…and how they help to balance vision with data-driven decisions
Our team often sits at the intersection of business, product, operations, engineering, and design stakeholders. And recently I’ve been hearing phrases like ‘throwing spaghetti on the wall strategy’ and ‘leadership attention deficit disorder’ repeated in startups and enterprise organizations alike. When I get to the crux of the problem it comes down to helping leaders and their teams balance a conceptual aspirational vision with data-driven decisions. In these cases, we often recommend the implementation of a leadership decision-making framework.
The purpose of a decision-making framework is to create a systematic process and set of principles for how decisions are facilitated and informed.
Once the framework is agreed upon it becomes a part of the operating rhythm of the ‘organization’. (as an aside, Design sprints are the ultimate product decision-making framework.)
Other principles that can be integrated into a framework are culture, economic, social, environmental, legal, etc.
The following are some indicators that you may need a leadership decision framework.
- Leaders are constantly at odds. Decisions feel arbitrary and without data to support them.
- Shiny object syndrome. Priorities are changing weekly based on sales and customer demands and investor guidance. Nothing is being done well or to completion.
- Product and engineering are getting whiplash. The team is not staffed to keep up with the churn and change impacts both from resource availability and skillset perspective. Features are not being fully developed and the platform is not leading in any particular capability due to the constant change.
- This is not your swimlane. The leadership also ‘seem’ to be making decisions in other functions without being asked or prompted. Trust and confidence in colleagues are deteriorating.
- Team morale is declining. Individual contributors are seeing the leaders fight during meetings. They are being told to de-prioritize what someone else told them to prioritize. They are stressed and seem always on the edge of burnout.
As a leader in an organization, here is an (extensive, albeit not exhaustive) list of prompts to help you think through, validate, and support your organization’s decisions.
Alignment
- What triggered this decision?
- Is this a decision or recommendation?
- Why should we move forward with this decision?
- What should we not move forward with this decision?
- Does this align with our vision? mission? purpose? priorities?
- Does this align to meet the needs of our target user? target buyer?
Fact-Based and Data-Driven
- What data informs this decision? feedback? research? data?
- Is this based on opinion/conjecture?
- What are the benefits of this decision?
- Who benefits from this decision?
- What are the costs of this decision?
- What will we have to give up?
- What are the trade-offs? short term? long term? resources? timelines, etc…
- What assumptions we are making?
- What are the potential risks? What is the worse case scenarios?
- What are the open questions?
- What is a possible alternative to this decision?
Governance
- Is this decision in your remit? If not whose remit is it? Who should be accountable for this decision? Who should be responsible for this decision? Who should be informed or consulted? Team? Advisors? Investors? Customers? Other?
- What types of decisions CAN we make on our own?
- What types of decisions SHOULD we make as a team?
- What types of decisions MUST we make as a team? Is there a process for MUST?
- How and when should this be communicated?
Challenge yourself and challenge your colleagues with these prompts. When you find yourself overwhelmed with ambiguity, constant change, and churn, this framework will help you understand if and how your team should move forward on important decisions.
……
We are The SIX, a women-founded and owned strategy and innovation firm. Feel free to ask questions, challenge, and share new ideas and frameworks in the comments section below. To learn more about us visit us at www.the-six.co
