Start fast, slow down as you uncover complexity
Things always seem easier at the start, before you’ve realised how difficult they can be. This is the time to move quickly. Make progress, even if it’s in the wrong direction. Learn quickly by doing quickly. Momentum matters.
As you realise the complexities in what you are trying to do, slow down. As you discover problems, give yourself time to understand them. Learn slowly to understand deeply.
Adjust the pace of the work to the complexities.
Getting to zero information
In The New New Product Development Game, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka talk about teams starting with “zero information”- where prior knowledge does not apply. The team is given a “broad goal or a general strategic direction” and allowed to exist in a state of ambiguity.
One of the benefits of working as a cross-functional team is that as each member shares knowledge, all the other teams members learn. And the team begins to work as a unit in developing the knowledge it needs to create the right product.
This also creates challenge for the team. Getting to zero information, to beginner’s mind, a state where the team doesn’t hold onto assumptions that cloud their judgement, is a difficult thing to achieve. Separating the knowledge that gives the team a solid grounding from the knowledge that takes the team in the wrong direction is difficult. Difficult, but important to do.
What product/market fit might look like for charities
The concept of product/market fit was created by Andy Rachleff, from Benchmark Capital, and Don Valentine, from Sequoia Capital. And then popularized by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. This means the concept has a very specific context and history, which makes it slightly problematic for other contexts.
With that said, let’s see how the concept might be applied to a charity context.
Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market
– Marc Andreessen
In a charity setting, the dynamics of product/market fit are very different.
The market isn’t made up of customers who are or aren’t willing to pay for the product, which means that willingness can’t be used as a signal of fit. For charities, the market is three-sided with the user, the funder and the charity. A good market would be one where the people are facing a significant problem that funders want to support solutions to.
Charities tackle wicked problems. Even the most successful products are only ever a small part of solving wicked problems, which means the product can’t provide clear signals of how well it is satisfying a market need.
Product/market fit is an important concept for charity product management, but it needs a lot more work to understand it properly.
Digital trails: managing documentation for fast moving projects
Managing documentation for fast moving projects is a challenge. Different formats, different platforms, different people., different ways of working.
Maintaining a single database that links to all the documentation, in a way that makes sense for people unfamiliar with the work would be a full time job.
I like the idea of leaving digital trails. Every new document links to relevant, earlier documents. This creates a trail, a timeline of the work, where anyone starting with a recent document can find they way all the way back to the start of the project.