How-to: Manage Chaos in IT Product/Software Development
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IT Product Development is far from an easy job. It is like a constantly moving puzzle, and you always have to try to balance stuff.
- Tech debt
- Low product suite/team maturity
- Predefined business requirements
- Evolving stakeholder expectations
- Slow to change, internal processes
- Your product OKRs, goals, backlog
- Bugs (known and unknown)
- Differing views, multiple experiences/mindsets
- Outside competition
- Communication gaps, lack of necessary skills
- New products, early adoption
Aaannnddd guess what!?!?
You will never get rid of all of these things…. muahahaha 😈
It’s like being stuck in Jumanji…
Darn….. so now what?
I have been in the role for 5+ years now.
After being tossed, turned, burned, ripped, stretched, cut, wounded, thrown in all kinds of ways, I have finally learnt that the key to actually dealing with this stuff is kinda simple.
You have to make peace with the fact that these things will always exist. Like living in a jungle, you will eventually @ some point get bitten or stung by something. Just know it. Law of nature.
You need to focus on one thing @ a time, piece by piece. Just like in Jumanji, how Robin Williams never let his gaze off the lion, for as long as the lion was in front of him.
Block your calendar for important stuff. Take time off. Run. Write/Read. Keep learning. Apply things that you are good at to the job. Volunteer.
Most importantly, be present in the current moment while you work. Don’t dwell on what’s already been done, built, destroyed, or what the future holds. You will eliminate a lot of worry and unnecessary tension that way.
In the end, it’s all good!
