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Managing priorities and handling expectations after two babies



In December last year, as the world was about to celebrate one more revolution around the sun, we welcomed a new client into our little family. This new client was needy, annoying and had the charming quality of asking for milk. This made the entire BAU team tizzy, as this new client needs additional support and guidance. While the older client was now much more stable and required less attention, he still needed support and guidance. Not to mention, with the understanding of his sandbox, he needed to know more about the world, the planet, animals and dinosaurs.

Yes, we now have two babies.

Every day is an adventure as I juggle the demands of my little ones. With his constant need for attention and affection, the new baby requires me to be fully present, much like a new client needing extra care. Meanwhile, my older child, full of curiosity and questions, thrives on exploration and learning, reminding me that nurturing their imagination is just as crucial. I constantly adapt our routines to ensure both kids feel cherished, whether it's storytelling sessions about dinosaurs or playful interactions that encourage learning about the world around them.

Drawing parallels to the real world and the office world, there have been cases in my career when more than one client sought attention or needed to do their tasks. If we change perspective and look from the client's perspective, their work is essential for them, and as with my babies, their need to seek attention is valid and essential.

So, to solve this conundrum, I do what I always do: I look into my quiver of Agile tools and methods to help with the problem.

So, let's look at some of Agile's tools to handle multiple stakeholders and babies.

1. Prioritisation with Backlog Management: Create a backlog that outlines tasks for both clients. Prioritise these tasks based on urgency and importance. For example, if the new client needs immediate attention, please focus on their needs first while still allocating time for the older client. Things like nail trimming and haircuts are weekly and monthly and, therefore, get added to the backlog based on their duration. Anything to do with milk requires a special skill, so having immediate access to the mummy is paramount.

2. Daily Stand-Ups: Hold brief daily meetings (stand-ups) to discuss clients' progress, roadblocks, and needs. This can help keep the team aligned and facilitate quick adjustments to support the new client's demands while ensuring the older client feels valued. We have sit-downs at the breakfast table and before bed to discuss options for changing our approach.

3. Sprints: Organise work into sprints—short, time-boxed periods where specific tasks are completed. This approach allows for regular reassessment of priorities and enables teams to adapt to the shifting needs of both clients. As most tasks in baby rearing are repetitive, estimating the work in each sprint becomes much easier. There are occasional time-box activities that get added to the backlog, like illness and discomforts that are added to the backlog.

4. Feedback Loops: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather insights from both clients regularly. This can help you understand their changing needs and adapt your strategies accordingly. For instance, if the new client finds the milk-related support insufficient, he will bawl a lot until the milk supply increases.

5. Collaboration: Involve all team members in the process. You can encourage collaboration to brainstorm creative solutions that meet clients' needs. This might include sharing ideas for new classes for the elder one, like driving to swimming or drama class or working on extra chew time for the teething little one.

6. Retrospectives: After each sprint, hold retrospectives to discuss what worked well and what didn't. This reflection will help identify areas for improvement in managing clients and adapt strategies for better results. We don't collaborate on the retrospective front, as most of what didn't work came from the team members.

7. Flexibility: I would like you to maintain flexibility to adjust your approaches as needed. The Agile methodology thrives on adaptability, so be ready to pivot your strategies based on changing demands. This article took me three additional days, as it was deemed low priority for the last sprint.

It was a stretch for me to apply agile principles to managing babies, but jokes aside, the principles are helpful if you have two stakeholders. Are you having difficulty with your Salesforce implementation? Or do you believe your consultant is taking gibberish when you ask him questions?

Send me a message to discuss how we can collaborate to make your implementation successful, Sforce Ninja style.

AI Use: Using Grammarly AI to correct grammar and ChatGpt to create image.

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