Happy new year 2015.After 10 years inside the walls, I’m moving outside!!
Time is running and I have been working in the software world for 13 years and promoting the “software agile thing” in my area, for 6 years. Today, I need to step back. As my professional life has moved from R&D management to Product Marketing Management, my professional focus has shifted and I need to improve my skills in this area.
I’m writing this article because I would like to thank my growing network and make sure you won’t be surprised by my new area of interest, that could be outside of your own.
I imagine a few of you, shaking your heads, uttering a pfff of disappointment and saying: Franck and his books, his constant learning curve. For what?
This is really simple: Without a sense of progress, I get bored in my professional activity.
In 2009, for the first time since beginning in this sofware development world, I had a sense of accomplishment. As Agile was the main change we had implemented, I considered promoting it around me. Coincidentally, the Club Agile Rhone Alpes Grenoble sent out a call to set up events with this focus in Lyon.
The first year was really difficult: Without network and money we had to prepare the content ourselves and the popularity was really low. Then, others joined, our marketing skills improved and we benefited from the growing hype around agile methodologies.
At the end of 2010, the local Java User Group proposed we build our own conference. For the last four years, we have had a yearly conference Mix-IT, where the content is a mix of all the disciplines for building great software products/services with human trust.
In 2011, I met the ALE network and participated to ALE 2011 organization. Everything has been different and accelerated from there. We tried to reproduce the effectiveness of the ALE unconference online with the ALE Hangout (xALEc), but even the contents was great, we never got a lot of attraction.
I would like to thank all of you, who are participating in agile events: you are awesome!!
Last year, my company was bought by an Airbus division. It was the end of a difficult journey. I had spent so much energy revamping two of our main products, making Agile transformations, defining the mandatory product improvements that it could have been a shock for me.
In fact before the acquisition, I had already moved to a program management position, then a product management one.
Entering the product marketing world is really interesting, because these last years, I have always felt my lack of understanding how our product could be improved in a world with a solid distribution network.
Consequently, I need to focus on these new responsibilities, to learn, to build a new network and to be closer to our partners and customers. As I‘m in charge of the new cloud services, I need to use the “Customer Development principles/Lean Startup” more. The Service Design and customers centricity ideas are mandatory too.
So, I will be less engage in the Agile world and hope all my efforts
and my willingness to share could have benefited not only me, but also others.
See you soon.
Franck.
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