sliders
Diagram done, post coming soon:
About a year ago, Andy used a whiteboard diagram and the phrase ‘decorate the sliders with various settings’ to bring a measure of balance to a rather tense and divided group of people. The notion of using a visualisation of sliders (think of volume sliders you see on amplifiers) to gain agreement on a series of trade-offs through balance continues to prove useful.
Just yesterday I used this technique to try and clarify my postion on litigation vs co-operation in the context of innovative scientific research.
The plan for this post is to generalise the concept and provide you all with a few diagrams and examples. (coming soon, I hope).
Meanwhile, here are the notes from a discussion Andy and I have been having as he re-locates from the land of Aus to sunny Seattle:
Here is first cut of a diagram that describes the scenario below it:
Project complexity and size
- The more complex the project, the more the need for short iterative “pilot” boats or “scout projects” to discover the right path and therefore to reduce the risk for the larger effort, at a low cost
- This slider looks at one large project (right hand end) vs many smaller projects that have different purposes. The small projects publish and subscribe from each other (left hand end) – some of the small projects don’t exist into production but their limited lifetime purpose is to inform. The left hand end is more interesting because unforseen but happy combinations can emerge from combinatorial projects
Team size and structure (peers vs PM & rigorous plan driven)
- A peer-based structure embeds the decision making in the team rather than in either a heavy and accountable plan or a Chief figurehead like a Project Manager.
- This slider looks at team formality, with strong hierarchy and formal interfacing to the business on one end (right hand) and flat structure on the other end (left) with business included as a peer on the team (not a customer but a member).
Management of risk during project
- Risk can be managed retrospectively and by surprise, or actively which means we detect and look for issues early, hence reducing their severity or increasing the amount of time or the maturity of the risk management approach when they appear
- This slider is reactive vs proactive risk management
Funding
- A slider of: Single large project, big investment (right hand end) vs Many small, deliberately low budget projects (value demonstration precedes next round of funding)
Mike
February 26th, 2008 at 1:48 am
[...] of innovation over the past few years. Looking at the diagram below, one might think of moving the ‘slider‘ (think of a sliding volume control on an amplifier) just slightly to the right (in [...]
April 13th, 2008 at 9:20 am
The use of sliders as a way to breakthrough emotion an objectify an issue is really helpful. It is an old trick I learned many years ago from Rob Thomsett in one of his project management courses. I’ve taught it to many project managers as a way of clarifying client expectations regarding trade-offs between scope, schedule, cost and quality. But I had not thought to apply it to innovation discussions. Thanks