Creating a Bias Towards Action

Presented by Ian Smith

®

Your biggest problem is:

• Product– Spend 90% of your time

• Customers– Spend 10% of your time

• Psychology– The things you believe (true and false)• about yourself• about your product• about your team

Psychology addressed with:

• Process – To force movement

• Measuring– To ensure movement is forward

• Stories– To detect momentum

What we’ll cover:

1. Overview of QuoteWizard2. Our Winter of Discontent3. Breaking with the Past4. What We’ve Learned5. Resources for You6. Questions

Overview of QuoteWizard

• Online Insurance Lead Generation– Buy ads online– Consumers visit and fill out our form– We sell their information to insurance companies– Consumers get multiple, competitive quotes

• Launched in 2006• Located in Pioneer Square• Bootstrapped from 3 to over 80 employees• #3 in our industry

– Selling to All Major Carriers– 5,000+ Agents on our Network

Ian Smith• First Developer to VP of Technology

– First line of code– Built out platform– Hired a team to fix my problems– Focused on our products and strategic relationships

• VP of Operations– Process and Project Management– Evangelism– Data and Analytics– ‘Story Telling’

ismith@quotewizard.comTwitter: @biastoact

Our Culture

• 80 passionate and creative people building great service oriented relationships with consumers, vendors, and customers.

• 80 strong and independently minded personalities pursing the things they think will most likely bring success

Strong year over year growth

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011$0

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

$30,000,000

Our Winter of Discontent

• Hitting a wall• Warning signs of Winter 2011:– 8 companies consolidated down to 3– Unsustainable : traffic sources– Unsustainable : client relationships– Long running projects:

• New Administration Tool : 2 years in the making• Backend Rewrite to .NET: 3 Months Late• FRR Consumer Product : 1 Year to Kill

• Lack of clear vision for where to go next• Personally painful to think about

CEO’s Summary

“I feel like I have a lot of people but nothing is ever getting done.”

Ancient Jewish Proverb

• “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”

• Translation: – If you want a clean barn then you can have a

small farm– It takes oxen to have a big farm– To have oxen you need to be prepared for

sh..

Ancient Jewish Proverb

• “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”

• Translation: – If you want a clean barn then you can have a

small farm– It takes oxen to have a big farm– To have oxen you need to be prepared for

shoveling

Department of Shoveling

• Concerned with being effective• In charge of the “how” of execution• Responsible for unsticking and finding a way forward

• Obsessed with – organization– communication– consistency – discovery

Breaking with the Past

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea

2 Pitch

3 Approval

4 Scoping

5 Development

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch

3 Approval

4 Scoping

5 Development

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval

4 Scoping

5 Development

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping

5 Development

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Living in the Fog of War

Living in the Fog of War

When you are winning:• You think you are better than you really are• You think you are ideas are better than they really are• You repeat your tactics over and over again• You stop learning

When you are losing:• You think you are worse than you really are• You fear new information and judge everything by past success• You retreat and defend your base at all costs• You start learning again

Experience vs Wisdom

“When you lack wisdom you get experience”

“As you get experience you get wisdom”

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate Management votes

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate Management votes

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers Kickoff. Build a team. Objectives, dates, and DRIs set in stone. Tactics aren’t.

5 Development No constraints, all new code

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate Management votes

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers Kickoff. Build a team. Objectives, dates, and DRIs set in stone. Tactics aren’t.

5 Development No constraints, all new code Manage to dates and objectives and results

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate Management votes

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers Kickoff. Build a team. Objectives, dates, and DRIs set in stone. Tactics aren’t.

5 Development No constraints, all new code Manage to dates and objectives and results

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

Understand the health of the project

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing

Reverse Engineering Our Process# Step What we did What we do now

1 Idea Silence – do all the thinking on my own

Have a Prekickoff – put pressure on the idea

2 Pitch Surround myself with allies and oversell

Upgrade from personal to corporate

3 Approval Take anything as a mandate Management votes

4 Scoping Pile on the hitch hikers Kickoff. Build a team. Objectives, dates, and DRIs set in stone. Tactics aren’t.

5 Development No constraints, all new code Manage to dates and objectives and results

6 Deployment Panic, cut features, move dates

Understand the health of the project

7 Follow up Move on to the next big thing Review and Recycle with a Post Mortem

What We’ve Learned

5 insights

Learning #1 : Reorg+Rewrite+Rework = Rewrong

• Developers hate to read code – so they just rewrite it again– 2 Insurance Form rewrites a year– A massive “3rd Times the Charm” 2 year admin rewrite– Ongoing rewrites of tracking, reporting, etc

• Leaders, faced with uncertainty, reorganize– Reorgs are busy work to buy time for circumstances to change or a

new direction to reveal itself

• This is why it is hard to get anything done

Learning #2 : Optimize for failure

• “9 out of 10 projects fail”• 50 cold calls to get 1 sale

• Problem: Failure is the most common result you will find

• Solution: Make failure cheap and optimize so you can identify it, contain it, and keep rolling

Learning #3 : Ideas are debt

• Lots of creative people produce lots of creative ideas• Every idea looks good on the surface• Ideas do not have value• Ideas have negative value• Ideas suck up time, energy, enthusiasm, talent, and focus • Project Accounting:

Stage Value added Balance

Idea -10% -10%

Plan, Scope, Document 11% 1%

Execution 99% 100%

Learning #4 : A bridge is 95% effective

Learning #4 : A bridge is 95% effective

Learning #5 : Business Harder Than Tech

• When I managed tech I noticed:– 2 Weeks to complete a project– Commonly a few days late and buggy

• As I’ve moved to the business side I’ve become aware:– A 2 week tech project can often spend 7 weeks being

debated before approval– It is very hard for business to pick guaranteed success

while tech rarely fails to execute on the work

Summary : Bias Towards Action

• Every organizations natural biases:– Bias towards appearance– Bias towards waiting– Bias towards keeping busy– Bias towards the next great idea– Bias towards huge engineering projects

• Being biased towards action is unnatural and requires:– Intentionality– Good systems– Accountability

ResourcesWe’re hiring!• quotewizard.com/jobs

Twilio is Awesome!

I want to help!• @biastoact• ismith@quotewizard.com• BiasToAct.com

– More content– PreKickoff Template– Kickoff Template– Post Mortem Template

Questions?

State your name, job title and company, and question

Thank You!