Video Harold

The Power Of A Strategic Pivot

Behind every successful innovation, there are multiple tests, failures, and learnings. Today, one would not think twice about the capability of an aircraft while traveling by air. There were multiple versions of flying machines that were tried and tested until a successful working model was achieved. Attempts to get these machines off the ground often ended with the pilot getting a few feet into the air and then crashing gracefully. These repeated smash-ups by aviation pioneers were the only way to learn what worked and what didn’t in the air. We must owe every smooth flight today to those successful experiments and their negative results.

"Strength does not come from never failing, but from rising every time we fall"

This story highlights the complexities of engineering and its relevance to daily software development. Despite product and engineering discussions, rigorous testing, verifications, and demos, crashes and outages can still occur when code is deployed to production. This leads to penalties for failing to meet agreed-upon standards with customers.

Impact of Outage for Customer:

• Financial ramifications of customer contracts
• Customers lose money as users churn due to poor reliability

Impacts of Outage for SB&A/Comcast:

• Tarnish reputation and brand of Comcast
• Challenge in acquiring new customers
• Penalties paid to customers
• The toll on teammates

• Engineering - Root cause write ups
• Product - Reprioritize, reshuffle work, disruption
• OPS - Customer communications and meetings with each customer impacted
• Sales - Constant reminders of how good the service is, fighting negative impressions
• SLT - Customer meetings, explanations to Ken and Charlie, brand repair

How we can try and prevent Outages ?

• Take ownership, responsibility and foster accountability to break the cycle of stress.
• Teams must ask questions to reveal unknown or overlooked issues to avoid unforeseen risks.
• Register risks and address the highest-priority ones to eliminate or reduce failures.
• Ensure confidence in a successful deployment by using a deployment readiness checklist

"Remember, every small effort contributes to the bigger picture. Just as every drop makes an ocean, Together, we can achieve Greatness, one step at a time"