2023/09/08

We’re finally moving back into the house, with a bathroom very very very nearly complete. So that’s this Friday’s main highlight.

Things I’ve been thinking about this week are:

• Trying to get to the bottom of why the tools our colleagues use don’t always have product names that are 1) understandable or b) the same as on the packaging. Unsurpisingly its not simple, multiple ‘legacy’ systems are involved, and I’m realising its the kind of can of worms I quite enjoy opening.
• One of the reasons is a variation on ‘Shipping the org chart’ in that colleague tools categorise products based on the team names and structures that procure them, as opposed to necesarily how they’re organised in store. Good example of not organsising everything around the delivery of value to the customer, but instead how internal teams are structured.
• Sharing learning with Citizens Advice – we held a joint user research community of practice with their team, covering different ways to communicate resesarch findings, moving to more participatory research approaches and researching sensitive topics. It was really valuable, and just lovely to meet and share too.
• Customer experience in our food stores, a regular reminder that customer experience is the sum of all things we do, that touches everything across digital, operations, logisitics, performance management, and recruitment etc. I’m trying to place emphasis on how we could shape and influence what is already happening to remove any negative impact on customers and prioritise the right work for positive impact.

Long read this week is Successful iteration requires going beyond agile. The part that REALLY got me thinking is this:

While software is a prerequisite to value, the value is only created when users use it to achieve their goals. Only software which is fit for purpose — the right software — is valuable. But the way we learn is by being wrong. By trying to deliver value (be right) and learn (be wrong) at the same time, we end up accomplishing neither.

Within the products I’m often working on in an enterprise environment, its more commonly true that ‘the value is created when the spreadsheet is submitted’ instead. I.e. whether the things works is related to…but not the primary thing that drives value. Got me thinking about how we can try and change that conversation or at least get people to recognise the conflict.