production as strategy - adrian ho

8/4/2019 Production as Strategy - Adrian Ho

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Minn

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Production as strategy.And other contradictions of making modern brands.

May 20, 2011


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Modern brands are defined by what they do.



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Classic model

of a brand.

Built for a mass-media

world.


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Established 2007 to build modern brands.We combine strategy, design and digital expertise. Many of us came from the digital side.



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A tale of two cities.Charles Dickens writing about London and Paris in 1775.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it wasof wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epocit was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Ligh

the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it waswinter of despair, we had everything before us, we had before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were adirect the other way - in short, the period was so far lik

present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisbeing received, for good or for evil, in the superlative decomparison only.


7/71Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

good description of Zeus Jones in 2009.




Closing a hole in

the sales cycle.

Sales often delayed or lost

in the dressing room due to

need for approval.

Go to BP

Peruse the

department

Choose items

to try on

Try on clothes




Closing a hole in

the sales cycle.

Sales often delayed or lost

in the dressing room due to

need for approval.

Do more

Lo

Go to BP

Peruse the

department

Choose items

to try on

Try on clothes


Adjust outfits

Take PB P

Purchase

clothes


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It was our best project of 2009.


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It was our best project of 2009.It was our worst project of 2009.


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What consumed most of our attention.And what ultimately limited our success.


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Surface background alternativesWe spent 3 weeks arguing against yellow, and then we lost.


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What we should have focused onUsing the content, learning about our customers, learning about our clothes.


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We invested all our effort in the least valuabof the experience and none in the most valua


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Things we focused on Things we forgot a

Making it cool

Making it pretty

Stability

Perfecting an object

The customer

The experience

Building it

Making it cheaply

Making it fast

Flexibility

Perfecting a process

The data

The output

Building upon it


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Products and experiences reveal new opportunitusage after they're built.Thats just one of the ways they differ from communications.


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Image via RedDogFever
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reddogfever/http://www.flickr.com/photos/reddogfever/http://www.flickr.com/photos/reddogfever/


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The services we love the most are always in beta


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We needed a modern approach to production thAllows more consistent opportunities for feedback, new ideas, innovation, and iterative progress

Documents ideas, discussions and decisions and makes them available to everyone.


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TraditionalProject

Management

Based on Fredrick Taylor's

"Scientific Management"

written in 1911

Used to scope out

systematic projects that

require up-front planning.


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Traditional project

management framework.

Predictability and systematic, linear development

Deterministic, reductionist approach that rely on task

breakdown

Stable requirements, analysis and stable design

Compliance as a means of project control

Individual resources as interchangeable cogs in the

machine.


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Problems with traditional project management meth

Creates a false sense of security that projects are being managed by exhaustive planning, measuring, an

Adds unnecessary upfront cost and time for planning which in the end will be tested and changed throu

Requires detailed, rigid proposals that are developed at the beginning of a project are written at a point

the most uncertainty.

Does not see participants as skilled and valuable stakeholders in the execution of the project.

Change is seen as a result of poor planning which leads to the perception that the project is failing.

Average percentage of developed


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Traditional project

management creates

inefficiencies.

Fixed price bids/contracts are bad ideas for both

Design/Development companies and the client.

Clients think they are reducing their financial risk

with a fixed bid, but the reality is that it forces them

into a position where their money is almost always

wasted (see figure below). For developers, it almost

always motivates them to reduce the delivered quality

in order to make it within budget and/or time.

Always

Often

Sometimes

Rarely

Never 45

19

16

13

7

Source: Chaos Report v3. Standish Group. Copyright 20

Average percentage of developed actually used when a traditional, lto requirements definition is taken"launched" information technolog


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See, itwas a production problem.


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Agile project

management.

Evolved from the agile

software development

manifesto in 2001 and the

fields of human interaction

management and business

process management.


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Agile project management

frameworks.

Flexibility and dynamic, cyclical development -

Launch with less, evaluate and revise

Focus on Guiding Vision

Change management and communication

Collaboration as a means of project improvement

Employees as skilled and valuable stakeholders


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Projects should and will change during execuWe manage the change to improve the pr


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A fundamental change in how we organize and work

A view of organizations as fluid, adaptive systems composed of intelligent living beings

A recognition of the limits of external control in establishing order, and of the role of intelligent control

organization as a means of establishing order

An overall problem solving approach that is humanistic

It regards employees as skilled and valuable stakeholders in the management of a team instead of cogs i

It relies on the collective ability of autonomous teams as the basic problem solving mechanism.

(2003-2008). Agile Project Management. Retrieved Februar y 9, 2010 , from CC Pace Web site: http://www.ccpace.com/Resou
http://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdfhttp://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdf


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Itlimitsup-frontplanning to a minimubased on an assumption of unpredictability,instead stresses adaptability to changing con


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Turns out it was a strategy problem after al


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We needed a modern approach to strategy.One that limits the number of up-front assumptions made prior to developing a solution.

One that marries strategic development with product development.


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One thatreacts to new opportunities asbecome available and uses them to solve band marketing problems.


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Google even

more.

Help us re-think how we

list our products.


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We started by asking ourselves what can bRather than asking what could be done?


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Design as strategy: audit of product pages.Many product pages have an API that show what people are doing with the product.


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The things people do with products are more intand more descriptive than the products themselStrategy emerged from design.


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A cultural dashboardNew opportunities emerged from production.


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Production as strategy.We made it in 3 weeks, so we only built the things that were quick and easy to build.


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Things we focused on Things we didnt

Making it cheaply

Making it fast

Flexibility

The output

The data

Perfecting a process

Building upon it

Making it cool

Making it pretty

Stability

The experience

The customer

Perfecting an object

Building it



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Execution became a strategic conversawhich made it less subjective and less arbitra


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Production as strategy

frameworks.

Turns client and agency into collaborators, outcomes

are purposefully unclear therefore no side can claim

to have the answer.

No separation between thinking teams and making

teams, thinking doesnt end.

Projects improve as they progress.

Creates a situation where there are often too many

opportunities rather than too few.


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A fundamental change in how strategists work.

Need to get your hands dirty, cant remove yourself from the actual making of things.

Focus on behavioral pivot points rather than mental pivot points.

Build strategy from the ground up rather than from the top down.

Be more aware of what you dont know that what you do know.


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A fundamental change in how producers work.

Think about change as an opportunity instead of something that derails the plan

Create more opportunities for check-ins and collaboration

Develop plans based on duration and resources vs. hours


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Develop strategic processes, not strategicwhose minimum outcomes will meet your obBut which also have the potential to deliver far more.


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Strategic starting points.

1. Whats the desired outcome in order to solve the problem?

2. What needs to happen first in order to achieve our outcome?

3. What can be built quickly to enable that?

4. How can building it deliver enough business value that the problem becomes easier to solve?


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GMI Connect

Help to create a culture of

cross-team and cross

division collaboration at

General Mills


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Collaboration

worksheet

Collaboration activities

Meeting spaces

Rich conversations

Collaborative workspaces

Q&A platf

Identifying pto collaborat

Case study library

Virtual whiteboards

Hard to Accomplish IRL


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Collaboration

worksheet


relative to development

difficulty.

Hard to Build

Easy to Accomplish IRL

Meeting spaces

Rich conversations


Q&A platf

Identifying pto collaborat

Case study library

Virtual whiteboards

Hard to Accomplish IRL


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Collaboration

worksheet


relative to development

difficulty.

Hard to Build

Easy to Accomplish IRL

Meeting spaces

Rich conversations


Q&A platf

Identifying to collabora

Case study library

Virtual whiteboards


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General Mills ConnectCreating a culture of collaboration in the company.


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Connect strategy has been driven by user neuser observation.


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Case Study: Senior Management Conference


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Case Study: Senior Management Conference

Used like twitter to post questions / feedback before & during conference

Presented on displays around campus for virtual attendance

1000+ attendance

Increased attendance, new interactions, new connections

Allowed people to search for conversations after the event

Traditional strategy Modern strategy


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Traditional strategy Modern strategy

Theoretical

Mental models

Prediction

Testing backwards

Monolithic

Results oriented

Reductionist

Practical

Tangible products

Observation

Testing forwards

Iterative

Guided by a vision

Expansionist



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Traditional

strategy builds

traditional

brands.

Strategy for a predictable,

focused outcome.


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Modern

strategy builds

modern brands.

Strategy guided by a vision

and designed to create

complex and surprising

experiences.


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Modern brands connect in a more human way.Production as strategy is a more human way to build brands.


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Minn


Thank you!Questions and workshop.