Anybody seen this stuck up in a cube? Why does this happen?
I put together my first government contract when I was about seven. My mom was in procurement and I sometimes helped her put together contracts that were four or five inches tall.
With all that documentation how things possibly go wrong?
They go wrong because no one reads binders that are five inches tall filled with every important person’s pet requirements.
They go wrong because we don’t know what business/organizational outcomes we’re trying to drive and we haven’t matched them to what the user needs.
And you know they are wrong when more than half of the budget and time for the project are gone and you are stuck delivering something that will hit the market with a thud.
What we need to do is
- Take a user and business outcome driven approach
- Validate early with customers
- Show internal stakeholders instead of telling with huge documents
- Help developers understand the product quickly
- Release often
These are the conversations I have all the time with people and I’m finding that more and more of them are open to making the kind of small bets needed for success, my mission is to support them on their adventures in Lean, Agile, and Design Thinking.
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arwenoreilly/978095362/