Great thoughts from Karl Long about infusing fast experiments into the culture of large, typically slow-moving and process-based bureaucratic companies:
from : Trying Sometimes Cheaper Than Deciding (at Experience Curve)
So when the cost of deciding to do something becomes much more expensive than doing something, what do you do? Here are a few ideas:
* Empower teams to launch experiments
* Develop a process for manageing projects as a portfolio of experiments
* Evaluate projects regularly
* Killing projects should be as easy as starting projects and everyone needs to understand that, and the criteria
* Start cheaply
* Get ready to fail faster
* Prepare to fail in public and be ok with that
* Create a “beta” culture
* Put basic legal boilerplate frameworks in place that minimize risk, don’t reinvent it each time
People familiar with the iterative design mantra “fail early to succeed faster” for design prototyping will find this mentality familiar, but applying this philosophy at at macro level to bigger corporate design and product development organizations is something many companies just aren’t organized to handle today. Trying something out and just making/prototyping constantly – versus paralysis based on all the planning (and even IP ownership issues) that can really tie up a promising concept before it even can get off the ground. Most commonly this also relates to staffing – and how you prioritize the work a group of designers (UI, UX, Visual Design, Scripting/Prototype coders), which could be approached more like managing an innovation “portfolio” – like how a VC firm decides to juice a project with additional funding or resources to see the next level of promise an idea may hold.
It gets down to a having a progressive management philosophy, which is why Google has done well with this method. Lots of things are tried constantly, many fail but the portfolio approach is stronger because so many good ideas are left to breathe and fertilize earlier.
Very great thoughts to begin 2008 with!
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