You Need Organizational Readiness – But You Don’t Know How To Implement It

Let me introduce a new concept to talk about today:

Org Readiness

It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Org Readiness is a necessary concept that goes hand-in-hand with Engineering.

While the concept may be more easily understood in the realm of product Engineering, this really applies to any Engineering discipline.

While I write mainly regarding Engineering topics and specifically for Engineers, this topic is not directly for this group.

However, indirectly, this is a concept that has a huge bearing on whether the work and effort done by the Engineers has any chance of success within the business.

If we were to draw an organizational structure that looked like a target with the Engineering Team sitting smack-dab in the middle of the bullseye then it is a fact that the concept of Org Readiness is not within that center circle. However, it is the connecting tissue that connects and encircles that inner domain.

In short, it is the bridge of knowledge from Engineering to the outside world.

This connectivity boundary can exist in many forms and is unique to each and every organization. It make take the form of an information highway with knowledge, specifications, and product expertise flowing out from the center island to all other people in the organization and through them to the customers and end users who will successfully use and love the product to the end result of happy people and making a lot of money for the organization.

It can also take the form of high stone ramparts surrounded by a hungry crocodile-infested moat surrounding the Fortress of Engineering where the high overlord muckity-muck Lord Engine sits on a throne fashioned from discarded server carcasses with a commanding view over their Engineering kingdom.

Settings aside evil overlord Engineers, this concept looks something like this:

Yes – Engineering makes products for customers. Period.

If you are wondering how this might apply to your particular structure, know that the outer two rings are meant to be a little nebulous. You might not have internal or external customers. You might treat them the same. You might interface directly with the external customers.

The important part is in the relationship between the inner Engineering circle and the outside rest of the world.

That is Org Readiness.

That gray fuzzy boundary area between our world and theirs.

There is one and only one goal to making this boundary clear and as useful as possible. This is the one and only rule for Org Readiness.

Ready for it?

Make sure that everyone has what they need to be successful with the product or output of Engineering.

That is it! That simple concept that if ignored or done wrong can sink ships and torpedo products before they have a chance to grow.

I know – I get it. Duh. What a simple thing to ask. However, like many things in life, the reality is much harder to accomplish than the simple theory.

This is a simple game of connect the dots.

Sales and Marketing need specifications so they can create their cutsheets.

Manufacturing needs specific cable drawings in order to build the cable the right way.

Customers need manuals to learn how to use the product.

Service technicians need tech bulletins and updates to install and service the product correctly.

Everyone needs release notes to know what changed and what was fixed and what features were added.

There is no way that I can cover all possible things that your organization will need here on this page.

That is why you need Org Readiness.

The process is actually incredibly simple. Just follow these three steps.

1. Build something cool and awesome in Engineering.

2. Go talk to each group or team in your organization, ask them what they need to be successful with this cool new thing that is being released and when they need it by

3. Create those things so that each group or team is successful with this product release.

Rinse. Repeat.

It is easy in concept, but a little harder to actually implement in reality. The key is getting buy-in from your organization. The person leading this effort also needs to know that they are really just a project manager here and are simply connecting dots between who-what-when for a product release.

It also helps to have a good sense of the context of the organization, groups, and teams as occasionally in order to truly provide what is needed for everyone to be successful some reading between the lines and translation of requests into actual work tasks is necessary.

Sometimes this also requires talking to customers and figuring out what an extended user base needs for the product release.

At the end of the day, building and following a solid Org Readiness process will benefit everyone both in the organization and outside of it and result in happier customers and more successful products.

Thanks for reading!