The New Imperatives for a Modern Business

The New Imperatives for a Modern Business
Kevin Donaldson

If you like these cartoons – they are created by Hugh Macleod
See Hugh’s entire gallery at http://gapingvoid.com/

About the Speaker
Twitter: kevnd
kevin@donaldsoncrew.org
Ent. Community

Familiar?
We have been successful up until now so why change a working formula?
We have all processes in our organization mapped and everyone knows what to do
We are big enough where there is no risk from small startups
My company/industry is stable – it has been around for X years
We know what's best for our customers

It’s a New World
‘Global’ can apply to anyone
Disruption is coming to an industry near you
Wicked Problems are common
Chaotic Environments are normal
The nature of ‘employment’ is changing
Intersectional Innovation happens more easily
Geographic boundaries are meaningless

Recording industry
Newspaper industry
Book/magazine publishing
Television
Telecom
Energy
Automotive
Education
What was once stable…

Your organization need to match the relative stability of your environment

3 Imperatives
Why
Who
What
How

Customer Development
Who
You must attack your assumptions at all times

This is Good…
(Customer) Your Product is Awesome
(You) Our Product is Awesome

(Customer) I am Awesome! [because of your product]
This is what
you want

Product Development
What’s wrong with this model?

Pivot
Question your core business assumptions and find a market

Example
File sharing across computers
Hostile environment – many competitors
MVP: Learning vs. Launching
Put something in users hands to get real feedback
Know where your target audience hangs out and speak to them in an authentic way
Make something you will use
If your customers don’t think they have a problem – hard to pitch a solution
Traditional marketing isn’t always the best approach

Example
First Pivots– market interest but expectations between cost and value not aligned
Second Pivot – found an early adopter/paying customer; no additional customers
Third (current) Pivot – new product; early adopter /paying customer to fund development
Currently 20+ clients with thousands of users; approx. at transition of customer validation and customer creation – still carrying out micro pivots
One Learning: In our market, software alone is not enough to satisfy the customer need

Your opinion, while interesting is irrelevant

The Customer Feedback Pivot

Intrinsic Motivation
Why
‘Flow’ is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning

The carrot and the stick no longer have the power they once had

Task
Time
Technique
Team
the urge to get better and better at something that matters
Autonomy
Purpose
Mastery
Yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

Example
Google 20% Time
The real value of 20% is not the time, but rather the “license” it gives to work on things that aren’t important
Open Culture and a quest for the pursuit of ideas
Gmail, Google news
Larry/Sergey: Montessori school philosophy influenced their ideas on 20% time

Example
Autonomy is required to support agility
Agile software dev practices promote autonomy
Team decide on ‘tasks’ to support goals
The Morning Dig: to provide individual focus time
Hiring process helps select intrinsically motivated people
Small teams eliminate slack and support a drive to mastery
A mission that supports a larger purpose – why before what

Kevin’s Theory On Creativity
Effectiveness/Efficiency Inflection Point
Level/Type of Mental Stimulation
Creativity
Intrinsic Motivation Drivers
Most Organizations
40 hrs
Work Time

Organizational Agility
How
Can organizational design be beautiful?

Small is the New Big
If you are small…
Elance.com, Alibaba.com, cheep/free software tools remove location constraints
Flat/elegant organizational design – don’t just create a doll house company
Don’t be ashamed of being/staying small
Focus, focus, focus
If you are big…
Create autonomous business units
Force teams/departments to function like startups
Constraints drive creative thinking
Move to Agile execution

Business Model Agility

“Agility…execute your OODA loop more quickly than your adversary”
USAF Colonel John Boyd

Agile Thinking
Team Vision & Discipline
Validated Learning's
Initiate Change
People & Interactions
Results
Customer Collaboration
Respond to Change
Process & Tools
Comprehensive
Documentation
Contract Negotiation
Follow the Plan

Example
History
Started in 1999 as a 3 person web consulting firm
2004 – decided to build project mgmt software for themselves for use with clients
Clients wanted the software for their use
Over 3 million users, millions in revenue
Intentionally small – 16 people spread across 8 cities and 2 continents
Invented and open sourced ‘Ruby on Rails’
Build products that intentionally are light on features
No long term plans because they are scary and usually wrong

Example
Success in using Agile for Product Development
Using Agile (Scrum) as a management framework across the business
Annual Strategic themes > Quarterly Goals reviewed each quarter, translated into monthly or bi-weekly sprints
Add process when needed – test first
Capital constraints force agile thinking
One Lesson: Getting good at agile execution can put too much emphasis on throughput and actually enable a lack of focus

Organizational Rhythms
Annual
Quarterly
Monthly
Weekly
Daily
Intra-day (Drive Gear of the Company)

Mapped processes take you a step closer to business commoditization

Lets Review

Who
Why
Creativity
Time
How

Enlightened Discussion
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The New Imperatives for a Modern Business

by Kevin Donaldson on May 19, 2010

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The New Imperatives for a Modern Business — Presentation Transcript