Digital Trailblazer: Essential Lessons to Jumpstart Transformation and Accelerate Your Technology Leadership

Description

Invaluable stories and lessons that will help you tackle one of the most challenging jobs in technology and business – leading transformation In Digital Trailblazer: Essential Lessons to Jumpstart Transformation and Accelerate Your Technology Leadership, Isaac Sacolick, a technology leadership expert and a former CIO and CTO, delivers a hands-on guide to help technology and business professionals at all stages of their careers acquire the skills necessary to drive transformative change. With an eye-opening collection of stories and more than 50 lessons, Sacolick gives readers a view into what goes on behind-the-scenes in leading digital transformations. From tense IT Ops conference calls to make-or-break executive meetings, Sacolick presents the challenging scenarios faced by product, technology, and data leaders and helps readers learn to lead transformations and become Digital Trailblazers. In the book you will: Step out of your comfort zone and develop the management and leadership skills required to influence executives and win over detractors in driving technology changesLearn how to transform experiences, lead data driven organizations, and foster high performance teams Discover how to deliver innovation, empower agile self-organization, and evolve standard digital practices that drive culture changes in your organization A can’t-miss resource for product, technology, and data leaders – from those aspiring to leadership roles through vice presidents, CIOs, CTOs, and CDOs, Digital Trailblazer delivers real-word stories and need-to-know lessons that will accelerate your technology leadership journey. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Transitioning to Leadership: What’s a Cookie? Transformative Leadership Requires Working In and Out of the Weeds Notes Chapter 2 Dev: Technical Debt Is Now Your Problem My Recipe: Creating the Perfect Bowl of Spaghetti Code Dramatize the Mess: Getting Leadership’s Buy-In to Address Technical Debt Bad Code in Modern Platforms: Still a Problem Note Chapter 3 Ops: Wearing the CEO’s Diet Coke Building an Ops Team: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly When a Strategic Transformation Collides with a Global Catastrophe Chaotic World, Chaotic Leadership, and Its Organizational Impact Notes Chapter 4 Product Management and Architecture: Trials and Triumphs What to Do When Asked for a Roadmap When the Product Roadmap and Architecture Require a Hard Pivot When You Pivot a Major Initiative, Step In and Help the Teams to Transition How to Create a Blow-Up Moment Awkward Blow-Up Moments Often Lead to Innovative Solutions Note Chapter 5 “That’s Not Agile”: Defining Your Organization’s Agile Way of Working Bringing Agile Startup Cultures to a Large Enterprise Not One Agile: Adapting an Agile Way of Working Prioritizing Technical Debt—Because They Are Business Issues Why Agile? It Connects Transformation Strategy to Execution Notes Chapter 6 Transforming Experiences with a Global Perspective Why Visit India Chapter 7 Buried in Bad Data Avoid Bulldozing Institutional Hills as Your First Transformation How to Find Early Data-Driven Partners in the Marketing Department Democratizing Data Exposes Data Quality Issues and Backbones Transformation Notes Chapter 8 Transformative Culture, Empathetic Teams, Diverse Leaders Learning Team Building and Culture Without a Playbook Fostering Empathy on Agile Teams Developing a Digital Trailblazing Leadership Team Notes Chapter 9 Selling Innovation to the C-Suite—and Reducing the Stress Selling Innovation and Product Management Practices to the C-Suite Great Leaders Rally Everyone on the Vision and Acknowledge Challenges Ahead Chapter 10 Transforming Beyond Crisis and Becoming a Digital Trailblazer Learn Your Decision-Making Style from Personal Transformations Reflect on the Externally Driven Transformations That Impact Your Business Top-Down Business Decisions Spark Strategic Transformations Digital Transformations Are Very Different from Strategic Transformations Four Types of People to Influence on Your Digital Transformation Journey Building Blocks of Digital Transformations Require One-Page Guidelines Successful Digital Transformations Slowly Bring More People Aboard the Journey Notes Epilogue Appendix Digital Trailblazer Lessons Transitioning to a Leadership Mindset Navigating Tech Debt’s Challenges Controlling Emotions and Managing Risks Leading Innovation and Developing Products Driving Agile Practices, Culture, and Mindset Transforming Experiences Leading Data-DrivenOrganizations Fostering High-Performing Teams Collaborating with Executives Influencing Participants in Digital Transformations About the Author Index EULA