Business Roadmap Quotes

The board, in collaboration with management, crafts a strategic roadmap that defines the specific steps required to achieve the vision. This roadmap translates the company's "why" and "when" into a practical "how," outlining key milestones, resource allocation, and performance metrics.

Vision is the "what" – the aspirational picture of the organization's future. Strategy is the "how" – the roadmap outlining the steps to reach that vision.

Perfection, in the form of a flawless stream of words delivered with cool composure, is never as persuasive as realness. An impassioned but imperfect speech, which shows you care too much to hide flaws, is far more compelling.

Being in charge of your work life doesn't mean you always move with assurance and sublime self-confidence; it means you keep moving, continuing on your own path, even when you feel shaky and uncertain.

Finally, it's all about solving problems, not implementing features. Conventional product roadmaps are all about output. Strong teams know it's not only about implementing a solution. They must ensure that solution solves the underlying problem. It's about business results.

A “roadmap” is simply a plan for moving or transitioning, from one state to another. A roadmap provides the direction to the future.

Unlocking individual change starts and ends with the mental maps people carry in their heads-how they see the organization and their jobs.

Business coaches tell you to be yourself and let yourself shine through your business. But to be yourself, you have to know yourself.

Set your goals from a place of gratitude and watch how quickly you reach them.

Product requirements conversations must then be grounded in business outcomes: what are we trying to achieve by building this product? This rule holds true for design decisions as well. Success criteria must be redefined and roadmaps must be done away with. In their place, teams build backlogs of hypotheses they’d like to test and prioritize them based on risk, feasibility, and potential success.

Here's what I believe is sexy at work: being strong and committed and confident, being precisely who you are and in hot pursuit of the goals and ideas you believe in so much they captivate and inspire others.

The most common mistake you'll make is forgetting to keep your own scorecard. Very little at work reinforces your ability to do this, so you will have to be vigilant. When evaluators give you an assessment, they are just guessing at who you are; they certainly are not the ones who know your potential. They can rate you and influence you, but they don't get to define you. That's your most honorable assignment: to define, every day through the way you deliver your work, the scope and nature of your inherent abilities.

The sadistic creep knows his stare is making my skin crawl. He relishes the fact. Guys like him? Surely college will be a short blip on the roadmap of his life, a pit stop on the way to bullying co-workers, business partners, and probably women. This guy? He’s a douchebag—one with a capital D.

The accession of not one but three illegal drug users in a row to the US presidency constitutes an existential challenge to the prohibitionist regime. The fact that some of the most successful people of our time, be it in business, finances, politics, entertainment or the arts, are current or former substance users is a fundamental refutation of its premises and a stinging rebuttal of its rationale. A criminal law that is broken at least once by 50% of the adult population and that is broken on a regular basis by 20% of the same adult population is a broken law, a fatally flawed law. How can a democratic government justify a law that is consistently broken by a substantial minority of the population? What we are witnessing here is a massive case of civil disobedience not seen since alcohol prohibition in the 1930 in the US. On what basis can a democratic system justify the stigmatization and discrimination of a strong minority of as much as 20% of its population?

Resolving to influence and persuade others will require a degree of personal passion and a depth of caring that you are willing to express and act on. I can tell you this: it will make you feel very vulnerable. The only antidote is to believe you are after a worthwhile change and that you are likely to be the right one to lead this particular charge.

What would it be like to wake up every day and do exactly what you want to do? What would it feel like to not owe anyone else a dime? What would it feel like to have the abundant time to devote to your spouse, children, and friends? On top of that, you have a healthy lifestyle, free to exercise without trying to find the time and to eat well without trying to find the money. Phase IV is when an unexpected setback is like driving over a pebble when it used to be like driving into a ditch. You don’t have to work as much, but you do because you want to grow, help others, and contribute. It makes you feel alive. You can’t see the difference between working and playing.

The appropriate milestones measuring a startup’s progress answer these questions: How well do we understand what problems customers have? How much will they pay to solve those problems? Do our product features solve these problems? Do we understand our customers’ business? Do we understand the hierarchy of customer needs? Have we found visionary customers, ones who will buy our product early? Is our product a must-have for these customers? Do we understand the sales roadmap well enough to consistently sell the product? Do we understand what we need to be profitable? Are the sales and business plans realistic, scalable, and achievable? What do we do if our model turns out to be wrong?

There was little effort to conceal this method of doing business. It was common knowledge, from senior managers and heads of research and development to the people responsible for formulation and the clinical people. Essentially, Ranbaxy’s manufacturing standards boiled down to whatever the company could get away with. As Thakur knew from his years of training, a well-made drug is not one that passes its final test. Its quality must be assessed at each step of production and lies in all the data that accompanies it. Each of those test results, recorded along the way, helps to create an essential roadmap of quality. But because Ranbaxy was fixated on results, regulations and requirements were viewed with indifference. Good manufacturing practices were stop signs and inconvenient detours. So Ranbaxy was driving any way it chose to arrive at favorable results, then moving around road signs, rearranging traffic lights, and adjusting mileage after the fact. As the company’s head of analytical research would later tell an auditor: “It is not in Indian culture to record the data while we conduct our experiments.

The product strategy describes how the long-term goal is attained; it includes the product’s value proposition, market, key features, and business goals. The product roadmap shows how the product strategy is put into action by stating specific releases with dates, goals, and features.

What is my motivation for writing this? I’m tired of seeing so many people struggle. I’m frustrated at seeing so many kids coming out of college without even the basic skills for living a free life for themselves. I’m fed up watching so many parents in a stage of utter exhaustion, wondering what happened to their life after believing that following the rules we were all taught would lead them to success rather than the road to nowhere. I’m sad watching so many of us in our thirties and forties miss out on precious time with our families by drowning in meaningless work, and then finding relief inside a bottle of wine. And I want to prevent those about to embark on this journey to learn from our mistakes and successes.

When we become an autonomous organization, we will be one of the largest unadulterated digital security organizations on the planet,” he told the annual Intel Security Focus meeting in Las Vegas. “Not only will we be one of the greatest, however, we will not rest until we achieve our goal of being the best,” said Young. This is the main focus since Intel reported on agreements to deactivate its security business as a free organization in association with the venture company TPG, five years after the acquisition of McAfee. Young focused on his vision of the new company, his roadmap to achieve that, the need for rapid innovation and the importance of collaboration between industries. “One of the things I love about this conference is that we all come together to find ways to win, to work together,” he said. First, Young highlighted the publication of the book The Second Economy: the race for trust, treasure and time in the war of cybersecurity. The main objective of the book is to help the information security officers (CISO) to communicate the battles that everyone faces in front of others in the c-suite. “So we can recruit them into our fight, we need to recruit others on our journey if we want to be successful,” he said. Challenging assumptions The book is also aimed at encouraging information security professionals to challenge their own assumptions. “I plan to send two copies of this book to the winner of the US presidential election, because cybersecurity is going to be one of the most important issues they could face,” said Young. “The book is about giving more people a vision of the dynamism of what we face in cybersecurity, which is why we have to continually challenge our assumptions,” he said. “That’s why we challenge our assumptions in the book, as well as our assumptions about what we do every day.” Young said Intel Security had asked thousands of customers to challenge the company’s assumptions in the last 18 months so that it could improve. “This week, we are going to bring many of those comments to life in delivering a lot of innovation throughout our portfolio,” he said. Then, Young used a video to underscore the message that the McAfee brand is based on the belief that there is power to work together, and that no person, product or organization can provide total security. By allowing protection, detection and correction to work together, the company believes it can react to cyber threats more quickly. By linking products from different suppliers to work together, the company believes that network security improves. By bringing together companies to share intelligence on threats, you can find better ways to protect each other. The company said that cyber crime is the biggest challenge of the digital era, and this can only be overcome by working together. Revealed a new slogan: “Together is power”. The video also revealed the logo of the new independent company, which Young called a symbol of its new beginning and a visual representation of what is essential to the company’s strategy. “The shield means defense, and the two intertwined components are a symbol of the union that we are in the industry,” he said. “The color red is a callback to our legacy in the industry.” Three main reasons for independence According to Young, there are three main reasons behind the decision to become an independent company. First of all, it should focus entirely on enterprise-level cybersecurity, solve customers ‘cybersecurity problems and address clients’ cybersecurity challenges. The second is innovation. “Because we are committed and dedicated to cybersecurity only at the company level, our innovation is focused on that,” said Young. Third is growth. “Our industry is moving faster than any other IT sub-segment, we have t

A good digital strategy should identify the business challenges, make options, and take stepwise actions based on a clear roadmap to achieve the well-defined business goals and objectives

This is because what's really going on is that the ideas are already handed to the product teams in the form of prioritized features on product roadmaps, where most of the items on those roadmaps are coming either from requests from big customers (or prospective customers), or from company stakeholders or execs. Unfortunately, these are rarely the quality of ideas we're looking for. In general, if the product team is given actual business problems to solve rather than solutions, and the product team does their job and interacts directly and frequently with actual users and customers, then getting a sufficient quantity and quality of product ideas is not really a problem.

The demands of customer discovery require people who are comfortable with change, chaos, and learning from failure and are at ease working in risky, unstable situations without a roadmap. In short, startups should welcome the rare breed generally known as entrepreneurs. They’re open to learning and discovery—highly curious, inquisitive, and creative. They must be eager to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Agile enough to deal with daily change and operating “without a map.” Readily able to wear multiple hats, often on the same day, and comfortable celebrating failure when it leads to learning and iteration.

It is critical to unearth and understand our stories – both as individuals and as entrepreneurs. Once we do that, make peace with it, and embrace it, not only can we live empowered, transformed, and fulfilling lives, we can help others do that too as models and as guides." p. 29

But the way most companies do them at this stage to come up with a prioritized roadmap is truly ridiculous and here's why. Remember those two key inputs to every business case? How much money you'll make, and how much it will cost?

Base Camp With “tough tech” ventures—in which product development demands a vast amount of leading-edge science and engineering work—entrepreneurs often consider creating ancillary businesses before launching their primary business. These pared-down versions serve as the first application for the technologies they’re developing. Samir Kaul and his partners at Khosla Ventures have likened these ancillary businesses to a base camp, where mountaineers pause to organize their provisions and get acclimated to low oxygen levels before their final push to the summit.

Now the biggest challenge is learning the skills that will get me to the next level. Going from 80 to 150 employees takes an entirely different skill set than going from 1 to 80 employees takes. It comes down to figuring out if you're an excellent executor or a good manager. It took me the longest time to get my head out of execution and be more strategic. A lot of my value and self-worth were on the revenue-generating side of the business. I would put in X effort and get out Y monetary growth. I had to shed that skin and tell myself that my worth isn't tied to what I produce, it's tied to what my people produce. That's something I doubt myself about today. You can only read so many CEO books and only get so much coaching before you figure out, "This is all you. You have to figure out how you like to lead

It’s tempting to assume she achieved this despite the “Nos.” But in truth, each of those 148 “Nos” was a clue that ultimately made her business even stronger. Some sharpened her view on who her user was—and who her user wasn’t. Some helped her grasp how her competition might think. And some gave her an early warning about the ways her company might fail. At the end of the fundraising process alone, Kathryn had a roadmap marked with every potential pitfall she’d need to navigate around—and the unexplored territory she could explore ahead of any competitors.

The Next Generation of Women Leaders: What You Need to Lead but Won’t Learn in Business School and Pushback: How Smart Women Ask—and Stand Up—for What They Want. As the same time, Rezvani created Women’s Roadmap, which engages in women’s leadership development and helps companies to create inclusive workplaces.

Such barriers—called “moats” by some entrepreneurs—come in two types: proprietary assets and business model attributes. Proprietary assets are either difficult to duplicate or are in scarce supply.

Business model attributes are those that can confer an advantage in attracting and retaining customers, like high customer switching costs and strong network effects.

Entrepreneurial innovation comes in three flavors: 1) new business models, as with Rent the Runway offering apparel for rent rather than sale; 2) new technologies, as with Solyndra, a failed maker of cylindrical solar panels built with a proprietary thin-film material; and 3) combining existing technologies in new ways, as with Quincy Apparel using a measurement system akin to that used for men’s suiting to offer better-fitting clothing for women.

The discussion above of the Six S framework suggests that its elements frequently interact and influence each other. My analysis of scaling startups shows that these interactions frequently follow two predictable paths—each with its own catalyst. The first path starts with a drive for Speed—that is, accelerated growth for the startup’s core business. With the second path, the catalyst is a vision with ambitious Scope. As we’ll see in the chapters that follow, these two paths expose startups to unique risks—and unique modes of failure.

Entrepreneurs who lead late-stage startups must maintain balance while pursuing opportunity, which requires them to set goals for speed and scope that are sufficiently ambitious yet achievable. By “speed,” I mean the pace of expansion of the venture’s core business—that is, its original product offered solely in its home market. “Scope” is a broader concept that encompasses four dimensions. The first three—geographic reach, product line breadth, and innovation—collectively define the range of the startup’s product market: How many additional customer segments will be targeted, and which of their needs will be addressed? The fourth dimension, vertical integration, refers to the range of activities that the startup will perform in-house rather than outsourcing to third parties.

Because they are pursuing a novel opportunity without access to all required resources, entrepreneurs are, by definition, engaged in risky business.

Beware founding teams whose members all have similar training and functional experience. Startups launched at business schools often fit this profile.

According to analysis by Noam Wasserman, dean of Yeshiva University’s Business School, co-founder relationships are less stable—that is, more likely to end in breakup—when co-founders are family members or were close friends prior to launching a venture. There are many tempting reasons to start a business with your close friend or family member—for example, you share similar goals and values and already know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, habits, and quirks. However, compared to those who were previously colleagues or strangers, co-founders with close personal bonds find it more difficult to have tough conversations about roles and strategies. They’re afraid that the ensuing conflict might jeopardize their personal relationship.

There are a few product teams out there that have modified their product roadmaps so that each item is stated as a business problem to solve rather than the feature or project that may or may not solve it. These are called outcome‐based roadmaps.

a deep love and passion for your business is having a plan. A plan is critical. Without this roadmap, you are apt to get lost.

Unless we can identify the core challenges that face our business, we will always be in danger of treating symptoms and not causes.

A business strategy roadmap is also composed of three elements: insights on technological possibilities, customer needs, and competitive intent. In other words, what could we build, how would people react to it, and does it give us an edge over the competition?

If you believe the world will be a better place because you have both the desire and the means to take charge, that's the time for you to jump in. It doesn't matter if you rise up to take the lead only once or twice in your entire working life or if you do it daily. There are so many moments when you can make a difference--by enriching an outcome, saving a great idea, defending the beleaguered or downtrodden, and not least, expressing your own gifts and wisdom.

The men at the top aren't that great at properly assessing the women under them, certainly not enough to gauge their potential or intestinal fortitude.

Her favorite stepping-aside technique was to lay out a dizzying mountain of complex steps and then pronounce the conclusion self-evident. Excuse me? Things that are self-evident don't need you or the presentation anyway. Relying only on logic, on what can be factually established, may inform or intimidate, but it will rarely stir anyone into action or change.

Relying only on logic, on what can be factually established, may inform or intimidate, but it will rarely stir anyone into action or change.

UNITED GHANA AGENDA Bill Gate assisted in discovering Microsoft a window that connects the world to an interactive SocialMedia Networking to sell,market and trade their uniqueness to the world for profits . Though MicroHard has being discovered,it seems Micro-Hard still plays same technological duties,Chief-Icons has discovered the Micro - Tough(trademark from Micro-Hard) Micro-Tough(M-H) will connect the world both offline and online on a unified interactive SocialMedia Networking to live in complete peace and unity with each other to make even huger profits and be granted the complete comfort to live ,enjoy and be Happy . Business Friendship when applied to our daily lives will reborn TRUST for greater things. United Ghana(Roadmap to Successful Globalization) is target but beyond the skies is the limit . Written and Endorsed, Icons-Gates Network, Chief-Icons

Architecture Building Blocks. Explain the purpose of Architecture Contracts. Explain the purpose of an architecture definition document. Explain the purpose of the Architecture Repository. Explain the purpose of an architecture requirements specification. Explain the purpose of an Architecture Roadmap. Explain the purpose of the Architecture Vision. Explain the purpose of business drivers, business goals and business principles. Explain the purpose of a capability assessment. Explain the purpose of a change request. Explain the purpose of a communications plan. Explain the purpose of a compliance assessment. Explain the purpose of an implementation and migration plan. Explain the purpose of an Implementation Governance Model. Explain the purpose of an organisational model for Enterprise Architecture.

The organ blared as the funeral ceremony commenced. Everyone surged to their feet. I rose slowly, my entire body feeling achy and aged, and gripped the pew in front of me to keep from collapsing back into my seat. All heads turned to the rear of the church, where the pallbearers hoisted James’s casket onto their shoulders. As I watched them process behind the priest, I couldn’t help thinking they carried more than James’s remains, his body too decomposed for an open casket. Our hopes and dreams, the future we had road-mapped, also rode on their shoulders. James’s plan to open an art gallery downtown after he quit the family business. My dream to start my own restaurant when my parents retired from theirs. The little boy I imagined standing between James and me, his small hands linked with ours. Everything

A great story about a big company’s ability to do this comes from one of the world’s biggest businesses, General Electric. I learned about Doug Dietz a few years ago when I saw him speak to a group of executives. Doug leads the design and development of award-winning medical imaging systems at GE Healthcare. He was at a hospital one day when he witnessed a little girl crying and shaking from fear as she was preparing to have an MRI — in a big, noisy, hot machine that Dietz had designed. Deeply shaken, he started asking the nurses if her reaction was common. He learned that 80 percent of pediatric patients had to be sedated during MRIs because they were too scared to lie still. He immediately decided he needed to change how the machines were designed. He flew to California for a weeklong design course at Stanford’s d.school. There he learned about a human-centric approach to design, collaborated with other designers, talked to healthcare professionals, and finally observed and talked to children in hospitals. The results were stunning. His humandriven redesigns wrapped MRI machines in fanciful themes like pirate ships and space adventures and included technicians who role-play. When Dietz’s redesigns hit children’s hospitals, patient satisfaction scores soared and the number of kids who needed sedation plummeted. Doug was teary-eyed as he told the story, and so were many of the senior executives in the audience. Products should be designed for people. Businesses should be run in a responsive, human-centric way. It is time to return to those basics. Let TRM be your roadmap and turn back to putting people first. It worked for our grandparents. It can work for you.

Because the future is unpredictable, a strategy can only be built from intentions: Given where you are now and where you think you want to go, now, what can you do, now, to help you get there? A strategy is not a fact, or a forecast, or a schedule, or a roadmap to the future. Is a strategy, then, a type of plan?

Prioritizing Your Email Roadmap Chances are you’ll need a Hail Mary. And a Net Promoter Score survey email. And a newsletter. And… And… And… If you are getting started with your email program, the list of emails you’ll need will probably be very long. Do you need to do everything at once? Definitely not. In fact, it’s best to start your program by aligning with business priorities and getting results before thinking about expanding. What areas are most troublesome in your business right now? What metric are you expected to move with email? Is it: Engagement? Retention? Conversion? Revenue? Signups? If none of those stick out above the rest, start from the top. Welcome and onboarding emails set the tone for product usage. Better onboarding and value communication lead to reductions in churn and disengagement down the road. Welcome and onboarding emails are also sent to most, if not all, of your users, thus they have a greater potential to influence user behaviors. At Highlights, for example, we set up a welcome email, five onboarding emails, and an upsell email the week before we launched the product. The goal was to maximize the number of people in a position to convert. It also allowed us to start getting some data to optimize performance. In general, you’ll want to prioritize emails that: send a lot (large volume of sends); send consistently (every day, or every week at least); and have the potential to have a big impact on a key business goal. In the beginning especially, you want to make sure that you have a clear goal or metric to monitor with the aim of evaluating performance with user data. Start implementing a first sequence, test, gather data, and move on to the next sequence.

Now, suppose that in your process of experimentation, you end up creating a cake that is actually quite small. It’s so small you could sell it as a self-contained, single-serving cake, so you put a little wrapper around it. You realize that you’ve actually made supreme chocolate muffins instead of better chocolate cake. At first it might not seem like this is much of a change. The product hasn’t changed much — it’s the same batter— but almost everything else about your business has. Why? Because we changed the mental frame of reference around the product from “cake” to “muffin.” That change in context changes everything about the business: Target buyers and where you sell. Unlike cakes, muffins are sold at coffee shops and diners. Competitive alternatives. You are now competing with donuts, Danishes and bagels. Pricing and margin. Muffins sell for a buck or two, and you will be looking to sell a lot of them. Key product features and roadmap. You are now fighting for the hearts and minds of a noble class of people who eat chocolate for breakfast. They’re likely not worried about gluten or the origin of the salt in your caramel. They might like your muffin larger or with more caramel or maybe they want it deep-fried like a hash brown (you might be laughing, but deep down I think you want to try one of those).

Correa told him that people, including fictional ones, grieve in different ways. You can be a puddle of tears. Or angry and punch a wall. Or quiet with seemingly no reaction. It is nobody's business. There is no emotional roadmap. The only requirement is to be authentic to the moment, whatever that means right now. - said to KJ Apa following Luke's death

AMT Market Research Agency in Myanmar stands as a pivotal player in the dynamic landscape of market research within the country. With a commitment to delivering unparalleled insights and strategic solutions, AMT Market Research has established itself as a trusted partner for businesses seeking to thrive in Myanmar's evolving market. This article delves into the core aspects of AMT Market Research, exploring its services, methodologies, and the significance of market research in Myanmar. Through case studies, client testimonials, and a glimpse into future trends, we uncover the depth and impact of AMT Market Research in driving success for businesses in Myanmar. Introduction to AMT Market Research Agency in Myanmar AMT Market Research is not your run-of-the-mill agency in Myanmar. With a knack for unraveling the mysteries of consumer behavior, they're the Sherlock Holmes of the market research world. Let's delve into what makes them tick. Background of AMT Market Research Founded with a passion for decoding the pulse of the market, AMT Market Research has been shaking up the industry in Myanmar. Their team of savvy researchers leaves no stone unturned in uncovering insights that drive business success. Mission and Vision of the Agency AMT Market Research's mission is simple yet powerful: to empower businesses with data-driven decisions that spark growth and innovation. Their vision? To be the go-to partner for companies looking to navigate the ever-evolving market landscape in Myanmar. Services Offered by AMT Market Research When it comes to services, AMT Market Research doesn't just dip their toes in the water—they dive in headfirst, armed with a treasure trove of strategic insights. Market Entry Strategy From market sizing to competitor analysis, AMT Market Research crafts bespoke market entry strategies that pave the way for success in Myanmar's dynamic business environment. Consumer Behavior Analysis Curious about what makes your target audience tick? AMT Market Research digs deep into the minds of consumers, decoding their preferences, habits, and aspirations to help you tailor your offerings with precision. Competitor Analysis In a market as competitive as Myanmar, staying ahead of the game is crucial. AMT Market Research's competitor analysis services provide a roadmap for outshining the competition and carving out your niche. Importance of Market Research Agency in Myanmar In the bustling landscape of Myanmar, market research isn't just a luxury—it's a necessity. Understanding the economic terrain and growth opportunities is key to thriving amidst the challenges that lie ahead. Economic Landscape of Myanmar Myanmar's economic landscape is a canvas of untapped potential and burgeoning opportunities. Market research serves as the compass that guides businesses through this vibrant yet complex terrain. Growth Opportunities and Challenges With growth opportunities aplenty, Myanmar beckons businesses with promises of success. However, navigating the challenges, be it regulatory hurdles or shifting consumer trends, requires a keen understanding of the market—enter AMT Market Research. Methodologies Utilized by AMT Market Research When it comes to research methodologies, AMT Market Research doesn't settle for the ordinary. Their toolbox is brimming with innovative techniques that paint a comprehensive picture of the market landscape. Quantitative Research Techniques Numbers don't lie, and neither do AMT Market Research's quantitative research techniques. From surveys to data analysis, they crunch the numbers to unearth patterns and trends that inform strategic decision-making. Qualitative Research Approaches

Good teams engage directly with end users and customers every week, to better understand their customers, and to see the customer's response to their latest ideas. Bad teams think they are the customer. Good teams know that many of their favorite ideas won't end up working for customers, and even the ones that could will need several iterations to get to the point where they provide the desired outcome. Bad teams just build what's on the roadmap, and are satisfied with meeting dates and ensuring quality. Good teams understand the need for speed and how rapid iteration is the key to innovation, and they understand this speed comes from the right techniques and not forced labor. Bad teams complain they are slow because their colleagues are not working hard enough. Good teams make high‐integrity commitments after they've evaluated the request and ensured they have a viable solution that will work for the customer and the business. Bad teams complain about being a sales‐driven company. Good teams instrument their work so they can immediately understand how their product is being used and make adjustments based on the data. Bad teams consider analytics and reporting a nice to have.

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Think big, start small, and scale fast”: Initiate the transformation with the definition of a multi-year, company-wide vision, roadmap, and business case. These plans need to be flexible and adaptable. Then, “start small” with the implementation of a pilot, and take the time to learn from this first experience. Finally, implement the broader scope in stages to manage the risks. Gradually increase the speed and scale of the transformation, and as a result, generate high impact. “IA is a business transformation, not a technology project”: The perspective of business benefits should guide the transformation. This transformation involves not only technology, but more importantly, people – with change management, and retraining – and processes – with redesigns. “IA is a journey, not a destination”: IA is not a one-off exercise; it is a never-ending transformation journey. It continually brings additional benefits to the organization by applying evolving concepts, methods, and technologies. Hence, building teams with the right skills to guide the company in this transformation is critical. “Infusing IA into the culture of the company”: Implementing IA with siloed, isolated teams does not work. Automation needs to be infused into the company. Change management, education, empowerment, and incentivization of everyone in the company is vital. Every employee should know what IA is and what its benefits are, and be empowered and incentivized to identify use cases and build automation.

In today’s interconnected world, we can get customer feedback in parallel with product development. This has led to a product development world where we can have deeper confidence that what we’re building today will resonate with customers but with much less fidelity on what exactly we may be building two quarters from now. And that’s okay. For some reason, our roadmapping process today still tends to be more of a waterfall-looking document, but it doesn’t have to be. Rather than defining arbitrary things we hope to ship two quarters from now, we can define what we hope to learn two quarters from now—what’s really important to know about our business in the future—and how we plan to learn it.

The challenge with this is that when you course correct and shift plans according to market feedback, you have to reeducate your stakeholders on your new plan. This creates challenges in expectation setting and can start to create a perception that your plan is constantly changing, when in fact you are doing the right thing by reacting nimbly to what the market is saying. In this case, why go through the effort of the initial feature roadmap when it will end up just causing you more work? I’m a big believer in creating a “learning roadmap.” You have to communicate to your stakeholders where you’ll be spending your resources and where you are trying to go. But rather than being defined by features and dates, your learning roadmap defines the assumptions you want to validate and the dates by when you need to validate them. It’s a prioritized view of the things assumed to be most critical to the company, from subject to test.

If you have ever wondered why you attract certain people and experiences in your life, the answer is likely related to what you tell yourself and the lens through which you see the world.

Imagination is the Engine. Content is the Fuel. Social Media is the Highway. Marketing is the Roadmap. Sales is the Destination. Culture is the GPS.

If your business is anything like our exemplar firm, or indeed like most companies we have worked with, the projects you have committed to complete represent over 100 percent of your carrying capacity. This can have surprising effects on the length of time each project takes to complete. For instance, imagine a project that will take a skilled software developer six months to complete. The lead time to completion if this person is working full-time on the project is six months. Divide this person’s time between four projects, however, and three-quarters of the time, each project is being ignored by the person. The lead time to completion of all four projects stretches to two years! Delays like this can be deadly in a world where speed matters.

Business planning for schools extends beyond day-to-day operations into providing a strategic roadmap for future growth and success.

groups of executives and other stakeholders all too often come up with the quarterly “roadmap” of features and projects and then pass them down to the product teams, essentially telling them how to solve the underlying business problems. The teams are just there to flesh out the details, code and test, with little understanding of the bigger context, and even less belief that these are in fact the right solutions. Teams today are all too often feature factories, with little regard for whether or not the features actually solve the underlying business problems. Progress is measured by output and not outcome.

A fixed roadmap communicates false certainty. It says we know these are the right features to build, even though we know from experience their impact will likely fall short. An outcome communicates uncertainty. It says, We know we need this problem solved, but we don’t know the best way to solve it. It gives the product trio the latitude they need to explore and pivot when needed.

Three structural attributes of certain business models—powerful network effects, high customer switching costs, and strong economies of scale—impel a startup, along with rivals who share these attributes, to accelerate growth.

Goldberg and Fab’s management team conducted cohort analysis and had a handle on deteriorating LTV/ CAC trends, but they did not act quickly enough on this data. In October 2013, three months after raising the VC round that made Fab a unicorn, Goldberg wrote in a memo to his team, “We spent $ 200 million and we haven’t proven out our business model… we haven’t proven that we know exactly what our customers want to buy.” He added a litany of his own mistakes as CEO, including: I guided us to go too fast. I didn’t insist on homing in on our target customer. I spent too much on marketing before we got the consumer value proposition right. I didn’t build enough discipline around costs and business metrics into our culture. I allowed us to over-invest in Europe. I didn’t see the need to course correct fast enough.

Scale economies reduce a startup’s unit costs as its transaction volumes increase. Some startups benefit from scale economies to a much greater extent than others; in these businesses, entrepreneurs will feel impelled to grow fast. Potential scale economies will be large when a business has 1) high fixed overhead expenses in relation to its current sales volume, and 2) lots of “learning-by-doing” opportunities.

For the past thirty years at Harvard Business School we’ve defined entrepreneurship as pursuing novel opportunity while lacking resources. Entrepreneurs must create and deliver something new—a solution to a customer’s problem that’s better than, or costs less than, current options. That’s the opportunity. And, at the outset, entrepreneurs do not have access to all of the resources—skilled employees, manufacturing facilities, capital, etc.—required to exploit that opportunity.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. — Eric Hoffer

Roadmaps solve for the company not the customer. What solves for the customer is non-stop testing and a continuous improvement.

Strong enough to be weak Successful enough to fail Busy enough to make time Wise enough to say "I don't know" Serious enough to laugh Rich enough to be poor Right enough to say "I'm wrong" Compassionate enough to discipline Mature enough to be childlike Important enough to be last Planned enough to be spontaneous Controlled enough to be flexible Free enough to endure captivity Knowledgeable enough to ask questions Loving enough to be angry Great enough to be anonymous Responsible enough to play Assured enough to be rejected Victorious enough to lose Industrious enough to relax Leading enough to serve Poem by Brewer, as cited by Hansel, in Holy Sweat, Dallas Texas, Word, 1987. (p. 29)

IA initiatives have to be sponsored by the highest level of management in the company (i.e., its C-levels). Management is supported by a documented vision (strategic objectives of the transformation), business case (estimating the benefits and costs of the project), and a high-level roadmap (key milestones of the implementation for the coming 1 to 3 years). The design of the program is a top-down exercise, while the implementation is a bottom-up one (e.g., it starts with the deployment of a pilot).

The team API should explicitly consider usability by other teams: Will other teams find it easy and straightforward to interact with us, or will it be difficult and confusing? How easy will it be for a new team to get on board with our code and working practices? How do we respond to pull requests and other suggestions from other teams? Is our team backlog and product roadmap easily visible and understandable by other teams?

A good roadmap will get you to your destination.

If the StoryBrand Framework is a foundation, the five marketing ideas that make up the StoryBrand Marketing Roadmap should serve as your opening. These five simple yet powerful tools have been used by countless businesses to increase their revenue.