Software Platform and Product ( Wholesale & Retail Market)

Agile coaching for the Software Platform team?

We were debating Coaching for Product teams and Platform teams, are these same or does something require to change while doing team coaching?

We want to help our platform team’s product owner, what coaching strategy variation is essential?

Let us look at the characteristic.

Products are the technology-enabled offerings adopted by customers and employees.

Just to understand the business model a bit separately

What is the Difference Between Wholesale and Retail Business Models?

The word wholesale commonly means selling in bulk quantities and retail stands for selling merchandise in limited volumes.

Wholesale and retail are two distribution arrangements that create a significant part of the supply chain. When the goods are manufactured, they are sold in large quantities (wholesale) to the wholesalers who further sell them to the retailers who permanently sell them to the absolute clients.

While a wholesaler sells goods to the businesses, as they purchase goods to sell it further. On the other hand, a retailer targets the final consumer and sells goods to them.

Can we apply the same strategy for both these teams?

WHOLESALE

Wholesale is a business in which goods are sold in enormous volumes to retailers, industries, and other businesses.

Wholesalers do not pay much attention to the location of the shop and its appearance and display of goods because they sell particularly a unique type of items, and their customers are normally retailers or other businesses who purchase the goods for the purpose of resale. These things do not matter to them at all.

In wholesale business, the wholesaler offers higher significance on the number of goods, not on the quality.

The customers of a wholesale business are extended in diverse cities, towns, or even in various states. Most goods are sold on credit to the customers of the wholesale business. The price of purchase on wholesale is lower as it consists of fewer profit margins.

RETAIL

When the goods are sold to the ultimate consumer in limited lots, then this type of business is called retail.

Retail means selling goods in modest parts. When the goods are sold to the final customer, for consumption and not for the purpose of resale, in minuscule volumes

Retailers are the middleman between wholesalers and customers. They purchase goods from wholesalers in volume and sell them to the ultimate consumer in small lots.

The prices of goods purchased in retail are comparatively high. The first and foremost reason behind this is the advertisement cost, and the profit margin is high. Moreover, they include other expenses in the price of goods on a proportionate basis, like the rent of premises, salary to the workers, electricity expenses, etc.

Let us consider same context for Product(Retail market) and Platform(Wholesale Market).

A product is a functional or valuable portion of a program, while a platform is a system that facilitates a product to perform or interact with another product.

Products produce a single revenue stream, while platforms, which we single out as mediators that link two or more separate customer groups and grant direct communication between them, can provoke several revenue streams.

Product teams concentrate on delivering the needs of end-users in ways that bring about revenue, boost yield, or otherwise straight establish value for a company. They operate like miniature businesses, responsible for go-to-market planning, user experience, and adoption, in extension to technology delivery.

Platform teams concentrate on establishing an organization’s core systems available, reusable, and modern, so that they effectively facilitate products.

Platforms serve to scale down engineering friction, which, in turn, provides rapid value delivery to end-users. Efficient platform architectures happen at the junction of engineering, industry, and people, harmonizing each one’s goals in the function of promoting accelerated value delivery to consumers.

Platforms serve with the distribution of applications, which can be “Tech tool stack Architecture”, aiding the implementation of outstanding practices in an enterprise within program and cost constraints.
Facebook is a marvelous example of a platform AND a software product

For an Agile coach to coach all these teams, platform teams, infrastructure teams, service teams, and products are distinct. Their team visions, team strategy, team KPI, etc are different, need to treat differently.

We will not able to use the same lens when we have stakeholders’ coaching strategies crafted out for these teams to enhance their ways of working.

McKinsey forecasts that 30% of all global economic activity ($60 trillion) could be mediated by platforms within new digital ecosystems by 2025.

In The platform world

• It is a long term thinking
• It is not a consumer world, but both producers, consumers, developers, everyone's world need to think about
• It is more related to architectural capabilities ( Build an end to end system)
• Product comes first, them product stabilization in the market and next Platform. So the platform has a history
• Product ( External facing) to the platform ( Internal capability facing )
• Resolve complex problems by using the platform capabilities( What are those)
• Ecosystem orchestrating through a platform
• Converging wholesale market and retail market!

I am sure you have already experienced the same as what I am experiencing.

On Writing

Write down the first image that comes into your head.

Write down the first emotion that comes into your head.

Write down the first line that comes into your head.

It can be the first line for a story.

It can be the first line for a poem.

It can be the first line for anything.

Write down a different emotion.

Write down a different first line.

Write down a different image.

Write down another first line.

Write down another emotion.


Write down another image.


Write down an image that is an emotion (i.e. that will act as one).


Write down a first line that is an emotion (i.e. that will act as one).

Write down an image that is a first line (i.e. that will act as one).

Write down an emotion without mentioning the emotion.

Write down a first line that’s nothing but image.

Now remove the image (so that its absence can be felt).

Can emotion ever be removed from image?

Can image ever be removed from emotion?

Can you have a first line of a story, poem, anything, without emotion or image?

Team Performance: Learning from the Movie “Remember the Titans”

 

"Remember the Titans" is a 2000 American biographical sports film, Based on the true story of coach Herman Boone, and his attempt to integrate the T. C. Williams High School (now Alexandria City High School) football team in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971.

In the movie it was demonstrated Approximately ten years earlier in the summer of 1971, at the freshly integrated T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Herman Boone, a black head coach who was supposed to lead the black high school’s football team, is assigned to the coaching staff under current white head coach Bill Yoast, who previously led the white high school and has been nominated for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame.

High-performance Team requires below areas to be strengthened:

a. Effective Team Coaching

b. Appropriate Team Context

c. Balance Team Chemistry

d. Appropriate Team Composition

e. Effective Team Leadership

What I have discovered in any team, when all these areas are weak, the High-performance output cannot be obtained. It takes a long time for coaching to enhance these areas.

In an attempt to soothe growing racial tensions and the evidence that all other high schools are “white” only, the school district decides to change course and name Boone the head coach. He refuses, believing it unfair to Yoast, but subsides after looking at what it aids to the black community. Yoast is then offered an assistant coach’s job by the school board and initially refuses but reconsiders after the white players pledge to boycott the team if he does not participate. Dismayed at the prospect of the students losing their chances at scholarships, Yoast changes his mind and takes up the position of defensive coordinator under Boone, to his daughter Sheryl’s dismay.

There was great Team chemistry and black and white team members displayed in this movie. Team learned to respect each irrespective of the color.

In the movie it shown on August 15, the players gather and journey to Gettysburg College, where their training takes place. Early on, the black and white team members regularly clash in racially motivated conflicts, including some between captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell.

However, through persuasive coaching and rigorous athletic training by Boone—which includes an early morning run to the Gettysburg National Cemetery and a motivational speech—the team achieves racial harmony and comes out a unified team.

In the movie it has shown a great relationship between the two ‘Captains’ of the team that turns things around. They start out not liking each other at all, but over the course of the film, develop undying respect for each other – even going as far as to call the other one brother. Great Team Chemsitry!

The whole movie was about coaching! Through coaching, how can we establish a stronger team. There are many challenges but those have been overcome through better coaching and effective conversation.

It has shown the movie when the black students trying out for the team have a meeting in the gymnasium with Boone, but this turns into a fiasco when Yoast and several white students interrupt. After this, Boone takes Yoast aside and explains how he will run the team and that black and white does not matter to him, leaving Yoast with renewed faith in Boone.

Throughout training camp and the season, Boone and Yoast’s black and white players learn to accept each other, to work together, and that football knows no race. As they learn from each other, Boone and Yoast also learn from them and, in turn, the whole town learns from the team, the Titans.

The team formation was constantly happening. There is constant turbulence without the team. The teams and coach were steered through all these challenges till the end. This game needs rigorous exercise and training. It showed the heavy training schedule with a lot of strict deadlines to follow. Boon shows the best coaching by punishing the team until they complete something to his standard.

Gerry the captain, even has his best friend Ray removed from the team because of his racism following a game where Ray intentionally missed a block, which consequently led to the near-season-ending injury of starting quarterback Jerry “Rev” Harris.

Garry is the captain of the football team and shows influencing skills and encouraging team members to speak their mind

Also shown the main two reasons behind team success are the friendship between certain members of the team. Firstly, the coaches seem at war with each other. One takes the defense, the other the offense. They realize that without each other, the team won’t continue with the winning ways that they have started. It is a case of knowing how the other one lives.

Great movie to learn from....

Team Agility Development questions

	High Performance team Questions	Current Score
Appropriate Team Context
	How is the team collaboration being in the set?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How are team goals set?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	What reward systems are in place?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How are team members taking care of numerous High-performance attributes?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How are team members overcoming team performance barriers?	1-5, 5 Highest?
Appropriate Team Composition
	How well are team members’ competencies adjusted?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are team members maintaining a healthy relationship?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well team facilitation is taken care of?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well is team member’s emotional maturity developing?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are team members’ Passion, discipline, grit, accountability in place?	1-5, 5 Highest?
Balanced Team Chemistry
	How effectively is workplace positivity maintained?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively is team happiness maintained?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively are employee relations maintained?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively does customer engagement maintains itself?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively are team agreements managed?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively are team members holding of each other?	1-5, 5 Highest?
Effective Team Coaching
	How are we coaching an underperforming team?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are team members holding each other and exchanging feedback?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are coaching skills established and are readily noticeable?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively is group coaching happening?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are team members overcoming challenges through better coaching?	1-5, 5 Highest?
Effective Team Leadership
	How team leadership is establishing the best place to work for?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How are team leadership establishing team member’s prosperity?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively is team leadership enabling stronger engagement in the team?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How effectively does team leadership inspiring individuals?	1-5, 5 Highest?
	How well are team leaders expanding the next leadership from the team?	1-5, 5 Highest?

 

Team Agility score could be = 25/25 = 100%; when we score maximum marks in all these areas.

Once you get the score, chalk out a plan of what to do with such a team.

It is not ending with the assessment; we also need to think about the improvement plans.

Always focus on these below factors

·       Team Members understand their purpose and share their goals - Prepare a one with them

·       Team members share their common goal

·       team members acknowledge and appreciate each other

·       Team members are motivated to become successful

·       Team members are committed to becoming successful

·       Team members have strong shared values and beliefs

·       Team members are engaged and satisfied with their work

·       Team ambient encourage team members are share and care

·       Team ambient has psychological safety

·       Team members are holding each other and supporting each other for the common mission

·       Team members complement each other

·       Team members are learning together and finding a way to learn from each other

·       Team members protect each other, support each other, care for each other

·       Team members trust each other

·       Team members give and take feedback

·       Team members are having open communication

·       Team members are open to new idea and discuss all the pros and cons

·       Team members are clear about roles, responsibilities,

·       Team members are accountable for their share of work

·       Team members decide with consensus and there is always group participation

·       Team members experiment and learn from those

·       Team members learn from each other bring those best practices and practice within the team

·       Team members take actions to improve the situation

·       Team members retrospect and improve upon

High performance formation will come automatically with the above actions.