1 sentence for a strategy?
I wrote a draft of the strategy document for IxDA new community
platform
and it was 6 pages. It starts with the context, moves quickly
through the
value and purpose of the organization and then breaks the strategy
into 3
major themes with objectives, goals, representative projects and
metrics by
which to measure success/failure. I don't know how kosher it is to
share
that strategy document - but I am rather certain that it's a
balls-to-the-wall stellar document the likes of which would make
Porter
himself green with envy and kneel down to kiss my ring.
~ will
"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
and what you innovate are design problems"
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Will Evans | User Experience Architect
tel: +1.617.281.1281 | [email protected]
http://blog.semanticfoundry.com
aim: semanticwill
gtalk: semanticwill
twitter: semanticwill
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On Jan 5, 2009, at 12:30 PM, Christina Wodtke wrote:
Andrew, this is easily the smartest post on the topic. These
questions are
ones I also had to work through so I could step into my current
role which
involves shaping strategy. I'm a book person. some books I found
invaluable
in this journey
'What the CEO Wants You to Know'
'Strategy Safari'
'Four steps to Epiphany' (particularly recommended)
'Innovator's Dilemma'
I also found Art of the Start useful for entrepreneurship.
The SVPG.com blog is terrific for seeing the other side of product
design.
This post in particular, speaks to your first question
http://www.svpg.com/blog/files/assessing_product_opportunities.html
"1. Exactly what problem will this solve? (value proposition)
2. For whom do we solve that problem? (target market)
3. How big is the opportunity? (market size)
4. What alternatives are out there? (competitive landscape)
5. Why are we best suited to pursue this? (our differentiator)
6. Why now? (market window)
7. How will we get this product to market? (go-to-market strategy)
8. How will we measure success/make money from this product?
(metrics/revenue strategy)
9. What factors are critical to success? (solution requirements)
10. Given the above, what's the recommendation? (go or no-go)"
I actually printed this and hung it on my cube, I think it's so
important.
Pricing is a black art. I spent a ton of time researching it, and
it's
quite
difficult. Chris Anderson's latest Wired article on Free though,
sheds some
light on how to make free work.
As for the last question, at LinkedIn it does get boiled down to a
sentence.
I've long been a fan of memes, because you can carry them around
with you.
I
think if strategy is not put into the form of a meme, it can't be
internalized and executed by the entire company, and thus can't be
executed
at all.
On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Andrew Otwell
<[email protected]> wrote:
So when I ask, what should interaction designers know about strategy?
You respond...
The other answers seemed to focus on strategy for a design firm
("how do we
get and retain more and better clients") or strategy for selling
design to
clients ("how do we convince clients to value our services more?")
I don't
think that's what Dan's asking for here, and IMO those topics
don't belong
in an introductory primer to IxD. Those are also topics that have
been
covered in depth by the consulting industry in general.
Here are some things I've either always wondered about, or learned
about
only through osmosis or just asking a lot of dumb questions:
- How is it that a great idea for a product or service might not be
appropriate for a company at a certain point, or at all? Or, how
does
strategy think about complementary products or ideas?
- How are competitors analyzed? What characteristics of
competition might
suggest a product or service would be successful, or fail?
- How are markets determined? When is it best to be a first-mover
vs.
fast follower vs. "best of breed"?
- What does pricing have to do with all of this? Pricing is a
serious
black art (some might say "shot in the dark"), but when does free
vs.
cheap
vs. expensive matter, and what are the advantages of each?
- How are ideas and innovations worked into an overall strategy?
Often
"strategy" seems to mean "we have a great idea for Widget 2.0",
but how
does
strategy affect the less-tangible process of innovation and
development
inside a company? How is the sausage made?
- Finally and perhaps most importantly: what does "a strategy"
look like?
Is it a diagram? A narrative document? A phrase that the CEO
repeats at
every chance? A spreadsheet of numbers? None of these? Most of
the time,
when you ask "and how does this fit into the overall strategy",
there's
not
going to be a plain-language answer. In the absence of clarity,
what do
you
look for to figure out what the strategy is?
Andrew
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