“I call it the existence theorem, Scott, and it makes no sense to learn anything else until you’ve crossed that bridge…”
I was working with the leader of a new team that we had recently acquired as a part of our division. Far from our usual experience with acquisitions, this one was going well. In fact, we were learning a tremendous amount about corporate innovation from each other. We had acquired world-class technology from them. But what I didn’t count on? Gaining a leader that had worked on everything from the Concord to military microwave radios.
It turned out to be a great partnership. I shared all I knew about how to get things done in large international firms and he shared the enormous insights he gained through runway-level innovation work.
The quote above came from a project that we had embarked on that would lay the foundation for much of the work I do today in helping clients avoid implementation landmines. The principle is this: for any innovation, you need to quickly assemble a prototype of the full system as quickly and inexpensively as possible. You may think, “what’s the big deal? We do that with Agile all the time.” Well read on, as this goes deeper and wider than your typical frame.
Macro to Micro
Many firms do a great job with prototyping the technical details of a product or a service but miss that you need to extend that work into at least three domains. These include the traditional product development function, but then need to include production, as well as the most overlooked of all, distribution structure. The secret is not to do this at 30,000 feet, but to do the hard work to trace the whole path through at runway level.
Skipping the early insight from the production and distribution team leads to large mismatches that need to be dealt with when the program needs to scale. There are many, many insight rich projects that never see the light of day because they cannot be produced and (equally importantly) sold and supported.
How do You do This?
You need to walk the path at runway level and check the feasibility of each step. If it’s a physical product, the closer to the exact path you can take with the device all the way to your clients usage is the gold standard approach. Inevitably, you need to “simulate” some portions of the journey, but be very thoughtful when you do. I’ve had little details (like packing materials) push a product release back for days.
Some other examples of things you’ll find on a detailed walk through: the ordering system doesn’t capture all the fields you need, the production equipment cannot accommodate the small or large size of your components, the sales force doesn’t call on the right people and the quality tools don’t work to inspect it.
Is this overwhelming? Yes! Is it key? Yes, again! Momentum is a key component to doing something fresh and new in a firm. Most significant cost overruns can be traced to time delays. Additionally, once you’ve tipped off the market to your offering, your competition is not standing still either. In this age of temporary advantages, market windows will not wait for you.
Risk-Based Tornado Diagram
When you complete this portion of the work, you’ll have a long list of issues and potential issues that needs to be worked. These will begin to sort themselves out naturally, but be wary of using your usual intuition.
At this point, the only valid way to rank order these is not financial, but by risk. This is where the quote above becomes gold…because your large firm genes will push you to stack rank these by financial impact – perhaps cost to fix, purchase price for a new piece of equipment or the staffing cost for a new process. This will quickly take urgency away from the real issues.
What you are looking for here is chasms that simply cannot be crossed.
You need to push these items up to the top of the list and treat them for what they are – extinction level events. If a solution is not found, the program ends.
As an example, in one case of a critical electrical component we had one process that simply couldn’t be done to sufficiently tight tolerances – by anyone or anything. What’s the impact? Well in financial terms, it’s Infinite or binary. No solution, no project.
By using a framework of pushing these to the top of the list, we avoid the number one source of zombie projects, that being working on the stuff we know how to solve while these apocalyptic issues are left with one or two scientific resource to create an invention.
Bringing Your Full Team to the Hardest Hurdles
When we work with groups, we use tools that allow us to do the above quickly and efficiently, exiting with those issues that will kill our project at the top of the list.
We then build world class cross-functional teams to camp out on these issues, usually sequentially moving through a top to bottom tornado diagram until we can be confident of our path. By using the best methods of lateral thinking, both inside and outside the firm, we give these issues the full attention they deserve until they are off the table.
Staff up with Confidence
When this is done well, it allows an acceleration in the backend of the project that always surprises the group and its senior leaders.
Getting ready to kick off a big effort? I’d be happy to help. If you’d like to have a discussion, feel free to give me a call at 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a 20-minute, (no-strings-attached) consult.
