IT is everywhere! And everybody us, Engineers, QA, PO/PM, Ops, SRE, ... is shaping and operating the world around us. If you asked yourself questions like: Wait, why am I doing this? Is that really the most important thing to work on now? How does it support my companies goal? And btw. what are my companies goals (and how many)? this talk is meant to encourage you to push for change, for focus, clear prioritization and knowing Why things are done.

1. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps1
A speech for focus,
prioritization and knowing
the why!

2. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps2
CTO @ Project A
Stephan Schulze
Twitter
twitter.com/nahpeps
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/stephan-schulze/
Website
www.project-a.com
Meet me
Everytime on this conference
Email
stephan.schulze@project-a.com

3. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps3
Project A - The operational VC
⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps3
The funds:
500mio
Assets under management
The people:
100
Hands-on professionals

4. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps4
Knowledge
sharing
03
Change is good
01
Obligation to
dissent
02
Values at Project A
www.project-a.com/en/about-us/values

5. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps5
does this talk exists?
Why
5 ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps

6. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps6
Non-IT people
→ IT never deliver in time!
How should I plan anything?
→ That costs so much money!
→ It is a super simple thing, why does it take so long?
→ Just build what I tell you!
Quotes
IT people
→ They even don’t know what they want!
There is no plan and structure, just artificial deadlines!
→ We are wasting so much time!
→ They never think about the details!
→ I also have great ideas!

7. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps7
But
Everyone wants
the same things!
And that it is interesting

8. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps8
The goals
Do meaningful work.
In a successful company.

9. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps9
First question to ask
Why
does that company exist?

10. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps10
Mission
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11. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps11
What is a mission?
“A mission statement is a short statement of why an
organization exists, what its overall goal is...”
A definition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_statement

12. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps12
What is a mission?
Microsoft:
Our mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
Some examples

13. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps13
What is a mission?
Uber:
We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.
Some examples

14. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps14
What is a mission?
Google:
To organize the world's information and make it universally
accessible and useful.
Some examples

15. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps15
What is a mission?
Tesla:
To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Some examples

16. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps16
Ask yourself
Why
does my company exist?

17. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps17
If the answer is
¯_(ツ)_/¯

18. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps18
Ask yourself
Why won’t you know?

19. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps19
Direction
02
Why you should ask for it!
Reason to exist
01
More Focus
Be able to say
No!

20. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps20
Who should provide the mission?
The Founders/Management
of the company.
There is a clear answer

21. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps21
But if there is none?
Use your power:
Ask for it. Push for it.
There is also a clear answer

22. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps22
Is this my job?
Why would one invest (life)time
for something with no reason to
exist?
No! But is is your interest

23. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps23
Strategy
Next building block for getting focus
Ipsum dolor sit amet lorem
Mission
Work
Strategy

24. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps24
Strategy
24 ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps

25. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps25
What is a strategy?
“Strategy is a high level plan to achieve
one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy

26. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps26
Details
03
What does it provide?
Timing
01
Goals
02

27. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps27
Who should provide strategy?
The Management
with contribution of the
company.
There is a clear answer

28. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps28
Examples for strategic behaviour
Amazon investing into Drone based delivery.
Some examples

29. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps29
Examples for strategic behaviour
Microsoft acquiring GitHub.
Some examples

30. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps30
Examples for strategic behaviour
Uber developing autonomous cars.
Some examples

31. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps31
Ask yourself
Do I know about the strategy of
my company?

32. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps32
If the answer is
¯_(ツ)_/¯

33. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps33
Ask yourself
Why won’t you know?

34. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps34
Details
03
Why you should ask for it!
Timing
01
Goals
02
It helps to get focus
Even more Focus
More chances to say
No!

35. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps35
But if I don’t know if there is one?
Use your power:
Ask for it. Push for it.
Or may quit.
There is also a clear answer

36. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps36
Is this my job?
Why would one invest (life)time
without a plan?
No! But is is your interest

37. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps37
Tactic
Even more focus
Ipsum dolor sit amet lorem
Tactic
Mission
Strategy

38. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps38
Tactic
38 ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps

39. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps39
What is a tactic?
“A tactic is a conceptual action aiming at the achievement of
a goal. This action can be implemented as one or more
specific tasks.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactic_(method)

40. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps40
Action items
03
What does it provide?
Timeframe
01
Goals
02
More details

41. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps41
What is a tactic?
Increase conversion rate by 10%
by improving the payment process.
Some examples
Tasks
→ Reduce amount of necessary steps from 6 to 3
→ Add timeline to show progress
→ Fix Javascript bugs X,Y,Z

42. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps42
What is a tactic?
Migrate to managed kubernetes.
Some examples
Tasks
→ Create terraform configuration
→ Migrate QA, Staging and Production to new Cluster

43. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps43
What is a tactic?
Setup a user management.
Some examples
Tasks
→ Implement basic setup (roles, users, permissions, password) for creation, deletion,
updating
→ Create user registration
→ Create password forgotten functionality

44. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps44
What is a tactic?
Automate process XYZ.
Some examples
Tasks
→ Automate the manual steps in the process of invoice creation

45. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps45
What is a tactic?
...
Some examples

46. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps46
And suddenly
You have a list with 1.371 items.

47. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps47
Ask yourself
What to do first?
And why?

48. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps48
If the answer is
¯_(ツ)_/¯

49. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps49
Costs
02
You are missing information
Business value
01
The Business Case
Must be provided by
Stakeholder
Can be provided by e.g. IT
(via estimations, etc.)

50. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps50
Costs
02
What is it good for?
Business value
01
The Business Case
Many more chances
for saying No!
Even more focus.

51. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps51
Costs
02
Assumption
Business value
01
Example 1
185,000€ 20,000€
Yes

52. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps52
Costs
02
Assumption
Business value
01
Example 2
30,000€ 80,000€
NO

53. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps53
Costs
02
Assumption
Business value
01
Example 3
??? 2,000€
NO

54. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps54
Business value
→ Saves 10h/week for maintenance
with 65€/h
⇒ 10*65*52 ⇒ 33,800€/year
→ Reduce infrastructure costs of
5,000€/month by 15%
⇒ 5,000*15%*12 ⇒ 9,000
€/year
→ Overall: 42,800€/year
Concrete Example
Migrate to managed kubernetes
Costs
→ Takes 160h do be done with 65€/h
⇒ 160*65 ⇒ 10,400€
→ Overall: 10,400€
Results
→ 1st month: - 13,000€
→ 2nd month: +3,350€
→ 3rd month: +3,350€
→ 4th month: +3,350€
→ 5th month: +3,350€
→ ...
Having the business value being part of a ticket,
can change a lot!

55. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps55
Audience check
Who of you works this way?

56. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps56
For those who don’t!
Use your power:
Ask for it. Push for it.

57. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps57
Is this my job?
Why would you invest (life)time
for something that has no value?
No! But is is your interest

58. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps58
What about the “Work”?
Ipsum dolor sit amet lorem
Tactic
Mission
Work
Strategy
It still need to be done ;-)

59. ⎥ Stephan Schulze | @nahpeps59
Thank you!
Time for questions.