I find it human nature to chase the shiny new thing. Or make something overly complex and over-engineer it. I was reminded last week that sometimes the least sexiest thing is most useful. In my case, it was a flat priority list of projects for Q2. From highest to lowest priority, I was meeting with the Engineering Manager and Product Manager on my team to discuss the prior and upcoming sprint. It wasn’t a fancy strategy image or something complicated in Jira.
Our discussion was effective because we were able to see and discuss accomplishments & learning, where we’re going next, and what is delayed, which is exactly what you need to find ways to discuss throughout a quarter.
It was a simple flat priority list of ~15 projects in buckets from P1, P2, and P3. Sometimes the least sexiest thing is most useful.