Good planning begins top-down, however when that’s not doable, plan bottom-up with out shedding sight of the larger image. Right here’s how.
We all know that good planning begins top-down by understanding the technique and drawing your actions from it. Sadly, for numerous causes, it’s not at all times doable to take action. Typically, it’s good to plan bottom-up, however don’t throw the newborn out with the tub water.
Initially of the 2011 film “I don’t understand how she does it” Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) must bake a pie for the college bake sale. Sadly, she solely remembers it on her return from a enterprise journey the evening earlier than. Dedicated to her household duties, she buys a pie at an open retailer however desires it to look selfmade, so she intentionally ruins it a bit (as a result of who can bake an ideal pie?) and strikes it to a distinct dish.
This scene says lots about making an attempt to reside as much as what different folks suppose, however I wish to have a look at it from a distinct perspective for a second. It’s in regards to the compromises that all of us make.
In a perfect world, I imagine Kate would have needed to bake a pie. However since she (and none of us actually) can’t do all of it, she compromises for a purchased one.
I do know I make many compromises when balancing work and private life. My youngsters might undoubtedly eat more healthy and have their display time managed higher (or in any respect), and I don’t at all times fortunately settle for these compromises. However, all of them know that household is their secure area and that we’d settle for and help them it doesn’t matter what. These are compromises that I’m not prepared to make.
Shifting to the skilled world, all of us make compromises there, too. The product chief’s position is so busy that we merely can’t do all of it, and infrequently, different constraints drive us to do issues otherwise than we ideally choose.
One such space is roadmap planning. My suggestion for roadmap planning is to begin top-down, from the corporate’s technique itself, perceive it in depth, and solely then begin planning how you will make it a actuality. Backside-up planning (coming from what you already know that you really want or must do) enhances this course of and retains us rooted in actuality.
I extremely suggest following this course of at the very least annually because it usually unveils essential strategic insights, aligns all departments to work collectively, and will increase the probabilities of assembly your targets fairly than merely including extra product capabilities.
But it surely’s not at all times doable. In startups, for instance, issues are so dynamic that it typically feels irrelevant to plan too far forward. I’d nonetheless suggest making use of the method there, too, but when administration isn’t with you, you may battle to take action.
Even in additional mature corporations, if the corporate doesn’t have a strong technique and doesn’t see the significance of discussing it earlier than planning, you gained’t immediately change that DNA.
And typically, in case you don’t have a strategic roadmap, the CEO may need one ASAP, for instance, earlier than a presentation to the board or an essential buyer. Even when everybody understands that planning takes time and that ideally we should always begin on the prime, typically you merely don’t have the time to take action.
So, on the one hand, it’s important to compromise on one thing. If the CEO wants a presentation for Tuesday it’s good to have it prepared for Tuesday. However as you make these, there are some stuff you don’t wish to compromise on.
Like many different issues in life, if it’s important to, you will get a lot of the worth with a smaller effort.
It begins by not forgetting the ‘up’ half, since in any other case you’re simply stacking options on a timeline, which is nearly meaningless.
Here’s a 3-step course of for bottom-up planning that you need to use if it’s important to. Preserve it for a wet day.
You’re in all probability accustomed to the idea of “ 5 whys “: asking ‘why’ 5 occasions till you get to the basis explanation for one thing. It’s a typical follow in problem-solving meant to make sure you resolve the suitable downside and never simply the symptom.
Within the product world, we frequently use it with requests we get from prospects or stakeholders to make sure we perceive what they actually need and never simply do what they ask (since they don’t seem to be product managers and so they communicate in options as a substitute of issues).
For planning functions, I counsel you to make use of this methodology to query your self. You have already got many issues you recognize you need or must do subsequent yr. For every one, ask your self why you wish to do it. After which ask it once more, and once more, 5 occasions or till you get to one thing that feels undebatable or core to your technique.
It might look one thing like this:
We wish to add one other safety layer to our product.
Why? As a result of we’re a safety firm and it’s essential that our merchandise are as safe as doable.
However why now? As a result of our prospects began asking about it.
Why? As a result of they appear to be extra security-aware.
Why? What has modified? As a result of we began promoting to healthcare corporations.
Why did you begin promoting to healthcare corporations? As a result of it’s a strategic alternative that the corporate has determined to pursue.
Do this for each characteristic on the plan to have a greater context for every.
The 5 whys course of forces you to boost your head from the options to the explanations you’re planning to construct them. It’s not as strategic as beginning with the targets and planning for them, but it surely’s ok if it’s important to work bottom-up.
Now that we’re on the causes degree, we will begin making sense of it.
On this step, you wish to group your options into bigger initiatives which might be rooted in causes and never in outputs. Take a look at all the explanations that you’ve got found. Almost certainly, a lot of them will collide.
Within the instance above, you’ll in all probability discover extra options that map properly into ‘the healthcare alternative’. Word that you just may must be pragmatic and never purist when you consider these. It may very well be that there are options that produce other causes, like ‘the corporate’s grand imaginative and prescient’ or different prospects need them too, however the cause for choosing them now and including them to the plan was actually the healthcare alternative. In such a case, it will serve you higher to group them underneath the healthcare alternative fairly than add one other separate cause.
Ideally, every thing you do needs to be mapped into 3–5 main initiatives or causes. That is essential for the subsequent step.
If you find yourself having extra, see if a few of them might be additional grouped collectively. Ask ‘why’ a couple of extra occasions — this time on the explanations themselves — to see if yow will discover a typical denominator. For instance, when you’ve got ‘take away gross sales limitations’ and ‘shorter onboarding time’ as major causes, they could match properly right into a extra core cause of ‘scaling our gross sales course of.’
Now that you’ve got 3–5 beginning factors, and every thing you wish to do maps properly into them, it’s time to inform the story top-down so everybody can perceive, keep in mind, and observe it.
Word that whereas we haven’t began the method top-down, and the ‘prime’ on this case may be decrease than the place we wish it available you began with a correct top-down course of, it’s nonetheless essential to inform the story top-down as it’s.
That’s how folks suppose, and by telling it that means, you’ll create readability that couldn’t exist in any other case.
Metaphorically talking, if options are the pixels of a picture of a cat, the explanations are its physique elements. As a substitute of describing the colour of every pixel and asking folks to infer that you’re really speaking a couple of cat, say that you’re describing a picture of a cat and discuss in regards to the head, the physique, and the background as the right context.
Had we began with an actual top-down strategy, we’d have requested whether or not or not it’s a cat that we needs to be engaged on.
If I’ve to, this can be a compromise I’m prepared to make, at the very least briefly.
While you current your bottom-up constructed plan, see if it’s applicable so as to add a disclaimer that you’re nonetheless engaged on a correct top-down course of, and let everybody know that you’ll replace later as you had been ready to take action.
Setting expectations about how the plans may change is at all times a good suggestion, particularly when planning bottom-up, since there can be extra issues that you just may miss this fashion.However even when the plan is certain to alter, forcing your self to maneuver up and never stay on the backside ends in a a lot better plan and far clearer communication of it.
