the expected breakthroughs, but on the the opposite is a recipe for disaster.
Lost in Space - Teamleadsky
How does this anti-pattern impact the team?
  • Impact
    Workflows designed without stakeholder input do not survive the clash with the reality. The scope of the project suddenly explodes, as during the acceptance the team learns about multiple logical flaws, that make it impossible for the customer to use the solution.

    This anti-pattern impairs the ability of the team to Deliver on time and within budget.
How can you spot this anti-pattern?
  • Signals
    • Stakeholders never attend Sprint Reviews, however it is not perceived as an issue.
    • Long release cycle.
    • No clear adoption strategy for the product.

    These signals are the "red flags", that indicate it is worth taking a closer look to check whether the anti-pattern is present.
Let's review this anti-pattern on different levels:
  • Events
    On the level of events we can say: "The feedback from the Operations showed that some of the team's core assumptions about the end-users' tasks and challenges were wrong".
  • Patterns
    On the level of patterns we can observe that: "The stakeholders get to see the products late in the development stage."
  • Systems
    On the level of systems we can conclude that: "The lack of team exposure to stakeholder opinion and end-user environment results in a wasteful development process due to scope explosion at the late stages of the projects."
Lost in Space - Teamleadsky
  • Mental Models
    On the level of mental models we might sense some complacency in Product & Tech that does not allow to recognize the importance of the non-technical stakeholder involvement in the software projects from day one.
Written by Alex
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