Shipulski On Design

Show customers what’s possible. Then listen.

The best projects are small until they’re not.

Today’s location before tomorrow’s destination.

The best idea requires the least effort.

Ready, fire, aim is better than ready, aim, aim, aim.

Be certain about the uncertainty.

Do so you can discuss.

Put it on one page.

Fail often, but call it learning.

Current state before future state.

Say no now to say yes later.

Effectiveness over efficiency.

Finish one to start one.

Demonstrate before asking.

Sometimes slower is faster.

Build trust before you need it.

“Yin & Yang martini” by AMagill is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Choose the right project. When you say yes to a new project, all the focus is on the incremental revenue the project will generate and none of the focus is on unrealized incremental revenue from the projects you said no to. Next time there’s a proposal to start a new project, ask the team to describe the two or three most compelling projects that they are asking the company to say no to.  Grounding the go/no-go decision within the context of the most compelling projects will help you avoid the real backbreaker where you consume all your product development resources on something that scratches the wrong itch while you prevent those resources from creating something magical.

Choose what to improve. Give your customers more of what you gave them last time unless what you gave them last time is good enough. Once goodness is good enough, giving customers more is bad business because your costs increase but their willingness to pay does not.  Once your offering meets the customers’ needs in one area, lock it down and improve a different area.

Choose how to staff the projects.  There is a strong temptation to run many projects in parallel.  It’s almost like our objective is to maximize the number of active projects at the expense of completing them.  Here’s the thing about projects – there is no partial credit for partially completed projects.  Eight active projects that are eight (or eighty) percent complete generate zero revenue and have zero commercial value.  For your most important project, staff it fully.  Add resources until adding more resources would slow the project.  Then, for your next most important project, repeat the process with your remaining resources.  And once a project is completed, add those resources to the pool and start another project.  This approach is especially powerful because it prioritizes finishing projects over starting them.

“Three Cows” by Sunfox is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Do you believe in yourself?

Belief in yourself manifests in your actions.  What do your actions say about your belief in yourself?

Belief in yourself doesn’t mean everything will work out perfectly.  It means that you’ll be okay regardless of how things turn out.

When you see someone that doesn’t believe in themselves, how do you feel? And what do you do?

And when that someone is you, how do you feel? And what do you do?

When someone believes in you more than you do, do you believe them?

You reach a critical threshold when your belief in yourself can withstand others’ judgment of you.

When you believe in yourself, you don’t define yourself by what others think of you.

When you love yourself more, you believe in yourself more.

If you had a stronger belief in yourself, what would you do differently?

Try this.  Make a list of three things you’d do differently if you had a stronger belief in yourself.  Then, find one of those special people that believe in you and show them your list.  And whatever they say about your list, believe them.

Image credit — ajari

When you see something, do you care enough to say something?

If you disagree, do you care enough to say it out loud?

When the emperor has no clothes, do you care enough to hand them a cover-up?

Cynicism is grounded in caring.  Do you care enough to be cynical?

Agreement without truth is not agreement.  Do you care enough to disagree?

Violation of the status quo creates conflict.  Do you care enough to violate?

If you care, speak your truth.

“Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa)” by Bernard Spragg is marked with CC0 1.0.

Nothing changes unless there’s a problem.

In fact, without a problem, there can be no solution.

One of the devious ways to solve your problem is to create conditions for others to think it’s their problem.

Shame on you if you try to get me to solve your problem.

And shame on me if I try to solve your problem.

The best way for the problem to find its rightful owner is to leave the problem unsolved.

But leaving the problem unsolved also increases the pressure on all the innocent non-owners that work near the problem.

Leaving the problem unsolved is like a game of chicken, where the person who flinches first loses.

No one can give you their problem without your consent, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

So, when someone tries to give you their problem, put your hands in your pockets.

Leaving the problem unsolved isn’t a sign of non-caring, it’s a sign of higher-level caring.

Leaving the problem unsolved is the only way to pressure the company into the higher-level (and unpleasant) organizational learning of who is not solving their own problems.

“Prepare for Squirting” by Wootang01 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

As geopolitical pressures rise, some countries that supply the parts that make up your products may become nonviable.  What if there was a way to reinvent the supply chain and move it to more stable regions?  And what if there was a way to guard against the use of child labor in the parts that make up your product? And what if there was a way to shorten your supply chain so it could respond faster? And what if there was a way to eliminate environmentally irresponsible materials from your supply chain?

Our supply chains source parts from countries that are less than stable because the cost of the parts made in those countries is low.  And child labor can creep into our supply chains because the cost of the parts made with child labor is low.  And our supply chains are long because the countries that make parts with the lowest costs are far away.  And our supply chains use environmentally irresponsible materials because those materials reduce the cost of the parts.

The thing with the supply chains is that the parts themselves govern the manufacturing processes and materials that can be used, they dictate the factories that can be used and they define the cost.  Moving the same old parts to other regions of the world will do little more than increase the price of the parts.  If we want to radically reduce cost and reinvent the supply chain, we’ve got to reinvent the parts.

There are methods that can achieve radical cost reduction and reinvent the supply chain, but they are little known.  The heart of one such method is a functional model that fully describes all functional elements of the system and how they interact.  After the model is complete, there is a straightforward, understandable, agreed-upon definition of how the product functions which the team uses to focus the go-forward design work.  And to help them further, the method provides guidelines and suggestions to prioritize the work.

I think radical cost reduction and more robust supply chains are essential to a company’s future.  And I am confident in the ability of the methods to deliver solid results.  But what I don’t know is: Is the need for radical cost reduction strong enough to cause companies to adopt these methods?

“Zen” by g0upil is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

What does work look like when you prioritize your happiness?

When it’s announced that open positions will not be backfilled to meet the practical realities of a recession, you reduce the scope of your projects and push out their completion dates to match the reduction in resources. And the impact on your career?  I don’t know, but the people that work for you and everyone else that knows how the work is done will move mountains for you.

Under the banner of standard work, you are given the same task as the one you just completed.  Sure, you can do it efficiently and effectively, but if you do that same work one more time, your brain will fall off.  So, instead of doing it yourself, you give the work to a lesser-experienced person who is worthy of investment and help them get the work done.  They get to learn new skills and the work is done well because you keep them on the straight and narrow. And you get to be a teacher and create a future leader that the company will need in a couple of years.  And the downside?  The work takes a little longer, but so what.

What does work look like when you prioritize your health?

When an extra-early meeting is scheduled because everyone’s regular day is already fully booked with meetings, you decline the meeting so you can get the recommended amount of sleep recommended by the health professionals.  And the negative consequences to your career progression?  Well, that’s a choice for your company.

When you get home from work, you disconnect your phone from the company network so you won’t be distracted by work-related interruptions.  Because you separated yourself from work, after dinner is cleaned up you can make a healthy lunch for tomorrow.  If there’s some downside risk to your career, find another company to work for.

What does work look like when you prioritize your family?

When an extra-late meeting is scheduled because everyone’s regular day is already fully booked with meetings, you decline the meeting so you can cook dinner and eat with your family.  The conversation with the kids is mundane and meaningful and ten years from now they’ll be better for it. And the negative consequences?  None, because tomorrow morning you can read the minutes of the meeting.

When you’re on your yearly holiday with your family and your boss calls your cell phone to ask you to come back to work early to deal with an emergency, you don’t answer the call and let it go to voicemail.  Then, when you get back to the office after vacation, you listen to the voicemail and check in with your boss.  And because you didn’t pick up the call, someone else had greatness thrust upon them and developed into someone who can solve emergencies.  Now there are two of you.  And the downside?  Well, I think that depends on your boss.

“Looking For Clues (188 / 365)” by somegeekintn is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Breaking up work into small chunks can be a good way to get things started.  Because the scope of each chunk is small, the cost of each chunk is small making it easier to get approval to do the work.  The chunk approach also reduces anxiety around the work because if nothing comes from the chunk, it’s not a big deal because the cost of the work is so low.  It’s a good way to get started, and it’s a good way to do a series of small chunks that build on each other.  But what happens when the chunks are successful and it’s time to scale up the investment by a factor of several hundred thousand or a million?

The scaling scenario.  When the early work (the chunks) was defined an agreement in principle was created that said the larger investment would be made in a timely way if the small chunks demonstrated the viability of a whole new offering for your customers.  The result of this scenario is a large investment is allocated quickly, resources flow quickly, and the scaling work begins soon after the last chunk is finished. This is the least likely scenario.

The more chunks scenario. When the chunks were defined, everyone was excited that the novel work had actually started and there was no real thought about the resources required to scale it into something meaningful and material.  Since the resources needed to scale were not budgeted, the only option to keep things going is to break up the work into another series of small chunks.  Though the organization sees this as progress, it’s not.  The only thing that can deliver the payout the organization needs is to scale up the work.  The follow-on chunks distract the company and let it think there is progress, when, really, there is only delayed scaling.

The scale next year scenario.  When the chunks were defined, no one thought about scaling so there was no money in the budget to scale.  A plan and cost estimate are created for the scaling work and the package waits to be assessed as part of the annual planning process.  And as the waiting happens, the people that did the early work (the chunks) move on to other projects and are not available to do the scaling work even if the work gets funded next year.  And because the work is new it requires new infrastructure, new resources, new teams, new thinking, and maybe a new company.  All this newness makes the price tag significant and it may require more than one annual planning cycle to justify the expense and start the work.

Scaling a new invention into a full-sized business is difficult and expensive, but if you’re looking to create radical growth, scaling is the easiest and least expensive way to go.

“100 Dollar Bills” by Philip Taylor PT is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

When you spend time with a group in person, you get to know them in ways that can’t be known if you spend time with them using electronic means.  When meeting in person, you can tell when someone says something that’s difficult for them.  And you can also tell when that difficulty is fake.  When using screens, those two situations look the same, but, in person, you know they are different. There’s no way to quantify the value of that type of discernment, but the value borders on pricelessness.

When people know you see them as they really are, they know you care.  And they like that because they know your discernment requires significant effort.  Sure, at first, they may be uncomfortable because you can see them as they are, but, over time, they learn that your ability to see them as they are is a sign of their importance.  And there’s no need to call this out explicitly because all that learning comes as a natural byproduct of meeting in person.

And the game changes when people know you see them (and accept them) for who they are. The breadth of topics that can be discussed becomes almost limitless.  Personal stories flow; family experiences bubble to the surface; misunderstandings are discussed openly; vulnerable thoughts and feelings are safely expressed; and trust deepens.

I think we’ve forgotten the power of working together in person, but it only takes three days of in-person project work to help us remember.  If you have an important project deliverable, I suggest you organize a three-day, in-person event where a small group gets together to work on the deliverable.  Create a formal agenda where it’s 50% work and 50% not work.  (I’ve found that the 50% not work is the most valuable and productive.)  Make it focused and make it personal.  Cook food for the group. Go off-site to a museum. Go for a hike.  And work hard.  But, most importantly, spend time together.

Things will be different after the three-day event.  Sure, you’ll make progress on your project deliverable, but, more importantly, you’ll create the conditions for the group to do amazing work over the next five years.

“Elephants Amboseli” by blieusong is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

If there’s no problem, there can be no solution.

If there’s no dissatisfaction, there can be no change.

If there’s no caring, there can be no disagreement, though there can be arguments.

If there is a wanting for things to be different, there can be no happiness, though there will be suffering.

If there’s no room for objection, there’s no contract for meeting objectives.

If there’s a truth untold, there can be no closeness.

If there’s no self-love, there can be no perseverance.

If there is no uncertainty, there can be no learning.

If there is no humility, there can be no change.

If there’s no tolerance for unpredictability, there can be no novelty.

If there’s no inefficiency, there is no adaptability.

If there’s no slack, there’s no room for creativity.

If there’s no room for judgment, there is no trust.

If there’s no trust, there’s no future.

“Gaps” by Mr Moss is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Before you decide which project to start, decide which project you’ll stop.

The best way to stop a project is to finish it.  The next best way is to move the resources to a more important project.

If you find yourself starting before finishing, stop starting and start finishing.

People’s output is finite. Adding a project that violates their human capacity will not result in more completed projects but will cause your best people to leave.

If people’s calendars are full, the only way to start something new is to stop something old.

If you start more projects than you finish, you’re stopping projects before they’re finished.  You’re probably not stopping them in an official way, rather, you’re letting them wither and die a slow death.  But you’re definitely stopping them.

When you start more projects than you finish, the number of active projects increases.  And without a corresponding increase in resources, fewer projects are completed.

The best way to reduce the number of projects you finish is to start new projects.

Make a list of the projects that you stopped over the last year.  Is it a short list?

Make a list of projects that are understaffed and under-resourced yet still running in the background.  Is that list longer?

A rule to live by: If a project is understaffed, staff it or stop it.

If you can’t do that, reduce the scope to fit the resources or stop it.

Would you prefer to complete one project at a time or do three simultaneously and complete none?

When it comes to stopping projects, it’s stopped or it isn’t.  There’s no partial credit for talking about stopping a project.

If you want to learn if a project is worthy of more resources, stop the project.  If the needed resources flow to the project, the project is worthy.  If not, at least you stopped a project that shouldn’t have been started.

People don’t like working on projects where the work content is greater than the resources to do the work.  These projects are a major source of burnout.

If you know you have too many projects, everyone else knows it too.  Stop the weakest projects or your credibility will suffer.

“Circus Renz Berlin, Holland 2011” by dirkjanranzijn is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.