Identifying the right problems to solve
It’s essential for organizations to identify and address the right problems before diving into solutions, says Stephanie Shine, strategy principal at Kin + Carta. Encourage teams to get beneath the surface and understand why these problems exist—and what your solutions would accomplish. “If someone comes to us and says, ‘We need to build this app,’ I’m going to push a little bit and start to ask why,” Shine says. “You can get deeper into what’s really broken or has friction that needs to be addressed.”
Successful experimentation invariably requires data to identify the specific problems and inform effective decision-making.
“When people are talking about digital transformation, they’re really talking about decision science,"
Shine claims. “What data do they already have? Or what data do they need to gather to improve the problems that they’re seeing in their organization on a daily basis?”
Look for low-risk tests
Big problems can feel insurmountable, which makes innovation difficult to imagine, much less fund. Break complex problems into smaller tasks, or experiments, so your employees can home in on specific aspects and test foundational hypotheses. “You have to challenge yourself to see if there’s an opportunity to realize value upfront,” says Josh McNally, FinServ Portfolio Delivery Partner at Kin + Carta. “If you can create value based on smaller chunks and you can realize that value sooner, than you should.”
McNally highlights the significance of iteration in conjunction with agile frameworks, as quick iterations reduce the impact of failure and allow for continuous improvement. Teams can quickly course-correct before they get too far afield.
Josh Linkner, the New York Times best-selling author of Big Little Breakthroughs, recommends keeping what he calls a “to test” list next to your “to do” list. “Anytime some idea pops in your head, big, small, ugly, weird, crazy … it doesn't matter. Stick it on the list. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't cost any money. And just the mere existence of the list will boost your creative output, because now it's front and center. You're thinking about it all the time.”
This technique becomes especially powerful once you open it up to your team, he says. “Let everybody add to the “to test” list at the weekly staff meeting. It will absolutely drive business commercial value and it will drive intrinsic human value.”