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Outcome-based road maps work because they help create a multiteam implementation of mission command. They are a way of articulating, in a cascading manner, the key elements we need when we direct the work of teams: The strategic intent (“We want to increase the organization’s impact by a factor of 10”) The strategic constraints (“We will do this by creating an online matching service that must be live by X date”) The definition of success (“The service will match parties at X rate”) When implemented well, outcome-based road maps help organizations create alignment, which is critical to making mission command work.
Sense and Respond
Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
The leads of the product teams came together to organize the wish list of initiatives. They grouped the initiatives in terms of which themes each project supported and then stack-ranked them in terms of the contribution they believed each initiative would have—that is, they associated each initiative with the outcome they thought the work would create and showed how those outcomes would support the strategic goals expressed by leadership. They estimated head count for each initiative and sent the results to the finance experts, who correlated these plans with some of the major financial metrics they tracked and considered how the proposed work might impact results. When this was done, the plan was sent back up to the executives for review.
Sense and Respond
Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
“Work backwards from the narrative.”
That's the key to not shipping the org chart.
Here's Sanchan (ex-head of product at Airbnb) on how narrative-led product development works:
1. Create a narrative of what you want the customer to experience and feel
2. Challenge each team to work together to deliver the narrative
3. Deliver all features that bring the narrative to life at once
This way, teams are encouraged to work together to create a compelling customer journey instead of building in their own silos.
Note by Peter Yang on Substack
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