The feeling of impending doom is all too familiar. You’ve been asked to submit a Business Case for the initiative you’re leading. It’s asking for future benefits 5 and 10 years in the future. You know that you can barely predict which Netflix show you’re going to binge watch this weekend so how are you supposed to predict THIS!?
Ok. So maybe it’s not you who should be estimating this. You read something about triangulating experts to improve estimation accuracy. That must be it. Wait … what makes an expert an expert for the estimates you need to make? …
Tape a Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas on a wall, grab a large stack of post-it notes and pile of sharpies, invite all the stakeholders. That’s it! You’re ready to hold the first business modelling session for the product you’ve been assigned to help resurrect. You’ve done this before and you know that you’ll get a canvas filled with assumptions that you can then prioritize. You’re even ready to start that prioritization exercise using the Assumption Prioritization matrix.
No doubt, starting here will put you ahead of most product resurrection and/or discovery initiatives. However, the scale of the x-axis…
I’m currently working with a 150 year old multinational banking client with 45,000 employees. They’re big, make a ton of money ($1.4B in earnings last quarter) and they’re very well established. I’m there to help them create more Products that people use. Their track record, like most large and established enterprises, is only decent in this regard. Does being big and old have to mean that you develop more Product misses than hits? It certainly feels that way. What’s a Product “hit” anyway? How many “misses” should we tolerate on the way to a “hit”?
Product Hits & Misses
“The king is dead. Long live the king.” was coined at the death of Charles VI of France. He started his reign with the nickname The Beloved and ended it with the moniker The Mad due to his frequent bouts of insanity. When Charles VI’s coffin descended into the vault of Saint Denis Basilica, the now famous decry above was uttered to usher in the next King, the son of Charles VI, Charles VII. Charles Jr doesn’t sound very regal, does it?
The saying has an elegance to it. It basically states: “Chill folks! …
Our brains love dopamine. We get a hit of adrenaline and dopamine when we’re “right”. This addiction to being right works well in our lightning fast world where decisions are expected to have been made 2 weeks ago. We quickly get to “right”, get our hit of adrenaline and dopamine, and move on to the next decision. It also worked well when we were being chased by saber-toothed tigers… run fast … now, turn left or right? I turned left last time and lived (giving me a hit of dopamine and adrenaline). Quickly now … OK, I’ll turn left.
I attended the Intrapreneurship Conference (IC) for the first time this week. It was held in my home town of Toronto, Canada.
This is about the electricity it just created in my life.
I’m sure many of you have been to conferences before. For some, they are an obligation. A slow, steady march from session to session in a massive, window-less conference centre. Sure there is the odd insight, but was it really worth it to spend that much money and time away from loved ones and work?
If you are even remotely involved in what you (or someone else)…
Peter LePiane
I help bold leaders future-proof their businesses
