3 Year Planning
We work in three year planning cycles that defines and confirms;
- Company purpose and core values.
- 10 year big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) and the 3 year highly achievable goal (3HAG).
- Ideal customer profile (ICP) - who is our core customer?
- Top 6 to 8 buying attributes our ICP uses to purchase our product category - by what do they evaluate our solution to make their buying decisions?
- Top 5 competitors who provide our product category to our ICP.
- Competitor ranking against the buying attributes - on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best) how well do they satisfy each of the ICP’s buying criteria?
- How well do we satisfy the buying attributes for our customer?
- Attribution framework is charted to visually identify where the customer is under, or over served.
- Define our 3 year attribution line to identify where we will invest, and divest, in each of the buying attributes to create white space between us and the competition.
- Define 3 to 5 differentiators that enable the creation of “white space” on the attribution chart. “Strategy describes how a company creates a unique and valuable position through a set of differentiating actions.”
- Identify what must be delivered over the next 3 year years to enable each of the differentiators and plot them on the activity fit map - show their enabling relationships to each differentiator.
- Chart how money moves through the company with the key process flow map and identify accountability, the leading and lagging indicators, and the one critical number for each process - score each process; green, yellow, red.
- Identify all functions within the company that includes, or enables, the key processes, and for each function identify the leading and lagging indicators and one critical number.
- Break the functions down into an organization chart.
- Create the market map that plots the relationship between us, customers, channels by which we reach them, suppliers to our ICP and us, competitors, associations / partners and how much money flows between them. From the map identify threats and opportunities.
- For each differentiator plot the three year swimlanes by quarter identifying what must be delivered when to enable the differentiator and neutralize the market map threat or leverage the opportunity, one milestone at most per differentiator per quarter.
- Summarize the strategy to complete the activities and realize the differentiators in one sentence.
- For each function plot the 3 year swimlane improvements by quarter that must be made to put the key process flow map, and each respective function, in the green, and define all hires by quarter to enable that success.
- Confirm financial success by defining the 36 month rolling forecast.
- Define the brand promise (guaranteed) with measures of success.
- Find the secret sauce - our unique solution to our industries bottleneck.
- Describe the elevator pitch.
Collate the strategy summary;
- Describe our 3 year highly achievable goal as measured by 3 year, 1 year, and this quarter metrics,
- Who our core customer is and what we say to them on an elevator ride,
- Our strategy summary,
- How we will realize it - the 3 to 5 differentiating actions we must complete,
- To deliver the brand promise w/ guarantee, and
- Why we are here (our purpose) and the values we live by.
Annual Planning
In week 2 of October of every year the management team meets every Tuesday for 2 hours, for as many consecutive weeks as required, to review and update the following 3 year plan artifacts. Next week's agenda items are delivered by Friday of the current week to give everyone time to review and prepare for the following Tuesday.
- Ideal customer profile
- Their top 6 to 8 buying attributes
- Our top 5 competitors
- Our, and the competitors, attribute scores plotted on the attribution framework
- The 3-year attribution line to create white space between us and the competition
- 3 to 5 differentiators that enable the creation of “white space” on the attribution chart
- 3-year activities to enable the differentiators on the activity fit map
- 3-year swim lanes
- One line strategy summary
- Function 3-year swim lanes
- 36-month rolling forecast
- Brand promise (guaranteed) with measures of success
- Secret sauce
- Elevator pitch
And in January of every year;
- Role compensation and benefit plans are reviewed and updated.
13 Week Planning
Week 1
- Present the theme and strategy summary results for the prior 13 week period.
- Present the company theme for this 13 weeks with celebration for it’s achievement.
- By function present; their 13 week goal, sprint lanes to deliver it, process flow map, and scoreboard
For the last 4 weeks of the 13 week cycle the management team meets weekly on Tuesdays for 2 hours to close the following deliverables by week. Note, draft deliverables must be distributed for consideration by EOD Friday the week preceding to give everyone time to review and consider the materials prior to meeting.
Week 10
- Product road map updated
- Market map updated and new potential threats and opportunities identified
- Employee and rockefeller habit survey results and improvement priorities finalized
Week 11
- 3 year strategic and functional swimlane progress reviewed and assessed
- Key process flow map and functional process flow maps scored and where applicable updated
- Functional accountability chart updated where applicable
- By function 1 to 3 improvement recommendations for the next 13 week sprint
Week 12
- Draft 13 week sprint lanes and scoreboard targets
Note; a sprint lane maps the delivery of rocks (epics), not sand, incrementally across the 13 week planning horizon. Each entry in a week (there can only be one per week) defines when a milestone will be explicitly (measurable, quantifiable, non-ambiguous yes or no) delivered towards the achievement of the epic, they do not mark incremental progress towards a milestone, that is instead measured by the corresponding burn down for this function's 13 week plan.
An epic is defined by the problem which it intends to solve, and by solving it the performance of the function is improved, or it enables a strategic differentiator. How we evaluate the success of an epic is measured by preferably a critical number result within a given period of time. If the measure of success is a checklist that says the work was completed to solve the problem, you have not measured the success of your epic, you have checked off a todo list.
The validation of the success of an epic is tracked on the metascrum trello board. Upon completion of the work for an epic it’s due date is revised from when that work was expected to be done to the date by when it’s validation is due. On that validation date the actual results for the measure of success are compared to the expected result and all lessons learned are noted and shared with the management team and anyone else who would benefit from the information.
Generally all 13 week sprint lane epics are tracked through to validation on the metascrum board. However, if a function has taken on other supporting epics that;
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- require an investment that is greater than 10% of that functions resources, or
- the epic requires investment and coordination from cross function resources in order for it to succeed, or
- the epic is a critical lever that has either high reward, high risk, or both, or
- the epic upon validation will result in valuable insights that the management team can benefit from, or
- it’s debatable if it meets the above criteria err on the side of sharing and put it on the metascrum board, information is power.
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Week 13
- Prior 13 week theme result scored and strategy summary results updated
- Final 13 week sprint lanes and scoreboard targets
- Theme for next sprint with strategic sprint lane closed
Every 90 Days
Every person in the company completes their scorecard review.
Skip level meetings are held to help a leader be a better leader and encourage their reports to speak truth to power. Skip level meetings seek constructive feedback and recommendations, they are not complaint fishing expeditions. Everything recommended at the meeting is shared in real-time with the team and their leader within a Google doc.No attribution is given for the suggestions. They are anonymous. The questions asked of the team include;
- What can the leader keep doing? What works well?
- What can the leader stop doing? What doesn’t work so well?
- What can the leader start doing? What isn’t happening and should be?
- What is your team struggling with and how can the company help?
- If you were the team leader what would you do differently?
A skip level follow up with the team is scheduled 45 days after the skip level review to confirm what progress has been made by the leader. All feedback is once again noted in the same shared document and it is reviewed with the team leader at their next one-on-one.
Every Month
At the start of a month that isn't the beginning of a quarter (8 times per year) the management team meets for a day to review our financial performance, people reviews, and typically tackle one tough problem. {On hold due to COVID}
Every function has a standing monthly meeting to review and learn together from a book, a podcast, documentary, YouTube Channel, whatever medium that is conveying something that we can teach us something about we can improve how the work we do, and how we do it together.
Every Week
Scoreboards, sprint lanes and burn-downs are updated by noon on Thursday and all function leads note in the metascrum any metrics, sprint lane deliverables, and burn down results that are not in the green, what actions need to be taken to put them back in the green, and by what date they will be there.
The scoreboard, sprint lane. and burn down results are reviewed during one-on-ones to confirm next steps. As such one-on-ones happen as soon after the weekly scoreboards are updated as possible and the agendas include;
- Critical number, sprint lane and burn down progress?
- What’s the one thing that moves the critical number that you will get done next week?
- Did the one thing from last week get done? If not, what did you learn that you will apply to this week?
- What progress have you made with your personal development improvements? What help do you need?
- What are you struggling with and how can your leader help?
- What can your leader start, stop, keep doing?
All function leads have their situations fully appraised by end of day Thursday and they have defined their plan for the coming week for themselves, and their respective teams. By noon on Friday they have distributed their weekly update summarizing progress, key insights, and next steps with the company.
At share and learn on Monday we further speak to;
- 13 week theme & burndown progress.
- 1 aspect of the strategy summary, purpose or values,
- Updates from each respective function - rotating the updates across team members, and
- What changed this week.
And that same day the management team meets at metascrum to celebrate good news, and review implementation and execution problems and opportunities. This is a review and identify meeting, problems are not solved here, owners of actions to resolve the identified problems are noted and that owner will schedule meetings with the respective parties to resolve problems and report the resolutions back to the metascrum.
In addition to metascrum, every team team also has a weekly meeting to celebrate good news, and review implementation and execution problems and opportunities.
And last, but definitely not least, every person meets with their team lead for a one-on-one every week and during that chat the two of you cover;
- Good news! What has gone well in the last week.
- Progress with your critical number, sprint lane and burn down.
- What’s the one thing that moves the critical number that you will get done next week?
- Did the one thing from last week get done? If not, what did you learn that you will apply to this week?
- What progress have you made with your personal development improvements? What help do you need?
- What are you struggling with and how can your team lead help?
- What can your team lead start, stop, keep doing?