2012 Reflections - Multiple Hats = Delegation

2012 Reflections - Multiple Hats = Delegation

2012 was a hectic year for me. Probably the most challenging so far, even more so than the "Felix" year, but I might post on that another time.

Early in 2012, I was asked to help out with some product management tasks as the existing Product Manager had been taking time off due to an operation. Of course I accepted, who wouldn't?  After over a decade in software development, I was more than interested to get some exposure to different roles, and I get to do it from the relative safety of my current role.

Shortly after, it became a full time appointment by default as the Product Manager of the release, as the previous Product Manager left with short notice. It was a short term assignment until they filled the role with a permanent Product Manager. No problem, the project was already in full swing and wasn't due till later in the year. I still had my existing roles and responsibilities as a Technical Manager, but now I also had essentially a marketing position as well. Right time and place I guess.

The difficult part was that I was totally new to the role, so I didn't know what I didn't know. The state of “Unconscious Incompetence” came to mind. There was no hand over and no one assigned to help out. At the same time, we're transitioning the product to another group overseas, which introduced a host of other challenges. The Product Management role required tasks to be completed that I had never previously had experience with before including business cases, product definitions, licensing changes, EULA revisions, sales presentations, price increases, reviewing marketing documentation, supporting collateral, a host of internal tools and documentation requirements etc. Fortunately, there were some areas that overlapped, for example, I was responsible as a Product Manager for defining requirements for new features, and from a Technical Manager's point of view, overseeing the architecture, design and implementation. It was these overlaps which I found the most rewarding as I could leverage my previous skills in both roles. I'm sure by the end of my tenure, I climbed up the ladder as far as "Conscious Competence" in most areas, and I'm sure I still remain blissfully unaware in "Unconscious Incompetence".

I was conscious throughout this period of a pod-cast from “Manager Tools” that covers a topic called the Juggling Koan. Basically this describes that there are big balls and little balls (responsibilities or tasks) and it is your responsibility as a manager make sure that you focus your time on the big balls, and that means dropping some of the smaller ones. In the case where I'm responsible for 2 separate full time positions, that's a lot of big balls and even more small ones.

Staying back, working harder, faster and more efficiently, are the first things that are ticked off, but at the end of each week, there are just more things to do than anyone has time to work through. I think the art to this is try not to drop the balls, but to find other ways of getting them done, and that invariably involves relying on other people, sometimes other people who you aren't on your team.

Fortunately, I had a few good people who I could rely on to do some of the tasks that I just didn't have time for, either from the Technical Manager role or from the Product Manager role. I tried my hardest to ensure that as many balls were done as possible in any way possible, and some I was fortunate to be able to cut corners on or even cut out completely due to the overlap between the two roles. At one point, I was filling in for the Project Manager while he was away, fulfilling the duties of the Technical Product Manager, as well as the other two roles I had. I was able to get through quite a bit given the massive overlap between those roles, but I'm sure that there are still many things that I didn't do that I probably should have.

Some of those balls that drop to the floor just disappear as they might have a limited time or just weren't important enough, but others just pile up, and there is a part of me that still can't stand things being left undone. Looking back, of course there were some things I could have done better, but in general, there wasn't too much more I could have done. 

It was a totally awesome experience getting exposure to the business side of software development, but it also challenged me in more ways than I could imagine. I don’t regret any of it, but I'm glad it's over.