2021 is almost over…

TL;DR Four good contracts, one bad one. Better than 2020 (Covid) by 75%. Still only <40% capacity at max. Two common problems on engagement projects.

Is this what the 2022 year holds? Let’s hope better.

So many innovation projects put on the shelf during the hard lockdowns in 2020; some came back, some are still there. Some have gone to the “missed the opportunity, too late for this now” boneyard.

This year, Retailers and Retail space were at the top of the project list for me, followed by POPIA projects (South Africa’s GDPR implementations), and then smaller (but equally important) Business Process Improvement projects.

I’m struck by two things that stood out this year, for me.

Firstly; all of the projects I worked on had big issues with both customer expectations, and inadequate specifications. Off course in every one of those situations, inevitably the former led to the latter! In this case “Agile” does not mean spec what we think the product owner (customer) wants, because we don’t have time to engage properly to establish exact deliverables.

Secondly; I’m seeing a much more dangerous, and prevalent problem which is becoming an industry wide contagion, with the much same dire consequences. I’m talking about the constantly busy, “I’m so slammed, working 16 to 18 hours a day!” problem. Especially so when it’s presented both as a badge of honour, and an excuse for not looking after yourself, your people and your customers. No surprise that this also leads back to the first problem!

Under-promise, Over-deliver.

Impossible to do in the presence of the two problems above.

Updated: Seth Godin wrote about this yesterday.