I had always thought that my team was very quick to adapt to change. In the early days I would tell new hires “as you learn the processes, be sure to question them.” We had created a psychologically safe environment where people could question the processes and challenge anything that could lead to inefficiency. Over time we kept updating our processes and making them better and faster. We were very product driven, in that we were updating processes to deliver faster, but we weren’t customer driven enough.

Recently we’ve been having discussions around the amount of time our maintenance work takes and how we could improve efficiency. Then someone brought up the part we had been ignoring for so long. What’s actually worth maintaining? This question has lead to a lot of important discussions in the team. What are our priorities for product development? How much value is our maintenance providing? What do the customers actually need and want?

When we began to look at these questions more critically, we realized that entire processes could be deprioritized or altogether removed. As much as we had been open to change, we hadn’t zoomed out and taken a more strategic view. We had been too deep in the tactical day to day things.

As we got out of the tactics, we also looked at different team structures, or how our function even works.

Every now and then, take a minute to zoom out and ask yourself about how your function has been working.

• Instead of asking how a process can be more efficient, ask what processes are still needed?
• Instead of asking how we can do it faster, ask what actually drives value for your users?
• Instead of asking how to break down silos, ask what team structures would streamline delivery?
• Instead of the same professional development activities, ask what has changed in the landscape or technology, and what does that enable?

Most importantly, remember that as much as you think you’re constantly changing, take a minute to zoom out and ask where things have stayed the same.