The Reach

We all know pre-mortems are "good". But why torture yourself with the organisational equivalent of a kettlebell when there's an easier way to get the same benefits? Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for more. We've all sighed ruefully and said, "hindsight is 20/20" after a failure. The pre-mortem is Gary Klein's method for accessing hindsight before you start. It helps any team spot the gap between "our plan makes perfect sense in theory" and "here are the twelve things that will...

We talk a lot about traps. They're everywhere! Strap in for another one that's about organisations tapping their toes out of time with the music. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for more. Here are two scenarios that illustrate the same issue ... 1) Largo It was only week two of the new quarter, and Sarah's team were staring into the jaws of an inconvenient truth. The problem they'd been tasked with solving wasn't actually the problem. They should be doing something quite different....

Today we're sharing a video conversation Tom had recently with international speaker and author Ben Sauer. The theme? Strategic planning ... and its infuriating habit of breaking down when you're dealing with genuine uncertainty. Check it out below. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for more. Last call for tomorrow's Intro to Multiverse Mapping session! Kicking off online at 7pm UK time, you'll get a beginner-friendly walkthrough of our battle-tested method for making a plan that...

How do you prove a concept without building the concept? Here's what we're doing with a client who needs confidence in his roadmap. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for more. Last call for our next Multiverse Mapping Live session, happening tomorrow! Want to see us help a real person think through a real product dilemma in real time? Grab your free spot: https://luma.com/5ud10o3n Yesterday ... A founder we're working with saw his development roadmap stretching out over the next couple...

Ding ding ding! That's the sound of a beautiful bronze bell ringing to remind you about our next Multiverse Mapping Live event. It's happening this Wednesday on Zoom at 5pm UK time. Register here (it's free): https://lu.ma/5ud10o3n You'll get to follow along and see how we think through a very specific sort of strategy puzzle. In this case, it's a two-sided marketplace that's some sort of internal tool for a large organisation. And that's all we know. The rest ... we'll find out on the day...

Let's talk about Feature Request Traps, and how to slip past them. We hope you're hungry for some crispy little breadcrumbs. Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for more. Before we jump in: Join us for our next Multiverse Mapping Live! on 3rd September at 5pm UK time (it's free). With the intrepid and insightful Donald Cox, we'll be looking at a 2-sided marketplace and intrapreneurship. We still have a few openings for Pitch Provocations sessions (also free). In a leadership role? Want...

Hello hello, Tom & Corissa here, Do you crave more predictability at work? Are you clinging to the hope that it will come from your product vision (or your product roadmap, if that's the po-tay-to to your po-tah-to)? We've been there a thousand times. And we gotta tell you, the vision is nothing more than a beautiful mirage. Let's talk about where you can find some predictability instead. Building stuff based on visions and roadmaps is like building a house on sand. Last month's "critical...

Hello hello, Tom & Corissa here, Today, the secret behind how the best teams ship faster and waste less. Have you ever: Lifted a shelf up to the wall to see if it actually fits before you drill the holes? Tried out a new recipe just for yourself before cooking a big meal for a bunch of hungry dinner guests? Maybe you've even stuck tape on the floor to mark the footprint of a cupboard you're thinking about buying, so you can see how it feels when you have to walk around it? (Shout out to...

Hello hello, Tom & Corissa here. Today: are you making this expensive mistake when briefing employees or contractors? Subscribe for more. "I would like sorbet, please!"“Sorbet coming up! Hey, wanna try a tiny little scoop of the sorbet first? You’re gonna slurp your way through 4 big dollops of this tangy frozen water, so let's make sure you like it ... Whaddya think?”“Hang on, this isn’t creamy!”“That's right, it’s sorbet. The sorbet you just tasted is literally as creamy as it’s possible...

Hello hello, Tom & Corissa here, Today, a chance to see real strategy consulting right before your eyes. People are often asking us to see Multiverse Mapping in action. So a couple of weeks ago, we tried something that we'd never done before. We did a live strategy consulting session for a real person with a real business challenge in front of a real audience. Strategy with stakes. Mapping with nowhere to hide. First in the hot seat was Pragati Sinha. (Thanks again, Pragati!) In this email...