The Better Way: Transformation principles for the
  • The Better Way: Transformation principles for the real world
  • Preface
    • Preface
  • Part I - The Big Picture
    • Introduction
    • Radical change
    • Rapid acceleration
    • Profound complexity
    • Part I Summary
  • Part II - The better way
    • Introduction
    • Principle one: Focus on customer value and adaptability
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle two: Technology excellence is the strategy
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle three: Choose product teams over project teams
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle four: Divide and conquer
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle five: Integrate governance, risk and compliance experts with product teams early and often
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle six: Measure what matters
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Part II Summary
  • Part III - Micro-transformation
    • Introduction
    • Step one: Design effective cross-functional teams
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step two: Create immersive working environments
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step three: Implement the Starter Kata
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step four: Thin-slice the work
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Part III Summary
  • Conclusion
  • Glossary
  • Endnotes
    • Endnotes
    • License
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  1. Part II - The better way
  2. Principle one: Focus on customer value and adaptability

Applying the principle in practice

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Last updated 3 years ago

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To apply CVA in practice, start by visualizing your organization as an ecosystem of interdependent business functions like those shown in Figure D below.

In order to make the principle work, you’ll need each function within the ecosystem to adopt the CVA principle and mindset.

On the leadership side, this means integrating CVA into the executive vision so that each of the other components in the ecosystem can build on it. Here’s an example of a CVA driven vision from Amazon:

“To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Next, use the business strategy to further elaborate on the vision and articulate how the organization intends to move forward by leveraging its unique sources of power and finite resources and energy to deliver on the vision. By way of example, one organization may decide that their best course of action is to defend their current lines of business while another may choose to disrupt an existing market.

What’s important is that the business strategy ladders up to the executive vision and is centered on creating value for customers, as well as building adaptive capabilities which have potential to mutually benefit customers and the business.

Note: in this context, “customer” encapsulates both external and internal users of any product, service, platform or system used by clients, employees, partners and vendors

Lastly, within the measurement function, there is a continual focus on learning to measure customer outcomes using actionable leading indicators to create strategic insights that guide investment decisions.

Finally, in the portfolio function, the business strategy is distilled even further into time-based, incrementally-funded, hypothesis-driven customer outcomes known as “”, which are continually re-prioritized based on .

On the execution side, the product function or team pairs with the delivery function/team to transform portfolio “” into discrete portions of ‘’ work that can be delivered iteratively and evaluated by measures of success that align with the broader executive vision and business strategy.

bets
business value
bets
thin-sliced
Figure D: Example of an organizational ecosystem, adapted from Highsmith, Lu, Robinson