User and Buyer Personas

As in any business, understanding user personas is crucial in software product development.
Even a multi-billion USD org does that carefully.

Understanding their pains & aspirations in their work life is of paramount importance.
Understanding the difference between User & Buyer personas is also important.
Maybe understanding pain & aspirations of Buyer personas is more important.
This homework can help you take your roadmap in the right direction and save a truckload of cash.

For any team, writing code & shipping features is exciting.
Too often, I see teams skip this homework in the excitement of shipping.
Soon, they discover that writing code is just a small part of the puzzle. 
Your team need not discover it again.

A brand new train and DoD

A brand new train and DoD

The brand-new train left CST station with a big fanfare.
It was scheduled to reach Delhi in 18 Hrs. It reached exactly in 17 Hrs 42 Mins. A grand welcome followed at Delhi station.
But on the 2^nd day, the newspapers wrote nasty stories about the inaugural train journey.  
First class passengers complained that AC was so cold that they almost froze to death.
The W/C in the second class had no water. What departed as a swanky, shining train, reached Delhi as a shitty-smelling train.
Out of 16 parcels to be loaded at Kalyan, only 14 were loaded.
Out of 8 parcels to be dropped at Jaipur, none were dropped, and all reached Delhi.

The railway minister was facing the ridicule of the press and the wrath of the PM.
At the same time, the GM of Western Railway was throwing a party to celebrate the maiden departure of the new train service.  
Train Loaders at Kalyan and Jaipur were telling their friends proudly about the new train.
Bogie attendants were telling their families how nice it was to be on the maiden journey.

In software building, ‘on time and on budget’ is like ‘reaching Delhi in 17 hours 42 minutes’, but means nothing if the experience stinks, flow is clunky, and integrations are broken.

Such things happen when teams are not mature.
A straightforward way to build mature teams is to establish clear DoD.
Teams will never mature if DoD is not enforced.
Teams will never mature if DoD is kept optional.