1. From Procedure to Prompt
Artificial intelligence occupies an important space in the backlogs of every team. Many companies are experimenting with how to leverage AI in their business. Some are trying to integrate it into digital products, not only to offer a premium advantage to their users, but because it is now necessary to reach the market baseline.
However, I see that there is so much concern about how to use AI to change products, but little about how to use AI to change the way people work-there may be a greater impact here.
You know how important I think it is to document work and distribute knowledge throughout the organization as quickly as possible to increase results, cycle after cycle.
The Knowledge Base becomes a collection of the best “recipes” for success. At any time, anyone can access it and find the operational description to perform a task in the best possible way.
Some software, such as Notion, offers virtual assistants capable of supporting each person in the account, using the information present. It is possible to ask for assistance with projects and procedures already entered, facilitating the onboarding of new members or the completion of processes. However, this works mainly in business-as-usual, that is, repeating established processes.
But what happens when we have to create something new? If one part of the company works on replicating what works, the other part is dedicated to creating novelty. For example, think about the amount of marketing materials needed to stand out in the market.
At STRTGY we have created GPTs that amplify people’s skills and accelerate the completion of creative tasks. For example, we have one GPT to create illustrations consistent with our style and another to write copy for advertising and personalized emails to clients and prospects.
The call is for the Knowledge Base to be enriched not only with checklists and procedures written with experience but also with a collection of prompts that will help everyone achieve good results with artificial intelligence (AI).
Starting with the leadership that can use ChatGPT as support in strategy work. On this topic you can read about when Ireverse engineered the Sanremo Festival strategy and wrote the Amadeus OKRs (including the prompts I used).
The combination of business as usual and the creative possibilities of AI are like nitroglycerin for an enterprise that wants to generate explosive growth.
The use of artificial intelligence is not only an opportunity to accelerate processes, but also to integrate knowledge that could otherwise be gained only by hiring the best talent-something not everyone is in a position to do.
For the first time in the history of business, it is possible to have a mix of expertise from inside and outside the organization in real time and at no cost!
2. A business so simple that working seems like playing
I have recently worked with two different teams that share the commonality of having built success through the dedication and commitment of the founders and having reached a growth limit due to inefficiencies and confusion in their operating model. The two teams are adopting the tools of MAKE PROGRESS.
For both, a crucial moment was the identification of the North Star Metric. This single issue has made it possible to simplify business and renew enthusiasm in daily work. You may wonder how it is possible for a single issue to bring about these results. I would like to explain this phenomenon, hoping it will have the same effect in your business.
Team 1
The first team is a start-up that began working independently on implementing its North Star Metric (NSM) by adopting a wrong model.
Sometimes people look for inspiration in models such as Spotify or other famous companies, without considering that these work only under particular conditions and for specific types of products. With an unsuitable model, you risk using inappropriate tools and making bad decisions.
This team was losing confidence in their ability to grow as NSM, after all their efforts, was not moving as desired. A meeting with the founders in which we talked about their story revealed that the North Star Metric they were following was wrong.
We worked together to identify a correct one, one that would accurately describe the dynamics of the business and allow its evolution to be optimized.
This discovery was a breakthrough moment: the new model numerically describes the entire business execution and enables realignment of internal processes to support NSM optimization.
They identified inefficiencies, resources, and new levers for scalability. By updating the strategy documents with the new NSM, they regained confidence and strength in pursuing the project with enthusiasm!
Team 2
The second team leads a historic and profitable company, but they too have encountered a limitation in growth due to the layering of different products into their business model. Until now, these products were managed with unique processes and modes of operation, almost as if they were separate businesses within the same organization.
The turning point for them was to connect the Vision, Mission and North Star in a coherent way. Before our intervention, the team was suffering from a kind of “executive schizophrenia.”
Because of the work we have done together, each team member now feels connected to the Mission and motivated to achieve the Vision through their own efforts.
2 lectures
The members of both teams understood that:
- when you look at business from the perspective of numbers, everything becomes easier to understand and execute
- there is a new energy in the company because when the game is simpler it becomes easier to win: everyone can contribute to the success of the whole company because they move the same number.
3. Where to start if you are short on time?
I would like to close this newsletter with a question that has probably also surfaced in your mind, “With so many tools at MAKE PROGRESS, where to start if time is limited?”
Simple: from the Growth Machine.
The purpose of the Growth Machine is to speed up the execution of the strategy as much as possible by focusing on a few precise effects that executed in sequence allow a composite effect to be enjoyed.
Why is it important? because the individual gears are the points to which all other elements of strategic execution are connected.
To each gear you can connect:
- people
- processes
- tools
- metrics
- projects.
A practical tip: After reading this note, go into the tools you use to drive your business (such as Notion, ClickUp, Jira, or a simple spreadsheet) and create a new column or optional field with the name of your Growth Machine gear. That way you will have a match between growth theory and practical day-to-day implementation.
All of the tools at MAKE PROGRESS enable you to reduce strategic debt because they solve specific problems that you will need to address sooner or later, such as prioritization, building playbooks, and identifying metrics.
The Growth Machine is the ideal tool to get started quickly. However, my advice is to gradually adapt all the tools, in the right sequence, as soon as you have gained time.
PS: There is a session scheduled on March 18 at 12 noon if you were interested.
