Productivity

As a small company, it is important for our Design Team to stay productive. Generate quality proposals fast and a lot of them; because these proposals essentially establish the life-line of our revenue.

Well balanced and consistent productivity is a fruit of the culture of execution. This is where we struggle to keep up. Most difficult aspect of an execution oriented culture had been creating a "cadence of accountability". We have taken a few steps in the right direction and we are already seeing some improvement. These steps include:

1. Weekly Planning Call on Monday morning (less than an hour)
2. Daily Design Call by 9 AM (15-30 minutes)
3. Friday focus: Weekly Team Productivity Evaluation (less than hour)
4. Daily short reports from team on their progress (what has been completed and next steps)

Key lessons from "The 4 Disciplines of Execution" and our G.P.Q.

(Source: McChesney, Chris; Covey, Sean; Huling, Jim (2012-04-24). The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Simon & Schuster, Inc.)

Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important. 

This discipline requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader and focus on less so that your team can achieve more.

Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures

Lead measures are quite different in that they are the measures of the most high-impact things your team must do to reach the goal. A good lead measure has two basic characteristics: It’s predictive of achieving the goal and it can be influenced by the team members.

Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard - discipline of engagement. 

In principle, the highest level of performance always comes from people who are emotionally engaged and the highest level of engagement comes from knowing the score— that is, if people know whether they are winning or losing. It’s that simple... It must be simple, so simple that members of the team can determine instantly if they are winning or losing.

Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
This is where execution really happens. The cadence of accountability is a rhythm of regular and frequent meetings of any team that owns a wildly important goal. These meetings happen at least weekly and ideally last no more than twenty to thirty minutes. In that brief time, team members hold each other accountable for producing results, despite the whirlwind.

For our Design Team, we have narrowed our focus on 3 areas:

1. Growth (i.e. professional growth of individual)
2. Productivity, and
3. Quality

Affectionately called GPQ. It would probably be more in line with the recommendation of the authors if we could narrow it down to even fewer priorities (i.e., just one), but after much consideration we have realized these 3 areas are inter-related and integral for our survival in DAS business. 

Lean Cognux Service Engineering and Foundation of Hassle-Free Experience

For lack of my knowledge of any similar existing concept, I am naming this process Lean CognUX Service Engineering. Basically it has 3 parts:

1. Develop processes by applying Lean Principles to maximize effectiveness, improve quality of deliverable, and drive down cost.
2. Apply Design Principles to create a simple and elegant experience and delight the users. 
3. Apply Cognitive Science to improve user acceptance of the process and experience by nudging users to desired direction.

Whenever you are coming up with a new process, you are basically introducing a CHANGE.  When it comes to Change we need to consider Rider and the Elephant  as mentioned in “Switch” by Dan and Chip Heath.

• Direct the “Rider” (i.e., the logical and analytical part of us) by studying the bright spots and replicate;
• Motivate the “Elephant” (i.e., the emotional part of us) by using use emotional levers
• Shape the Path by making change easy with both the Elephant and Rider working in unison.

Foundation of Hassle-Free or Effortless Experience is this new kind of Service Engineering.

Hassle-free Experience

At On Air, we offer hassle-free experience to our customer. We just happened to be in DAS business.

Spray-on Antenna: Fact or Fiction?

I fantasized of using spray-on antenna for DAS world, by starting a business of those motivational posters you see hung in the offices (see one sample below); but in reality, it would be an indoor antenna. If nothing else, I can probably spray it on my balding head and become a human antenna.

But my excitement has slowly fizzled. It's been almost a year, and haven't really seen any spray-on antenna. Back in February of 2012, Chamtech stirred up RF community (at least me) with a claim of developing spray-on antenna, it said was more lightweight and energy-efficient than current technology. The antenna can be "painted" onto almost anything, including trees, walls and fabrics. Anthony Sutera, CEO of Chamtech, even presented this at Google's inaugural "Solve for X" shindig.

Managing a Large Scale DAS Deployment - Post 1

The concept of Iron Triangle comes from the field of Project Management. Iron Triangle "is a model of the constraints of project management. It is often used to illustrate that project management success is measured by the project team's ability to manage the project, so that the expected results are produced while managing time and cost." (Source: Wikipedia)

From deployment perspective, in DAS Project Management, there is also an Iron Triangle. They are:

1. Design & Optimization, 
2. Materials, and 
3. A&C (Access & Communications)

These 3 are the most crucial factors for DAS deployment. If any of these 3 factors are compromised your project can be in jeopardy. In the next few weeks I will write about managing a large scale DAS project, what kind of problems you may face and how to resolve them.

Can Security Solutions be part of DAS components?

AT&T Mobility's CEO Ralph de la Vega recently announced that it can maximize the wireless platform for new revenue growth and is focusing on four key products and services. One of those products is AT&T's Digital Life home security and automation service, which AT&T plans to launch commercially in early 2013. Interesting aspect to me was that it is part of a wireless platform offering. Being in the DAS industry, I started thinking if security solutions can be part of DAS.