re: Filters and Priorities

JD Meier — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:42:03 GMT

@ sfuqua -- Speaking their language is helpful and it sounds like that's what you're doing with capacity, progress, user stories, and process improvement.

However, I would uplevel the game, and find out what problems they want to solve. At the end of the day, solving the problems they care about, makes you relevant and valued. Speaking in their terms and filters simply helps you connect and avoid conflicts in communication and styles.

If you know what problem they are trying to solve, you can race to the end in mind.

re: Filters and Priorities

sfuqua — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:18:59 GMT

Sounds like an intuitive and reasonable approach to managing up. Putting a concrete example together is challenging, however. That said, perhaps this simple example helps illustrate (if this is not the direction you intended, then please provide a nudge that way): manager has a priority of Project X, and filters such as (capacity, progress, user stories, process improvement). In finding the intersection, I should be clearly communicating about the progress of Project X in terms of user stories; if there is a lack of capacity, or extra capacity, then I need to express this frequently – and again, linking to user stories can be helpful, and so forth. GANTT charts, while useful in some circumstances, are not part of his language or triggering, so communication using a GANTT chart is unlikely to “amplify [my] success”.