(2021-04-20) Singer12 Understand Business Imperatives To Get The Green Light

Ryan Singer: 12. Understand business imperatives to get the green light. I keep getting questions about the work that happens before shaping a project. How do we decide if a problem is worth shaping?

We do our perfect analysis, go to decision-makers, and present them with all the reasons why this is the most important thing to do next. They nod their heads in agreement and then choose something completely different to work on.

Because customer problems are only one piece of the puzzle. (Strategic Context)

Look at how different these imperatives are. From functional (“churn is increasing”) to emotional (“I want the thrill of shipping again”) to social (“I don’t like how this makes us look to others”).

The imperatives also change with time.

Successful projects require both things: time and money from the business and a corresponding problem on the customer’s end. We have to do the work of matching the things we want to do with the things the business values today if we want to improve our guesses about which projects are going to get the green light.