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Monthly Archives: April 2008
Decisions can be fun!
Recently I’ve been writing quite a few deep and thoughtful blog entries on serious subjects that relate to accelerated strategy and product development (e.g. Massively parallel thinking, Thinking Breakdown Structures, Accelerate Ideas into Reality, etc.). I don’t want to lose … Continue reading
Posted in Decision Concepts, Decision Driven Life
Tagged collaboration, create the future, decisions, destiny, fun, Glory, God's smile, innovation, joy, partnering with God, triumph
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Decision Breakdown Structure
For any strategy or design situation, a Decision Breakdown Structure (DBS) provides a way to decompose the situation into well-framed, loosely-coupled, bite-sized and manageable “thought packages“. It provides a way to “Image the whole, then execute the parts” when the … Continue reading
Posted in Decision Concepts, Decision Driven Innovation, Decision Driven Life, Decision Driven Product Development, Decision Driven Strategy
Tagged critical chain, critical path, decision, decision network, earned value, massively parallel thinking, milestones, project management, project planning, thinking breakdown structure, thought package, work breakdown structure, work package
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New product innovation decisions
I’ve mentioned previously that a Decision Breakdown Structure (DBS) provides a very powerful innovation framework for creating breakthrough products and services. Although every decision within a Decision Breakdown Structure can be an innovation “node”, some decisions are more innovation-rich than … Continue reading
Massively parallel thinking
The following is crazy talk, but sometimes it’s helpful to aim impossibly high to uncover the roadblocks to dramatic improvement. Why does it take 6, 12, 18, 24 months or more to design and deliver a new product to market? How … Continue reading
Posted in Decision Concepts, Decision Driven Innovation, Decision Driven Product Development, Decision Driven Strategy
Tagged accelerate, decision, decision blitz, decision network, massively parallel, problem domain, process improvement, product development, speed, thinking, thinking breakdown structure, time to market, value-added
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Criteria: Functional Model
In my previous post, I said that “Functional design is not just adding up the list of functions …, but rather organizing them into a lean, mean performing machine.” Functional design is a fairly abstract process, so it’s quite helpful … Continue reading
Decision: Functional Model
Form – Fit – FUNCTION. I’ve always wondered why this little design ditty isn’t inverted; the heart of any product design lies in its Functional Model. This decision determines which capabilities the product will deliver to the end user; a … Continue reading
Scoring alternatives – keep it simple
The evaluation of alternatives in a decision should be a simple process that unlocks many insights. Effective scoring begins with a clear definition of criteria. Each criterion (factor, stakeholder goal) represents an arrow or vector in the direction of “goodness”. Scoring is … Continue reading
Rapid scoring of alternatives
Everyone wants to make quick, high quality decisions. It’s important to find a balance between “analysis paralysis” and “speed kills”. For example, I encourage the folks that I mentor to take their time when defining criteria; understanding their stakeholders’ needs, … Continue reading
Posted in Decision Concepts, Decision Driven Innovation, Decision Driven Product Development, Decision Driven Strategy
Tagged alternatives, analysis paralysis, criteria, criteria pattern, decision, evaluation, pros-cons, rapid scoring, speed, speed kills, stakeholders, strengths-weaknesses, think it through
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Decision precision
I’ve coached folks in making a several thousand strategy, engineering or life decisions over the past 20 years. In most cases, we have used a simple weighted-scoring method to evaluate the relative “goodness” of alternatives against a set of criteria. Criteria are … Continue reading
Methods-based mentoring of entrepreneurs
Generally speaking, there are 2 types of effective consultants in the world. First, there are subject matter experts, those who have deep experience in some industry or technology domain, who have “been there, done that”. Second, there are methods-based consultants who use … Continue reading
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