365 Days of Stories - Day 23: Tackling Major Issues – Customer Demands & Focused Priorities

After a month of fixing major bugs, the customer was cautiously optimistic. While progress had been made, the problem wasn’t solved. The SLA required 99% success within T+1 days, but we were at 85%. The backlog still contained over a month’s worth of unprocessed transactions, creating massive concerns.

💡 The Pressure Was Real

Every transaction was financial, and delays were creating major issues for end users, significantly reducing customer satisfaction. The stakes were high, and time was running out.

📊 The Sr. VP Meeting

As the situation worsened, the Sr. VP called for a fortnightly meeting with both customer leadership and ours. The room was intense, with customer leaders demanding quick solutions to every issue.

I was the only senior person on the team, supported by just 2-3 junior engineers. I knew we couldn’t solve everything at once, and this would be a long journey. The weight of the situation was heavy, and I needed to communicate the reality to the customer leadership.

💬 Honesty in Crisis

From my previous turnaround experiences, I learned a key lesson: when projects are in crisis, never lie or sugarcoat things. Be transparent with the top decision-maker—that’s the only way out. With this in mind, I decided to be honest during the meeting.

I addressed the Sr. VP directly: “We can’t solve everything at once. We need to prioritize the top 3 KPIs to track our progress.”

I wasn’t there to make false promises. We needed focus, and I had to make the leadership understand that if we didn’t prioritize the right issues, we’d be wasting time. We agreed on three critical KPIs:

🔹 Transaction Processing SLA – Currently at 85%, goal 99%.

🔹 Backlog – 1 month vs. T+1 day.

🔹 Response Time During Peak Load – System performance was poor during peak load, requiring restarts.

We decided to focus on these three KPIs and set aside other issues. This gave me the clarity to focus on what truly mattered.

💼 The Reality of Running the Show Alone

While the focus was helpful, I knew I couldn’t do this alone. We needed more hands on deck. However, we had constraints: no bench strength, we weren’t a big brand to attract top talent, and we couldn’t offer sky-high salaries.

The team was small and stretched thin, and time was running out. But we had to prioritize, and I had to lead through the tough times. That will be the focus for Day 24—our ramp-up strategy.

👉 Have you ever had to focus on a few key priorities during a crisis and align your team to deliver on them? How did you approach it? Let’s discuss.

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