Production As Strategy - Adrian Ho

Production as strategy.
And other contradictions of making modern brands. May 20, 2011

2640 Lyndale Avenue South Minneapolis Minnesota 55408
T +1 612 279 1400 F +1 612 279 1401
www.zeusjones.com
Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.
Modern brands are defined by what they do.

Classic model of a brand.

Built for a mass-media world.
Modern brand model.

Built for a world driven by experiences and interactions.
CORE BELIEF
Established 2007 to build modern brands.

We combine strategy, design and digital expertise. Many of us came from the digital side.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
A tale of two cities.

Charles Dickens writing about London and Paris in 1775.
Zeus Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011. Zeus Jones Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.
A good description of Zeus Jones in 2009.
Go to BP
Peruse the department
Closing a hole in the sales cycle.

Sales often delayed or lost in the dressing room due to need for approval.
Choose items to try on
Try on clothes
Go to BP Do more research Peruse the department
Closing a hole in the sales cycle.

Sales often delayed or lost in the dressing room due to need for approval.
Look at photos and consider outfits Choose items to try on Purchase clothes Share photos
Try on clothes
Take PB Photos Adjust outfits
It was our best project of 2009.
It was our best project of 2009. It was our worst project of 2009.
What consumed most of our attention.

And what ultimately limited our success.
Surface background alternatives

We spent 3 weeks arguing against yellow, and then we lost.
What we should have focused on

Using the content, learning about our customers, learning about our clothes.
We invested all our effort in the least valuable part of the experience and none in the most valuable.
Things we focused on
Making it cool Making it pretty Stability Perfecting an object The customer The experience Building it
Things we forgot about

Making it cheaply Making it fast Flexibility Perfecting a process The data The output Building upon it
Strategy is the process of making assumptions.

As the world becomes more complex your chances of being wrong increases.
Products and experiences reveal new opportunities for usage after they're built.
Thats just one of the ways they differ from communications.
Image via RedDogFever
The services we love the most are always in beta

We needed a modern approach to production that:

Allows more consistent opportunities for feedback, new ideas, innovation, and iterative progress Documents ideas, discussions and decisions and makes them available to everyone.
Traditional Project Management

Based on Fredrick Taylor's "Scientific Management" written in 1911 Used to scope out systematic projects that require up-front planning.
Traditional project management framework.

Predictability and systematic, linear development Deterministic, reductionist approach that rely on task breakdown Stable requirements, analysis and stable design Compliance as a means of project control Individual resources as interchangeable cogs in the machine.
Problems with traditional project management methods.

Creates a false sense of security that projects are being managed by exhaustive planning, measuring, and controlling. Adds unnecessary upfront cost and time for planning which in the end will be tested and changed throughout the project. Requires detailed, rigid proposals that are developed at the beginning of a project are written at a point in the project with the most uncertainty. Does not see participants as skilled and valuable stakeholders in the execution of the project. Change is seen as a result of poor planning which leads to the perception that the project is failing.
Traditional project management creates inefficiencies.

Fixed price bids/contracts are bad ideas for both Design/Development companies and the client. Clients think they are reducing their financial risk with a fixed bid, but the reality is that it forces them into a position where their money is almost always wasted (see figure below). For developers, it almost always motivates them to reduce the delivered quality in order to make it within budget and/or time.
Average percentage of developed functionality actually used when a traditional, linear approach to requirements definition is taken on a "launched" information technology project:
Always
Often
13
Sometimes
16
Rarely
19
Never
45
Source: Chaos Report v3. Standish Group. Copyright 2005-2006 Scott W. Ambler
See, it was a production problem.
Agile project management.

Evolved from the agile software development manifesto in 2001 and the fields of human interaction management and business process management.
Agile project management frameworks.

Flexibility and dynamic, cyclical development Launch with less, evaluate and revise Focus on Guiding Vision Change management and communication Collaboration as a means of project improvement Employees as skilled and valuable stakeholders
Projects should and will change during execution. We manage the change to improve the project.
A fundamental change in how we organize and work.

A view of organizations as fluid, adaptive systems composed of intelligent living beings A recognition of the limits of external control in establishing order, and of the role of intelligent control that employs selforganization as a means of establishing order An overall problem solving approach that is humanistic It regards employees as skilled and valuable stakeholders in the management of a team instead of cogs in a machine It relies on the collective ability of autonomous teams as the basic problem solving mechanism.
(2003-2008). Agile Project Management. Retrieved February 9, 2010 , from CC Pace Web site: http://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdf
It limits up-front planning to a minimum based on an assumption of unpredictability, and instead stresses adaptability to changing conditions.
Image via RedDogFever
Turns out it was a strategy problem after all.
We needed a modern approach to strategy.

One that limits the number of up-front assumptions made prior to developing a solution. One that marries strategic development with product development.
One that reacts to new opportunities as they become available and uses them to solve business and marketing problems.
Google even more.

Help us re-think how we list our products.
We started by asking ourselves what can be done? Rather than asking what could be done?
Design as strategy: audit of product pages.

Many product pages have an API that show what people are doing with the product.
The things people do with products are more interesting and more descriptive than the products themselves.
Strategy emerged from design.
A cultural dashboard
New opportunities emerged from production.
Production as strategy.
We made it in 3 weeks, so we only built the things that were quick and easy to build.
Things we focused on
Making it cheaply Making it fast Flexibility The output The data Perfecting a process Building upon it
Things we didnt
Making it cool Making it pretty Stability The experience The customer Perfecting an object Building it
Execution became a strategic conversation which made it less subjective and less arbitrary.
Production as strategy frameworks.

Turns client and agency into collaborators, outcomes are purposefully unclear therefore no side can claim to have the answer. No separation between thinking teams and making teams, thinking doesnt end. Projects improve as they progress. Creates a situation where there are often too many opportunities rather than too few.
A fundamental change in how strategists work.

Need to get your hands dirty, cant remove yourself from the actual making of things. Focus on behavioral pivot points rather than mental pivot points. Build strategy from the ground up rather than from the top down. Be more aware of what you dont know that what you do know.
A fundamental change in how producers work.

Think about change as an opportunity instead of something that derails the plan Create more opportunities for check-ins and collaboration Develop plans based on duration and resources vs. hours
Develop strategic processes, not strategic plans, whose minimum outcomes will meet your objectives.
But which also have the potential to deliver far more.
Strategic starting points.

1. Whats the desired outcome in order to solve the problem? 2. What needs to happen first in order to achieve our outcome? 3. What can be built quickly to enable that? 4. How can building it deliver enough business value that the problem becomes easier to solve?
GMI Connect
Help to create a culture of cross-team and cross division collaboration at General Mills
Collaborative workspaces Identifying people to collaborate with
Rich conversations
Collaboration worksheet
Collaboration activities
Meeting spaces
Case study library
Virtual whiteboards
Q&A platform
Hard to Accomplish IRL
Rich conversations
Hard to Build Easy to Build
Collaboration activities relative to development difficulty.
Meeting spaces
Case study library
Virtual whiteboards
Q&A platform
Easy to Accomplish IRL
Hard to Accomplish IRL
Rich conversations
Hard to Build Easy to Build
Collaboration activities relative to development difficulty.
Meeting spaces
Case study library
Virtual whiteboards
Q&A platform
Easy to Accomplish IRL
General Mills Connect

Creating a culture of collaboration in the company.
Connect strategy has been driven by user need and user observation.
Case Study: Senior Management Conference

Used like twitter to post questions / feedback before & during conference Presented on displays around campus for virtual attendance 1000+ attendance Increased attendance, new interactions, new connections Allowed people to search for conversations after the event
Traditional strategy
Theoretical Mental models Prediction Testing backwards Monolithic Results oriented Reductionist
Modern strategy
Practical Tangible products Observation Testing forwards Iterative Guided by a vision Expansionist
Traditional strategy builds traditional brands.

Strategy for a predictable, focused outcome.
Modern strategy builds modern brands.

Strategy guided by a vision and designed to create complex and surprising experiences.
CORE BELIEF
Modern brands connect in a more human way.

Production as strategy is a more human way to build brands.
Thank you!
Questions and workshop.
2640 Lyndale Avenue South Minneapolis Minnesota 55408
T +1 612 279 1400 F +1 612 279 1401
www.zeusjones.com

Production As Strategy - Adrian Ho

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Production as strategy.

And other contradictions of making modern brands. May 20, 2011

T +1 612 279 1400 F +1 612 279 1401

Modern brands are defined by what they do.

Classic model of a brand.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Modern brand model.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Established 2007 to build modern brands.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

A tale of two cities.

A good description of Zeus Jones in 2009.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Peruse the department

Closing a hole in the sales cycle.

Choose items to try on

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Go to BP Do more research Peruse the department

Closing a hole in the sales cycle.

Take PB Photos Adjust outfits

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

It was our best project of 2009.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

What consumed most of our attention.

Surface background alternatives

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

What we should have focused on

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Things we forgot about

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2010.

Strategy is the process of making assumptions.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Image via RedDogFever

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

The services we love the most are always in beta

We needed a modern approach to production that:

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Traditional Project Management

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Traditional project management framework.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Problems with traditional project management methods.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Traditional project management creates inefficiencies.

See, it was a production problem.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Agile project management.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Agile project management frameworks.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

A fundamental change in how we organize and work.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.

Image via RedDogFever

Turns out it was a strategy problem after all.

Zeus Jones Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved 2011.