Acropolis.com

Topic

Product Management

Type

Quick take

What if the Acropolis were software and were being built today?

(Story is fictional and it was generated by ChatGPT)

Scene 1: Sprint Planning Meeting in the Acropolis Boardroom

Pericles (CEO): "Alright, everyone! I dreamt last night that we were opening the Acropolis... yesterday! Can we make that happen?"

Kallikratis (CTO): rolls eyes "You know it's not built yet, right?"

Iktinos (CPO): "According to my data-driven insights and my JIRA dashboard's burndown chart, we can probably get a prototype ready in... 1 year?"

Pericles: "Make it 6 months!"

Kallikratis: "9 months?"

Iktinos: "What's a prototype anyway? Wait, are we doing product development or participating in Socrates's debating workshop?"

Socrates enters with a cup of hemlock tea.

Socrates: "Did someone mention my debating workshop?"

Scene 2: Slack Channel Discussion on the Acropolis Project

Kallikratis (in #acropolis-tech channel): "The frontend design of the Parthenon is ready, but the backend, with all the API calls to the gods, is a bit tricky. Iktinos, do we have the user stories for this?"

Iktinos: "I'll track that. By the way, I've added 20 more sub-tasks on JIRA for the fountain alone."

Pericles (in #acropolis-ceo-announcements channel): "@channel: Let's build another Acropolis, but for kids! Thoughts?"

Kallikratis: "Another one? We haven't even finished the first!"

Iktinos: "Adding to JIRA now!"

Scene 3: Retrospective Meeting

Iktinos: "We need more clarity on relative story points. The Oracle at Delphi said the Acropolis is a 100-pointer, but Kallikratis insists it's 500."

Kallikratis: "The Oracle doesn't know how to code!"

Socrates: "What is code, if not the essence of logic and reason?"

Pericles: "Why is the fountain not making wine yet?"

Kallikratis: "Because that's a miracle, not a feature!"

Iktinos: "Added 'Wine Fountain Miracle' to the backlog."

Scene 4: Daily Stand-up

Pericles: "Let's begin with updates. And remember, I want it YESTERDAY!"

Kallikratis: "I've been debugging all day! The API call to Aphrodite keeps returning an error. Says she's 'not available'."

Iktinos: "On the product side, we've done some user testing. People want more columns. Columns everywhere!"

Pericles: "Columns! Yes! Add a thousand more! Also, why aren't we done yet?"

Kallikratis: "Maybe if someone provided more realistic OKRs and stopped dreaming about wine fountains..."

Iktinos: "Speaking of, Pericles, how's the budget?"

Pericles: "What budget?"

Socrates takes a deep breath.

Socrates: "Gentlemen, in Agile, we embrace change, even late in development. Let's optimize our processes, focus on our MVP, and remember the essence of our purpose."

Kallikratis: "Which is?"

Socrates: "I'll let you debate on that."

Everyone groans.

[Notes] PM Habits Seminar: Get Shit Done by Shreyas Doshi