I got rejected for a role I was hoping for today. I did 3 interviews with the company. The feedback on where it all came undone was that my view of estimates and roadmaps didn't sit well.
I am really struggling with what to do with this feedback. The company told me, several times over, that they were trying to be more agile.
When I pressed them about what that meant, they said they wanted to enable ownership and empowerment within teams.
They wanted teams to be able to delivery end-to-end value to customers. This attitude was something that really enticed me.
When they pressed me about roadmaps and estimates, I mentioned that both of those things are dangerous if we lock them in. We need teams to be able to pivot quickly after gaining insight or learning. #NoEstimates?
When asked about metrics I would use, I said that the most important one was "value delivered to customers".
I also suggested that IME any estimation is fallible and often has a tendency to be used as rod for the back of the team.
Team morale and Customer Satisfaction (based on value shipped), I argued, are the best indicators of performance for a future looking product team.
The other key thing that we need to do, is to practice getting better at slicing stories. We need things small enough to be able to continuously deliver thin slices of working software that represent deliverable value to customers.
I don't think slicing stories to the requisite thinness is a science, I think it's something a long lived team gets better at over time (providing they're afforded time to inspect, reflect and adapt their practices)
I expressed my belief that WIP limits to help highlight problems with flow that need to be addressed, and highlighted the importance of creating a culture where people can call out problems, and are enabled to solve them if possible.
"Stop starting, start finishing" is critical.
Reflecting on it all, I'm not sure what I'd have done differently.
Perhaps I'd have mentioned GIST by name instead of being as dismissive of roadmaps? (linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-st…)
Perhaps I'd have asked not to be included in a 3rd round interview if I'd known they were not happy with my 2nd round answers. (seems like a waste of everyone's time)
Maybe it's good that this happened and it wasn't a good fit. That doesn't make me any less bummed out right now though :-(
Interested to hear thoughts from anyone else though.
This thread is about the one I mentioned to you the other day where I quoted the Sheduled Flight analogy 😐
