Your organization likely already has a system for identifying changes you could make, prioritizing the list, and bringing ideas to life.
Is it a complete system?
We’ve talked in the past about general signs that you might need to revisit your portfolio management strategy. And some of the essentials to consider including as you design your approach, which are outlined in the graphic below.
But what happens if you’re missing one or more of those essentials? What’s the impact?
How can you tell if it’s worth addressing that gap? And how can you motivate others to take action?
Here’s a reference guide with some of the symptoms that result when an organization is missing one (or more) of the elements, advice on when to take action, and tips about how to move forward.
Current State
What it is
An understanding of the reality you’re working to change, which includes information about people, process, technology, and policy.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- A lot of requirements and dependencies are revealed late in the product design cycle, causing delays and rework.
- The resources you invested in a change didn’t end up creating much value because of assumptions about what customers want and need, the root cause of problems, and how the system is currently designed.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
There’s some information you won’t know for sure until you launch, but there’s also plenty of knowledge that’s relatively fixed and can be identified ahead of time. Such as the routines and processes of your customers and employees, or the design of existing technical systems.
When deciding whether you need to invest more in understanding the current state, consider the value of gathering more information up front. Would spending an extra week on research help avoid weeks or months of rework? Is the cost of gathering that information lower than the cost of launching without it?
Motivate others by…
Pointing out how missing specific types of information led to issues in the past. Ex. “Missing an end-to-end view of the business process caused us to make application changes that negatively impacted downstream processes.”
Future State
What it is
A collection of ideas and representations such as models and roadmaps of what the future could look like.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- Execution stalls because it’s unclear what to work on next and how all of the pieces will fit together.
- A “Frankenstein” experience, business model, or enterprise architecture emerges as teams make incremental changes without a shared vision.
- Teams need to quickly shift direction or gather new insights to support other teams because they don’t have visibility into how other group’s backlogs might impact their own future work.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
One obvious sign is if execution team members are saying that the lack of a shared vision is impeding their ability to deliver value.
If the design starts requiring a lot of workarounds or you’re constantly refactoring, it’s also a good time to step back and look at the future vision so you can map an agile plan to get there from where you are.
Motivate others by…
Sharing quotes from team members. Metrics related to the time and energy spent on workarounds and refactoring. Or showing models of what will be created if the status quo continues vs. where the organization could end up if a future vision was set and incremental progress was made toward it.
Value Framework
What it is
A transparent way to express what’s important and valuable, to help inform prioritization decisions.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- There’s a decision bottleneck at a central decision maker or group.
- Team members become order takers because, without an idea of what higher-level decision makers find valuable, they are wary of their own decisions being overturned.
- Proactive team members feel like they lack autonomy, enough information to make decisions, and are unclear about how to prioritize their work.
- Stakeholders express frustration over the lack of clarity around how decisions are made.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
If there’s conflict or tension between groups over concerns about how changes are prioritized. Or if high-performing team members show lower morale because their decisions keep being overturned. Your organization is in danger of losing them.
Motivate others by…
Providing an example of a value framework based off of shared enterprise goals. And explaining how running changes through this framework can help objectively guide conversations and reduce confusion.
Portfolio Allocation
What it is
Methods for consciously deciding how to invest your resources.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- Resources are overallocated. You’re spending more time or money than you have available.
- Low-value projects impede progress on high-value ones.
- The organization isn’t making progress toward strategic goals because the planned and executed projects don’t contribute toward achieving them.
- Resources are diffused over too many projects so context switching is high and progress on any single project is low.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
If you’re investing money but not reaching your goals. And if your employee morale is low or turnover is high because everyone is overworked.
Motivate others by…
Showing how resources are currently being spent. Highlight the number of projects, how far over capacity people are allocated, and how well the set of projects does or does not map to goals.
Experimentation & Research
What it is
Exploration to reduce uncertainty and improve the likelihood of successful initiatives. Learning informs adjustments to the original plan.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
Large investments are made in projects that turn out to not add value to customers or the business.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
You’re not hitting your goals. Or all of your time goes to delivering projects with little time spent on exploring if those were the right projects to work on or reviewing the outcomes.
Motivate others by…
Showing them how rapid experimentation and research cycles can help reduce uncertainty without getting stuck in analysis paralysis. Pilot a timeboxed research sprint.
Execution Support
What it is
Activities to help execution teams further refine and deliver changes. And for the enterprise to learn from the results.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- Execution teams spend extra time gathering enterprise knowledge to put their work into context.
- Delivery and production issues result because of blind spots, misaligned priorities, and integration challenges.
- There isn’t any support for addressing cross-cutting insights and issues that emerge as details are revealed by teams on the ground.
- The portfolio team isn’t aware of the true impact of their past investment decisions.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
If execution teams are scrambling to figure out what to work on. Or if they find themselves needing to design workarounds to deliver changes in spite of missing enterprise capabilities.
Motivate others by…
Pointing out the duplicate and/or misaligned effort that’s going on because groups aren’t effectively sharing information.
Intake/Triage
What it is
A system for collecting new ideas and information and organizing those inputs so that the next action can be taken.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- Large investments by-pass the portfolio team or are never raised to the attention of enterprise decision makers. Which results in excess spending or missed opportunities.
- When new projects and tasks can come in at multiple entry points, then teams can easily end up over capacity, context switching, and working on multiple projects that don’t integrate well.
- If the intake and triage approach is only focused on new project ideas and not other information, key insights and ideas could be lost and won’t be available for reference in the future.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
Teams are constantly pivoting as new requests and requirements come in. Incoming requests, ideas, and insights are lost because there isn’t an effective system for managing them.
Motivate by…
Speaking to the pain of whoever is currently doing intake. Pointing out the impact that this has on the enterprise being able to reach its goals.
Dynamic Views
What it is
Ways for stakeholders to view information related to any of the other elements listed above, in a way that directly answers their questions.
Signs that it’s weak or missing
- A lot of time is spent on reporting or troubleshooting incidents related to miscommunication.
- Not being able to quickly answer stakeholder questions can lead to frustration and lower confidence in the team’s ability, leading to more pressure on the team.
- Key information can get lost in translation and stakeholders may feel like they’re out of the loop or that their time was not used effectively.
How to tell when it’s time to take action
If trust between groups is low, keeping people in the dark will contribute to more distrust. It may also be worthwhile to build out dynamic views of the information if you find yourself investing a lot of time into developing reports.
Motivate others by…
Showcasing the time or money saved by switching to a new format. Sharing mock-ups of what those new dashboards or other views could look like.
You may already have a couple of these elements in place, which is great. But missing portfolio elements can impact costs, delivery timelines, stakeholder experiences, and the value delivered by an organization.
If this list of signs resonated with you and you’d like help formulating your portfolio strategy, Recharted Territory specializes in improving innovation in complex and constrained environments. Check out our services and book a free consult here.
Which essential is missing or weaker in your organization? Which one will you improve next?