EP 3: Recognizing Early Patterns of Success and Failure in Software Projects

The superpower that I possess is really finding those patterns like the invisible patterns before anyone else does. And I always pause and say why can

does. And I always pause and say why can I see it and others can't. And I think it's the depth and breadth of knowing the endto-end business process especially within professional services.

I'm sure in the near future there's going to be a way to say okay here is a shadow agent of Janice that can provide

early warning signals for every company what's top of mind for you around AI >> excited and nervous.

>> Hey everyone, welcome to yet another episode of the launch station. Uh today

we're being joined by Janice Kuranowski who leads the global professional services and delivery partner implementation readiness at Leapwork a no code low code test automation

platform. Janice has decades of

platform. Janice has decades of experience leading enterprise class software implementations across ERP CRM and PSA systems. She's here to talk

about what she calls the patterns of failure and success in software projects and how to recognize them early. Thank

you for joining us today, Janice.

>> Thank you, Shere. Nice to be here.

>> Awesome. We'll start with a little bit of an icebreaker. Um it is October 2025.

What would you say you're most bullish or excited about? And I'm not necessarily looking for something as generic as AI, but something more specific. Could be a company, could be a

specific. Could be a company, could be a kind of career, a specific technology, something you foresee. Tell us what excites you the most.

>> Well, it's it's a recent excitement.

It's probably within the last couple of days. Um, I was reading an article and

days. Um, I was reading an article and then listening to a webinar and it's going to be techn I guess more technique

technology and then a c a company. Um, I

would say it's forward deployed engineers. I was reading an article uh

engineers. I was reading an article uh by Marty Kagan and it was fascinating about what it was very relevant for quality assurance and test automation

because we're always trying to shift left because if you shift left you eliminate a lot of risk and improve uh the ability to get to value. Um, and

then then yesterday I was watching Thomas Law's TSIA quarterly financial Q3 results and in there he very specifically talked about a company

called Pelanteer and same in the article and the valuation for that company is like through the roof. So, I was really like

jazzed going, "Oh my goodness, there is something here and I've got to really start to dive in and learn some more about this." So, I would say right now

about this." So, I would say right now I'm really bullish about really understanding what that is.

And uh Janice, it fun fact this is a very very strange coincidence and I don't know if people watching will recognize it for a coincidence but today

in San Francisco in the Salesforce tower we have we are hosting the second community meetup for forward deployed engineers. So we

engineers. So we >> first ever community for forward deployed engineers and we're hosting the second meetup today and it happens that

we're backed by this VC firm called 8VC which was started by the co-founder of Palanteer Joel. So

Palanteer Joel. So >> oh my goodness the stars have aligned.

>> Awesome.

>> Great >> great to hear. and

we'll come back to our topic which is the patterns of success and failure. But

before we get into the details on it, I think it'll be useful for the audience to get a little bit of context on your journey like the last you know two three firms you worked at. Uh people

understand what kind of implementations you've been involved in the complexity the size etc. Uh just context setting before we start.

>> Okay. Okay. I would say the different types of um they all been software companies um so software companies that had uh middleware or integration

platforms business process uh enterprise cloud software uh product life cycle management so in the ma manufacturing

space uh in addition there has been from PAX perspective which is the medical imaging uh and then other software um

companies that really as you mentioned the implementation of enterprise class ERPs, CRM, uh and then most specifically right now here at Leapwork is we kind of

go across the gamut. So I've been exposed to many many different types of industries and many different types of uh solutions especially in the test um

area that we are where we're tech agnostic.

>> Understood. Interesting. Um

yeah, a little more about you perhaps for the audience. Can you tell us what you believe is your superpower as a PS leader?

>> Interesting. And you know in preparation for this um um the I think the superpower that I possess is really finding those patterns like the

invisible patterns before anyone else does. And I always pause and say, why

does. And I always pause and say, why can I see it and others can't? And I

think it's the depth and breadth of knowing the endto-end business process, especially within professional services.

I had a former colleague that says, Janice, you have this early warning system that you've developed over time, that I can see the characteristics or

the attributes of going, this is going off the rails. Let's go address it now before it really starts to blow up. And

then it's also when those things that do tend to get troubled projects and you need to, you know, hover over and and deal with that escalation. So I would say it's really the identification of

those invisible patterns to others at least.

>> Got it. I think if there's a way for you to share some of your mental model around how you look at things, u I'm sure in the near future there's going to be a way to say, okay, here is a shadow

agent of Janice >> that can provide early warning signals for every company. Right. So,

>> yes, exactly.

>> Right. Great. So you spent many years in uh the software implementation side of things and obviously that's helping you

see the patterns. Are there any areas you feel you're still learning and leveling up in in the last few years?

>> Um yes, I'm always a a constant learner.

When I see someone do something that I'm really like at all, I want to find out more. whether it's the use of certain

more. whether it's the use of certain technology or it's the way they're presenting their idea uh or their interactions, how they're able to um um

diffuse a situation. So, I would say social psychology is kind of that coin phrase that I happen to use because I'm dealing with people all the time, whether it's the customers, the

partners, my team, my colleagues. So, I

think I'm constantly trying to refine that because there's always areas for improvement. um always from a business

improvement. um always from a business acument perspective really reading up you know I am a you know a student of TSIA so I do a lot of you know understanding what they're doing why

they're doing it what their findings are and I would say the the last area probably would be product life cycle management so that whole conversation

that we had earlier about the uh forward deployed engineers is how do you bring it together how do you make it shorter and faster um so I I think is really

taking time to understand the nuances of how we can bring the implementation mindset into product development because you're building product to be

implemented to be consumed. So it's

really trying to figure out all that.

>> Got it. Great. Uh thanks for sharing that. Um tell me when you start at in a

that. Um tell me when you start at in a new gig like when you joined Leapwork for example were there like a set of things which you thought of as hey here's three or

four things I'm going to typically end up going in and looking at fixing I expected to be broken.

>> Yes. Or tweaked as I would say. Um

there's probably four areas. One in

particular I coin is the integration um or excuse me the integrity of the hour.

Okay. And it's predominantly do they have PSA system or not and how are they capturing the hours that are forecasted

and scoped those that are being delivered and turning into actuals how many remaining. So really getting down

many remaining. So really getting down to a level that says are they in the right bucket? Are we capturing all them?

right bucket? Are we capturing all them?

because I'm, you know, part of being in the PS world is you do have to use your data to help you predict your capacity going forward. So I would say the

going forward. So I would say the integrity of of the hour is number one.

Um I would say that then it falls into from my research 80% of troubled projects actually start in the sales cycle. So, I would be spending time in

cycle. So, I would be spending time in the services sales side of the house, really understanding what's going on, how they're scoping, what kind of um uh elements of uh risk mitigation they're

putting into their pricing or their assumptions because if you can catch it before it gets signed and delivered, you're better off. Then I would be going over to my delivery side and focus on

like starting to understand the patterns of the escalations uh but also what are the patterns of success. So it's really spending time on understanding all of those projects. So it's a a threer if I

those projects. So it's a a threer if I could say that. Uh the other thing is do I have the right staff in the right role? Okay. Are they motivated? That

role? Okay. Are they motivated? That

skill will thing is a very very important thing. So I would say it would

important thing. So I would say it would be those dimensions that I would be going in and looking at.

>> Got it.

curious if there are any examples of you know I'm a strong believer in you know helping people find the right uh right job for them right like are

they in the right role that really resonated with me curious if you have any examples of of places where you had to you know go in and fix that

>> yeah yeah I had one very specifically and it just popped into my mind is um again it was one of those things. I was

given a brand new organization by the SVP. Here you go. And oh, by the way, I

SVP. Here you go. And oh, by the way, I want you to go fix it. It's like, okay.

So, when I got in there and I started looking at the leaders, the one uh leader in particular, um it became very

evident to me that she was hired for the wrong role. She was a tech support

wrong role. She was a tech support leader. She wasn't a professional

leader. She wasn't a professional services leader. And it was by her

services leader. And it was by her approach and I ended up spending a lot of time um really to explain to showcase

and it was a mutual decision that says you're right Janice if my job is this I don't know how to do this I know how

to do this and it was one of those things that it was a very um uh it was really a great opportunity for

her and I to get together to really work through that. And it was a great, you

through that. And it was a great, you know, working with her on figuring out her her next next role that was a good fit for her. And I think by taking as as

leaders, it's a really fine line is because you think they have the skill and the will to go do this role when in fact they don't necessarily have the skill. And by showcasing what the

skill. And by showcasing what the difference or the delta is is just eye opening for them going, "Yeah, you're right. I I need to go find another role

right. I I need to go find another role that's going to fit my my particular skills at this point in time."

>> Makes sense. Um,

you talked about a few things that go wrong. I also know that you you do

wrong. I also know that you you do manage a global team.

Is there anything else that you've seen you know beyond process uh that may be more cultural that um comes up as a pattern for you when

managing teams across geographies?

>> Yes. Yes. If I look back on my career and I take a look at all the different countries and cultures that I had um been experienced and exposed to um they

are different. there are different

are different. there are different patterns and I would say co kind of at the core is around communication

um and it's communication um hierarchical so I could have teams that are very much structured in the business world that their hierarchy

matters so their ability to communicate to others other than their manager sometimes are repressed and so how do you start to bring them into a world that we want to

hear from them. Like I do in a lot of the different roles that I have, I have skip levels because I want to foster a conversation with these individuals, not because I want them to think of me as

their manager, because I want to strengthen their management uh or their relationship with their manager to really showcase the fact that what they're probably hearing from their

manager is something that's also well founded in the goals and objectives of the organization. Um, we we had one one

the organization. Um, we we had one one what I do this quite often is I'll pull together a cup call it the coffee and

tea hour or half hour and I start the first one. I invite everyone and I just

first one. I invite everyone and I just pick a topic. Let's talk about your favorite movie. Okay. And then people

favorite movie. Okay. And then people will drop in different YouTube um you know video or vignettes that they want to showcase about their favorite movie.

And then at the end of the call I'll tap someone. I said, "You own the next one."

someone. I said, "You own the next one."

And it's a great way to kind of build the thought and and foster the differences because I will have 5 10 12 different cultures on a call. And what

you're trying to do is figure out like that common communication style to really make everyone comfortable. And I

would say the last thing about this is be very mindful of holidays. Okay.

Holidays that the different cultures end up um celebrating. Um two weeks ago I went to India and I celebrated Diwali

with them. So I uh acquired my festive

with them. So I uh acquired my festive attire and really got to understand the festival of lights, you know, good over evil. And I think it's really about

evil. And I think it's really about putting yourself out there and really understanding. and they were very like

understanding. and they were very like happy that I was able to be there. I was

thrilled because it was a great opportunity for all of us to get together. But I would say it's really

together. But I would say it's really and unfortunately when I pull my Outlook calendar, it's really hard for me to have to put everyone's holidays in it because then I want to ask everyone.

Okay, we we had one one company or couple of uh organizations ago HR took it upon themselves that every holiday

across the global organization was highlighted. So we would learn, you

highlighted. So we would learn, you know, tomorrow is going to be da and these are the typical types of um uh salutations that you should be using.

This is what it means. I thought it was really cool and helpful and I was exposed to so many more new holidays than I ever knew existed in the globe.

You know, >> that's great actually. You know, we all also work with customers globally, right? Uh and and so

right? Uh and and so >> for a team in India to learn about >> uh you know, what does this relevance of the holiday in in Europe or a team in US to learn about what's the relevance of a

holiday in in the Middle East? All of

that is going to help build stronger relationships with our customers as well, not distant.

>> Exactly. Yes. Yes. Yes.

>> I also loved the uh you know the the meetup that you said you do with with a bunch of people. I used to do that in a previous organization. You used to call

previous organization. You used to call it uh uh so there's this boi that you get, right? Uh so it I used to call it chat

right? Uh so it I used to call it chat over boba and we used to just get bobas for >> 12 people at a time randomly get together and then you know talk about

>> topics top of mind for a few of those you know brainstorm >> um ideas solutions uh to to problems that they bring up etc.

um inspired by actually a book by the former CEO I think I don't know former or current CEO of Duncan Doats.

>> Um I will find the book and I will send you the link.

>> Perfect. I'd love to know it.

>> Super. Um now you know we let's turn to what you've seen as patterns of success.

Um, are there specific people that pop in your mind when you think about, you know, >> here is what success feels like? What

have you observed in either successful projects, successful people in terms of what goes well?

>> Yes. Um, I have a lot of energy when I work. So, I really, you know, when I'm

work. So, I really, you know, when I'm working with someone, someone who's taking ownership with the deliverable and the date. Um, and I always use this

term um you know, just give me ugly. And people

like, what do you mean, Janice? I said,

don't do a lot of thinking. We're trying

to strive to the common understanding of definition of done. So, put your thoughts on paper. Let's hash it out.

Let's kind of work on it. I think it goes handinhand with how long you've worked with someone. I'm a big proponent of trust, but verify. Okay? So, I can't trust someone's ability to be able to

deliver something that's extremely important unless we're going along and verifying. Okay? So, when someone gets

verifying. Okay? So, when someone gets to know, and I tell them upfront, I said, "By the way, I want constant syncs cuz this is all about our we're building

a relationship together and I've got to make sure that we're all on the same page where where this deliverable is heading and I'm going to get in there and we're going to verify together,

okay? So that we can tweak it." Don't

okay? So that we can tweak it." Don't

think of it as bad. think about as good the fact that we're going on this journey together. But once I've gone on

journey together. But once I've gone on a couple of journeys with some of the folks that I've worked with, give them the task, they do it automatically. By

the way, Janice, here's the outline.

This is what I'm thinking. This is the schedule. This is the plan. And it's

schedule. This is the plan. And it's

yep, yep, tweak, tweak, and away they go. Okay. And I think it's that's really

go. Okay. And I think it's that's really important. Now I happen to be working a

important. Now I happen to be working a lot with a lot of technology people in my recent couple of roles and so their

ability to work on their soft skills to perfect their soft skills is really um great because as a technical person I always think about the iceberg theory

for technical people the excuse me the advancement of their career is what 80% dependent upon their soft skill development

And so I bring that picture to the table. I showcase it to all my team

table. I showcase it to all my team members and I said, "This is why we're going to spend so much time on your soft skills. You by default are working on

skills. You by default are working on your technical skills. I don't have to coach you on that. What I need to coach you on is your soft skill development.

So that I want you to continue to grow and aspire to what you want to accomplish. But there's a heavy

accomplish. But there's a heavy dependency. And I know that technical

dependency. And I know that technical folks have a tendency of, you know, no, I don't have to present. No, I don't have to talk. No, I don't have to vote my thoughts down. And I'm trying to turn

them around and coach them baby steps at first and then really coach them to really and then once they take off, it's like great, you've got you've got there,

so let's work on the next level.

>> Nice. I think you know chatting about uh our own internal teams I think there's also an element of what do you see in customers that you

know sometimes determines hey is this customer more likely or less likely to be successful with us? Have you seen any patterns with respect to what makes

certain kind of customers more you know either easy to work with or more successful in general when you go through the process with them?

>> Yeah. Um commitment their commitment and how organized they are really showcases the fact that they want to adopt it because we're in the business of selling

and implementing software for them.

Okay. So, first and foremost, you know, how they come to the meeting, um, how they're prepared, I think is really sort of sets them apart. Preparedness. Um,

but leaning in to learn. Okay. When we

say, hey, you know, they say we would like to do ABC. And I'm like, well, based upon our experience, we think you should do it slightly differently, and this is why. and really being leaning in and understanding some of the, you know,

the dozens and dozens of implementations we've done. We're bringing that to bear

we've done. We're bringing that to bear to them. Um, I would also say they have

to them. Um, I would also say they have change is going to happen. It's a

project. Okay. So, it's the ability and being pragmatic to come to the table and kind of work through it. Now, I don't mind I love demanding customers, okay?

Because they kind of know what they want. But when when they come maybe with

want. But when when they come maybe with I don't want to say legacy but maybe legacy thoughts about maybe in our space quality assurance manual processes

versus automated processes. There's a

there's a mind shift. It's a paradigm shift that they have to go through not just at those that are doing the work but the managers or the QA leaders that

are working to make that shift. So a lot of times it's embracing organizational change management at the same time and that's that's really what the commitment

is because it is different. You kind of think of it and do it differently.

Makes a lot of sense. almost makes me think about hey in a kickoff meeting should we bring up hey if you want to be successful with us what we've seen is

here are things that you want to keep in mind coming into this engagement our most successful customers have shown these traits

>> uh and and you know just indicate that we'd want that commitment from them we'd want that open-mindedness towards you know solution that we we come up with

together and want to be treated as uh you know you you selected us for a reason that you know we have something uh that's that's going to take you into the future.

>> Mhm. So then allow us to move into the future not exactly be held back by what >> and that's actually something that we have done is depending upon the size of

the project and the nature of the customer is you know spelling out you know this portrayal this is what we need because it's two of us or sometimes a

third one if there's a partner but whether it's a two-party or triparty um we all have to understand what our role is in response responsibility and what

it takes to really be accomplished. And

they, you know, it's very wellreceived, too. It's not as though they're like,

too. It's not as though they're like, "Oh, you're telling me how I'm supposed to behave." When in fact, it's like,

to behave." When in fact, it's like, "I'm so glad that you're sharing those best practices and what you've seen others." Cuz the last thing we want to

others." Cuz the last thing we want to do is like step off the curb and hurt ourselves. I always talk about as the

ourselves. I always talk about as the guard rails is let's let's stay within the guardrails that we have some variability but you know we've noticed when people jump over the guardrails um

that you know there's sometimes a bit more reworked than you otherwise intended.

>> Got it. Makes a lot of sense. I think

one of the other topics uh maybe in the first ever meeting we had you know first time we met uh you had talked about was uh this this sort

of I think you called it the five Ws or uh >> consulting five Ws. Yeah.

>> Yeah. You know it was about getting to the root cause of things and how you had a passion for it how it's helped you. I

think it'll be great to share about that as well to the audience uh of this podcast. So

podcast. So >> yeah, root cause analysis projects are like the middle name of everything that we do here when you're in professional services, you're doing some kind of a

project, you know, in the case of an implementation project. Um and it's

implementation project. Um and it's important that we're always constantly seeking out those patterns. Okay. So I

like to because of the business process improvement like heartbeated me. It's

important that when you find the pattern that you're in able to kind of design and teach for repeatable scalable success and that's kind of the core of

it. So being curious, being proactive,

it. So being curious, being proactive, um in a lot of cases, um being that neutral party, especially as a leader in an organization, I've

done a lot of project reviews, and project reviews is a term that I use that I was taught many many years ago at IBM. It's understanding the ideal state

IBM. It's understanding the ideal state and then comparing the current state or observed things against the ideal and then identify that gap and then

prioritize it. Okay? And whenever you're

prioritize it. Okay? And whenever you're doing it, so if I've got an escalation here, I got to get into neutral because our team might be the one that's, you know, doing some of the issue or causing

some of the issues or it might be on the customer side. So, we've had some, you

customer side. So, we've had some, you know, recent situations where there was quite a bit of noise and there was a partner involved and the CSM was

involved and I kept reading a couple of the status reports and I said, "This doesn't seem right. We need to get in there and find out what's going on." And

so by jumping in taking obviously the internal team uh with a with a partner that was doing the delivery and kind of spending time with them there was lots of emotion. So you got to neutralize the

of emotion. So you got to neutralize the emotion. Okay? And you got to get it

emotion. Okay? And you got to get it down into the facts. So there's two techniques that I tend to use. I call

one the timeline. All I care about is what are those sequence of events and links out to the content because then I can go in there. So, for example, if we did a kickoff and we covered all the

topics we did, I want to go inspect for it and lo and behold, maybe the kick kickoff did not cover or the meeting minutes for the kickoff did not include all the right players. So, that's an

example of maybe we didn't do the crispest job in the kickoff. Um so it's it's an important aspect on

uh so the timeline and then the other technique is I call um observations and recommendations. So again I'm trying to

recommendations. So again I'm trying to teach people to put it on paper to look at it and I said by the way the words that you use have to be presentable to the customer but they caused it. I said

you've got to be presentable to the customer so you've got to figure out how to pres present it. And a lot of times in one specific example, the the

contract that we had talked about stated that we would be taking 10 individuals through the project for self-sufficiency.

And guess what? They assigned 30. So the

workload tripled for the assigned consultants. And it wasn't obvious to

consultants. And it wasn't obvious to them that we had to call it out. We had

to showcase it and saying, "Okay, now remember you signed this, you've got this. So our recommendation, let's get

this. So our recommendation, let's get back to the top 10." and then subsequent faces will go deal with the others. So,

it's simple. Um, I think it's simple, but I will tell you of any of the techniques I've ever had to teach anyone in professional services, this is the

number one hardest one. And I always take a step back and say why. And I

think what it is is you've really got to have a solid foundation on what ideal state is. But you also have to be

state is. But you also have to be curious enough to kind of poke at it and saying why is it not it really and that's where the consulting five W's

comes into play. Now it can be 5 10 20 W's but ultimately you get to aha this is the reason why the situation happened.

I almost um equate it to um maybe human-led intelligence or an early version of AI when you think about it.

Like I would like to package this up and get it into some kind of an AI engine so that we could have other people use it.

So >> got it. Uh talking about AI, what's top of mind for you around AI?

>> Excited and nervous. Um, and the excitement is seeing everything that's out there cuz when in the space that we're in, which is test automation when

you use AI to go build code, okay, how do you ensure that the code is at the right level meeting the expectations of the requirements? So there's a lot of

test automation I would like to you know position should be front and center with any AI work because you do need someone to test it and whether it's someone or

something or some engine I think is really important thing. Um so that's kind of the the excited part. The

nervousness is um do I know enough about it to help lead and coach my teams going forward? and

I'm constantly trying to work through and you know how else could we do that health check report better well let's go use AI and really helping to coach the

team moving forward so I would say that would probably be you know what top of mind for me for AI >> got it

come to the last question of the podcast uh episode Janice and I'm going to go back to something you said earlier today about you know this this tech support

leader who is in the wrong role um in as as a leader in professional services and they didn't have the right skill set um

for someone aspiring or entering uh leadership role in professional services a manager role uh director role

etc. What would you say are those skills that they should have in place, develop, focus on? Any guidance on what that

focus on? Any guidance on what that skill set looks like?

>> Good question. Um,

you have to be organized. You have to build out, I'll call it your project management systems, whatever they happen to be, because you got to keep yourself organized because you're going to have a lot of stuff coming from the customers,

from sales, from your team, from product. So, you got to really figure

product. So, you got to really figure out what that is. Ask for help. You're

doing this for the first time, okay? You

know, I've been playing this role for several decades and there's a lot to learn. There's a lot to learn. So, I

learn. There's a lot to learn. So, I

would say, you know, ask for help. Um,

make sure you learn the root cause analysis and make sure that you know how to perform it because you're going to be using it probably every day, every week, sometimes small, sometimes large.

um do a deep dive and really learn your endto-end process. I would say the

endto-end process. I would say the strength of my root cause analysis is because I know the service to sales side of the house. I know the sizing and scoping. I know project management. I

scoping. I know project management. I

know how, you know, from a delivery perspective and so forth and so on. And

so learn it, but you're not going to learn it all in one fell swoop. So

reference things like TSIA. I think

they've got this great I refer to it as the seven pillars of um a professional services. So it kind of outlines all the

services. So it kind of outlines all the capabilities in these se seven pillars that a professional services organization might possess. But then

based upon your PS charter, are you going to be more revenue margin driven or are you going to be more adoption maybe partner ecosystem driven? that

will dictate how strong or weak those particular pillars are. Um, and your ops and finance business partners, you have to have some strong ones. If you have

strong ones, they will lighten the load and they will really help direct you as to where you should be focusing. I would

say those would be the four particular areas advice and counsel that I would suggest that the new PS leader consider.

>> Great. Thank you so much Janice for joining us and uh sharing your thoughts and wisdom today. Uh enjoyed chatting with you.

>> Oh so did I Shri. Thank you. It was my pleasure.