The only way out is through: The Future of Work (Part 4)
Wherever you go, there you are. Jonathan Kabat-Zinn’s meditations On mindfulness and being present are as relevant now as when he wrote the book in 1994.
As are Michel Jordan biographer Marc Vancil’s musings about one of the many things that made Michael Jordan exceptional: his ability to be present in the moment.
“Most people struggle to be present. People go and sit in ashrams for 20 years in India trying to be present. Do yoga. Meditate. Trying to get here, now. … Most people live in fear because we project the past into the future. Michael is a mystic. He was never anywhere else.”
So, take a deep breath and sit with it for a bit.
As we push to the second-half of 2020, we are here: and for many of us this is a new, uncomfortable time, with a lot of unknowns.
To recap if you’re joining us late or a little louder for the people in the back:
This is part 4 of a Four-Part series on the future of work. To recap:
- Part 1: It is time to make the donuts. We learned that we’re all stuck, and our choice is to stay still or evolve.
- Part 2: What is the nature of Work? We revisit the assumptions around how work gets done in corporate settings.
- Part 3: Working from Home? We look at the early results of WFH, the pros and cons outlined in the BOND Capital analysis, and provide solutions to the challenges outlined in their analysis. WFH is here to stay and we need to rethink the model, and consider how we purposefully build and make together.
- Part 4: The only way out is through. We are here, so how do we take action? What is our post-pandemic operating model?
The humble approach is a return to first principles.
Almost all of us are living in a changing environment — one that is affecting our work and home lives, although this is not universal as some small portion of organizations and humans are still operating in a pre-pandemic mentality. Most humans are trying to figure out how to navigate the pandemic and post era.
I’m struck by the countless founders and enterprise leaders that are assuming their old strategies still apply, but just on a deferred timeline. This pandemic has revealed the brokenness of our systems, or at best their tenuous nature. Basic assumptions about the marketplace, business model, and customer base demand revisiting.
At humble ventures we use a set of design thinking exercises to quickly establish an operating model for any sized collection of humans in pursuit of a common goal. Businesses, non-profits, initiatives and campaigns can all be sized and evaluated with these sequences of exercises.
- Golden circles: A key question all organizations should be asking themselves as we struggle with the implications of this pandemic question to be answered: should they exist? If so, what is their purpose? Their reason for being. Simon Sinek’s TED Talk and framework will help every organization or individual articulate their ‘why’. While this exercise seems simple, it forces you to think about What you do, How you do it and most — their reason for existing. Your WHY is a simple but powerful exercise that helps you determine whether or not you should Exist, and if you do, what you are unique. This WHY is also the foundation of the unique value proposition of your lean canvas. If you are struggling with your identity, consider the Golden Circles Exercise.
2.) Lean Canvas: great and sustainable organizations love the problem that they are focused on solving, but always keep close to mind the customers that have these problems. The Lean Canvas is a great framework and one-page business plan for any organization to identify what problems they solve, for whom, and how they deliver on their unique value proposition in a sustainable and scalable manner.
Lean Canvas is an adaptation of Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder which Ash Maurya created in the Lean Startup spirit (Fast, Concise and Effective startup). Lean Canvas promises an actionable and entrepreneur-focused business plan.
We’re partial to the tools on Leanstack.com.
Here’s a quick overview of the Canvas and what each foundational building block is:
1. Problem: A brief description of the top 3 problems that your organization/initiative/campaign is addressing. What friction / unmet need are you addressing? Don’t slip into solutioning — don’t say how, Instead, explain the problems themselves.
2. Customer Segments: Who are the customers that have these problems that receive value from the organization/initiative/campaign? How do we segment them to appropriate granularity? Can you name them by a category and segment? If you prioritize these segments by those customers who feel those problems the most acutely, you can identify your early adopters. Remember, all problems have customers. If you can’t identify a customer for your problem, it isn’t a problem.
3. Unique Value Proposition: What is the single, clear, compelling message that states why this organization/initiative/campaign is different / special or uniquely suited to bridging the problems of their customers and worth engaging overall? Remember your WHY from the Golden Circles exercise? Your reason for existing should be the foundation for your unique value proposition. It might take some reflection and word-smithing to articulate the authentic bridge between the problems that exist in the world, your organization/initiative/campaign and the customers who have these problems and are best served by you.
At this point you have the basics of your Lean Canvas. You can check if you’re directionally correct using this quick verbal narrative test.
Fill in the blanks: If you have these (Problems), and are most likely these (Customer Segments), then you engage X organization/initiative/campaign because of (Unique Value Proposition)
It may sound kludgey and formulaic, but if it makes sense, continue on. If it doesn’t, most often we see people getting hung up in crafting their UVPs: be careful in focusing on the value you are providing, not the solution you are offering. That is the portion of the canvas.
4. Solution: the fourth block of the canvas is the one that almost everyone is ready to fill in first. Thankfully we must resist the urge till we have set the stage to introduce it properly. What does this organization/initiative/campaign do to demonstrate the UVP up above? What do they offer? Is it a service? Some software? Some humans and technology? A piece of hardware? What must they do to provide value?
5. Channels: What channels does this organization/initiative/campaign use to engage their customers and deliver value? How do they go and tell the story to their early adopters? How do they scale their story to their overall customers? We’ll revisit this block in the partnerships exercise at the end of this post.
6. Revenue Streams: Identify how the organization/initiative/campaign makes money or creates value. what are the activities that drive revenue or create value?
7. Cost Structure: List out how resources are consumed, in service to which activities and how money is spent. Document what is necessary to deliver on the Unique Value Proposition
8. Key Metrics: Determine how to evaluate whether the business model is working, and how to evaluate success. Describe the key actions that users take that maps to revenue or retention.
9. Unfair Advantage: what is the unfair advantage of your organization/initiative/campaign? It is something that cannot be copied or bought. What makes you unique?
The Lean Canvas is a framework to give you a high level understanding of your business model and the levers within that guide what is possible for growth.
3.) Empathy map: our lean canvas helps us focus on how the business operates in addressing the problems of different customers segments. The empathy map gives you a framework to understand any human, whether employee, partner or customer. Think about the customer segments contained in the customer blocks of your lean canvas. Identify the name of a key customer that is representative of that customer segment. The more specific you can be, the more valuable this exercise will be for you. This assume your know who you are selling to. Search LinkedIn to find a person who fits the criteria for your early customer. Look at their profile and start to imagine what they have said, who they are and what they think.. Google their name and the name of the company — see if they are on social media and what kind of signal you can extrapolate from what they say across social. Based on your research, begin filling in the empathy map. We’re partial to the @Gamestorming version, but our remix is below.
Looking at our customer and starting from the neck, on up:
- WHO: Who is this person? Can you give me their name? Biographic and demographic data about them? Help me understand who we are talking about.
- DO: What do they do? Based on the demographic or biographic data, what are the activities that this person does? What can we assume them to do on a daily or weekly basis? How do they spend their time?
- SAY: What do they say? What are the words coming out of their mouth? What might they say when interviewed about issues topical to us and our business? What can we imagine them to say in private?
- SEE: What do they see? What are they observing in their business? What are they seeing in the marketplace? What are they reading, across all mediums?
- HEAR: What do they hear? What are they listening to? Across mediums, platforms and programs? What are they hearing from colleagues and their customers or partners?
- JTBD: What are their jobs to be done? Unlike what they might do by nature of who they are, what do they need to do based on their job? How are they going to be evaluated for success? What are their efforts aligned against?
- PAINS: What are their Pains? What are they fearful of? What do they most want to avoid?
- GAINS: What are their gains? What do they hope to achieve? What are their hopes and aspirations.
This empathy map should be done for every sales segment you sell to. This empathy map can also be used to map the pains, gains and jobs to be done for your partners. Ultimately, steps 6, 7, and 8 are the most important. But steps 3, 4, and 5 are helpful in considering the Channels you might use to engage these individuals.
In summary:
- Golden Circles helps re-define your purpose
- Lean Canvas helps outline your business model
- Empathy Maps help define the pains, gains and jobs-to-be done of key audiences (customers, channel partners, suppliers)
Congratulations! These 3 exercises can form the basis of your new Post-Pandemic operating model.
As an added bonus, after you’ve mapped all the frameworks, you should have enough for an updated sales narrative.
- For Customers (WHO in your empathy map)
- Who have these Problems (Problems from your Lean Canvas)
- And also have these jobs-to-be-done (JTBD from your Empathy Map)
- They should engage your business because (your UVP from Lean Canvas)
- Your Solution is (Solution from Lean Canvas)
- Why should you listen to us? (Unfair advantage from Lean Canvas)
Use this updated set of activities and story to go pitch and drive action / traction.
I hope this is helpful and I wish you good luck on your journey.
If you:
- are an organization of any size trying to build their own post-Covid operating model
- or a startup in need of sales and marketing support as you’re scaling customer acquisition
- or interested in our upcoming innovation activities
drop us a line (start @ humble dot vc ) follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
The opportunity to recreate and rebuild is a gift, and we can figure this out. In fact, if we love the problem we are solving, we can rebuild to be even better than we were before.
The only way out is through.
By good rights I ought not to have so much
Put on me, but there seems no other way.
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through.
-Robert Frost — Servant to Servants (1915)
