In today's content we are going to talk about a very relevant subject for optimizing developers' work: Slow Query. There has long been a concern about optimizing queries in applications. But do you know what the acceptable limits are? In this article, we will explain how to determine what a slow query is (Slow Query) and when to optimize it. As a basis, we will use Jakob Nielsen's book on Usability Engineering. Stay with us until the end of the content and understand everything about the topic. Human Perception in Slow Query There are three main time limits, determined according to human perception abilities. They must be kept in mind when optimizing performance. The basic advice on response times breaks down as follows: 0,1 second is the limit for the user to feel that the system is reacting instantly, meaning no special feedback is needed except to display the result; 1,0 seconds is the limit for the user's flow of thought to remain uninterrupted, even if the user notices the delay. Typically, no special feedback is needed during delays of more than 0,1 but less than 1,0 seconds. The user loses the feeling of directly operating the data; 10 seconds is the limit to keep the user's attention focused. For longer delays, users will want to perform other tasks while waiting for the computer to finish. That said, let's determine the Server Response Time (SRT) and initiate good practices and processes for a better application experience. Determining response time in Slow Query Although the theoretical basis for Nielsen's response time guidelines is old and from WEB-based applications, these guidelines are still recommended for any application developed today. Therefore, regardless of the technology that is implemented over the years, the guideline will be the same. Therefore, when you encounter a situation in which you need to define the response times for Slow Queries, look for a specialist to optimize your architecture and performance. The following suggestion demonstrates good time references: 1000 ms or less – Good performance; 1000-2000 ms – Optimization is recommended; More than 2000 ms – Poor performance, optimization is required. It is very important to define this time “ruler” as a non-functional requirement. These numbers were determined in accordance with the indicators and guidelines specified by Nielsen. To help, you can monitor your structure based on response time collections received over time. From there, you can make adjustments. This all implies several improvements for the environment as a whole, such as: Reducing Data Center costs; Improved end user experience; Greater sustainability for your project over the years. And then? Did you understand the limits of Slow Query and how to use it? Keep following our blog. In the next articles, we will bring you more optimization tips that are important, but often forgotten, even by experienced professionals. Source: NNGROUP Did you enjoy learning a little more about Slow Query? Check out more content like this on our Blog! Want to be our next Tech Writer? Check out our vacancies on the Career page!

Chip Conley, one of Airbnb's former strategic advisors, uses an interesting analogy to explain why we need innovation. In a playful scenario, we are the surfers (the entrepreneurs) monitoring the sea (the market). Good surfers can tell from afar whether it's worth catching a passing wave, or whether it's better to let it pass. It's like a new business, looking for investors: you must know how to evaluate whether that venture is really worth it. The surfer who correctly assesses “which wave is best” will catch it first. In other words, the most tuned-in entrepreneurs take advantage of the blue ocean and get ahead of their competitors. Likewise, surfers also need to learn to recognize danger at sea and choose when not to face the risk. Keeping the business stable is also an option and positioning in the market. The problem is that some surfers don't even notice the wave coming, and are then swallowed by the water. They don't realize that innovation in companies, especially technology, is a survival strategy. After all, anyone at sea needs to monitor the way it moves. And innovation is one of the best strategies to follow your movement. Promoting innovation in companies (whether incremental or disruptive) requires: alignment, communication, training, implementation and evaluation. Acting assertively in all these stages is what defines innovation performance and the results obtained. According to Bignetti (2002), it is also important that, in order to innovate, strategy is a dynamic process. We already understand that innovation is essential to take advantage of the best opportunities. But how can we implement such changes in Tech companies, with scenarios that are always so complex and agile? Using techniques and methods focused on optimizing processes, reorganizing the business structure, among other points covered in the concept of organizational design. Organizational design is one of the ways to encourage innovation in business, being a “wave” that should be taken advantage of by entrepreneurs. Therefore, we will explain everything about the topic in this article, in addition to teaching you good practices for implementing it. After all: what is organizational design? Organizational design, when applied in an organization, implements relevant improvements in business performance. It is an interesting path to promoting innovation. Its main objectives are: Promote the optimization of processes and agility in decision-making; Restructure (functionally and even physically) teams and leaders to implement the necessary changes; Indicate the management and people engagement strategy to absorb the new culture and monitor the impacts of these changes. Thus, organizational design reviews processes and implements new standards focused on the desired changes. This concept has as its supporting pillars people, technologies and the company's strategic vision. It's simple: human beings act as the central actor of change, mastering technologies to achieve strategic objectives. Therefore, it is always important to ask ourselves how much we, as participants in an organization, understand our role as agents of transformation towards an innovative culture. Furthermore, the main benefits of organizational design are: Increased organizational effectiveness; Greater team productivity; Reduction of turnover; Retaining talent; Mapping the organization's essential skills and knowledge; Boosting innovation in companies as a reflection of all of the previous items. What would be the steps for implementing organizational design? As everything in life assumes a path to reach a goal, some steps are necessary to implement organizational design in your business. We list them below: Elaboration of the organization's vision of the future; Identification of current work scenarios and patterns; Review of the purpose and direction of the business (new positioning); Review of the organizational structure in accordance with the first three items; Identification of operational obstacles that impede innovation; Promotion of a new culture and new behaviors; Investment in people, from training to recognition; Establishment of spaces for collaboration and ideation; Elimination of barriers between sectors and teams; Preparation of leaders for a new management model. When defining a design process strategy, it is necessary to deeply evaluate the organization's current scenario. Some points must be raised: your strengths and weaknesses, the need for resources, deadline expectations and managers' opinions. Only then should a vision of the “new organization” be developed. Planning this new vision is a great challenge. It requires reviewing the organizational structure, simplifying the business, reorganizing teams, raising the necessary resources and improving management systems and models. The different types of business model structures (functional, divisional, matrix, network and project-based) require different actions to promote a more fluid and innovative organizational design. Reviewing the mental model that guides the performance of each area of ​​the company is necessary in this process. From this action it will be possible to: Eliminate organizational silos; Prepare managers previously distant from the front line of the business; Discard inefficiencies; Optimize teams with transparency of responsibilities and breaking the culture of engagement for power. Organizational design is, therefore, continuous and gradual, requiring the support of the new implemented model. Collaboration at all levels of the structure, from management to operations, is essential so that all opinions are considered in search of consensus, accountability and complementarity regarding the scope of the new processes carried out. Leadership must promote role clarity and team empowerment, balancing responsibility and autonomy. Do you know what holacracy is? American Brian Robertson describes holacracy as a new way of managing an organization. In this administration, the weight of power is eliminated in a hierarchical structure, then replaced by a system of distribution of authority. The companies Globant and Airbnb have adopted this new way of managing. To bring this reality closer to Brazil, we can talk about Letras, a company in the country that adopts differentiated management practices. Did you know that the company Letras, based in Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais, adopted an innovative layout to revisit, including physically, its work model? The office occupies an area of ​​approximately 500m2, containing the following features: rooms for meetings or work that requires greater concentration; spaces with more collaborative proposals for informal meetings; eating and decompression spaces, which have a garden terrace as a natural extension. About Lyrics: Its main product, the website that stores lyrics and chords for songs from around the world, has a collection of 2.5 million songs. Every month, it receives more than 90 million visits from different people. Check out the complete cases at the links: Letters – Brazil; Airbnb – United States; Globant – Colombia. Discover good practices in an organizational design project Any organizational design strategy requires prior contextualization. It is common and natural for a design project to be associated with some other company project, such as, for example, the implementation of a new system, internationalization of the business, creation of a franchise network, among others. For this reason, here are the best practices for an organizational design project: Align the design proposal with strategic planning: when the design is “dislocated” from the business objective, it does not last; Ensure process transparency and communication between all levels: an “obscure” and poorly communicated design is not convincing; Reshape the culture considering the first two points: design has as its critical point the engagement of people, and this only happens when they are involved in the change and recognize the organization's values ​​as their own values; Discover the iQmetrix Software case Qmetrix Software, a Canadian company based in Vancouver, is one of the largest providers of software solutions for specialized retail markets in North America. In 2017, management was faced with the challenge of continuing to grow, while maintaining an open and non-hierarchical model. The objective was to maintain transparency and discussion of ideas as drivers of innovation. Therefore, iQmetrix opted to implement holacracy, ensuring a fluid organizational structure with shared leadership. The specialized consultancy hired by iQmetrix used different tools and methods to structure a new organizational design proposal. However, to the surprise of many, the tools are more traditional than the design itself: SWOT analysis, Porter forces analysis, value chain analysis, BCG matrix analysis, Ansoff matrix analysis and mix analysis of the company's marketing. But don't be fooled. As I have already reported, organizational design is a continuous, collaborative and evolutionary process. By opting for a design structured by the concept of holacracy, iQmetrix brought to its routine operation the constant use of strategic model tools to ensure the alignment of this organizational change with the business objective and adaptation to external factors that can impact business management . The iQmetrix case, cited in the Harvard Business Review and described in the book “Organizational Design at iQmetrix: The Holacracy Decision” (by authors Ann Chris Street, Ann and Clayton Caswell Frost), is an example of applying organizational design to maintain the core innovative aspect of the business, especially during its expansion, ensuring a sustainable operating model through a holocratic approach. iQmetrix celebrated 20 years in 2019, with a network of more than 1000 stores and serving more than 20 thousand retail points of sale. The business carried out more than 90 million transactions in 2019. Also discover the Oticon case! Furthermore, discover the list of pioneers registered by the Corporate Rebels team! And then we come to the big question… Can organizational design stimulate innovation? When an organization's strategic planning has innovation as its central point, its structure must correspond to this objective. This response involves redesigning the operation, management, culture and teams aiming for a new level of agility and response to an increasingly competitive market. So the answer is: yes! Do you want to be a more competitive company? Ensure a model that facilitates the creation and discussion of ideas. Do you want to be a more transparent company in decision-making? Eliminate communication barriers, readjust hierarchies and transform decisions into collaborative plans. Do you want to promote continuous learning in the organization? Establish knowledge management processes and value communities of practice suffocated by an operation without time to look to the future. After all, as pointed out by Francischeto et. al (2019), it is important to invest in organizational culture, and not just in infrastructure to foster innovative activity. In 2016, a group of “corporate rebels” created a consulting company specializing in breaking with the traditional models established in several organizations. Organizational design has established itself as one of the tools most applied by the “Corporate Rebels” team with the speech “Make work more fun”. Does it seem too fun to be a serious corporate initiative? “Corporate Rebels” won clients such as Microsoft, SAP, Gucci, Hugo Boss and Daimler. And what was one of the central working principles of these “rebel” agents? Flexible approaches encourage entrepreneurship and responsibility among employees. In one of his articles, Corpora Rebels consultant Joost Minnaar emphasizes: “Rigid organizations belong in the cemetery.” Models such as the inverted pyramid, autonomous and networked teams are approached as realistic visions of organizational design focused on innovation and the fluidity of the business model. “Innovation-oriented culture is defined as a set of values, norms and organizational cultural artifacts that support a company's capacity for innovation” (STOCK et al., 2013). When the CEO of Oticon, a hearing aid manufacturer in Denmark, brought to the agenda the radical change that the company needed, back in the 90s, his first step was to work on the leadership model. And so, Lars Kolind created the “spaghetti model”: anyone with a good idea is free to bring together a team and act as leader of their own innovative project, be it a process, service or product. However, each project needs to compete with every other project trying to get off the ground. Contributors must attract sufficient resources and support for their idea to prosper, otherwise it will perish. “When I started at Oticon I felt a huge desire and need to design an innovative, fast moving and efficient organization. And that is what I did.” – Lars Kolind. Innovation in companies: the limit between chaos and dedicated energy Organizational design therefore presents itself as a practice capable of restructuring business models so that they incorporate innovation as a definitive strategy. This process requires a balance between the energy generated by an environment that fosters new knowledge and the focus on planned actions. This is because innovation, without proper execution, is neither productive nor profitable. Furthermore, the climate established by the new culture must guarantee psychological safety for proposing innovations, without confusing creativity with a lack of alignment with strategic objectives. Just as environments supported by diversity, which promote exchange between cultures, need to be monitored so that plurality does not turn into conflict. Innovation orientation is defined by the degree to which the components favor organizational transformation. Thus, organizational design continues to propose a revolution in the corporate world. In times of artificial intelligence, big data, and other powerful technologies, organizational design keeps in mind the importance of organizational models and people management to guarantee the full creative potential of human beings as a competitive advantage. Bibliographic references: BIGNETTI, Luiz Paulo. The innovation process in knowledge-intensive companies. Rev. Adm. contemp., Curitiba, v. 6, no. 3, p. 33-53, Dec. 2002. Available from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-65552002000300003&lng=en&nrm=iso. accessed on 09 Feb. 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-65552002000300003. FRANCISCHETO, LEELA L.; NEIVA, ELAINE R.. INNOVATION IN COMPANIES AND CULTURAL ORIENTATION TO INNOVATION: A MULTILEVEL STUDY. RAM, Rev. admin Mackenzie, São Paulo, v. 20, no. 3, eRAMG190135, 2019.   Available from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-69712019000300304&lng=en&nrm=iso. accessed on 09 Feb. 2020. Epub July 10, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-6971/eramg190135. Stock, R., Six, B., and Zacharias, N. (2013) Linking multiple layers of innovation-oriented corporate culture, product program innovativeness, and business performance: A contingency approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(3), 283-299. Did you enjoy learning a little more about organizational design? Check out more content like this on our Blog! Want to be our next Tech Writer? Check out our vacancies on the Career page!

IAC Terraform what is it Do you know or have you heard about IAC Terraform? The meaning of IAC Terraform is, basically, to model a planet, moon, or any other star, so that the atmosphere, temperature, topography or ecology of that place is similar to the Earth's environment. Terraform is an open source infrastructure provisioning tool, created by Hashicorp in Golang. It is an open source tool that enables the creation of an infrastructure or service as code (IAC – Infrastructure as Code) in a safe and efficient way, using HCL – Hashicorp Configuration Language. It is very similar to JSON, being a mixture of Ruby and YAML languages, divided into blocks. Formatting and creating an Infrastructure As Code Terraform file The file format that Terraform expects is “.tf” in addition to the “.tfstate” file. Unlike other IaC tools, you don't need to worry about the folder structure. Which is different from not organizing your code, as Terraform will compile all .tf files in the current directory and its subfolders before running it. To start creating a .tf file, we need to identify the provider to be used. In other words, which cloud provider will deploy the infrastructure. A provider is responsible for understanding API interactions and exposing resources. Most providers configure a specific infrastructure platform (public or private cloud). Providers may also offer local utilities for tasks, such as generating random numbers for unique resource names. The most important thing you configure with IAC Terraform are the resources, whether low-level, such as a physical server, virtual machine, or container, or high-level, such as an email provider, DNS record, or database provider. data. Basic IAC Terraform commands To use IAC Terraform on a daily basis, it is important to know its basic commands. Below, we will list what they are: Terraform init: Initializes the environment with the provider used. Responsible for downloading plugins and other files necessary for correct execution; Terraform plan: Reads the TF files, tests the configurations, and assembles the Terraform execution plan; Terraform apply: Executes the “creation” of resources (instances/objects) in the provider indicated in the TF files; Terraform show: Shows information about the resources created and a status of the Terraform infrastructure; Terraform output: Shows the value of a given variable, making it easier to identify the desired information. Ex: “public_ip”; Terraform destroy: Performs the “removal” of resources (instances/objects) in the provider indicated in the TF files. Terraform Conclusion (Hashicorp) Finally, Terraform allows you to create, change and destroy resources in public or private cloud, using a high-level configuration language. This way, this tool can make your life much more peaceful. Did you enjoy learning a little more about IAC Terraform? Check out more content like this on our Blog! Want to be our next Tech Writer? Check out our vacancies! Bibliographic references: HASHICORP, Terraform Documentation. (2021): ttps://www.terraform.io/ LINUXTIPS, Get to know Terraform | DevOps Week #3. (2019, August 21): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrAycU7_XnQ LINUXTIPS, Lucas Souza – Terraform beyond the basics. (2020, April 11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3aY4_vxzWQ BROCK, Will. What is Terraform? | Terraform Tutorial.  

DevOps has become one of the most discussed terms among technology companies in recent years. Whether through the hype, tools, roles or the promise of making your product more agile, performant, and, in the end, your customer more satisfied. But beyond that, from a theoretical point of view, what else do we have to say about DevOps? There is certainly a lot to talk about. We will try, briefly, to talk a little about the literature behind this very important topic. Definition of DevOps Among the various definitions and terms that exist to describe DevOps, I highlight my favorite, attributed to Amazon: “DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices and tools that increase a company's ability to distribute applications and services at high speed: optimizing and improving products at a faster pace than companies using traditional software development and infrastructure management processes. This speed allows companies to better serve their customers and compete more effectively in the market.” This is a relatively simple definition, but it sums up what working with DevOps (or, we could say, working the DevOps way) is. Some DevOps metrics According to the “State of DevOps – Marketing Segmentation Report (2019)”, created by Puppet, high-performance teams that fully practice DevOps have the following metrics: 46x higher frequency of deployments; Average recovery time 96x greater; Lead Time from commit to deploy 440x faster; 5x lower failure rate; “Dev + Ops” or “Dev vs Ops”? Since the beginning of the software development process, we can say, in a comical way, that an epic battle has been fought between two worlds. On the one hand, developers and programmers (Dev) with some tasks to accomplish: Generate value for the business with new features to be developed at full steam, that is, functional requirements. On the other side, the infrastructure and architecture (Ops) team, also having a difficult mission: Protect and sustain the value of the business, which is growing at a frantic level, that is, non-functional requirements. Certainly, all of us professionals look for the first option mentioned in the title: “Dev + Ops”. And, to achieve the best result with this union, DevOps preaches some pillars. We will see a little about them below: The DevOps Pillars Among the various concepts that exist when we talk about DevOps, we can highlight: Communication; Collaboration; Automation; Monitoring. Communication and Collaboration In summary, within these themes, some disciplines appear, such as: Visibility: informing the status of the software to those entitled to it; Traceability: identification of the end-to-end process (from requirements gathering to deployment); Knowledge sharing: disseminating knowledge among the most diverse areas. Automation Within automation, we can highlight: Infra as a Code: automated provisioning of infrastructure resources; Constant feedback: learning and agility in adjustments; And everything else that can be automated in order to avoid rework. Monitoring To conclude, here we can highlight some points that monitoring helps us with: Tracking: retrieving history for investigation and problem solving; Alerts: proactive in resolving possible problems; Sharing application health. Other important points to highlight are: Teams need to understand the business so that effective monitoring can be carried out. A dashboard that issues an alert and no one checks it is not functional at all and should not exist; Proactivity instead of reactivity: we can be proactive to the point of understanding that something is happening and acting before the client feels the side effect. It's hard work, but possible! Conclusion The challenges for implementing a DevOps culture are great. However, keeping in mind points such as collaboration, continuous learning, feedback and security, we can take our applications to a very high level! Soon we will have more articles about the DevOps literature!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2p3BXgOno2xChLEXgnM2A9?si=Z69-IvWwR6C7BmxaKsMayQ No episódio de hoje falaremos sobre M&A (do inglês Mergers and Acquisitions, ou em português, “Fusões e Aquisições”) e como isso gera um impacto na vida das empresas. Para isso, convidamos dois profissionais da área para debaterem a respeito desse tema. Guilherme Tossulino, Diretor de M&A da Softplan e Pierre Schurmann, Founder e CEO da nuvini. Confira um pouco mais sobre esse bate-papo a seguir! Trajetória dos convidados Pierre já está no mundo de startups e tecnologia desde 1996. Ele já foi fundador e investidor de diversas empresas ao longo da sua carreira. Em 2019, Pierre fundou a nuvini, uma empresa focada em M&A. A nuvini é uma empresa de Saas B2B (Software as a Service for Business to Business) que atua em três verticais estratégicas por meio de empresas que são líderes de seus segmentos. O seu propósito é transformar a história de pequenas e médias empresas através de tecnologias mais acessíveis na nuvem. Guilherme trabalha na Softplan há quase seis anos. Desde então, ele já atuou em várias frentes relacionadas a investimentos e aquisições. Há aproximadamente um ano, Guilherme está a frente na diretoria de M&A.  Comunicação como uma etapa essencial no M&A Na maior parte dos casos, é difícil deixar todos os indivíduos envolvidos cientes de tudo o que está acontecendo em um processo de fusão de empresas.  A maioria das empresas que a nuvini adquire são empresas menores. Por isso, durante o processo de M&A Pierre deixa claro que nas interações ele sempre pede para as pessoas tirarem todas as suas dúvidas. É uma grande mudança, logo é preciso salientar todas as confusões e não entendimentos. Mostrar o que vai mudar e o que vai permanecer como antes é extremamente importante. O processo de comunicação é a chave para gerar resultados positivos. Caso uma pessoa envolvida no projeto não entenda muito bem algo, uma parte da estratégia vai apresentar algum erro no resultado. Dessa forma, esclarecer dúvidas é fundamental. O impacto da fusão de empresas no ecossistema de Softwares É certo que quando ocorre a junção de forças entre empresas, isso gera um grande impacto para o ecossistema de Softwares brasileiro, uma vez que cada uma possui sua essência, independente dela ser pequena, média ou grande.  Atualmente há mais de 600 pessoas que fazem parte da nuvini. Como Pierre menciona, é uma comunidade que causa efeitos. Quando uma empresa adquire a outra, uma situação que ocorre que é parecida com as práticas do Valley, é o compartilhamento dos aprendizados e os diferentes conhecimentos sobre uma determinada área.  No momento em que você une duas ou três empresas, você possui um conjunto de possibilidades de ideias novas, pois cada uma delas já tinha a sua ”receita de bolo” que estava funcionando.  Compartilhar cada ideia entre todas é a melhor opção para estabelecer como que a fusão vai acontecer. Além disso, isso permite a disseminação de novas informações que um indivíduo de uma empresa, por exemplo, não teve acesso anteriormente para saber mais sobre.  Desafios do M&A Um aspecto essencial a ser analisado para que a empresa se mantenha na linha é tentar entender do ponto de vista cultural como as pessoas estão conectadas ao negócio. Existem muitos choques culturais durante o M&A pelo simples fato dos indivíduos terem culturas distintas.  Durante a conversa, Pierre aponta que as culturas podem ser diferentes, mas é fundamental que os valores sejam próximos, pois a longo prazo as empresas participantes do M&A não conseguem construir algo juntos. Gostou dessas reflexões? Ouça o bate-papo completo. Nele falamos de outras questões relacionadas com esse projeto social ligado a tecnologia. 

The growth of product culture in companies and the perception that many people do not know what this means, sparked our interest in talking about this subject. After all, the product area has become increasingly relevant in the business world. When we started researching the product, in general, we found a lot of information. However, few are focused on the concept itself and its differentiation from what a project would be. Thus, the content ends up becoming diffuse, which creates difficulties for those who are just starting out or want to learn more about the topic. Especially with regard to the differentiation between project vs. product. The intention of this article is to make your life easier when it comes to understanding these two concepts. Continue reading! Let's start by discussing the concept of design. What does this mean? Project Vs. Product – 1st: What is a software project? Throughout human history, work and its definitions have been slowly organized. In this history, several projects were developed, such as the pyramids, the Chinese wall, the large hadron collider... And, over time, a group of common characteristics was noticed between the projects that differentiate them from routine tasks. In general, they have well-defined objectives and a deadline for completion. According to the PMBOK Guide, a project is a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. Its nature is temporary, it has a defined beginning and end. The intention, when we work with different projects, whether building a house or a software project, for example, is to meet the schedule and achieve the main focus: delivering the project. One of the first works related to the topic is dated 1697, the essay “An essay on Projects”. However, one of the greatest advances in the subject occurred in the mid-XNUMXth century, through Frederick Taylor's productivity ideas, which focused on the division of labor into small and distinct tasks. Examples of project charts We cannot forget to mention Henry Gantt, who worked with Taylor himself. He is the inventor of the graph that bears his name, made up of bars, with each bar representing a task and its size representing a duration. Gantt Chart Example From the field of project knowledge emerged the discipline of Project Management. In the 50s, two well-known methods called CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) emerged. They became very popular after the publication of studies that showed the deviation in terms and costs of projects that were not managed. PERT/CPM chart example Reinforcing the concept of Project, PMI defines it as “a set of tasks, arranged in a defined sequence or relationship, that produces a pre-defined effect or output. A project always has a beginning, middle and end”. In addition to the objective and deadline, a project has numerous other important characteristics. For example: costs, risks, requirements (scope), feasibility, quality, planning, conflicts, documentation, learning, etc. For each of these items there is a large area of ​​knowledge and study, with different techniques and tools to apply. Agile Manifesto In 2001, the Agile Manifesto was made official, where 17 software development professionals committed to innovating software delivery brought premises to the community that changed the perspective at the time. This manifesto exposed 4 values ​​and 12 principles, which sought to mitigate the problems that the software industry suffered in the 90s, such as: delays, budget overruns, and low quality software. Despite the intense effort of these professionals in development, creating various approaches to improve deliveries such as XP, FDD, SCRUM, among others, the Manifesto was necessary. Through it, an evolution in software development was made possible, with cleaner solutions that generated value and minimized errors. These contributions were used both for projects and for current products. As the purpose of this article is not to delve that much into projects, but rather to identify and differentiate product projects, we believe that with this brief summary we already have a good idea of ​​what a project is about. 2nd: What is a Software Product? Now let's talk about product. A product is a good, physical or virtual, made to solve a problem, meet a need or satisfy a desire. The focus of the product is the result. As the focus of the product is the result, it is always in constant evolution. Firstly, we have the Discovery process. It includes the Product team combined with the UX (User Experience) team in a more effective way, but it also includes the Engineering team that complements the idea of ​​how to make the hypotheses we are raising. We can have a better understanding in the figure below: Product teams (taken from PM3 material – Joca Torres) In addition to the Discovery process, we have Delivery, which deals with development (transforming the hypothesis into something visible to the user) with the Engineering team effectively. These processes are not rigid, they always evolve through learning, which, throughout the product's life cycle, adapts and models itself. Focusing on the product allows us to learn, adapt and stay focused on results. What we are looking for is “outcomes over output”, that is, the best experience for our user given the amount of software delivered. This phrase is the title of Joshua Selden's book, which addresses the topic very well. The book demonstrates that we can enhance business results when we optimize product decisions. It's the happy path when the business and the product are in tune. Just like the project, the product has a life cycle. These cycles are different from project cycles in terms of time. Product phases are more or less long-lasting, depending on the retention factor (degree of user acceptance). Example We can describe it as follows: when we start and launch our MVP (Minimum Viable Product), we have an initial version that delivers the essential value to our user. At this moment, what happens are bets, as it corresponds to the introduction of the product on the market. After this period, the product growth cycle takes place. At this moment, we are launching new versions that will meet the user's needs (based on the usage metrics and insights collected), which will or will not promote Product Market Fit (that would be to say: “it worked well”, the product engaged the market). Reaching this phase of great user growth and engagement with the features created is an abyss that not all products can cross. With this crossing, the product, already “grown” and recognized in the market, reaches maturity (high point). At that moment he reached his full potential. The challenge now is to endure this moment, avoiding significant setbacks. Finally, we have decline, where every product will arrive someday. Does anyone remember Orkut, ICQ, among others that are no longer part of our daily lives? We can exemplify these moments in the product life cycle and engagement as shown in the images below: Product Life Cycle The Rogers curve – product adoption life cycle Project Vs. Product: what's the difference? Project and Product have several significant differences between them. While in the project we think about meeting the schedule focused on delivery, in the product we seek to deliver results with the objective of achieving, reducing or extinguishing, the user's pain. This interest does not end, it is repeated throughout the product’s life cycle. Another important point is the differences between the product and project mindset. In the first, we think throughout the process about learning and adapting as we progress through the product life cycle. In the second, a project plan is followed (planned in detail at the beginning and followed to the letter), not allowing changes to the scope. Another detail is the essence of product thinking: presenting a solution that is important to the customer. Product is different from Art. If he does not seek to resolve a customer's pain, then he will not be able to pay for the solution. Therefore, it becomes unnecessary. In the project, the thinking is different. The aim is to meet the scope without giving essential importance to the customer experience (which are the perceptions and feelings related to the unique effect of interacting with the product). The project's concern is to follow what was agreed. Often, it no longer makes sense when delivery arrives. Below is a table that will provide more information about the differences between them: Conclusion Finally, knowing a project and product means living in two worlds with different perspectives, each with its own specificity. This article aimed to present these two sides so that your understanding of them becomes clearer. We hope we were able to clear up some doubts and contextualize these two aspects. After all, within the scope of a business, both project and product are essential. We recommend some bibliographical references for those interested in knowing more about the Product: CAGAN, Martin. Inspired: How to create technology products that customers love. TORRES, Joaquim. Software product management: How to increase the chances of success of your Software. HERE, Diego. Modern Product Management Digital Services: The Digital Product as a means of delivering value to the user and the business. MOORE, Geoffrey A. Crossing the Abyss: Marketing and selling disruptive products to traditional customers. SEIDEN, Joshua. Outcomes over output. Furthermore, it is always good to remember that knowledge is evolutionary, that is, areas are always full of new things. Therefore, interact with people, always keep your questioning side in mind, and, most importantly: use EMPATHY in your life as a project or product manager. Did you enjoy learning a little more about Project vs. Product? Check out more content like this on our Blog!