As a tech leader, you're stuck between two opposing forces when it comes to driving maximum impact - do we think long term strategic or do we think agile?
This is that contant struggle we have between showing value now and showing value in the long term.
Strategic Alignment
On one side, there's the philosophy that organizations need robust alignment around a unified vision and direction.
We're talking:
🔺 Those intense annual/quarterly planning & roadmapping meetings
🔺 Strict prioritization rules - no going rogue!
🔺 Clearly defined OKRs that cascade down to every team
🔺 Mapping all the intricate initiative dependencies
🔺 So. Many. Alignment. Forums.
The core idea is that without stringent organizational focus, tech teams will just go off in random directions. You end up with conflicting outputs, delays galore, and resources scattered across too many fronts. It's chaos.
I can't tell you how many past roles I've been in where lack of strategic alignment rigor led to nonstop whiplash. Deprioritized initiatives left and right. Never-ending resource shuffling based on the fire of the week.
OR
Agile Flexibility
But on the flip side, us tech folks need to stay nimble and responsive.
That means:
🔺 Letting teams figure out their own priorities and roadmaps
🔺 Embracing the "unknown unknowns" through continuous discovery
🔺 Avoiding getting bogged down by organizational debt from rigid planning
🔺 Limiting cross-team dependencies that cause gridlocks
🔺 Rapidly realigning people and budgets to highest leveraged areas
If you go too far down the organizational alignment rabbit hole, you lose the ability to capitalize on game-changing opportunities and insights as they emerge. The overhead bogs you down into an innovation tar pit.
I've lived this the hard way too - companies wedded to largely arbitrary annual roadmaps that ignored all the signals we were headed the wrong way. Watching the agile startups eat our lunch in real time.
So what's a tech leader to do? You need just enough strategic alignment guardrails to avoid chaos. But also the flexibility to rapidly pivot based on new data and realities.
For me, the ideal answer here is:
WE NEED A MIX OF BOTH - let's plan strategically but leave a buffer for the agility in the space. Let's constantly review our priorities and ensure they remain the highest impact. Let's develop things that can be scaled, modified (Data as a Product anyone..).
Where does your team generally lean - more toward unified organizational direction or embracing agile nimbleness? And how do you strike that balance? Would love to hear different perspectives!
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