TBM 19/53: Drivers, Constraints, and Floats

I wanted to share an amazingly useful idea I got from Johanna Rothman and her book Manage It! (2007).

Initiatives have Drivers, Constraints, and Floats. Drivers “drive” the effort. Constraints constrain. And floats are levers that you are free to move.

The basic idea is to minimize the number of drivers, minimize the number of constraints, and increase the number of floats. You maybe be familiar with the Project Management Triangle and the saying "Good, fast, cheap. Choose two." I prefer Drivers, Constraints, and Floats for product work because our work may be driven by many things. We are exploring viability, opportunity, and value instead of getting paid COD by delivering a project.

Let’s look at a non-software example. A trip!

>7d, <14d. With the kid. Outdoor stuff. Some culture. Before he's 3. <$200 a day. Naps at 1pm. Peanut allergy. See Jane in London. Use miles. Time to relax.

If you’ve traveled with kids, you’ll know that this type of planning feels like three-dimensional chess. Something has to give. What are you optimizing for? Relaxation? Which constraints must you navigate? Naps at 1pm? Where are you flexible? Can Jane fly to Amsterdam?

Common sense, right? Yet with product work we often load up on drivers and constraints. We want to keep two personas happy. Has to work on mobile. Coordinate with the data engineering team. Grow X while growing Y. What about the global re-design? Oh, let’s show it off at the conference. Why not? While we are at it let’s [some thing]!

In the book, efforts with >2 drivers, >2 constraints, <2 floats are almost guaranteed to fail. Once you internalize that idea, there are three key challenges:

• Knowing when a driver, constraint, or float actually exists!

• Knowing when certain constraints will actually matter. For example, you need some marketing experience to know what “showing it off at the conference” will actually entail.

• Knowing how to narrow drivers. It takes experience to understand how subtle differences can dictate whole new approaches and how seemingly related drivers can send you in circles.

The idea itself is “simple”. Application is much harder and contextual. You need a radar for it. You need to catch yourself and others trying to "thread the needle" and play three-dimensional chess. The driver(s) needs to be insanely (almost comically) focused.

For your current effort, what are the drivers, constraints, and floats? Can you narrow and sharpen your drivers, reduce constraints, and find new floats?