hot potatoes: how to handle the project that causes everyone else to quit
TRANSCRIPT
Hot PotatoesHow to handle the project that causes everyone else to quit
What is a Hot Potato?
How to identify a hot potato
- Important to the company- No clear ownership- Technical debt, or legacy platform- Team turnover- No documented plan
How did it get this bad?
What happened?!
- Lack of clear leadership or discipline- Poor communication- Key personnel left (or were fired)- Project collapsed under the weight of its own technical debt
And I have to fix it?
Your Options
- Run while you can.- You play with fire and you’re gonna get burned.
- You touched it? Uh oh…- You break it you bought it.
- Time to brush up your resume.- Do people still use Times New Roman?
- The company is going under anyway.- I wonder if Arby’s is hiring...
Fix it.It’s your problem now.
Do your research
- Who was involved previously?- Who knows the social history?- Who knows the technical justifications?- How was this supposed to work?
Build a Community
- Meetings every other week- Introduce everyone to each other- Defer blame and responsibility to the community, not yourself.- Be an organizer, not a leader. Not yet.- Take notes, and e-mail them out to everyone relevant.- Reveal the lost knowledge.
Build a Backlog
- Translate the needs of the community into work to be done- Even if there isn’t a team to fix it.- Use the community to prioritize, and estimate.- Make a case for time and resources- Get a mandate from the community
Build a Team
- Who can you depend on?- Negotiate with management on priorities- Complete the smallest thing with the biggest payoff
- Performance Improvements- Increased stability
- Build confidence
Build Momentum
Advertise your Wins
- Cool that potato down- Make the project normal again- Keep being a great product manager- Document the process for your next review cycle- Get a promotion and a raise- Retire and become a successful potato farmer
Felix SargentDirector of Developer Relations
MediaMath
Thanks!