In our last blog post we explained how to use the Project Prioritization tool.
What if your planning included visibility?
Projects in the top right quadrant are (primarily) "execution" endeavors. We call these V1 projects. You know how to get them done and the impact you should see. These endeavors are high impact with high evidence for success. This is where resources should be concentrated.
In the lower right, are projects that are believed to have a lower impact, but there's a high degree of confidence about what needs to be delivered. We call these V2a. These projects should also be resourced, but can be scheduled out over longer periods of time since they're expected to have lower impact.
The next level is rarely, if ever, considered. Projects in the upper left quadrant (high impact, low evidence) are often funded and resourced, but rarely achieve their desired outcomes. We call these V2b. There is a lot of waste here. An execution mindset dominates even though there's a lot of uncertainty. One must balance execution with "exploration" activities.
Exploration means gathering evidence to learn what value needs to be created for stakeholders and the level of effort required to get there.
(To be clear, the stakeholder could be external customers or perhaps internal "customers" or others. Not the "owner" of the effort, but whom should receive the value of the effort.)
The lower left quadrant (V3) is interesting. This is usually where all ideas start, with unknown impact and little evidence for understanding value to be created. So, should this level be ignored? The answer is no, but how one deals with these can vary widely. These ideas require exploration work. Perhaps this is where "innovation" teams might work, but ideally, whoever owns the idea is given the tools and time to generate evidence themselves. This has several benefits:
Do you have a good exploration story? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you.