This document outlines a 4-part cure for Shiny Object Syndrome which involves setting a vision, strategy, goals, and prioritizing ideas. It discusses establishing a company vision, defining a strategy to achieve that vision, setting goals to measure strategy execution, and using a value/effort framework to prioritize ideas based on their expected contribution to goals and the work required. The value/effort calculation incorporates scoring ideas on multiple goals and estimating effort on a 0-5 scale without asking engineering for estimates. It emphasizes testing assumptions before and after implementing ideas.
11. UpUp Labs
Shiny Object Syndrome
pursuing every idea that seems good
without prioritizing, seeing it through to a
reasonable return on investment, or deciding
to abandon it when it doesn’t deliver
12. 20+ years in product development, Product Manager,
Scrum Master, Development Manager, Designer, VP, CPO,
Coach & Mentor, Founded 3 companies, Acquired (3x),
Acquirer (3x), Currently beta testing Reqqs, the smart
roadmapping tool for product people, sports car & craft
beer enthusiast
14. Flip Over Your Business
Card
Write 1-3 goals on the back
Hand it up to me
17. UpUp Labs
The leading supplier of
landscape equipment and
materials to affluent Americans
Vision = What we want to be
when we grow up
18. UpUp Labs
The go-to source for tweens
and teenage girls around the
world for fun collectibles
Vision = What we want to be
when we grow up
19. UpUp Labs
The #1 source of B2B contact
information for marketers
Vision = What we want to be
when we grow up
21. UpUp Labs
Strategy
=
How you will
achieve your vision
Leverage crowd-sourcing to
develop the largest and most-
accurate B2B contact
database
The #1 source of B2B contact
information for marketers
23. UpUp Labs
3 Drivers / 10 Goals
Sustainable
Differentiation
Support your core value
Create barriers to competition
Growth
Grow market share
Fulfill more demand
Develop new markets
Improve recurring revenue
Profit
Support higher prices
Improve lifetime value
Lower costs
Leverage existing assets
24. Ends vs. Means
• HTML5 Redesign
• Social Integration
• Customer Requests
• Revenue
• Scalability
• Transformational
Ideas
Grow recurring revenue
Grow market share
Competitive barriers
Grow market share
Fulfill more demand
Leverage assets
25. Goals
The largest and most-accurate B2B contact
database
• Fulfill more demand by growing the database by
X%
• Create competitive barriers by raising accuracy by
Y%
The #1 source of B2B contact information for
marketers
• Grow revenue by Z% this year by fulfilling more
demand
• Test potential new sources of future growth & profit
27. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
28. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
29. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
30. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
31. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
32. Bad Ways to Rank Ideas
Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch
Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking
Popularity
Most customers are
small
Sales requests Change every week
Services
requests
Mostly incremental
44. UpUp Labs
Everything is a Hypothesis
• How can you test your assumptions before
you implement?
• How can you test your assumptions with
an MVP?
• How can you verify your results after your
ship?
• What will you do if you fail?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
How do you diagnose SOS?
See if any of these seem familiar
Examples from your companies?
If you get those two right, you have an effective vaccine against SOS
Building up immunity against SOS starts with a vision
A vision is a statement of one or more related problems you will solve for a particular type of customer
It’s really a simplified value proposition for the whole company, a reason for doing business with us
Simon Sinek in his book “Start with Why” would say this is why we as a company exist
A vision is a statement of one or more related problems you will solve for a particular type of customer
It’s really a simplified value proposition for the whole company, a reason for doing business with us
Simon Sinek in his book “Start with Why” would say this is why we as a company exist
If you are a one-product company (as many startups are), that translates directly to the value prop of your product
Does your company have a clear vision for why it exists? Whom it serves? What problems it solves?
Next is your strategy for achieving that vision
This is the HOW to the WHY
At NetP, this translated into “the largest and most-accurate B2B contact source”
Which makes HOW we planned to achieve our vision of helping marketers find their buyers in a very concrete way
The very concreteness of it made setting our product goals straight forward
Goals are the WHAT you will actually do – the features you will build, the services you will provide, in order to execute on your strategy and thereby achieve your vision
A goal is an end in itself, whereas an initiative is means to that end
Which of these is an end, and which a means?
What are you working on now Is that an end or a means?
Think of the goals deriving from your strategy as EXTERNAL market-driven goals
You can also derive INTERNAL goals by looking back at your original vision
In order to stay in business, you’ve got to meet your business goals – within the context of your vision
REVIEW BUSINESS CARDS
So how DO you rank ideas?
So how DO you rank ideas?
So how DO you rank ideas?
So how DO you rank ideas?
So how DO you rank ideas?
So how DO you rank ideas?
Having goals that are tied to the vision for the company allows you to prioritize by judging which ideas get you closest to your goals for the least effort and risk
In advance
Now we’re going to talk about a most fearsome topic – estimating effort
Also known as T-shirt sizing
LOE isn’t the driver, but it is a key screener because of opportunity cost
Ok, let’s put this all together
Confidence is the inverse of risk
Removing the QA step to ship early means negative numbers for quality (V2)