CareerPlug

• Product

   Assignments:

  Technical Partner Manager

  We ensure that our technical partnerships are healthy. That means clarifying expectations, managing communication, and ultimately being accountable for success (win-win makers).

  Full Description

  Outcome:

  • TBD
    • Something about the health (budget, responsiveness, and general return on investment) of the partnership as defined by the exec team (finance and ops primarily)

  Required Activities:

  • ?? Annual budget... can explain/justify the cost/benefit ??
  • ?? Health reviews (quarterly, monthly, or on the weekly scorecard) ??
  • ?? Internal point-of-contact for issues and general communication between organizations??

  Details in the Handbook

  Requirements

  • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
  • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inCollaboration
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication

  Examples

  An observation relating to  Technical Partner Manager  has not been publicly recognized yet.

  Product Teammate

  We are the builder, thinkers, the foundation for our business. Our business exists to provide value primarily via software – and we have the tremendous honor of being the caretakers of the software. Our motto as Product People is; Continuously Deliver Value – that Clients and Partners Love – and works for the business.

  Full Description

  This Assignment is different. There is no specific accountability other than to uphold the principles and values that come with being a member of Product.

  We hold ourselves to a very high standard, and this Assignment is intended to be an acknowledgment of that fact. The things we all must do to call ourselves Product People.

  • We are experts of our Product...not just our squad's functional area
  • We are students of the game... meaning we see process not as a set of commandments to be followed, but as guidelines that help us achieve our actual goals. Speaking of goals...
  • We are knowledgable about our business... meaning we know enough about our business and the market in general to make informed decisions
  • We know this is a team sport... meaning collaboration is a skill we seek to hone every day
  • We are outcome-focused... meaning we don't seek to just build software... we seek to make a difference... to change human behavior and deliver real results.

  This is not all of what it means to be on Product... but, it is a solid start. As such every member of Product must have this Assignment, and in the spirit of the 80:20 rule, let's set this to 20% for all positions. It'll remind us that the growth framework does NOT aim to capture 100% of your time, energy, or thoughts. The hope is that setting 20% of your job description to being something that does NOT have an observable outcome, it'll reinforce this idea.

  Requirements

  • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
  • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProcess Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inGoal Management
  • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inCollaboration

  Examples

  An observation relating to  Product Teammate  has not been publicly recognized yet.

  Documentation Writer

  We are the documenters... we ensure that the most important parts of how our application is supposed to work never gets forgotten.

  Full Description

  Escalation Engineers who take on the Document Writer assignment work to ensure that escalations caused by lack of product or process knowledge are rare. They proactively update existing documentation when they see something incorrect out of date, create documentation (Guru cards, Loom videos) relevant to Escalation work (mitigations, processes, etc.). They work with Product Marketing/Technical writing/other squads to close knowledge gaps in the Help Center/Guru.

  One Number

  • Trust Score of the Product Team Guru Boards (how this will be measured... coming soon)

  Success:

  • No one on the P&E team has to ask how new functionality is intended to work
  • None of the direct stakeholder (enablement, product marketing, and customer support) has to ask how launched functionality is intended to work (can be measured with a decrease in tickets that could be solved by having documentation in place)
  • Documentation is created, reviewed, and added to Zendesk Guide before the feature is launched and passed to Customer Support and Customer Experience prior to launch to create support articles

  Note: The scope of this Assignment is it is responsible for creating a manual that inspires the customer-facing and enablement documentation but is NOT responsible for writing customer-facing and enablement documentation

  With every launch and every new feature, there are many details about the feature that we on the product have in our heads. These include:

  • Overview of the feature
  • How the feature works
  • Screenshots
  • Demo Video
  • and more!

  We have a goal to properly document the feature launching for both P&E and inter-departmental stakeholders.

  Things you might deliver/do

  • Create a story for creating documentation in each epic
  • Create documentation and move it through the review process
  • Add documentation for each feature to Zendesk Guide
  • Maintain documentation in the now and future
  • Share documentation easily with stakeholders via Zendesk Guide
  • The Feature Documenters (at least one person from each squad) will get together to create a Feature Documenters Handbook where they will agree on how documentation will be written, organized, and styled in the internal knowledge-base (Zendesk Guide).

  Requirements

  • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProduct Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCopywriting

  Examples

  An observation relating to  Documentation Writer  has not been publicly recognized yet.

  Forward Progress Facilitator

  A team/squad is a collection of individuals coming together to accomplish some mission. To accomplish a mission, the team needs to make forward progress. We are the facilitators of this forward progress... ensuring that with every action we take brings us closer to achieving our mission 💪🏾 We know it takes a team to succeed, and are committed to ensuring WTWT and collaboration. Regardless of our processes, meeting style and cadences, and communication methods; we ensure progress (next steps, priorities, and deliverables) are as clear as possible.

  Full Description

  Outcomes

  • PRESENT
    • All squadmates agree: "I am informed... meaning I know what is most important and what we are doing about it"
    • All squadmates agree: "I am supported... meaning I have nothing in my way of making progress"
    • All squadmates agree: "I am connected... meaning I know what the next steps are, who is accountable for each TODO, and how the TODOs and next steps are aligned with the progress we are trying to make"
  • FUTURE
    • All squadmates agree: "When thinking about the next 2 quarters; I am informed about and connected to the progress (in the form of OKR3s) we may be taking on"

  Details in Guru

  Important note: Facilitators are just that... facilitators. They should NOT be the ones doing all of the "doing". They ARE here to make sure someone is accountable for the "doing".

  ---

  This Assignment was inspired by Assignments from other organizations, such as Squad Manager

  Requirements

  • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
  • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inCollaboration
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProject Management
  • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProcess Knowledge
  • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inStakeholder / feedback management

  Examples

    Observation created about 2 years ago

  Featuring:Ashley G.Forward Progress Facilitator

  https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C04MX9Q620M/p1691766564273579

  1. Stated the intent right out of the gate
  2. In a public channel so others could follow if needed
  3. Sharing context of the asks being made in a clear and kind way
  4. Ends with a service attitude of busting blockers!

  Great example of forward progress facilitation!

    Observation created over 2 years ago

  Featuring:Jaclyn N.(4) Work Together, Win TogetherForward Progress Facilitator

  https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C016NHU9JMD/p1685624723633419

  From Lizzie:

  Jaclyn has been a rockstar on a recent State Farm project! State Farm will now have open description on job templates - a big move for State Farm - which has been lead by our fearless leader Jaclyn. Being a team of one I depend heavily on teamwork within CareerPlug to be successful and Jaclyn's WTWT on ths project will only further help me, and CareerPlug, in our goals. Cant wait to share all this hard work with our clients!

    Observation created over 2 years ago

  Featuring:Brittany A.Product DiscoveryInsights to Opportunity AlchemistsForward Progress Facilitator

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ILq1VS7Hz76DDNTOjKoOct6B-SdknniOZHLP-LT5_30/edit#

  Why aren’t Premium users setting up Autopilot?

  This is a question that B asked (I know others helped, and as I find out to what extent folks helped I may add them to this observation... for now, I know B was at the center of it).

  ❤️ - First, this is the right question to ask!! Product at many places is about getting features out the door. But that is NOT how we get down at CP. We...

  Continuously deliver value that clients/partners love – and work for the business

  ... Which means we set an outcome for ourselves and we scratch, claw, and fight our way to that outcome through relentless iteration. But, that is very uncomfortable for most product folks as we were conditioned to "shut up and deliver features". The fact that this question is being asked by an IC engineer speak volumes! It is an example of the exact type of culture we need to have if we are to achieve exponential results 💪🏾🙌🏾

  Organization of the documents/assets

  ❤️ Let's look at the titles within the document; Background on the problem (that has data), Approach to solving this problem (which orients us to what is to follow), Step 1: Brainstorm ideas/testable hypotheses about why accounts are not setting up AP , Step 3: How might we test/validate our assumptions? (which was moved to FigJam, which IMO is the appropriate place)

  ❤️ Then in the FigJam, the issues were put into an affinity map, and then organized further into what is essentially an opportunity tree.

  ---

  All of this gives me tremendous confidence that we are headed in the right direction as it pertains to creating rocks that are incredibly aligned for the quarter!!

    Observation created almost 3 years ago

  Featuring:Daniel E.Stakeholder / feedback managementForward Progress Facilitator

  https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C02V4M2QD46/p1674659829798089?thread_ts=1674658266.707579&cid=C02V4M2QD46

  As I was reading this thread I had a roller coaster of emotion.

  A squad being inundated by feedback... how will they handle it? With grace, collaboration, and tenacity... YES 💪🏾

  Uh oh, they are now talking about how they are going ro organize the feedback and how they are going to manage the "duplicate suggestions"... will they try to reinvent the wheel? Nope... Daniel came in with concise, clear, and IMO correct direction... YES 🙌🏾

  Ok, but what about next steps... they are dealing with all kinds of shit; bugs, small tweaks, and larger possible enhancements... will they drown, wander, or gain clarity? Drop the mic level of clarity!!!... HELL YES ❤️

  Daniel.. well done sir... well done!

    Observation created about 3 years ago

  Featuring:Canaan D.CommunicationForward Progress Facilitator

  https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C040GL35TFG/p1663259542335699?thread_ts=1663259527.031509&cid=C040GL35TFG

  The thing I love about this update is its simplicity and organization. Also, Forward Progress Facilitation when dealing with a cross-departmental group is doing that Assignment on Hard Mode.

  Love the three categories: Decisions Made, Next Steps Identified, and Other Updates.

  Also love how concise it is (a skill I personally have been working on for a couple of decades and can't crack 🤣).

  Well done!

  If I had a note, it would be that we should link to the places with more detail / where the work is being done. Ideally ProductBoard given the cross-departmental nature of this.

  ---

  • Design

     Assignments:

    In-app guide admin

    We collaborate on the in-app guide needs

    Full Description

    We are the folks that fulfill the requests identified in this guideline doc

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication

    Examples

    An observation relating to  In-app guide admin  has not been publicly recognized yet.

  • Discovery / Shaping

     Assignments:

    Value Shaper

    We shape the solutions aimed at the desired outcome within Opportunities. We are the missionaries within Product obsessively focused on the five big value attributes while seeking continuously improved ways to deliver value that our clients/partners love and work for the business.

    Full Description

    Our ONE number

    • Hypothesis Hit Rate (combo of three concepts)
      • Oppty quality checking
        • I recently heard a good metaphor for this. You can be asked to design a vase, or to design a way for people to be able to appreciate flowers. Oppties are "How might we allow people to appreciate flowers". Assumptions are "I think putting them on the dinner table will bring joy". Solutions are... a vase. Value Shapers are given a mission of "How might we allow people to appreciate flowers". The oppty is a good oppty if you can clearly state the why, what, and who. The measure of Oppty quality checking is a checks and balances measure. The opportunity tree caretaker agrees "Working with this value shaper makes me better at writing opportunities... they are collaborative in seeking clarity and ensuring everyone is aiming at the most important thing... Continuously Delivering Value that Clients and Partners Love – and Works for the Business"
      • Learning Frequency
        • We aim for continuous.. in order to do that we must be testing assumptions continuously. When you have a squad with great Value Shapers, squadmates agree "We are deliberately learning so much... meaning, 3+ opinion-shifting and/or assumption-(in)validating learnings per quarter".
      • Oppties, Assumptions, and Solutions separation... decomposing oppties into assumptions, experiments, and ultimately iterating on solutions.
        • Great value shapers are incredible at devising a set of assumptions (prioritizing the riskiest of them). Designing experiments to test them keeping in mind the cost/benefit of the learning and risk mitigation. And ultimately delivering solutions that get at the desired outcomes in the oppties! Stakeholders agree "I know what the squad's assumptions are, how/if they are testing them, and how these insights are resulting in higher quality software... as seen by the squad hitting or exceeding between 60-80% of their stated launch effectiveness hypotheses"

    Full Description in Guru Card

    This Assignment was inspired by Assignments from other frameworks, such as Discovery Manager

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, it is recommended to be milestone 1 or greater inData analysis / synthesis
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
    • For this role, it is recommended to be milestone 1 or greater inQualitative Research
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inProduct Discovery
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inDecomposition & Sequencing

    Examples

      Observation created over 1 year ago

    Featuring:Brittany A.(4) Work Together, Win TogetherPrinciple #4 - We continuously improve how we workCollaborationStakeholder / feedback managementValue Shaper

    https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C010D2AQA0Z/p1707774919895089

    The best embrace feedback. The best embrace collaboration. The best embrace transparency.

    It is so incredibly hard, especially in Product where everyone believes their ideas are the best ideas. And this fact stops most from getting feedback, from collaborating, from exhibiting transparency.

    B is NOT most.

    I can honestly say, this is one of the best messages I've ever seen in my 20 year career.
    ✅ - Early... so folks know that their voices matter
    ✅ - Focused on outcomes... so folks know we aren't choosing the "coolest idea", we are going to bet on the thing that helps us achieve the outcome
    ✅ - Proactive... notice this is in the HX channel!!!
    ✅ - Cross-functional... B is a TECH LEAD. Usually you'd see this from design or product management. I'm CERTAIN the full Pre-Hire Trio discussed this (and if after posting this I get that confirmation, I'll attach them to this OGO)... but seeing a tech lead truly get in the discovery and shaping is AMAZING!!

    LFG!!!

    Insights to Opportunity Alchemists

    We ensure the opportunities on our opportunity tree are organized and rich with evidence that supports further investment. This evidence comes from everywhere, but is primarily sourced from Insights.

    Full Description

    Our ONE Number

    • TBD (Likely the sentiment of the Oppty Greenkeepers. How easy is it to determine the most impactful work maybe?)

    ---

    As Insights to Opportunity Alchemists (I/O Alchemists) it is our responsibility to ensure we are listening to every input possible (direct client conversations, partners, support, operations, engineering, design, product marketing, client education/experience, and everything in between) to add opportunities to our Opportunity Tree. These opportunities – when at their best – will be inspiring, compelling, and clear. They should inspire an emotional reaction to those that read them. Readers should feel the pain, the need, the desire. They should be on the edge of their seat ready to storm the field and help our clients realize the value (or currently lack therefor) depicted in the opportunity. There should be evidence (both qualitative and quantitative). There should be target personas, clear strategy alignment, and above all else a hypothesis or measure of success.

    I/O Alchemists are also responsible for the organization strategy of products, components, features, and sub-features within ProductBoard. If a squad does have their Opportunity Tree housed outside of ProductBoard, the I/O Alchemist is responsible for ensuring the two stay in sync with one another.

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Discovery
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inCommunication
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inQualitative Research

    Examples

      Observation created over 2 years ago

    Featuring:Chris G.David Y.Principle #4 - We continuously improve how we workInsights to Opportunity Alchemists

    https://www.figma.com/file/pBfsHKGoFAb5n3bhfSf3F5/Attract-Opportunity-Tree?node-id=0-1&t=JEjQ0PDo66lXNrUB-0

    THIS IS THE WAY!!!!!

    So much to love about this.

    ❤️ - Instructions... in the FigJam there is a "How to use an Oppty Solution Tree" section that cites the sources, and walks us through everything we need to know to traverse this tree! I also love that it is an iteration on other oppty-tree instructions floating around out there. We MUST improve how we go about doing the work, and David showed that in a big way with this.

    ❤️ - The oppties... are mostly from the perspective of the hiring manager, which is just so excellent!!

    ❤️ - The solutions... are plentiful and very relevant!! Only one oppty has only one solution... the rest have 2+... which indicated the oppty is just that, an oppty and not a solution in an oppty disguise!!

    ❤️ - The experiments... exist! Most of the time folks skip the experiment part and stay focused on the solutions. I had decided we weren't ready to talk experimentation, because many of our experiments didn't have an initial hypothesis, weren't short enough to have the cost/benefit needed, and weren't measured in a way that was clear to all. So instead I've nudged us towards KIS measures, some born of Launch effectiveness measures, and helping Core introduce a multivariate testing solution. But, seeing those orange circles gives me an indication that my man David is ready to continue to elevate our quest to iterate our way to exponential results/success.

    Love this David and Chris!!

    Now the next test is how do we keep it this clear once we get folks collaborating with us... solutions that impact multiple outcomes and oppties... and how do we keep this tree green. For now, I'm absolutely wow'ed!!!

      Observation created over 2 years ago

    Featuring:Brittany A.Product DiscoveryInsights to Opportunity AlchemistsForward Progress Facilitator

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ILq1VS7Hz76DDNTOjKoOct6B-SdknniOZHLP-LT5_30/edit#

    Why aren’t Premium users setting up Autopilot?

    This is a question that B asked (I know others helped, and as I find out to what extent folks helped I may add them to this observation... for now, I know B was at the center of it).

    ❤️ - First, this is the right question to ask!! Product at many places is about getting features out the door. But that is NOT how we get down at CP. We...

    Continuously deliver value that clients/partners love – and work for the business

    ... Which means we set an outcome for ourselves and we scratch, claw, and fight our way to that outcome through relentless iteration. But, that is very uncomfortable for most product folks as we were conditioned to "shut up and deliver features". The fact that this question is being asked by an IC engineer speak volumes! It is an example of the exact type of culture we need to have if we are to achieve exponential results 💪🏾🙌🏾

    Organization of the documents/assets

    ❤️ Let's look at the titles within the document; Background on the problem (that has data), Approach to solving this problem (which orients us to what is to follow), Step 1: Brainstorm ideas/testable hypotheses about why accounts are not setting up AP , Step 3: How might we test/validate our assumptions? (which was moved to FigJam, which IMO is the appropriate place)

    ❤️ Then in the FigJam, the issues were put into an affinity map, and then organized further into what is essentially an opportunity tree.

    ---

    All of this gives me tremendous confidence that we are headed in the right direction as it pertains to creating rocks that are incredibly aligned for the quarter!!

    Data Analyst

    We seek evidence that helps us decide on the direction we will take. There is a saying "if all we have are opinions, let's use mine... but if we have data, let's use that". CareerPlug aspires to be data-influenced in all product decisions. We are the engine that powers that influence.

    Full Description

    Our ONE number

    • TBD

    Constellation measures of success

    • Quantitative evidence plays a vital part in product solution design
      • Value Shapers agree "We used data to help shape the best solution possible"
    • Insights are uncovered that helps better support our customers
      • Client/Partner-facing teams (Partner Management, Hiring Expert (Customer Support and Consultation), and Implementation (Professional Services)) agree "Data helped me serve our clients/partners better"
    • All Pluggies agree "Product has easy to understand, and clearly impactful metrics... they inspire excitement and provide clarity into the impact of the work Product does"

    Details in Guru

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inData analysis / synthesis
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration

    Examples

      Observation created about 3 years ago

    Featuring:Anna W.CollaborationData analysis / synthesisData AnalystForward Progress Facilitator

    https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C01SG5UDH7E/p1660753177339599

    “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”
    ― Jim Barksdale

    Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.
    ― Deming

    ---

    I love it when these quotes show up as true in daily product work!

    Engage was debating whether or not the next iteration should include the ability to modify the job title. Then AW came swooping in with amazing data to help answer the question!

    I did a little more digging on the usage for adding job title: It looks like about 55% of users are adding job title after creating a new user. Perhaps because it’s at the top of the current Add New User form and maybe they think it’s a required field. Only ~9% of users are editing the job title when editing an existing user. This is making me feel less strongly that this is something to worry about now.

    She offered both sides of the argument giving reasons along the way. This is collaboration. This is the way to use data for decision making.

    Opportunity Tree Caretaker

    We ensure the opportunities we focus on are in alignment with the product strategy and give us the best chance at achieving our ultimate goals of continuous value delivery. We succeed if the Oppties we select results in helping us meet our product strategy goals.

    Full Description

    Our ONE number

    • Leading: Squadmates strongly agree with "I can answer with confidence why we are focusing on the big bet work we are shaping, building, and launching"
    • Leading: Stakeholders strongly agree with "The reasons why this squad is focusing on this opportunity is not only clear, but gets me excited for the future / impact on the business strategy"
    • Lagging: When oppty desired outcome is hit, it results in the lagging indication outcomes defined at the Product Strategy level.

    ---

    We help the Insights => Opportunity Alchemists with organizing the products, components, features, and sub-features within ProductBoard's feature tab. However, it is our sole responsibility to put in the appetite. We also have major influence over the squad's "top 7".

    This Assignment is accountable for the outcomes of the opportunities selected being the best thing for continuously delivering value that clients/partners lave – and work for the business. As such, this is a high stress Assignment.

    If the squad is using Kanban, the Betting Table will take this Assignment.
    If the squad is using Empowered ShapeUp and the Tournament of Value, the Betting Table will take this Assignment.
    If the squad is using Continuous Value Delivery, the squad will decide if the full trio takes on this Assignment or if a specific member (usually the Product Manager) will take it on.

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 3.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inProduct Discovery
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProduct Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inGoal Management
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inPrioritization Strategy (Sense and Respond)
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inStakeholder / feedback management
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inSystems Design and Management

    Examples

    An observation relating to  Opportunity Tree Caretaker  has not been publicly recognized yet.

    Launch Coordinator – Ops & CS

    As an organization, we launch together. That means alignment and unity across multiple departments. Within Product, we have special responsibilities to ensure the success of the monthly product launches (as well as any insta-launches). We, launch coordinators, are the captains of the product launch journey.

    Full Description

    ONE number

    • Operations, Client and Partner Success, People, and Product Pluggies (strongly) agree: “I was prepared to not only serve our clients at an expert level, but I am able to bring excitement to our clients about the changes we’ve made to our product.”
      • Sales and Marketing will be handled by the other half of the Launch Coordinator duo.

    Details in Guru

    This Assignment was inspired by Assignments from other frameworks, such as Squad Progress Communicator, Launch coordinator, and Agile Coach

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProject Management
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge

    Examples

      Observation created almost 3 years ago

    Featuring:Jaclyn N.Launch Coordinator – Ops & CS

    https://www.loom.com/share/7e242094b4fb4eacac5f5ce79c4c5fd2

    I really liked a few things with this:

    1. Clear and concise
    2. Historical context w/ demo of "the old way"
    3. Showing the value of "the new way"

    Great example that other should use as an example when creating these PLC videos 💪🏾

    Customer Insight Excavator

    We take in stories, feedback, complaints, and solution requests (from customers) – and convert them into Product gold called Insights

    Full Description

    Our ONE Number

    • TBD (likely an attestation of the quality of the insights when converting insights into opportunities... maybe something about teammates recognizing Product as a group that knows our clients/partners nearly [if not more] than our client-facing teammates)

    Note: There are three types of Insight Excavators. Customer Insight Excavators are expected to talk directly to the users of the software; be it client or partner. Stakeholder Insight Excavators are expected to interact with the internal team to gather their expertise and perspective. Market Insight Excavators are expected to talk to the buyers of the software. All three are expected to do generative and evaluative research... just focusing on different personas

    Details in this Guru card (coming soon)

    Accountable for

    • Excavate insights from the [Insights Portal] such that the insights are used to influence all phases of ProdDev (including all defined below in the cVd6 definition as well as the Product Strategy):
    • Primary work product is the Interview Snapshot

    Link to Guru card with details coming soon

    ---

    Curious to see an example of how strategy => discovery => shaping => learning could work? Here is an example of how to organize Continuous Value Delivery.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inProcess Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inQualitative Research
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inProduct Discovery

    Examples

      Observation created about 3 years ago

    Featuring:Theresa B.Principle #4 - We continuously improve how we workPrinciple #1 - We continuously improve our closeness to our clients/partnersQualitative ResearchCustomer Insight Excavator

    https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C01SG5UDH7E/p1660759506882389
    https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C02V4M2QD46/p1660759437221819

    The first...

    It is hard being the first to do a thing. Maybe everyone is looking at you to set the tone for how that thing is to be done thereafter. Maybe it feels like putting your "neck out" too far. Maybe it is easier to follow the status quo.

    Fuck the status quo.

    The thing I love the most about Berg taking our qualitative analysis to a new level with this interview snapshot is that she finished.

    • It was accompanied by a Loom where she goes over it
    • It was posted in a public channel where not only can her squadmates consume it, but stakeholders as well
      • Bonus points... it was posted in TWO public squad channels 💪🏾
    • It had an impact! (examples of what people said below)

    Wow, I LOVE that snapshot!!!! That’s fantastic :fire: :raised_hands::skin-tone-2: I was able to take about 5 minutes and read through and and really get a great picture of the struggles and opportunities from that interview :heart:

    omg I could am cry :sob: (edited)
    i am cry

    This is super digestible!!!

    Wow! This is great. Thank you :raised_hands::skin-tone-3:

  • Engineering

     Assignments:

    Builder Task Shaper

    We take slices of work (epics/scopes) and break them into specific, actionable stories/tasks so that we can ship as effectively as possible.

    Full Description

    Our ONE Number:

    • Cycle time should be below 3 days for your squad
      • The theory is that if cycle time is low, it is likely because the stories are appropriately sized. If they are appropriately sized, and the squadmates feel as they know exactly what is next best to work on, you are executing this role at a very high level.

    Deliverables:

    • Actionable stories/tasks

    Details

    • Usually, only one per squad per quarter
    • Takes the epics/scopes and ensures that stories/tasks are decomposed in such a way that it will ensure the best flow for the squad.
    • Usually a full stack engineer or a very technical product owner/manager. Stories can, but likely shouldn't need much work done to them after you have done your magic to them.

    AKA

    • Story backlog groomer

    From our recent job description

    You will take the slices of work (epics/scopes) and break them into specific, actionable stories/tasks so that we can ship as effectively as possible (which means the stories/tasks are as small and as clear as possible). Ultimately we want stories/tasks/PRs that help us with forecastability and understandability on a pursuit of continuous value delivery.

    How we decompose and sequence the stories requires an understanding of the UI, backend, and the other "build" constraints. Though you’ll be doing your best if you’re getting help from your squad.

    Success looks like:

    • We use multiple metrics that help us measure the health of our delivery. One of them that helps us identify if we have bottlenecks is story cycle time. You’ll be successful if stories are a similar size and therefore have a relatively consistent cycle time.

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inDecomposition & Sequencing
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication

    Examples

    An observation relating to  Builder Task Shaper  has not been publicly recognized yet.

    ---

    • Operations

       Assignments:

      Incident Communications Lead

      We ensure everyone is aware of what is going on when there is an incident

      Full Description

      Coming soon... a document that resembles this

      Requirements

      • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
      • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inCommunication
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProduct Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inBusiness Knowledge

      Examples

      An observation relating to  Incident Communications Lead  has not been publicly recognized yet.

      Tier-4 Agent

      We are the Subject Matter Experts for a functional area of the app.

      Full Description

      Our ONE number

      • TBD

      Details in Guru

      Requirements

      • Must have a position with the reach of 3.1 or higher
      • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 4 or greater inSoftware Investigation

      Examples

      An observation relating to  Tier-4 Agent  has not been publicly recognized yet.

      Tier-3 Agent

      We ensure Tier-II has what they need to succeed

      Full Description

      Tier 3 Agents support T2 and the rest of the company by verifying/routing bugs and other errors to the correct squad, investigating/answering product questions, and completing tasks that can only be performed through the rails console.

      Our ONE number

      • 90%+ of internal teammates who submitted tickets that reached T3 slightly or strongly agree that they got the information they needed to solve their issue in a timely manner.
      • Escalation cycle time
        • On average we agree that a conversation is needed if escalations take more than 2 hours per.
        • If/when an escalation is going to take more than 2 hours, everyone knows why and likely agrees with you

      Requirements

      • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
      • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inCommunication
      • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inSoftware Investigation
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCustomer Service

      Examples

      An observation relating to  Tier-3 Agent  has not been publicly recognized yet.

      Tier 1/2 Trainer

      Escalations are necessary, but they are also expensive (slow for customer and can be disempowering for tier1/2 agents). We Trainers focus on ensuring T1/2 have the knowledge they need to curb the need for escalation

      Full Description

      Escalation Engineers who take on the T2 Enablement assignment are dedicated to helping T2 level up their skills. They own the T2/T3 sync, and provide regular feedback on how the HX team can improve their bug submission skills. Working with the Escalation Mitigator, they resolve trends with escalations that don’t need a code change or can’t be solved through documentation alone - this can be giving other teams access to other tools and teaching them best practices, training them on how to use mitigations, or teaching them about more technical parts of the app like the API or webhooks that will allow T2 to solve issues for our clients without needing to bring things to T3.

      ONE Number

      • Reduction in the percentage of escalations that need T3 input by type (if there is a training on how to troubleshoot/investigate - a smaller percentage of those types of escalations should reach T3 post training)

      Requirements

      • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProcess Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inSoftware Investigation
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inPresenting
      • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge

      Examples

      An observation relating to  Tier 1/2 Trainer  has not been publicly recognized yet.

      Escalation Mitigator

      Escalations are inevitable, but we ensure recurring escalations are reduced/eliminated altogether

      Full Description

      Escalations are necessary, but expensive.

      • Expensive because of the negative impact on Experience of CareerPlug’s client-facing teams
        • Anytime a client/partner-facing rep cannot answer a question, resolve a problem, or make a change that enhances the value of our offering to the client/partner in question, it reduces the overall experience.
      • Expensive because escalations are unplanned work for those that could be otherwise improving the system
        • Every moment that is spent NOT making improvements to the system by someone with the skill, access, and knowledge to make enhancements is less than ideal.

      The One Number we are accountable for

      • Quarter over quarter reduction in known escalations - there will always be new escalation needs popping up, but we shouldn’t let the same ones linger for months.

      Supporting / leading indicators we pay attention to

      • Observability
        • Stakeholders strongly agree or agree when asked “I know what the escalation trends are, and understand what we are doing to reduce them (so that we don’t have the same ones that are bugging us today be the same ones we are bugged by 6 months from now)”.
      • Outcomes
        • If the above is true, then we can/will have a quarter-over-quarter reduction in known escalations (as defined by any escalation type that occurs more than once per month for at least 3 contiguous months and/or takes more than a day of any tier-3+ agent).
          • There will always be new escalation-needs being added, such is the physics of creating software. The purpose of this goal is that the known escalation-needs are consistently being eliminated.
        • Client/Partner-facing team members strongly agree or agree when asked “I am continuously given ever-improving tools, knowledge, or skills from the Empower Squad and/or the other product squads that help me serve customers directly without needing to ask for help”.

      ---

      Escalation Engineers who take on the Escalation Mitigator assignment have their pulse on the escalation trends happening from T1 up. They share this knowledge across the product organization to help build feedback loops between other teams and the squads. They work with Platform Squad PO to prioritize and shape mitigations to resolve the most common escalations - allowing our users and teammates to self-serve and resolve their issues faster and with less friction

      Requirements

      • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
      • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inPrioritization Strategy (Sense and Respond)
      • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inData analysis / synthesis
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inBusiness Knowledge
      • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inProduct Discovery

      Examples

        Observation created about 2 years ago

      Featuring:Christina W.Escalation Mitigator

      https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C02T0CYA8GZ/p1691507297298429

      Sometimes when mitigating escalations, the right thing to do is:

      1. Wait until you see a pattern that makes the cost/benefit worth exploring
      2. Build a thing that makes the need go away
      3. Build a thing that empowers an earlier tier to meet the need
      4. Update documentation (internal or external) that addresses the need

      But, sometimes, especially in hi-trust environments, the thing to do is to empower and train earlier tiers. This is the hardest of the options, but an amazing one if you can get it done.

      CW has been reporting on the fact that IP Address allow-listing has been the top escalation for a long while.... BY FAR.

      She investigated multiple ways to mitigate this escalation, but apparently came to the conclusion that it would be best to empower and train T2 to be able to handle these requests. Therefore making the turn around time that much faster, clients that much happier, and removing that much bureaucracy from the CP universe.

      Well done!

  • Product Operations

     Assignments:

    Sorcerex of Truth

    We ensure that all stakeholders can rely on the product sources of truth. When they need to know... they can find out – just like ✨ magic 🪄

    Full Description

    One number we are accountable for?

    • All Pluggies agree: "I am confident that when I need to find some info about what Product has done, is doing, or is considering doing – not only can I find it, but it is answered such that I have exactly what I need"

    Details in Guru

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inCommunication
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inStakeholder / feedback management

    Examples

    An observation relating to  Sorcerex of Truth  has not been publicly recognized yet.

  • Quality

     Assignments:

    Post-launch--Built-in-quality Guard

    There can be no Value without Quality. We ensure we are building that quality in. From selecting opportunities, to shaping solutions, how we decompose and sequence the build out, and even how we do staged rollouts of our launches. We are looking for ways to ensure quality at every turn.

    Full Description

    Our ONE Number

    Focused on the "Post-Launch bugs" column

    

    Details in Guru

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
    • For this role, you must be milestone 1 or greater inCollaboration
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inDecomposition & Sequencing
    • For this role, you must be milestone 3 or greater inProduct Knowledge
    • For this role, you must be milestone 2 or greater inStakeholder / feedback management

    Examples

      Observation created over 2 years ago

    Featuring:Jaclyn N.Principle #4 - We continuously improve how we workPost-launch--Built-in-quality Guard

    https://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C02GWTK9WFM/p1690226899258309

    Not sure who in the squad had this idea, so I'm attributing to to Jaclyn for now.

    The idea of doing a FULL SQUAD walk-thru before putting an offering through PLC is genius!!!

    • Builds confidence within the squad, ensuring everyone is aware of and owning what we are presenting
    • Builds confidence of the squad from PLC, because what is presented is very likely more defensible

    This reminds me of a "Product Yoda" quote...

    "Collective squad ownership leads to Love.... Ownership leads to higher quality, higher quality leads to more confidence, more confidence leads to more trust, more trust leads to more autonomy, more autonomy leads to faster iteration, faster iterations lead to more REAL client value, more client value leads to more client love"

    • Product Yoda

    Thanks for taking a step closer towards the wonderful world of Product Love

      Observation created over 2 years ago

    Featuring:Daniel E.(4) Work Together, Win TogetherCollaborationCommunicationPost-launch--Built-in-quality Guard

    I challenged the Onboard Squad to be crystal clear with the help they need from Implementation with their rock this quarter. It is a big deal because we are likely asking them to change their rock to help us with ours. 😬

    I was expecting a one-page write up going over the basics. But the homie Daniel said "nah... here is a fully fleshed out video series with accompanying assets to ensure there is extreme alignment"!

    ❤️ - The GSheet, because it makes the goal extremely clear
    ❤️ - The demo videos, because it makes it real easy for ANYONE with access to come in and help

    Daniel, this was excellent... making WTWT a breeze with this type of preparation.

    WELL DONE 1️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣ 👏🏾 ✨🙌🏾✨

    The full message below so others will have an example of great preparation

    Sup Implementation! Onboard squad here asking yall for help with getting 584 Accounts have at least one new hire complete the the basic Onboard process by EOQ. To do that we need your help with updating all the state tax forms and helping us create an out of the box onboarding task set that we can share with our beta partners.

    1. Project numero uno is updating all the state tax forms. So that no account of the 584 is blocked from using them with their new hires. Here is a video with more detail. Here is the State Form Excel we are working from.

    2. Here are a few training videos for the project above

    3. https://www.loom.com/share/a8a21e80dafa4456a81e7e24aa65f022

    4. https://www.loom.com/share/eeb0db7eead14393a2030345ff92085e

    5. https://www.loom.com/share/2a410797aebd4400b194feacca6f6666

    6. Project numero dos is creating an out if the box onboarding task list using our current task list tool in the platform. We know that partners are looking to ramp up their new hires as quickly as possible while helping them connect with their team culture. Clint, Ashley J, and Natalie have been collaborating on what this out of the box solution could look like (check it out here). We need your help creating this in our platform using the tools we have already. Here is a video with more detail. Ill be adding more training videos of this side of the platform. Stay tuned!

    Pre-launch--Built-in-quality Guard

    There can be no Value without Quality. We ensure we are building that quality in. From selecting opportunities, to shaping solutions, how we decompose and sequence the build out, and even how we do staged rollouts of our launches. We are looking for ways to ensure quality at every turn.

    Full Description

    Our ONE Number

    We focus on the "Pre-Launch bugs" column

    

    Details in Guru

    Requirements

    • Must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
    • For this role, it is recommended to be milestone 1 or greater inSoftware Testing

    Examples

    An observation relating to  Pre-launch--Built-in-quality Guard  has not been publicly recognized yet.