Project Management Innovation
“The Innovator’s Solution” Approach to Project Management:Delivering Business Value - Right From The Start! by Dr Lan Ho
“The Innovator’s Solution” is a best selling book written by Clayton Christensen. that addresses the issue of how to create and sustain corporate growth. But when these same methodologies are applied to project management, they are an effective approach to ensuring that IT projects deliver business value, right from the start.
For those who may not have read Christensen’s book yet, a key methodology is his use of the “jobs” question. What job is the business user already trying to get done?
A great example of how project managers can apply this Innovator’s Solution approach in their own companies is to look at an IT project that enables enterprise-wide deployment of the Blackberry. The BlackBerry is a technology whose primary application is to send and receive email when a business user is away from his PC
However the business value and key driver behind this now rampant adoption of technology by business users, is not that they can now send and receive emails. When we apply the Innovator’s Solution approach, we discover that the real job the business-user is already trying to get done is to use “small snippets of time productively”.
When executives are stranded on the tarmac at O’Hare Airport, out come the BlackBerries. When they’re sitting in a conference room waiting for someone to figure out how to work the projector, out come the BlackBerries.
Do these business users value the IT project that now has anyone and everyone expecting them to reply to their email anytime, anywhere and around the clock? No. In fact, increased email accessibility has become a problem in itself. What these business users value is being able to make productive use of snippets of time, ironically to get rid of all of those emails.
That is the right answer to the jobs question. That is where the IT project delivers business value. Project management needs to correctly understand the job to be done from the view of what the business user already values.
This is no trivial point. The gap between the job we thought that the BlackBerry delivered for the business user (send and receive email) versus the job the business user was really trying to get done (use time more productively) is significant. Any project designed without “use time more productively” in its scope, would have failed to meet the needs of the business user.
Now look at your own IT projects from this Innovator’s Solutions view. Do you see a similar gap? Which of your upcoming projects are aligned with the right job that the business user already values? To be certain, go ask the business user to answer the “jobs” question for you today and see what he comes back with. (Hint: If you don’t deep dive into his answers, chances are high that you will get the jobs question wrong)
Here are some practical steps to take when applying this approach to each of your upcoming projects:
- Look to identify the right “job” the business user is already trying to get done.
- Ask the business user exactly how he gets this job done today. The right answers are in the deep dive questions you ask from there.
- Ask the business user the value to him, in his own words, of whichever IT project you are about to start and the price he has put on not getting this “job” done.
Don’t ask in dollars and cents. Don’t ask in terms of features and functionalist. Ask what his work life is like today before the project versus what he expects his work life will be like after the project:
- Create a vision of the complete end-user experience, first, before you write a single line of code. Create that vision in a laptop demo with the before and after view he just gave you. Then go back and confirm with him that this is correct.*
- This is where the nuances between the job we believe the business user is trying to get done and the job he really values can be accurately captured. Often the business user can’t define the job as well by himself as he can when the project manager acts as his business partner.
What if during this process you find that the project you are about to start is the wrong solution? Now what? This is a leadership challenge that every project manager faces far too often.
It takes great courage to tell the business user that a project he was looking forward to will not deliver what he needs to get done. A good project manager committed to innovation will look to ensure that every IT project is delivering real business value.
There are fundamental cultural differences between the business user and IT. Business users value relationships. It is important for the IT professional to be seen as an honest and reliable partner who will provide support and guidance to the business users about how to build a system that will achieve their goals. To be a successful project manager means to gain the trust of the business users.
Here are some steps that will help get the project back on track:
- Stop the project and reassess the original scope. There is nothing innovative about leveraging IT to empower a broken process.
- Team with the business users to reverse engineer, then improve the process before you build anything.
- Create a new system by collaborating with the business user to answer the jobs question correctly.
- Leverage the human connection that this new level of collaboration between the IT team and the business user brings to the project.
The Innovator’s Solution approach to project management is an effective way to deliver business value from IT projects, right from the start!
Dr Lan Ho is CEO of Illumi Consulting. Prior to co-founding illumi Consulting, Dr. Ho was Sr. VP for Computer Horizons. Dr. Ho has experience in Business Development and project delivery. She closed more than $70 Million in consulting work in the past 10 years and was the founder and chief executive of two divisions of Computer Horizons. She created start-up practices in compliance for the financial industry (trading surveillance's, AML, U.S. Patriot Act, SOX and security and insurance registration). She developed strategic business relationships with Secured Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Legg Mason, and Lehman Brothers.
Dr. Ho received her Ph.D. in Physics from Polytechnic Institute of New York and graduated from City College of New York with a MS degree in Physics. Dr. Ho received her BS degree from Fu-Jen University, Taiwan.
Dr. Ho can be reached via email: lan@illumiconsulting.com