Hey, happy Monday!
It is the first note of the year. Of a year that started well.
Last Thursday, the 16th, we met for the first time in Florence, at the Student Hotel. We concretized the first step of our STRTGY Manifesto.
I was really pleased to meet and have confirmation that with STRTGY we can create great value if we join forces.
Different professions, different businesses, different industries but with the same problem, or as we like to look at it, with the same opportunity: bridging the gap between Design, Business and Technology.
We do not have the maps of this journey that we cannot refuse to take. And maybe we don’t need them.
The point is not to have all the same directions; each trip is certainly different for each of us. Innovation on the other hand is arriving before others at a new place, making it welcoming and inviting friends.
The point is to have two basic things for any self-respecting trip: references for orientation and traveling companions.
Tu sei qui
The most important, and certainly the most underestimated, reference point is the starting point.
Maybe it’s because we’ve gotten so used to opening Maps and delegating the answer that when it’s our turn to geolocate, we feel a little lost.
We can change the destination as often as we want. We can give ourselves a new goal, we can move it closer or further away by making it even more ambitious, but the starting point we cannot change.
We could go and talk to managers, however, who have a big problem today: overconfidence. They are super optimistic when it comes to rating the quality of their company’s management even though the data show that there is no relationship between perceived quality, actual quality, and performance. (See the links in the People section and the Moleskine story)
This is why they struggle to get new initiatives off the ground and overestimate the costs of any deviation from standard processes. “We’ve always done it this way.”
We could talk to Designers and Engineers but they are imprisoned in their bubbles. They overestimate their own impact on the business. They have priorities that never meet on any agenda.
We can only complicate things by adding a new layer of DevOps and DesignOps, but the business equation is hard to square.
This is the gap we need to bridge.
Last Thursday we visualized and mapped it on two Cartesian axes. On the x-axis is the ability to be competitive in the market, on the y-axis is the value created. There are only 3 dimensions: People, Processes and Products.
They are the new P’s that set aside, for the moment, the 4 we should all know but can’t align. And we never could if we don’t first strive to align these three qua. People, Processes and Products.
Now before you complain again about the next meeting that you’ve only been delayed enter the Facebook group (request access, it’s private) and download the slides supporting the event. You will find what I called the STRTGY Maturity Index and the exercise we did together to map your organization, your partners, your customers.
Location found. You are here. Now set the destination.
Compagni di viaggio
This is not a trip you can make alone. Yes agreed you could definitely go faster but not very far.
There are no experts and there are no maps. We have said this before.
You need an extended team.
Put at the table – I prefer around the blackboard – all those who are responsible for execution. Because that’s the only thing that matters. The idea is just a multiplier. (In the links you will find a more evolved equation)
To solve the problem you need everyone’s input. Inside and outside the organization. To bring together different skills, backgrounds, tools.
To do this you need to reach a degree of maturity to create a safe space in which to experiment and share information. Quickly.
Design is not the solution because if you do too many AB tests you eventually get a porn site (I heard it on a podcast, it made me laugh, but that’s how it is).
Whatever your extended team starts with People, to challenge Processes and finally use all that data you already have, to build the Products of the future.
It starts here.
Until next time.
