Another application for discovery driven planning: Business Intelligence Projects
One of the neat things about discovery driven planning is watching how it has become popular with quite a large set of consultants, venture managers, entrepreneurs and other people for whom conventional planning is just not working.
I was therefore interested to see a consultancy (Coded Vision Consulting) blog about their approach to discovery driven planning in pursuing business intelligence projects. Essentially, they argue that projects such as those that can’t produce a definable ROI calculation are often hard to justify under conventional planning, but which make a lot of sense for the corporate long term.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 24, 2008
Discovery Driven Planning: A lesson by a marketing consultant
One explanation for somewhat sparse postings these days is that I’m busy completing our new book, Discovery Driven Growth. Can’t say too much about it (publishers get irate) but in the course of researching the book, I’ve run across a number of different takes on the Discovery Driven Planning idea, and thought for those of you with an interest in the topic that it might be a service to note them here.
So, herewith, a description of a discovery driven plan for the everlastingly interesting widget company from consultant Sunil Sharma..
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 20, 2008
Discovery Driven Planning: Learning from failures and disappointments at Lululemon
I was browsing through this week’s edition of Business Week when I ran across a great story as part of their 50 fast-growth companies series. The story is about Lululemon, a retailer that has grown in the high double (and even triple) digits, and had an initial public offering last year that raised $344 milion. It focuses with incredible emphasis on the right products for doing yoga, and has built a great business model including converting yoga instructors in local communities before setting up shop there.
What caught my eye in reading the article was a note about how their new CEO plans to keep herself informed and aware of what’s going on. One practice is that all employees (right up to the CEO) are required to spend at least eight hours a month working in their stores—my readers will know that I’ve blogged before about how companies unintentially isolate their CEO’s from information that could be vital to making decisions. So the incoming CEO of this outfit literally gets on her hands and knees and hems yoga pants!
The other practice that I thought was really insightful was to regularly have breakfast with regular employees and ask them the question “What’s the most idiotic thing we did in the last 60 days?” Imagine if you had all that self-correcting, in-the-moment insight going right to the top in your companies—it sure might stop a lot of mistakes while they are still little.
Such practices are completely in the spirit of discovery driven planning - recognize the reality versus your assumptions about it, fess up and make changes while there is still time.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on June 02, 2008
Building a Discovery Driven Plan: What are the typical assumptions?
I’m often asked to give people a checklist of assumptions that they can use to get started developing a discovery driven plan. Here are some of the most critical:
What is my profit model?
- Have I really thought through my unit of business (what I sell)?
- Have I thought through how my business is going to run - cost, asset, and revenue architectures?
- What assumptions am I making about major obstacles and the likelihood of breaking through them
Who are my customers?
- Who will be buying and why? Can you name them (your ‘first five’ sales)?
- What will produce or reduce resistance to buying?
- How do customers from different market segments behave differently?
- Market growth rate?
- How will the customer be accessed (distribution?)
- How many potential customers must I contact before one agrees to buy?
What about my offer will make a compelling difference in the marketplace?
- Functional characteristics relative to market’s need
- Cost and quality
- Entire ecosystem in place - or can be put together
- Service requirements and costs
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 16, 2008
New Social Networking site - the Mistake Bank
The Mistake Bank is a fascinating new social network concept introduced by John Caddell, a one-time telecom corporate type and now a consultant helping companies become more innovative. The idea behind the network is to help people benefit from one anothers’ mistakes and disappointments and to foster a spirit of ‘lessons learned.’
For a long time, I’ve noted that until we get better and learning from intelligent failures, we’re doomed to repeat them. Resources such as this site can only help!
Relatedly, the presence of the social network also takes advantage of another innovation, sparked by upstart Ning. As reported in a recent Fast Company article, Ning has a viral component to it that poises it for explosive growth.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 09, 2008
