» Strategy is a coherent set of choices about what we’re going to do to achieve our vision
» Negotiating estimates ultimately leads to disappointment — it will still take as long as it was going to
» The necessary conditions for any behaviour to be enacted include capability, opportunity, and motivation
» If context is continually changing, aim for incremental progress and let go of perfectionism
» Balance the need for action with the drive to understand both the problem and your biases
» Change is like a sledge stuck in the ice: hard to get moving, but easier to keep moving once freed
» Navigating change is hard because we don’t want to be seen as villains
» Don’t simply cut-and-paste another company’s organisational model without understanding the context
» Consider how the members of your team will understand the change, embrace it, and work through it
» Make small changes and embrace experimentation
» People may have a sincere commitment to change, while also unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment.
» Extreme situations can build extreme understanding and can also push people apart
» Does our current worldview limit the way we think about organisations?
Remember how jarring change can be for people and actively work to soften the impact for them.
July’s ProductTank London brought us three experts in making change happen. Take a look at the recap I wrote over on Mind the Product’s blog.
Product managers are full of contradictions: if we’re not busting a gut to launch something, we’re trying to kill our older products off.
How much would you invest to prevent a mass customer exodus? Everything Everywhere, the merged T-Mobile / Orange behemoth, was happy to spend £150 per customer to shore up its customer base following the post-merger restructuring.
What did it gain? A reduction in monthly churn from 1.7% to 1.3%, significant given their customers number well into the millions, plus an additional 300,000 customers locked into long-term contracts in place of short-term pre-pay contracts.
