605,701 Minutes to Align Business, Product, and Engineering Perspectives

Summary

Christian Pish, CTO of Anyline, discusses strategies to align business, product, and engineering perspectives in a tech-driven company. He shares insights from his journey as CTO, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, setting boundaries and responsibilities, and fostering a culture of transparency and persistence. Pish introduces the concept of 'value teams' and explains how Anyline uses a customer-centric approach with a public roadmap to prioritize features and outcomes, ultimately improving the company's ability to meet customer needs and streamline product development.

Takeaways

• 😀 Christian Pish, CTO of Anyline, discusses the importance of aligning business, product, and engineering perspectives to streamline operations and meet customer needs.
• 🛠️ Anyline has developed a B2B SDK that bridges the gap between the analog world and digital solutions, enabling features like scanning meters, license plates, and vehicle identification numbers.
• 🚀 Christian joined Anyline in May 2020 and transitioned into the CTO role in summer 2021, bringing a technical perspective to address the challenges faced by different company departments.
• 💡 The company introduced a 'Marketplace' concept, a forum for commercial teams to place product feature requests, which are then evaluated and prioritized weekly.
• 🔧 The concept of 'Value Teams' was implemented, where teams are given autonomy and internal responsibility to deliver outcomes that provide value to customers.
• 📈 Anyline shifted from a feature-based to an outcome-based approach, focusing on the impact and results rather than just the technical aspects of product development.
• 🔄 The company adopted iterative development cycles, emphasizing learning and adjusting along the way, rather than sticking to rigid, long-term plans.
• 🗺️ Roadmaps at Anyline are now used to rally the organization around common goals, focusing on outcomes and uncertainty acceptance, rather than just listing features and dates.
• 🤝 Strong alignment between the CTO and CPO is crucial for ensuring a unified message and strategy across the company.
• 🚧 Setting clear boundaries and responsibilities within value teams helps to establish a framework for success and provides a clear path for decision-making and escalation.
• 🔗 Transparency is key, with road maps and strategies being publicly available within the company to encourage shared understanding and open communication.

Q & A

What is the main topic of Christian Pisch's talk?

The main topic of Christian Pisch's talk is aligning the perspectives between business, product, and engineering within an organization.

What is Anyline's core product?

Anyline's core product is an SDK that enables the capturing of data to bridge the gap between the analog world and digital systems, such as scanning meters, license plates, and vehicle identification numbers.

What is a recent feature that Anyline has launched beyond OCR?

Anyline has recently launched a feature called tire tread depth scanner, which allows users to capture the tire tread depth using their mobile phone and determine whether they need to change their tires.

What challenges did Christian Pisch face as CTO in aligning different perspectives within the company?

Christian Pisch faced challenges such as context switches, overloaded teams, waterfall expectations, unclear responsibilities, and the difficulty of managing the balance between technical and commercial demands.

Can you explain the concept of 'Marketplace' introduced by Christian Pisch?

The 'Marketplace' is a forum for colleagues from the commercial team and others to place requests. It is publicly accessible within the company and helps centralize requests, making the decision-making process more transparent and organized.

What is the significance of the 'value teams' introduced by Christian Pisch?

Value teams, also referred to as feature teams, are designed to be autonomous and responsible for delivering value to customers. They are cross-functional teams that can operate independently and are aware of the outcomes they need to achieve.

What does Christian Pisch mean by 'outcomes over output'?

Christian Pisch emphasizes focusing on the outcomes that the company wants to achieve rather than just the features or outputs. This means discussing the impact on customers' lives and the value delivered rather than technical specifications.

How does Christian Pisch define the role of a road map in his company?

According to Christian Pisch, a road map is a tool to rally the organization around a common set of goals, not just a list of features and dates. It should focus on desired outcomes and impacts.

What is the concept of 'Duplo meetings' mentioned by Christian Pisch?

Duplo meetings are a format where the CTO, CPO, and other teams take a larger goal (represented by a big Duplo block) and break it down into smaller, manageable parts (like Lego blocks) to make it more tangible and actionable.

What are the five key learnings that Christian Pisch shared from his experience?

The five key learnings shared by Christian Pisch are: having one voice with the management team, setting clear boundaries and responsibilities, being persistent and patient, sharing information and road maps openly within the company, and embracing change as a part of the organization's culture.