Anecdote: A personal mission at the European Space Agency

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In the early stages of my career as a software engineer, I had the privilege of working for the European Space Agency. My role positioned me within a team pivotal to developing a common services platform, a backbone for the diverse array of scientific satellite missions the agency embarked on. As new horizons loomed with three impending missions set to become beneficiaries of our platform, I was entrusted with a critical task: to understand and integrate their unique requirements, ensuring our service not only met but exceeded their expectations. The challenge? I had just four weeks to accomplish this.

Embarking on this mission, I initiated discussions with each mission team, meticulously presenting the capabilities of our existing platform. These sessions were invaluable, offering a window into the aspirations and challenges faced by our clients. While our platform was robust, meeting many of their initial requirements, it was clear that their ambitions stretched further. Each team expressed a desire for more features - a natural request that translated to more work for us but promised a smoother operation on their end.

The collection of their feedback marked only the beginning. The essence of my task lay in synthesizing this information into a coherent action plan. To guide my approach, I turned to Barbara Minto’s The Pyramid Principle, seeking a structured framework to distil my findings. Yet, the unique nature of my challenge prompted the creation of an adapted strategy, which I later termed the SPOR structure: Situation, Problem, Options, Recommendation. This methodology enabled a comprehensive analysis, capturing not only the gaps in our service but also paving the way for a strategic proposal encompassing various solutions and a final set of recommendations.

This endeavour was more than a mere assignment; it was a rigorous exercise in enhancing my communication skills across listening, writing, and presenting. The tight deadline fostered a sense of urgency, pushing me to distil complex information into actionable insights. The outcome was not just the successful alignment of our platform with the mission teams' needs but also a significant milestone in my professional journey. By meeting, and in some aspects, exceeding the expectations of our stakeholders, I began to carve out a distinct personal brand within the organization.