The third phase of the apprenticeship program is here to stay. For the next 2 months a new crazy ride is about to start, but I am very glad I am not alone in this journey. My partner in crime: Masha.

If you have a look at our company values you can sense the self-improvement and “sharing is caring” vibe. So what could be done to boost this vibe and make it easier for employees to seek for help, share their knowledge or even visualize their improvement? Masha came up with the idea - a platform where people of various skills can easily be found, get endorsed and rewarded interactively. In this link you can read more on Masha’s vision.

I imagined myself using this tool and got interested. And then I imagined myself developing this with her and got convinced. I had my doubts last week, as there was already another idea around; a project that I could work on my own, based on an existing idea. Equally exciting, but my heart goes for team work. So here we start today by finding our stakeholders. For now this idea stays in the IT, skills of interest are programming oriented.

But is this idea related to the main users only? Are there other departments that could benefit from the transparency that this tool provides? There might be some other company teams affected by it. The point is to spread the idea around, shape its value and plan in a way that we can deliver/ improve frequently.

It has been almost 1 and a half years since I was involved in such a process. Back then all I had in mind was to develop all the components that were the easier to do. Then take ages before giving something to our customers, while making assumptions in order to proceed. And then, when we finally were confident that we rocked the project and it was ready for delivery: customer had tons of changes. Some (or most of the) times, such an approach sends your idea to trash; you have to kill your baby.

All those were startup ideas, in a very different environment. Now, all these processes are taking place in a company setup, which for me right now is THE struggle. Communicate the vision to other levels and get the support we need.

The sweet spot in product development

We took the first step by building up a strong team based on mutual trust and open communication. By the end of the week we want to have our idea validated, a concrete plan and reassurance that this is the right thing to build. Finally, until the end of this phase, craftsmanship is the glue that will make these components meet in the sweet spot!

I am excited!

Song of the day