#94 - Susanne Kaiser on Building the Right Things (& Building Things Right)

An independent tech consultant with over 20 years, Susanne Kaiser joins the podcast and shares her insights on what makes a robust socio-technical system.

Integrating takeaways from different approaches like Wardley Mapping, Domain Driven Design, and Team topologies, she helps the listeners understand how to mold systems into ones that are adaptable to change, how to invest in the right things, and how to avoid wasting resources on things that do not make a competitive advantage.

We further touch upon topics like building in bounded contexts and unbundling the right way. This episode has an ocean of information, which can help listeners achieve better strategic awareness of their company, products, and initiatives. Grab a coffee cup and a notebook and listen. In this episode, Susanne takes us through what it means to operate a business with a strategic perspective. 

An organization’s evolutionary journey goes through high levels of change and uncertainty. With insights on bounded contexts and evolution, Susanne takes us through how you can enforce modularity and cohesion among the different parts of the system, to deal with such a journey.

With significant experience working as a consultant in the software development world, Susanne shares real-world examples of how organizations can create architecture and team structures that are dynamic and play to an organization's competitive advantage.

Key Highlights

👉 A holistic approach to building adaptive socio-technical systems optimized for rapid change

👉 Integration of business strategy, software design, and team organization methodologies such as Wardley mapping, Domain-Driven Design, and Team Topologies.

👉 Organizing strategic investment in core domains to maintain competitive advantage while leveraging off-the-shelf solutions for generic/peripheral subdomains.

👉 Identifty bounded contexts for enabling modularity and cohesion in software systems, supporting faster adaptation to change.

👉 Insights on cultural shifts within organizations, promoting autonomy, trust, and a micro-entrepreneurial mindset.

Topics /chapters

(00:00)  Intro - Susanne Kaiser on Building the Right Things (& Building Things Right)

(01:22) Bridging three methodologies for Holistic Socio-Technical Systems

(16:19) Looking into Domain Driven Design

(24:32) What are Bounded Contexts? How do they play out for products and portfolios?

(35:35) Unbundling for a functional model/ Unbundling the right way

(41:20)  Integrators & Competitive Advantages

(49:12) Closing Breadcrumbs and Suggestions

Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/susanne-kaiser/

Episode recorded on December 29, 2023

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Music

Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blss.io/Podcast-Music⁠⁠⁠