Our 1st ever book club event is coming up this month & we’ve choosen Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by the Heath brothers.

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered decision making in our topics – last June, Steve Bauer did a prodanon session and then turned the session into a series of blog posts.  You can check them out here:

• Our introduction of the topic & wrap-up from the Product Anonymous meeting
• Steve’s introduction to his series: The Art of Decision Making
• The Process (part 1) of the series including a 6 step framework
• Defining the problem (part 2)
• Defining the people in the problem (part 3)
• Identifying alternatives (part 4)
• Evaluating alternatives (part 5)
• Decision Time (part 6)
• Implementation (part 7)
• Learn & Evaluate (part 8)

So come along, bring a friend and share a war story

January 23rd meet-up: Book club on Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath. Start time 6pm, for 6:30pm kick-off, at the Mail Exchange Hotel, back room behind the Restaurant area. Bourke and Spencer st.
RSVP below or click this button to go to Eventbrite for full details

This article continues the discussion from Product Anonymous back in June last year.  Full credit goes to the team and the attendees for providing key steps, insight and critical analysis.

In the last set of posts we defined the problem (topic and people), identified some alternatives, evaluated those alternatives, and even decided and implemented . The final step in the process is #6 – To learn and evaluate.

Now is the time to follow up on the decision; is the implementation going well, has the environment changed and what can you learn from it

Maintain your heading

Publicly stick with your decision.  If the team sees doubt then their commitment to the decision may drop, and it will be less effective.  Reiterating the decision outcome (or in PR terms being ‘on message’)  can seem like a waste of effort for you, but for everyone else who wasn’t part of the process it seems like new information.

Again, the plan is the plan until there is a new plan.

Monitor the outcomes

Follow up on how the decision is being implemented.  Are people working on it? Are the necessary steps being taken?  Are existing processes being modified?  If it is not being implemented then you have further influencing to do.

Follow up on the key metrics and points that were part of the decision analysis.  Are you getting the savings, revenue or traffic you predicted?  Are results shown in both quantitative and qualitative form?  Is everything else being held constant?

Adapt to changes by iterating

“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.”
Niels Bohr

It is a fact of life that every decision can have unintended consequences.  Or you may find that the decision-making assumptions were wrong.  Or you just aren’t getting the results you were expecting. Or you may just be plain wrong.

The important thing is that you stay on top of the outcomes of the decision, and get involved before they escalate out of hand.  The interesting project work always involves unknowns, and mistakes will be made.

Learn

The whole decision making cycle is a perfect opportunity to learn about the business, the process, and the people involved.

Step back and think about the bigger picture.  For example: What would you do differently next time?  How would you have achieved the same result in only 10% of the time?  How could you achieved the same outputs with only 10% of the budget?

Always ask yourself: What will you do better next time?

We are now done.  We have taken the full 6 part process and looked at some of the stickier issues within corporate decision making.

Have you got any other tools to help you make decisions? Please feel free to comment below to add to the discussion.

Go back & read part 7 on Implementation.

Steve is a Product Development Manager at Telstra Wholesale.  The views expressed in this post are his only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Telstra.

This article continues the discussion from Product Anonymous back in June last year.  Full credit goes to the team and the attendees for providing key steps, insight and critical analysis.

In the last set of posts we defined the problem (topic and people), identified some alternatives, evaluated those alternatives, and then deciding.  Step #5 in the process is to implement that decision.

Ok.  We have made our decision.  Woohoo!

Now what?

Surely everyone will just crack on with it?

Communicate the decision so that it can be implemented.

And this might mean communicating well beyond the immediate team tasked with the implementation.  There are usually some impacted teams that you haven’t considered out there that need to be informed.  So back to the RACI model and consider the ‘Informed’ folk.

You may need to use your influence to get help from other people to implement it. There may be some resistance, but with a well reasoned decision process then you should have no trouble getting commitment and support from everyone.  You are going to need them to be ‘all in’ so they can run with the new decision.

Use the momentum

There will now be some momentum behind the decision as you have already involved a bunch of stakeholders.  Get the stakeholders to help implement and promote the decision.  Get them involved in the next decision that is the natural progression of the current.  Keep that momentum going.

Kill the alternatives

Depending on your culture, it may be necessary to kill the other alternatives. Because of the decision making process there may be doubt about whether the final solution is the best solution.

It is possible for a company to continue using resources on the unchosen option in the name of ‘risk mitigation’, ‘creating a plan B’, or ‘I disagree so I’ll do it my way’. It may be necessary to prevent each of the alternatives from being implemented just to prevent the waste of resources.

Alexander the Great may have burned his boats upon arrival on the shores of Persia as a sign of commitment.  While you may not have to be as extreme, you don’t want to waste resources on options that may never bear fruit.

The plan is the plan until there is a new plan.

We have now implemented our decision, but it is still not over.  Perhaps there is some iteration or learning ahead.  Next we’ll look at what we can learn.

Have you got any other tools to help you make decisions? Please feel free to comment below to add to the discussion.

Go back to Part 6: Decision time.

Steve is a Product Development Manager at Telstra Wholesale.  The views expressed in this post are his only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Telstra.

At our last meeting, you told us you wanted #prodgmt than just once a month!!  Out of this conversation and other feedback we’ve had, we’re trialing a monthly coffee/lunch session.

We held our 1st coffee session on the afternoon of Oct 3rd.  It was good to see both new & familiar faces stop by (note to self: must remember to take photos!!).  The concept of being able to pop in for a few minutes or have a leisurely coffee seems to be a winner.

We’ll be mixing it up with different times (& maybe get crazy with a different day!) so keep that feedback coming!    On the 31st,  our coffee session will be more of a lunch time affair.    We’re hoping for some good weather so we can all meet in a park but let’s see closer to the date.   Venue suggestions are welcome!!

Our next Product Anon coffee will be Thursday Oct 31st, 12:30-1:30.   Subscribe to our google calendar / Twitter / Linkedin for updates.

This article continues the discussion from Product Anonymous back in June.  Full credit goes to the team and the attendees for providing key steps, insight and critical analysis.

In the last set of posts we defined the problem (topic and people), identified some alternatives, and evaluated those alternatives.  Step #4 in the process is to decide between those alternatives.

With all the evaluation you did in the last section, it should be pretty clear what the correct decision should be.

Some extra thoughts on the actual decision point.

Sometimes it is hard to make a decision.  You will need to balance the upside against the downside.  For quantitative information this may be a mathematical decision, but this is unlikely to be the only part.  Since there is always a human element there will be additional complications to resolve.

A good decision should not be a surprise to anyone. Certainly the easiest decisions are those that don’t seem like they were required.  If anyone is surprised then it is likely you haven’t done your homework in building engagement and consensus.  Everyone should understand that they had a part in the decision, that their opinions and ideas were listened to, and they all got the right background.  Everyone should see the decision as a natural evolution out of the options and the situation.

Sometimes it is easier if you decide on what you’re not doing.  Striking off alternatives that you aren’t going to do, and see what you are left with.

Will the decision stick?  The previous sections discussed the RACI analysis – if the decision is not being supported by the right person then it might not stick – and therefore it won’t be the decision that was needed.

Is the water clouded with too many issues?  Whenever there is “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt” (FUD) then it will become hard to make the decision.  Clear up any misunderstandings by going back to first principles.

What would it take for me to believe in the decision?  Are you personally convinced this is the right way to go?  Or are you going by the numbers?

Are you looking for something that is the optimal decision or just good enough?  Some people (known as maximizers) will spend a lot of energy optimising a decision, while some people (satisficers) will simply try to get by with a possible solution.  Which one are you?

How will you feel about the decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and in 10 years?  Using this tool is a good way to separate yourself from the emotional here-and-now of the decision

Is there some form of personal fear in your decision?  We all experience fear of failure and fear of getting it wrong.  This is normal.  But if this is your product, you need to be proud of your decision, regardless of your fear.

Is it fear that this is a one-way decision?  Such decisions are rare, and many can be corrected.  And if other people are part of the decision process then they will help.  Especially if you have called out assumptions, then they can recognise that change will need to be made.

If you can’t decide then maybe it doesn’t matter.  Maybe everything has an upside and a downside that can’t be compared – so every option is good and bad. In which case the option chosen doesn’t matter.  But still make a decision because you need to set a direction.

If you can’t decide, then try the ‘slightly cranky’ method.  This is the time to channel your inner cranky product manager.  Pretend you have been at this all night and you have had enough?  Now what?  Evaluate and check that it makes sense at the end though. You are effectively trusting your gut now, so look inside and work out the things you decided were most important, and use these for your reasons.

Doing the exact opposite might still be valid.  Can you flip it on its head?  This can be such a big mental shift that you will probably need to explain the reasoning to everyone again.

So we now have some well evaluated alternatives, we have though about the implications and finally it is crunch time.

You have to make a decision.

Do it.

We have a decision, but it is not over yet.  You will need to implement it, and then learn from it.  Next we’ll look at the implementation.

Have you got any other tools to help you make decisions? Please feel free to comment below to add to the discussion.

Go back to Part 5: Evaluating Alternatives

Steve is a Product Development Manager at Telstra Wholesale.  The views expressed in this post are his only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Telstra.