systems thinking our way out of busy work

Systems Thinking Our Way Out How to Work Smart and Overcome Our Addiction to Busy Work

When companies find product market fit they begin to focus less on strategic work and more on tactical problem solving.

Feature requests come from every angle.

There is an endless sea of potential work

We feel good fixing problems.

But this fleeting feeling of accomplishment comes at a great expense

Soon everything seems important

But do our customers really care?

How did we get here?

Findings

● This is a common pattern of people across industries, company sizes, and stages

● Often the smartest people are the most busy

● It is extremely difficult for individuals to break out of the pattern even when they recognized the problem

We need to think bigger than ourselves

● Copier● Printer● Scanner● Fax● Stapler● Magician● Steak Knife● Baby sitter

What problem are you here to solve?

1. our most important features get buried2. sometimes even they don’t work well

when we don’t know the problem

We keep adding and never anything take away.

We never have time to improve the way we work because we’re too busy doing work or cleaning up “Fires”

Building is the easy part of the product development process. Figuring out what to build and how we are going to build it is the hard part.

Ask yourselfAre we measuring success on outcomes?

Do We Work with Clear Measures

of Success?

Ask YourselfAre we aligning work with root problems?

My Boss doesn’t

have a Status

Update

Problem Solution

Write a status

update

Work problems are not the lack of work solutions.

We’re here to solve BIG problems.

We need a logical structure for selecting good work.

We need strategy

We should be able to answer these

Questions

1. What is the most important work?

2. Why should we do it now?

3. How will we know if we are successful?

Step 1: Situation

Complicated = Confusion

Simplify.Focus on the

important details.

Step 2: Intent

Clarify the OverallBusiness Strategy

Step 3: Measurable Value

&Customer Value Business Benefits

Step 4: Constraints

Step 5: Inspect & Adapt

Strategy is NOT a Plan

Strategy transforms our work from a wishlist of problems to something focused and grounded in our understanding of the situation

Build in Feedback

Strategy emerges from experimentation and validated learning

Build in feedback at every level of work design

Build in feedback on work delivery

Measure performance with data (and care)

Set a sustainable pace

Work Smart and value Outcomes over Output

Thanks.