In this episode, our guests are Chris Shinkle and Mike Cronin from SEP to discuss how the company approaches product strategy engagements with clients. They explain SEP’s philosophy of clarifying the problem, defining a guiding policy, and outlining coherent actions – going beyond just creating a PowerPoint strategy deck. Chris and Mike share examples of helping clients align stakeholders, refine roadmaps to reflect the true strategy, and rapidly validate technical feasibility through prototyping. They emphasize the importance of a roadmap as a “prototype of strategy” and a starting point for productive strategy conversations. Some key points:
With 20 years of project and technology management experience in the Information Technology field, he helps identify business opportunities and solve business challenges. Leverage technology to solve each customer’s unique business situation. His efforts the past 10+ years have been on business systems (B2B, B2C, Business to partner, Business internal, Mobile) with an emphasis on reducing complexities. As part of his role at SEP, he leads the Product Strategy and Innovation group to help customers clarify and refine the strategy for creating their product ideas and initiatives.
Chris has worked with SEP since 1997 in roles ranging from software engineer to recruiter to development manager. He has experience customizing and fitting process models to many different domains including aerospace, defense, medical, consumer electronics, and automotive. He has used Agile and Lean methods to lead large complex projects, most notably, a military aircraft engine monitoring and maintenance system and an FDA regulated remote patient monitoring system. He introduced FDD to SEP in 2004, and then continued to evolve the internal processes and approaches over the following years. In 2007, SEP began to adopt Kanban processes under Chris’ guidance, as he trained and mentored engineers across the company. In his current role, he is focused on helping customers find clarity and develop product strategy in their pursuits.
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