A real-world example of using signals 🐝

Happy Friday,

Today's topic is about signals. Also bees. This week has been all about bees for me, so why not wrap it up by including it in my newsletter?

Signals are a pretty simple concept in that they act as a useful indicator that forces action. Traffic lights are signals. The simple color conveys what actions we need to take when we see them. They aren't metrics, measures, or KPIs. They're simple signals that indicate we should go, stop, or proceed with caution.

For engineering leaders, you're likely used to having a build status signal or maybe production health. A failing build creates a signal. Outages create a signal.

Signals are an indicator to take action. They're not proof or conclusive evidence. Just an indicator that prompts action.

As leaders, I want you to consider developing signals to supplement the decisions and actions you need to take.

But first, an example of this from bees. Queens lay all of the eggs in a hive, and without a healthy queen, a hive will eventually die out. So, as beekeepers, one of the things we are always assessing is whether we have a healthy queen.

There are signals we use for this.

One signal that we have a problem with a queen is that the hive becomes extremely hostile. An otherwise happy hive will suddenly start attempting to sting for no reason. This is a signal we use that indicates we need to be ready to re-queen or intervene.

Another, and the strongest signal, is signs of a laying queen. We look for eggs, larvae, and capped brood (Bees that haven't hatched yet). If we see these things we can infer we have a healthy laying queen. Even if we never see her.

So what happens when you go up to a hive, and it's really mean? You say to yourself that you need to focus on whether you have a queen or not. You get in there, working through the bees' attacks, and see no larvae or eggs. Now you've had 2 signals that you are without a queen.

Now it's time to act.

Is this foolproof? No! There are several cases where these signals can be wrong or misleading. However, not acting would, almost always, be worse than taking action in those cases. So you act.

We can help the hive requeen itself or provide a new queen.

The core practice is this: You map the decisions or actions you need to take as a leader to something you can see or hear that will cause you to act.

Don't get hung up on how imperfect those observations are. They just indicate to you that you need to act. The moment that signal goes off, you'll learn whether it was useful or needs adjustment, so don't be afraid of being wrong.

Do you have examples of this that you are already using?

Sincerely,

Ryan

PS: I'm hosting a free webinar where I'll get into this topic a lot more on May 21st. I'd love for you to join and share this with engineering leaders who are struggling with data and metrics.

PPS: Esther Derby and I are partnering to deliver an incredible workshop to leadership teams to not just educate on metrics, measures, and signals but truly equip them to wield data more effectively and make data-informed decisions. If your leadership team would benefit from this, hit reply.