Stuck in a Good Idea
Right now you have a clear ambition that is customer-led. This is your vision for change. But getting from there to action is proving tough.
From a client I’m coaching:
I must admit it is taking more time than I imagined to get a really clear picture of how we need to go about getting all the work done. As you can imagine this is a large, important piece of work that will really require a combined team effort. We had a team planning day last week which was useful, especially with regard to acknowledging that BAU continues while a number of us are leading the strands of the transformation programme. Just managing the work programme and finding ways to not get bogged down in the detail of what to do, and by when is a real challenge.
What’s needed is clarity on the minimum viable/valuable service (MVS), because you are planning a round of development not the whole service system. Staying simple and deliberate in learning about what works, then building on it, will make sure you don’t get paralysed by size and cost and uncertainty about whether it’s going to make a difference.
Easier said than done.
Getting bogged down has as much to do with habits and hierarchy when people get into a meeting room, as it does with agile-or-not project management. More on that another day, but if you’re feeling brave, be challenged by Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organisations.
The MVS requires this from you right now:
You can arrange these things into a layered journey that clarifies the sequence and significance of specific touch points. Once you have the layers, it’s easy to write up your Assumptions Backlog: What don’t we know? Of that, what’s most important to test for/learn? How might we learn this?
This easily converts to your trial design.
Keep your Assumptions Backlog in front of everyone critical to the project, at every decision point. You can talk to what you’ve learnt so decisions are better informed and continue to be customer-led. Counter the terrorism of charisma, prevent the usual power dynamics from re-asserting themselves.
It’s best to do this work in context: at the places where your trial is going to happen.
It’s useful to have a user group set up that you can test your thinking with before you undertake a live test, and again after the test to help process the findings (and compare to internal interpretations). Give some thought to recruitment and logistics:
Build a profile of people you want to learn from e.g. critical thinkers who have a stake in your success because it may enhance their lives.
You might incentivise this group to stay with you over the life of the project.
You should certainly make it easy for them to be involved. Crossing town to your well-appointed test lab is sure to exclude some of the people you want to see — and attract others biased by your big-brand shine.
From a client I’m coaching:
I must admit it is taking more time than I imagined to get a really clear picture of how we need to go about getting all the work done. As you can imagine this is a large, important piece of work that will really require a combined team effort. We had a team planning day last week which was useful, especially with regard to acknowledging that BAU continues while a number of us are leading the strands of the transformation programme. Just managing the work programme and finding ways to not get bogged down in the detail of what to do, and by when is a real challenge.
What’s needed is clarity on the minimum viable/valuable service (MVS), because you are planning a round of development not the whole service system. Staying simple and deliberate in learning about what works, then building on it, will make sure you don’t get paralysed by size and cost and uncertainty about whether it’s going to make a difference.
Easier said than done.
Getting bogged down has as much to do with habits and hierarchy when people get into a meeting room, as it does with agile-or-not project management. More on that another day, but if you’re feeling brave, be challenged by Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organisations.
The MVS requires this from you right now:
- The benefits/motives you are going after that involve an important change in customer behaviour e.g. “I can express my personality in your service”
- What’s absolutely necessary in the service for customers to access those benefits
- Other features/concepts in the service that bring comfort and joy — depending on the effort/cost vs benefit to include in a service trial.
You can arrange these things into a layered journey that clarifies the sequence and significance of specific touch points. Once you have the layers, it’s easy to write up your Assumptions Backlog: What don’t we know? Of that, what’s most important to test for/learn? How might we learn this?
This easily converts to your trial design.
Keep your Assumptions Backlog in front of everyone critical to the project, at every decision point. You can talk to what you’ve learnt so decisions are better informed and continue to be customer-led. Counter the terrorism of charisma, prevent the usual power dynamics from re-asserting themselves.
It’s best to do this work in context: at the places where your trial is going to happen.
It’s useful to have a user group set up that you can test your thinking with before you undertake a live test, and again after the test to help process the findings (and compare to internal interpretations). Give some thought to recruitment and logistics:
Build a profile of people you want to learn from e.g. critical thinkers who have a stake in your success because it may enhance their lives.
You might incentivise this group to stay with you over the life of the project.
You should certainly make it easy for them to be involved. Crossing town to your well-appointed test lab is sure to exclude some of the people you want to see — and attract others biased by your big-brand shine.
TIP: for layering service interactions, try Canvaniser’s service blueprint tool. Try doctoring it by adding a lane for customer benefits/motives, possibly illustrated by what you believe the customer is thinking and feeling at the time the benefits are enjoyed.