Why Hire an External Consultant?

You are part of a thriving company which is struggling to innovate. Teams are supporting customers and sustaining products, yet not really evolving them or taking risks to outpace the competition or address major shifts in the marketplace. The team has good people who are committed to the company’s success; however, they are challenged making critical decisions and organizing the team to address what perhaps the CEO/CTO/CPO are envisioning. Internal leadership is not up to the necessary task as they either have consumed too much of the Kool-aide or don’t have the experience/training/skills to make critical decisions that balance “today” vs. “tomorrow”.

Don’t sacrifice Tomorrow by inaction Today

I’ve seen this scenario played out many times. Leaders consider themselves forward-thinking yet can’t make the necessary tradeoffs that pertain to product roadmaps, new technologies, and organization.

Get a sense of the market and the customer

While a consultant may not have drunk the company Kool-aide, they generally come with their own baggage. A good consultant learns from that baggage and how to best leverage it, and how to keep an open mind to new ideas. A leadership consultant applies these capabilities to guiding and developing others and, for me, demonstrating how others (execs, managers, and leads) can confidently exercise leadership.

Knowing the existing team is important, but not enough. Learning about the relevant market(s), key competitors, important technologies is essential. So too is understanding company strategy and essential decisions as they pertain to the role the consultant is asked to fill. This seems a lot to ask, though I can’t imagine how a competent job can be done without these insights. What is tricky is the quick assimilation of all this detail and how it can be transformed into actionable direction.

Gotta love this stuff!

As the saying goes, people excel at things they enjoy and to which they can relate. There usually isn’t much time to show meaningful results. Expectations are generally high, and budgets are routinely checked against progress toward agreed goals. Furthermore, team members may question why You are in charge, what it means for them, and even what it takes to end your engagement. While some members might be accepting and eager for your guidance, others may feel slighted by your presence. Being able to effectively walk this fine line can be difficult. 

How to move forward

What I have found to make a big difference comes back to laying out key near-term decisions and understanding their longer term implications. I have witnessed so many leaders struggle to balance today vs. tomorrow decisions, almost fearful of making the wrong call or unable to fathom what is required to make an impact with customers. Sometimes, too, they come up with the right elements, but the timing is wrong and they don’t know how to balance those needs with market windows. There is no magic bullet advice as to the best approach, other than understanding the target audience, competitive landscape, and the team’s ability to deliver key functionality (perhaps in impactful phases).

I recall these sorts of challenges at two companies where I recently worked: Tech Data and SunView. Each of these companies had products and services in market, yet lacked a clearly articulated roadmap. They had a sense of necessary functionality and knew their customers well, but were unable to balance development capabilities, their audience’s ability to accept improvements (i.e. some product areas do not lend themselves to rapid feature changes due to process and/or training requirements), and market dynamics.

Don’t be a wimp!

Not to trivialize activities, nor the time and effort that went into addressing these concerns, the team leaders and I engaged in some tough discussions about the aforementioned items. Leveraging traditional tools to highlight needs and concerns, we engaged in challenging dialogs, occasionally considered comments from “wild cards” (i.e. well-respected, capable people outside our core team), and documented our results. I pushed for each leader to actively contribute and search for consensus. In the absence of consensus, given the finite time of market windows, I encouraged them to make key decisions (or I would make the calls) and explained the rationale at each turn. Everyone involved had to commit or opt to go elsewhere, though the latter never happened because we all participated to such a great extent.

With a direction set we were able to readily make follow-on decisions pertaining to the rest of the team. We explained our decisions to the team members, as well as high-level plans for execution. Follow-on meetings nailed down crucial tasks, the sequence of events, and appropriate measurements for acceptance. In most cases, the managers and their leads were able to quickly detail these items with appropriate sprint planning/reviews and retrospectives helping to ensure quality progress.

Results matter

I won’t claim that everything went perfectly, but then that is the nature of agile methodologies. Our ability to keep sight of our goals and quickly adapt meant largely achieving our goals. Equally important, team members were enthused about the results and their role in bringing them to fruition. That continued their commitment to evolve products and innovate new capabilities.

Many more stories!
I’ve got lots more to share and that is what I intend to do. In the meantime, as we’re starting a new year, I want to offer my best wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2024! Those of us working in tech are very fortunate to be part of such an exciting, vibrant market loaded with impressive people. In my decades as part of it, I’ve never taken a moment for granted.

Being on the front line is truly a rush!

I’m happiest driving teams, creating or fixing processes, evolving cultures, and assisting with hiring. Helping others to competently set a direction, spearhead innovation, make critical decisions, guide team members, and grow individuals into very capable leaders and teams known for their ability to excel takes this feeling to an altogether new level! Expectations and stress are just fuel for the engine. Allow me to share my insights, demonstrate how to quickly make a difference (literally leading by example), or let me get the ball rolling for you.

Please contact me at KrugerTechnologyLLC.com to know more. Let me explain in very tangible ways how I could help you and your enterprise. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing and provide more meaningful tips.