Getting really strong Seth Godin vibes from this one. Reminds me of his earlier work on Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside talking about edge crafting and pushing things to the edge to stand out in a competitive market.
✅ my only nuance is to do number 2 then number 1 so that when you get to number three you map in reverse. I find that this unpacks issues sooner rather than later, allowing for more ideation and what ifs rather than getting bogged down in ‘short term ‘can’t do that’ thinking .. and opens the minds to the possibles. Thankyou for the reminders. Excellent as always.
The first. Visualize where you want to go. Your ideation time if you will. Don’t restrict your thinking. What’s the ambition. THEN where are we now .. which should be simpler .. it isn’t .. because a leadership of 10 will have 20 different views of ‘where we are now’ .. so heard the cats, and get to the agreement. Third step ... go back to the future vision and draw the map in reverse .. back to the ‘where are we now’ consensus.
If you start at current reality, I find the conversation stalls too quickly,we can’t do that because .. in reverse you get the same gaps .. but the ‘next previous’ step is to include a plan to overcome that gap.
This is a good framework and I obviously agree with the underlying rationale.
A caveat I'd like to point out is that we need to tweak some of the nuances based on the size of the company we're dealing with.
A small, agile start-up will (should? maybe?) have almost no friction in going the direction you articulate.
A big elephant (the type that has "old-man balls vibe" as you guys say... You know who!!) will have a hard time shifting. Budget fights are always going to be there.
But... not everything's lost.
I find there are ways to inject this type of thinking even in mammoth organizations and go bottom up - eg, take a "responsive" business unit and test the mindshift there.
You're right, there are differences (and different struggles) depending on the company size.
Start-ups are typically more flexible, but you'd be surprised how quickly group thinking can take hold of a small team. And if the thinking isn't focused on the category or the CEO falls too in love with features...try stopping that train.
If you don't have access to the top leaders in a mammoth org, which makes category design tough, you can work your way in through an open-minded team. Marketing + Finance is a good place to start, especially if you can get them to team up.
Getting really strong Seth Godin vibes from this one. Reminds me of his earlier work on Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside talking about edge crafting and pushing things to the edge to stand out in a competitive market.
Pushing your thinking to the edge is crucial for this one. Glad you enjoyed it, Richard
✅ my only nuance is to do number 2 then number 1 so that when you get to number three you map in reverse. I find that this unpacks issues sooner rather than later, allowing for more ideation and what ifs rather than getting bogged down in ‘short term ‘can’t do that’ thinking .. and opens the minds to the possibles. Thankyou for the reminders. Excellent as always.
Appreciate it, John. Curious, do you mean reversing "Where are we now and where do we want to go?" Or "What makes us special and how special is it?"
Always interested in what works for other people vs what we've seen.
The first. Visualize where you want to go. Your ideation time if you will. Don’t restrict your thinking. What’s the ambition. THEN where are we now .. which should be simpler .. it isn’t .. because a leadership of 10 will have 20 different views of ‘where we are now’ .. so heard the cats, and get to the agreement. Third step ... go back to the future vision and draw the map in reverse .. back to the ‘where are we now’ consensus.
If you start at current reality, I find the conversation stalls too quickly,we can’t do that because .. in reverse you get the same gaps .. but the ‘next previous’ step is to include a plan to overcome that gap.
This is a good framework and I obviously agree with the underlying rationale.
A caveat I'd like to point out is that we need to tweak some of the nuances based on the size of the company we're dealing with.
A small, agile start-up will (should? maybe?) have almost no friction in going the direction you articulate.
A big elephant (the type that has "old-man balls vibe" as you guys say... You know who!!) will have a hard time shifting. Budget fights are always going to be there.
But... not everything's lost.
I find there are ways to inject this type of thinking even in mammoth organizations and go bottom up - eg, take a "responsive" business unit and test the mindshift there.
Food for thoughts.
You're right, there are differences (and different struggles) depending on the company size.
Start-ups are typically more flexible, but you'd be surprised how quickly group thinking can take hold of a small team. And if the thinking isn't focused on the category or the CEO falls too in love with features...try stopping that train.
If you don't have access to the top leaders in a mammoth org, which makes category design tough, you can work your way in through an open-minded team. Marketing + Finance is a good place to start, especially if you can get them to team up.
Arrrr to your thinking here.