A Reflection on “Sense and Respond”, by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
by Hajar Amidian
Editor’s Note: Hajar joined the Digital Innovation Office (DIO) in June 2020 as a Policy Design Specialist through the Alberta Policy Internship Program. Hajar is completing her PhD at the University of Alberta. Ever the academic, Hajar has jumped right in to the DIO’s world and, on top of working with us to deliver service and digital transformation, is burning quickly through our recommended reading lists.
In this miniseries on the DIO Medium, Hajar shares her key takeaways from some of those readings. The first is Sense and Respond, which we recommend to virtually everyone joining the DIO team.
I was drawn to Sense and Respond because of its emphasis on bridging the potential gaps between organizations and customers. As someone who has spent most of their career thus far in academia and teaching, I appreciated how the authors broke down complex topics and enabled readers — including those without previous experience in software development — to begin their own journey of discovery and continuous learning.
The following are some of my main takeaways from Sense and Respond:
1. Regardless of the industry you’re in, you’re either in the software business or your business is tied to software in one way or another.
Being able to respond to the complexity and continuous uncertainty of the market — especially now, in the midst of a pandemic — requires being grounded in (the right) technology and software. More specifically, technology that enables you to embrace a continuous, incremental approach to delivery.
Our Chief Officer at the DIO, Dominique Bohn, notes that approach would translate into refraining from making once-in-a-generation capital IT investments and trying to deliver in small pieces and through continuous iteration.
2. Learn your way forward.
Gothelf and Seiden make the case that the root of being digital means that organizations can be in a two-way conversation with their customers on a real time basis, and therefore be able to respond to with speed and flexibility.
This needs to be accompanied by sensing what is happening on the ground on a real time basis — with products, services, employees, and most importantly, customers — and coupling that with an ability to respond to that information in a similar time frame.
Starting with real user needs, or what we call evidence and empathy, is our number one guiding principle at the DIO.
3. Pre-determined, detailed roadmaps and plans are a thing of the past.
Neither organizations nor the market are static, and we need to create cultures that allow for real-time responses and constant optimizations of customer experiences. To create more agile organizations, Sense and Respond proposes different ways to create a more agile organization. This needs to be accompanied by sensing what is happening on a real time basis — with products, services, employees, and most importantly, customers — and coupling that with an ability to respond to that information in a similar time frame.
Ultimately, I would say my main learning is that “sense and respond” is more than a process; it is a culture of “doing less, more often” with values that are defined in customer-centered terms. If you are wanting to bring — or drag — your organization out of industrial-era operational models and developing a practice of sensing and responding to customer needs, this is a book to consider.
