Product & Engineering's Ability: Decomposition & Sequencing

Being able to understand the full scope of a project and working with the team to breakdown and sequence work that delivers value to our customers in iterations - aka a deliverable piece of functionality that works end to end in some meaningful way. It allows us to start collecting feedback from users.

An “iteration” is a shorthand for “a work item that delivers a valuable change in system behavior such that you’ll probably have to touch multiple architectural layers to implement the change.”

When you call the iteration “done,” the system is observably more valuable to a user.

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability with only a small amount of guidance

• Working with the team for the successful decomposition of ideas into shippable units of work to deliver customer value, validate P&E assumptions or both.
• Though you may not be leading the effort, you consistently make valuable contributions throughout the journey

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability, with no assistance as well as being a trusted active or passive mentor to others

• Leads the squad in efforts of successful decomposition of ideas into shippable units of work to deliver customer value, validate P&E assumptions, or both
• Develops right-size size iterations of work that fit into the checkpoint and quarterly goals
• Thinks through the stack in a way that promotes flexible story creation (e.g. model/database, API, routes, react components, UI).
• Your squad consistently gets iterations of work into customers hands for testing as early as possible in the lifespan of a project

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to multiple squads when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability as well as being considered an expert within this discipline

• Helps in establishing and bettering the way our decomposes and sequences delivery work
• Identifies gaps in our existing process across squads and works to implement solutions to any gaps we have
• Sequences for continuous progress by teams with shifting skills and availability (as teams have members with different skill sets, strengths, weaknesses, and availability)
• Degrades gracefully: delivery is incremental enough that missing a target scope for a checkpoint or quarter still delivers usable scope; delivery isn't a binary proposition (which means eating into the subsequent quarter to save an initiative).

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can not only employ this ability but where they set the tone for this at the company level

• Defines and promotes a long-term vision for how we decompose and sequence work across our department coordinates across the team to ensure projects are in service of it.
• Goes externally to look for ways/best practices of decomposition/sequencing of work and brings those learnings back to Lessonly to consider

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to not just internal teams but the community/industry in general when wielding this ability, and they are recognized by the community/industry as an expert

• Implements new Forecasting and Estimation techniques and frameworks to meet the needs of the wider community.
• Speaks at conferences/meet-ups about our Lessonly forecasting and estimation processes
• Publishes articles/posts about best practices of estimating/forecasting as a team