Marc Monday

Tell stories don’t just show slides! Nobody will remember your 12 point font on slide 27 on the third day - but they probably will remember when you showed a picture of yourself at 11 years old jumping a BMX bike as a metaphor for resilience and fortitude. Keep it simple with each presentation - focus on 3 and no more than 5 things you want the audience to remember. Repetition helps with memorization. Say the thing you want the audience to remember multiple times, the same way, with different examples each time. This is sometimes called the “tell em what your going to tell em approach. For example: Today I’m going to tell you a story about why XYZ matters. Then tell them the story about XYZ. Then summarize the thing you told

Frame this as an Ecosystems approach to product development and integration. Optimize for interoperability with key solutions that; - power your product - think hyperscaler elastic computing like AWS, Azure or GCP - protect your product - think security -integrate with your product - think APIs -extend your product - can be APIs or simple import/export capabilities - complete your solution in some way - elevate your product through things like data visualization or advance telemetry/optics I’d add, it doesn’t have to all be about technical integrations - there are often important use case scenarios where better together can align at the simplistic of workflows or solution maps.

Whitney Johnson wrote a book all about this called “Disrupt Yourself” designed to help you master relentless change and to accelerate learning. The silicon chip industry is another great example of self-disruption - where every next generation chip is designed to replace the prior designs through innovation. Car makers do this with annual model changes and innovation. Software in particular is predicated on this notion of “the next generation” is always better than the one prior. Develop a roadmap for your product and make it clear what N + 1 product should look like/solve, then N + 2; and so on - recognizing that at each successive delta you’ll want to revisit what’s in or out of the roadmap based upon customer needs, market dynamics

Data and insights are your friend. Even if you can’t talk to every customer directly, you can build systems to listen to them. This can include leveraging 3rd party research by key verticals, segments and solution areas. You can also leverage “listening” tools and systems that can track customer or potential customer sentiment, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, etc. You should also use these types of tools and telemetry to keep an eye on your competitors and the customer perceptions of you, your product, service, or solution - and you. Ideally your product, especially if software or subscription, has a “phone home” capability that can also provide telemetry and insights into customer usage and needs. As well as a place for them to chat w

Time and place do matter. Be cognizant of what I call “ingame coaching” feedback that is necessary in the moment to ensure something doesn’t go awry or could negatively impact a key moment or milestones. Versus what I call “training ground coaching” - feedback applied the next day or several days later in a less pressurized environment (using the in game metaphor). Training ground feedback is often the best feedback as it’s reserved for a time/place where the feedback can be thoughtful and ideally the participant is in a good/non-stressed environment. Lastly use “postmortem” feedback. Feedback sometime after the occurrence that generally solicits insights from those who were in the moment. “What could we have done differently there”

At the onset of a project or team to team collaboration start by building a shared language. Define terms, define deliverables, define roles, define success criteria, including KPIs and MBOS, and critical, define timelines. As part of the initial team alignment exercise, plan in advance for inevitable conflict, confusion, or misalignment. Agree on a process for how to remediate disagreements, issues, and inevitable conflicts that will arise as the teams forms and storms. Agree on a plan for remediation, including very clear definitions of who/how remediations will be managed. Plan for inevitable escalations as well with clear steps for escalating within the organization if the teams can not solve the conflicts at the front line level