All I Think About is Business

What to do with self-sabotaging people – part 2

2011-08-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

What to do with self-sabotaging people? How do you coach/deal with them? In my previous post (here) I explained that self-sabotaging people are basically stuck and not moving forward. They seem incapable of doing what needs to be done. Can you coach/manage someone like this? The answer is yes, if they are willing and, specially, if you are willing to put the effort required to unstuck them.

One thing first, if you can avoid the relationship altogether is a better course of action. Wasting time on somebody who is doing their earnest to destroy their lives is a bad bet. Remember that these people are masters are sucking up time and energy, so be wary of their games. But in the case that you won’t or can’t avoid it, then this are the actions that may help you:

Determine what you want to accomplish: are you there to save a career, save a buddy or just make someone more productive? Your efforts should focus on that and not on solving everything.
Recognize that you cannot change anything yourself, they need to do their own work.
Be very clear about the boundaries in the relationship – define what you will do, what you won’t do and what you expect them to do, and even how to do it – did I mentioned that this requires a lot of time?
Set clear goals, but focus on the short term. Giving them too many long term goals will cause them to procrastinate. Don’t give them that chance – keep it short and sweet.
Set meeting guidelines. Your door should be open but be wary of too many unscheduled meetings or emergencies. Keep track of the time you are spending.
Make sure they are doing their work and making their own choices. It is too easy to fall into the “I-can-solve-anything” mode. You are there to guide and mentor, not do their job.

One last thing, even if you do all of the above perfectly, there is a big chance that they will not respond or, despite what they say, perform what was agreed. So, be ready to drop them if that happens.

Improve your productivity with co-working

2011-07-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

It has been five months since I started using a coworking space at Buro Miami: Urban Workspaces so I wanted to give you an update. It definitely has been an very positive experience. I will give you my appreciation of the good, the (not-so) bad and my final thoughts.

The good

The place is always clean and the environment nice and friendly.
Lots of energy and people taking care of business - it motivates you.
Environment/decor is great for bringing clients to your office - plan ahead if you need to reserve a meeting room.
The people around you are, for the most part, quiet and respectful of your space and will generally walk away to an empty space to have phone conversations - I do the same thing.
The dress code depends on you and your aim for the day so it ranges from fully relaxed (short and a t-shirt) to business formal.
Full service office: copier, fax, mail room, receptionist, etc.
Many additional services/benefits: discount card to local businesses, sandwich service to the office, Spanish lessons...
For me, it is a tax-deductible expense (check your tax laws).

The (not-so) bad

Parking is not in the building so you have to walk (a block tops). It is only a problem if it rains.

Final Thoughts

For me, the thing that sealed the deal is that my productivity skyrockets when I am there (as compared to my home-office) because I get into full work mode. As you can tell, I like everything about the place. I would recommend anyone working from home to give co-working a try.

Helping a partner regain their performance edge.

2011-07-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

An under-performing partner or coworker can bring down the performance of a division or the whole company – this may in turn, affect our end-of-year bonus, profit share or work environment. So, rather than saying that it is her or his problem and letting them be, sometimes it is in our best interest to help the under-achiever.

Recently I was working in a venture with a person that was under-performing and it was bringing the whole partnership productivity down. We were both responsible for parts of the venture that were complementary but mutually exclusive. My problem was how to help her achieve the desired performance without destroying the partnership by being invasive and controlling. The reasons for my decision to help were:

It seemed fixable (no drug use, alcohol or any of the sorts).
Her past performance indicated that she was capable of much more than she was delivering.
Dissolving the partnership would have been a complicated and messy affair – and not good for both our reputations.

My plan was to approach this person and state the problem and my intentions in a clear and respectful manner. I set up an appointment to discuss the situation in a non threatening environment and out of the office. During the conversation I setup myself as a supporter and ally and not a fixer – this is important! You are there to help not do their job (unless it is a problem in your area). At the end of the meeting we established an agreement that we would work on the problems and setup a general plan. Keep it simple.
Over the next few days, we clearly identified the problems, their causes and devised plans to fix and correct each one of them, as well as establishing indicators and goals for each one of them (you have to know when you are done). We identified everything that may be affecting her performance, from rebellious employees to over-dependent clients, and put a plan in place to correct them.
Over time, we tracked our plans and made corrections, while keeping our eyes in our indicators and goals. As problems started to disappear her productivity went back to what was expected and we developed a better working relationship.

Business opportunities: gut vs. numbers

2011-07-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been interacting with small to medium-size business owners to discuss the topic of business opportunities whether it is an expansion of their current business or an evaluation of parallel income opportunities (like diversification). Our discussion usually starts with the business objectives and their assessment of the opportunity, I noticed that all of them, without fail, are using back of the envelope calculations, and nothing more, to evaluate their opportunity. No a single cash flow spreadsheet was used, the due diligence was a personal visit with the other company (to meet the owners, partners, etc).

This way of doing business clashes to some degree to what you see in business schools - where there is no investment without a lot of due diligence. We can learn from these successful people and use our gut to make business decisions. In our big corporations by having some degree of freedom in what bets we allow our trusted employees to place.

Like in everything, there is a threshold to the amount of money you can trust to your gut. If the amount is large enough, use the tools that MBAs, M&A people, investment bankers, VC have always used to evaluate business decisions. The amount should depend in your company's cash flow and in its risk culture.

Co-working spaces

2011-03-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

After a year of travelling (that is the life of the consultant) I am back home with the dreaded notion of having to find a place to call "my office" - home is not an option as the capacity for distractions is so high that it makes it a bad option for me - you have to know yourself and how you function best.

After visiting some colleagues in Boston, I decided to try a co-working space in Miami in a place called Buro. After a few days the experience has been a very positive one. I can work with minimal distractions and it feels the same as an office (with the added benefit that the boss or client are not there). In this case the decor is very nice and the view from the floor is very Miami (lots of palm trees and sun).

I will keep you posted on my experience as it progresses.

Triggering a full reorganization

2010-06-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

How often do you stir things up in your company? I was turn to this topic by a conversation I had about operational efficiency. I was thinking about how often you should look at what you are doing and look for ways to improve it. If you go by the Kaizen methodology, then you are doing this constantly... this works great for small changes but not for big ones. Full-on reorganizations can be triggered by traumatic events but the price you pay in organizational stress is great.
I recommend you are always on Kaizen mode; it is a great way to do business and life in general. But, how do you decide is the right time to do a full-on reorganization? The conditions I think could trigger a full reorganization are:

Financial results are not there for 3 quarters or more. You are underperforming and it is not the result of a disaster, and the recovery trend is not there.
You tried incremental enhancements and they are not having enough impact.
Your key decision processes are convoluted or ineffective.
Key players leave or arrive into your organization (for example, after a merger or acquisition).
Your market conditions have changed dramatically (new and strong competitors; new business models)

These are a few of the conditions; your individual reasons may vary and add to this list. If you decide that a reorganization is in order, just be careful to fix the issues with a holistic approach.

What to do with self-sabotaging people – Part 1

2010-06-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

I was just in a discussion with one of my Linkedin groups as to how to handle people who are self-sabotaging. First things first, how do you spot a self-sabotaging person? Here are a few of their characteristics:

Self-sabotaging people are aware of what needs to be done, but do something else.
They stop learning and listening - they believe they already know what they need to know.
They stop asking for counsel or use the wrong advisors [we should use only wise and trusted advisors].
They spend their energy in menial things and events; they don’t pick their fights – they sweat the small stuff and everything is a conflict to the death.
They’re forever looking at the past: what mistakes they made, what [they think] people did to them, how they were wronged.
They are always looking at the future [but do nothing to achieve it] – they wish upon every star but never lift a finger to make things happen.
They make excuses for their behavior and don’t take responsibility – my parents treated me bad, my [condition] excuses my [behavior].
They believe the labels they apply to themselves – I am [neurotic, unlucky, ugly, fat] so I can’t change [something]
They always believe things are too difficult and find the negative in everything.

They not only waste their time, but yours. They come into your office and take precious energy away from people and things that really need it, they leave you exhausted and little less alive than before, they don’t leave anything behind but stress and desperation. But, what should you do with them? In my next post, I will present a good list of solid advice as to how to handle this type of person.

Deciding on controversial features for products

2010-06-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

I’ve just discovered that leaving your account logged on Facebook allows CNN.com to somehow connect to it and see who of your friends have linked to CNN stories. To say the least, I was a little surprised to see a friend’s name with a link to a CNN.COM article, since I wasn’t logged into CNN and they didn’t ask for permission to connect to my Facebook account. My first instinct was to see behind my shoulder to see if the illuminati were behind me.

I did a little experimenting, logging out of Facebook and reloading the CNN page got me blank box with the caption that friends’ links would be shown there. Logging to Facebook again reintroduced the news about my friend’s link. Somehow they were getting access to my friend lists.

From the Product Management perspective, how do you decide on this type of features? I can think of several people who will love it, and a many more that will hate it. Obviously you want your product to remain competitive and offer features that go the extra mile for your customers. At the same time, if it takes a PhD to customize your preferences that would be a turn off.

To address this type of features, the steps I would follow would be:

• Prototype the hell out of it.

• Use customer’s panels and demo it in front of large groups

• Announce it and highlight it when it is shown for the first time.

• Build a “quick kill” or “shut down” button into the feature.

• Prepare for fallout in case it goes the wrong way.

Obviously I am simplifying the situation but the approach may help your company avoid Facebook-like privacy problems.

Don't steal their thunder

2010-05-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

I was in a conversation with an HR person today and the topic turned to good and bad coworkers. The conversation brought me the following memory:

"I was part of a team of four that was working on a new strategy for the company. We worked for several days putting together a document that would help launch the strategy effort and sent it to the VP in charge of the new strategy. The VP, who didn't really help with the document, changed a few words and sent a message to the CEO and others saying that HE worked on the document ALL NIGHT and asking them for feedback. We would have never learned of this, if not for the fact that the CEO sent a reply to the whole team saying that the document was brilliant and thanking HIM for the effort"

We were speechless. He had passed our work as his own! Nobody, but me, in the team confronted the VP and he ended up taking the glory (and later, a promotion). Our associated continued for several years, and I never forgot the incident. I was very cautious as to what material I sent him, and always made sure that people who needed to know were CC'd.
My takeaways are:

Always make sure to let the right people know the job you are making - there is nothing wrong with proper self promotion.
Give credit where credit is due. People will ALWAYS remember if you steal their thunder.
When in this situation, confront the person. Don't shy away from establishing your role in the effort. It is not humility to let somebody steal your credit.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you manage/resolve it?

Blog post for Author's Globe & customer's rights

2010-05-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

The blog post for Author's Globe was published yesterday here . It was a tremendously informative conference by Dan Ariely. I had a lot of fun writing the post.

On a separate note, I have been having a difference of opinion with a service provider and wanted to share it with you. The situation is this, I have contracted a series of services from provider "A", and for the past 3 months one of the services has been unavailable, after a lot of going back and forth I found out that the service in question is subcontracted and the reason for the lack of availability has been that the service provider "A" hasn't been paying the subcontractor - according to service provider "A", they forgot to pay (for two months the story was very different and I did everything I could to help restore the service). Now, service provider "A" has paid his past dues and the service will be restored in the future (there is a built in one month delay to reactivation).

After learning all of this I substracted the amount for the services that I did not receive from my next payment and informed service provider "A" of the adjustment. The amount substracted is less than 5% of the total service bill. Service provider "A" is now in a tiffy as to the amount substracted - mind you that he didn't complain about getting paid for services he was not providing.

This situation got me thinking: What are your customer's rights? Does your company offer a customer's bill of rights? Explicity stating what your customer are entitled to (friendly customer service, 24 hour response to inquiries, automatic deductions from lack of service provided) will help create trust in the relationship . Think about how you are today defining your relationship with your clients; and how clear statements about how you are offering to treat your customer would go a long way to create a mutually beneficial association. In this case, service provider "A" has ensured that I know he is not interested in keeping me as a customer, and that I will be looking at every aspect of the service and payments with a magnifying glass. Ours will not be a relationship with trust in it, and may end up being cut short as a result.

Three quick notes

2010-05-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

I will be guest blogger at the Author’s Globe blog – my blog entry will be published on Monday May 10th. The conference I will be blogging about is: Predictably Irrational: Hidden Forces Shaping your Decisions given by Dan Ariely from Duke/MIT and is on May 7th at 12 PM.

I will publish a longer post later but I just have to comment. The economy is still creating unusual situations: a friend of mine was told they didn’t have any projects for him anymore… after only three weeks on the job. How would you explain that at your next job interview? In your company, who is in charge of determining resource acquisition and demand? Also, I have learned of another IT executive leaving Miami for colder beaches (North Carolina). Need to find a way to stop the brain-drain affecting the area.

Last, but not least. I will be becoming a Venture Coach for the The Launch Pad at the University of Miami. The Launch Pad is a UM program for promoting and helping entrepreneurship in the area. (Hopefully) I will be coaching several of their startups. Helping new companies find their way is a great way to keep your edge. Will keep you posted.

Do you taste your own service?

2010-04-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

How do you know your service? Do you test it? How do you test it? When I speak to companies about testing their service I usually get a positive answer ("yes, we do QA"). Excuse me, but testing the service is more than doing QA. I propose that you taste all aspects of the service from OUTSIDE your corporate wall - that means: experiencing the service using conditions similar to your clients, and calling customer service with real problems. To see how good do you taste, do the following:

Use your service from outside your corporate network - use your customer's PC/device if possible. What if there are problems with their ISP? or some other thing outside your corporate network? Do not use any corporate advantage or identify yourself as an employee - do not seek preferential treatment. No VIP pass for you.
Taste during high peak times - no experimenting at 3 AM when the servers are at 0.0001% utilization (unless that is your peak time). Do not use an super-machine with an infinite bandwidth connection (routed through NASA and a private line to the president).
Call customer support with real problems - but use the customer's line (don't listen from the call center or call from HQ). I recently had a call with a company's customer service. I am pretty sure my call was between me in the US, one customer rep in India and another company's customer rep in the US. The quality of the call was horrible and it dropped several times.
Do experiment with different ways to use the service: PC, iPad, Laptop, old PC... and call from landlines, cell phones, international phones (get your overseas relatives involved).

Live your service from the outside. Get the real picture and the real taste.

Balancing growth is a must!

2010-04-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

Every company dreams of getting larger and having more customers (hopefully capturing more value out of each transaction). Unfortunately, uncontrolled growth can disrupt your finely tuned-processes, it can overwhelm your Customer Support infrastructure, and thus, creating a situation where you are growing but dropping in customer satisfaction and repeat customers (it happened to Dell a few years back). So, what is the right choice? Control your growth? or Grow and fix things latter?

If you just grow and expect to fix things latter you may be in for a surprise: bad habits will have set in, your reputation may be already tarnished, your competition will be runing ads making fun of your service, and your customer will be looking for the next new thing! Internally, because of your hurry, you didn't build things the right way, you lost good but overworked persons and lost employee goodwill. Fixing things will cost you a fortune. I believe myspace would have been the Facebook of today if they had manage their growth better and kept their ears to the market.

Controling your growth may be the better answer. It allows you to keep your existing customers happy, while making shiny new customers. The difficult question for me is: what is the optimal speed for growth? The way to gauge your optimal growth speed is to use your "ears" to the market to determine when you are sacrificing quality for growth and shift your focus accordingly (hint: it isn't easy).

This is where your Product Management and Customer Service organizations are invaluable in getting a readout on the market (if you don't know what your customers think about you, you are in trouble). You need to be bold and put new infrastructure in place to support your growth, but as soon as customer satisfaction drops, you need to refocus on getting things under control again. If you keep doing this as fast as your organization is capable of, you are getting the best of both worlds. Hopefully, you will be fast enough as to not give your competitors a window of opportunity.

Don't let Customer Service ruin your customer's experience

2010-04-14T04:13:00.000-07:00

There doesn't seem to be a customer service bone in some companies this day. I sent a scathing letter to an airline after five consecutive trips where every trip was either delayed or canceled – Their response was that they didn’t have time to answer my letter because they have received so many complaints lately that they couldn’t respond to them all.
After the initial shock was a sense that the company was no longer interested in customer service. The text of the response was neither apologetic nor palliative. It was matter of fact with no promise to address issues in the future. It was a customer’s dead end.

I have to wonder where does Customer Service at this airline sits with Product Development and Marketing – Is Customer Service even present when the company is addressing service problems. My guess is no. The communication showed no interest in their product, no Product Manager that I know of would sent that letter; and no rational Marketing person would sent such a diminishing communication. Their customer service board must have been asleep at the wheel on this one.

Negotiation - the lost art

2010-03-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

I've been reminded of a lecture I attended at the Author's Globe because of a negotiation that I am currently involved with . At the lecture, one of the exercises was to try to divide 7 marbles between two people. As expected most people tried to get 3 or 4 of the marbles, but there were a few participants that wanted all 7 of the marbles - and were being very vocal and proud about it.

The persons I am negotiating with is like that. They are pricing themselves out of the market, they want every benefit and they do not want to negotiate on anything. I have tried to create a win-win situation, but that means that we need to agree to divide the marbles. I understand that it may be a tactic on their part, but the offer is so out of the market and their attitude so final that I have started to wonder if what they want is for me to leave the negotiating table.

If we do not resolve the issues we will loose the 7 marbles and we will pay extra penalties, both parties will have to put extra marbles out of our pockets. Resolving the issue will create the most economic benefit to both parties, so I don't understand the hold out.

This also creates a bully-type situation, where if you concede too much (say less than 3 marbles) you are never going to be able to negotiate anything with them again - you would become a pushover. In this case unless somebody talks some sense to the other side we may have to end up leaving the negotiation table.

Business life vs. personal life - no difference

2010-02-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

There really is no distinction now. Everything you do, can and will end up in your public profile: from that picture when you were drunk at that party to your profile in match.com (try goggling yourself). We all know that employers, business partners can look at our life footprint. Why do me still keep thinking that we have some privacy?

I was talking to an expert on managing your online presence and the conclusion we draw is that we are always "on". The paparazzi have invaded everyone's life. It is not only the high fliers of the world. Every time you go out of your house (physically or virtually) you are leaving a footprint that can haunt you for a long time - there are cameras everywhere.

This came about for two reasons: Tiger Woods' apology - BTW, he shouldn't have apologized to the golf community and media; and, the man who flew his plane into the IRS building. The amount of photos, video, texts, web pages that have been dug up and exposed is frightening. If you were involved in a high profile situation: how would your profile portray you?

You should know your economic environment style

2010-01-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

I am always thinking about ways to make a business more efficient and cost effective. When functions, processes and companies are not well organized I can almost see the destruction of economic wealth. Because of this, there are two economic environments that suit me rather well:

The downturn. Companies are looking for ways to be more efficient and reduce costs. This plays beautifully into my natural way of thinking.
The boom. Increasing capacity by increasing efficiency is the name of the game. Companies recognize that it takes time to put new resources into place - so the more well thought out the processes, the better they can cope with accelerated growth.

What about you? Describe the variables that make your work more interesting (for you). Think about your strengths and apply them to the current environment. This should give you some insight into why your work feels so rewarding sometimes and why in others it just feels blah.

Now, turn the thinking around. Think about your company and what different environments increase your worth to them. Make sure they know your value proposition based on the current economic environment.

Know when to quit...

2009-12-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

I've just read a very interesting Wired article about the death of Duke Nuke Forever. A video game project that lasted an incredible 12 years when most games take 3 to 4 years to complete. The end results were that 3D Reals went bankrupt and the game was never released. This is a cautionary tale about keeping objectives real and not letting "the latest thing" drive your project. Other lessons that I would add are:

Strategy - you have to have one (and stick to it)
Know what success looks like.
If your team can't talk to you, you are doing something wrong.
You should know when to pull the plug on a project.
See the evolution of your industry and adapt to it - but follow your strategy.

On a personal leadership level I have to ask: Where were Broussard's advisors? What about other stakeholders voices (other employees, mentors, partners)? Do you have anybody that can tell you that you are off track? Would you listen?

Communicating your strategy for best results

2009-12-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

You have spent a year formulating your strategy. It is firmly and clearly stated in a Powerpoint. You are done, right? Not by a long shot. Let's ignore for a moment the effort required to implement, and let's focus on the communication effort. You need to clearly communicate to ALL stakeholders the new strategy and how it affects them. The companies that don't know how to do this send out an email (with the powerpoint and a nice introduction) and then forget about it. Then they wonder why their efforts didn't pan out and nothing really changed.

Two things you have to remember:

You and your management team know more than everybody else.
The rest of your stakeholders can not read your mind to see what's in it - but they will try.

To maximize results tell your coworkers, subordinates, providers, partners and clients what they should expect from the new strategy and the benefits they will receive. You have to craft the message according to the audience (communications 101) and make sure the message is visible and repeated (that is why advertising works). If required, you should form a transformation and communications office to make sure that happens.

More on the how in a latter post...

Don’t let your organization leaderless unless you want to be jobless

2009-12-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason you are distracted from your day to day duties (a merger, an acquisition, a family emergency) and you haven’t been in a position to attend to those duties. This is fine if it is a short hiatus (less than 3 weeks), but anything longer than that you need to make sure that somebody is tending shop. You have to groom your team to work without you for a while or designate one or more people to fill in your role. If you provide no leadership you are creating a vacuum where people are making decisions and launching projects because they sound good.

Let’s be clear, your team has to be able to function without you for short periods – and they should be able to provide their own direction (after all, their resumes do state that they are entrepreneurial, self-starters and self motivated). But the longer your absence, the more decisions start to pile up and change the direction; suddenly you have a new and emerging strategy that you are still accountable for.

Why not a short term strategy?

2009-11-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

If you, as management, are not clear on the strategy and do not communicate it; How can your employees deliver? I am surprised how many companies ask their employees to read management's mind, find the right intentions in there and execute to specifications. It makes no sense. Is like having a neurotic spouse with the power to fire you. You want to succeed in business? You have to be clear as to your objectives. If those are not clear, nothing will please you and your company will sink (unless you are really lucky).

It is OK to have temporary strategies. We have them for emergencies, why not for times when life is not clear (is it ever?). Why do we feel that is not OK to have shorter looking strategies? Square was in the brink of collapse with their games. They set out to build their last game (after that they were expecting to close). They put all their effort into the game but with a pessimistic feeling, they called it: Final Fantasy. They wanted to bow out with a last great hurray. Guess what? The game was a huge success. As well as FF2, 3, 4,... They are now one of the most powerful and well recognized game development companies in the world (it is now called Square-Enix) and they are working among other things in: Final Fantasy XIV. What worked? Having a finite narrow strategy: Make their last game great!

In the middle of a M&A or bankruptcy debacle? Come up with a short term strategy and communicate it to all employees. They'll appreciate the honesty and the direction. They may very well build you a Final Fantasy.

Stopping the launch of weak products

2009-10-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

A weak Product Management function can result in features that are not introduced in response to customer needs but in response to internal wish lists (that may be out of touch with the market), or in cost structures that are not being revised strategically to enhance profit margins (like outsourcing vs. internal development). To change a Product Management function takes making an assessment, mapping out where we are today, where we want to go be and what are the best practices in what we need.

After the initial assessment and once you understand where you are and where you want to be. Choosing the right framework will be one key to your success. There are several frameworks about what Product Management should be, for example: the PDMA model has one, author Steven Haines documents another, and author Marty Cagan shows us yet another one. All frameworks list a set of skills and functions that every organization should have. But just using any of these frameworks will not work for a company, as with everything in life, each situation is unique and your framework should be tailored to your needs. Best product management practices will come from a consultant (you are hiring one, right?), current literature and studies on the matter.

Another big factor is if your company wants to change its culture – for example, is the organization willing to let a Product Manager team define and control the product? Or are they convinced that it is a function of the Marketing department? Whatever the answer to the culture question, it will mean a lot of changes to marketing, product development, service desk, platform development, etc. If your company is not willing to change the culture, the best way is to look for a framework that will reinforce current weaknesses and strengthen what is being done today.

Product Management & its strategic implications

2009-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Product management is a market-driven approach to develop and manage products or services:

Defines what the product should be – is accountable to users for feature sets, navigation, quality, and overall experience

Is a cross-functional discipline: involves strategy, product development and marketing

Is accountable for overall product direction, key decisions, including in some cases full P&L control or at least budget control

Ensures that the final product meets specifications

Evangelizes product to internal and external stakeholders

The strategic implications of a robust Product Management function are many: from increasing the value of the company, understanding the customer today and in the future, ensuring that all possible revenue is being captured, guiding future product investments and controlling the current cost structure of the products, to name a few. For any organization, it is imperative that these and other issues are being taking care of in the Product Management function.

Use your longer term employees to fuel and drive strategy success

2009-09-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

With low confidence in the economic recovery, a lot of companies are filling their work needs using project based employment and short term hires. For your short term operational needs, these are great sources of relatively cheap labor (I will discuss this in another post). But for strategic initiatives, you need people thinking about the long term success, not just next quarter or the end of the project. The incentives for short term work by their definition are not aligned with long term objectives. Why would temporary employees care about the welfare of the company three years down the road if their involvement ends in one month?

For strategic initiatives you need longer term employees - people who will face the consequences of their actions and decisions. They also provide cohesiveness from one project to the next, and make decisions based on the long range business goals and not only on the short term project objectives. They represent and transmit the culture of your company. They provide the history and traditions that have made you a success in the past.

Don't fail at your career strategy by choosing the now job

2009-09-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have been having a lot of discussions about career strategy with people looking for jobs, and I am seeing the desperation setting in, the prevaling strategy right now is: "get anything, NOW!" If you have reached the end of the rope (no more savings, no extra income from spouse/partner/family), then by all means it has become an issue of survival and the right strategy is: "whatever it takes". But for everybody else, it is a very bad move to take that attitude. If you read beyond what this Forbes article is saying it looks like at the end of the day this recession is a career killer.

The downside to the quitters line of thinking is that you are adjusting your expectations and your search accordingly: are you looking for jobs at your level or lower? have you in your mind already taken a pay cut? are you thinking value or price for your services?

The decision of what jobs to pursue and what to take is not only relevant to this job now but to your career. If you take a 50% pay cut, do you honestly believe you will get it back next year? I can assure you that you wont. If you go two levels down, do you think your next position will resume where you were pre-recession? No, you will have to fight your way back up again - think about it as lost years.

Regardless of the recession, your value and your level of preparedness are what determines your strategy. If you have a strong war chest (or emergency fund or other income sources), you have to ride the storm. The income you aren't receiving is your opportunity cost. It will hurt in the short term but it will pay in the long term.

Pushing boundaries to grow

2009-09-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

You don't notice, but your comfort zone is always shrinking. It behaves like an slippery slope... First, you are uncomfortable giving speeches to large groups, so you refuse. Then you are uncomfortable to talk to medium sized groups so you make up excuses to not talk or rush to finish. After a few years of this, you can't give speeches to groups bigger than eight to ten people without having nightmares the day before. This slippery slope can be public speaking, new ventures, new ways of doing business, or adopting new technologies (are you using social media?).

In the business world, we should be always push to expand our comfort zone - as in commercials every year we should be bigger and better or a new and improved formula. To make this happen just follow these simple steps:

Make a list of your strengths and your weaknesses
Have your mentor, significant other or trusted adviser review and help with the list.
Together, define what strengts and weaknesses you should work on
Set goals and exercises that you should do
After an appropriate time, review the results
Rinse and repeat

It is very important to work on your strengths as well as your weaknesses. For example, if you are a good public speaker become a great speaker. We setup aggressive goals for our portfolios, why should we be any different with ourselves.

BTW, I am following my own advice, I will be filming three business segments for a business program tomorrow - this is something new and exciting.

Expecting too much too soon

2009-08-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

I had a client who asked me to implement new key performance indicators in a month (they had nothing at the time) - yes, zero to implementation in a month. The KPIs he was asking for were very deep and complex, they didn't have the necessary systems in place, and the alternative was to capture the basic data manually (not really an option in most cases). Because of my objections as to the impossibility of the request, he gave the project to somebody who didn't say no. Six months later, no indicators. They restarted the process 4 more times with the same results.

For all of their effort, they seemed unwilling to grasp how their choices of process and conditions were making it impossible to obtain meaningful information. Even if all went well, the first few data collections are plagued with errors, personnel aren't clear what you are asking of them or are afraid to give it to you. As for interpretation: You don't have a baseline to compare them to (is that 7 in indicador 3 good or bad?) and you don't have a tendency (is it improving or getting worse, is more better or worse?).

How do you know if your expectations are too much? Read their body language! If you see:

Uncomfortable smiles
Weight shifting
Darting eyes - nobody looks at you in the eyes but look at each other worriedly

That usually means you are off base in your request. You have to realize that if nobody believes it can be done, then it probably wont get done. Trust your team advisers - otherwise, why have them? On a side note, if your team doesn't' give you straight or honest answers, you better rethink your communications and leadership skills.

The point here is that you have to be realistic on your expectations - if you ask for the impossible again and again you will lose credibility - the result is that nobody takes him seriously anymore and the work they do produce is more made up than a ride at Disney.

Good communication will make you a good leader - and help you keep you job

2009-08-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

One of the worst defects of low leadership skills is poor communication. I’ve seen it a couple of times, nobody knows how the boss got the job as he seems unable to communicate his ideas coherently. Most of the time he seemed to be babbling - his speeches were full of trendy words and ideas but no substance; it took an enormous amount of effort on our behalf to understand what he wanted us to do. And obviously, sometimes we misunderstood and made mistakes. His shining point: he knew how to dress you down in front of everybody. Don’t be that boss.

You better understand (and quickly) how to deliver a message. Not only a better communicator will outshine you every time, but it will cause your organization to be erratic and mistrustful of your actions. It can help your subordinates set you up for failure and it will certainly make you a joke around the office.

I was reading a very good article on the MIT Management Review about how subordinates may be setting you up to fail. The article centers (among other things) in how perception plays a key role in how your actions, inactions and communications are received by your team. Although you cannot take responsibility of how people will understand your message, you better make sure your delivery is appropriate.

One of my mentors at Booz Allen gave me a maxim that I took to heart. Communications has two parts:

1) Message – what you are trying to say

2) Delivery – how you present your ideas

Delivery is how you may shape the perception of everyone who is receiving your message. Delivery could be short and sweet, floral and effervescent, somber and full of protocol. How you shape your delivery will not only help the audience receive the message, but get the right context for the message. Don’t tell the group that the company is restructuring while your face is smiling (I’ve seen this), or say you are focusing on indicators while doing nothing to get them (your actions are part of your delivery).

My recommendation is that you be the boss that means what he says and says what he means. Let your message and actions be coherent – in times of uncertainty make your message crystal clear.

Thinking about strategy: too many leaders

2009-08-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

If you find that for your company, thinking about strategy requires a monumental effort it may be because you are including every possible variable in your analysis. Sometimes this approach to strategy comes about because there isn't a dominant leader in the company but several strong-willed executives. Without a charismatic leader - a company may flounder without direction. Just like two people can't drive a car, too many executives can't drive a company.

Instead of really working cooperatively, the dominant executives will try to control the situation by introducing variables in the analysis that will lead to their desired outcomes. The result will be an ineffective strategy:

Too broad: being the no 1 position in the whole wide world (what does this mean?)
Conflicting objectives: being the premium brand using the cheapest components.
Unattainable: going from pure software development to software integration without making real changes to the way things are done.

If you are not one of the strong-willed executives, there isn't an easy solution to your problem (but that is why you are reading this post). What you need is a third party that breaks the stalemate and takes over - sometimes it can be you! Sometimes you need to use somebody on the board or the CEO. You need somebody with enough authority/clout to break the stalemate and take over completely. If there isn't any single person who can do this, then you will have to play Big Brother or Survival and make alliances with enough power to take over. Make sure you control the alliance or you will have the same situation but with even more people involved.

If you are one of the strong-willed executives (BTW, thanks for reading the post) the solution is even more simple: get another job (find your own company to play with without sharing) or get the the other person another job. If you are evenly matched (the unmovable object meeting the unstoppable force kind of situation) why are you complicating your life? find another company and take over. Do avoid anything with the N1H1 virus or Facebook photos in the mix.

Survival: Understand your position in the job market

2009-08-10T08:21:00.001-07:00

To get a job in this job market you have to understand your position: generalist vs. specialist. If you don't, you will be climbing the stairs using your nose. If you are a specialist and your specialty is in demand, then you will not have a problem. If you are a generalist, my friend, you have to do things different because you are in trouble.

There is a common complaint from job seekers lately: that the market has such deterministic needs that if you do not comply 100% with whatever checklist the recruiter has you are out. There is such abundance of general types (or at least people willing to do anything) that the barriers to entry for any position have risen. In the past, recruiters and HR departments were willing to talk to people that didn't quite fit or didn't meet all the criteria but were bringing something extra or worthwhile to the table. They don't do that anymore, mainly because of two things: one, a lot of screening is done by software so they won't even see your resume. two, they have hundreds of applicants to any position, so why do you think they will bother with people that have to be sold (because they don't match part of the criteria), they will just pick a candidate that has 100% of the requirements.

If you are a generalist, my advice to you is: stop wasting time applying for positions where the match is not 100%. Either get the 100% qualifications (invest in certifications when it makes sense ) or skip to the next position.

Your real option is networking. But not the networking of old when you went to a dinner and met X and they referred you. You have to do new networking: blogs, talks, Twitter, Facebook, et al + old networking. Call your dad and/or mom's friends; hell, now is the time to be calling on favors. If you are smart, you will pay them back latter with interest - once you have that network (and a job) then is the time to launch your career into the stratosphere.

New media: use with caution

2009-08-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

In the middle of our busy lives we are all trying to keep up to date on what is happening with our contacts. Tweets and wall updates populate our days and we feel lost or isolated when we don't follow on each of our friends updates. Important conversations and networking opportunities are lost because we were not online at the right time. Let me help you with that!

First things first. Repeat after me: "I don't have to be online all the time". Now repeat: "I will learn to use the tools offered to keep on top of things". I know what you are thinking: If you only connect at the beginning or at the end of the day you will miss out on important information. That is true and there is something you will have to face. But on the other side, being connected 24/7 will distract you from your day to day activities and real life.

Two things to solve this: Balance and tools.

Balance is achieved when we use social media with a purpose: Don't Facebook just for the sake of it, have a purpose and a plan to use Facebook. Your purpose may be networking or making a sales contact. Your moves have to be deliberate: connect, get updates, update, disconnect. Don't spend endless hours looking at your friends pictures, or posting inane games or the results of what kind of transformer are you. Is like going to the bank during lunch: get there, do your business and leave.

All social sites provide tools to filter and control the information flow. Learn to use them. Filter content from your second cousin twice removed, allow content from that great contact in marketing. Use Tweetdeck and filter out comments about the latest Lindsay Lohan appearance.

Use social media the right way and it will be a treasure trove of contacts and good things. Use it wrong and it will fill your days with 4chan memes and "having lunch" tweets.

Identifying the right customers

2009-07-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Naples during the weekend and I twittered about some of the things I did. An hour later a restaurant I didn't go to became a follower. I wonder what will they think of my next 1000 posts that will not make any reference to Naples or their businesses. Monitoring my tweets will be a waste of resources for them.

Social networking tools allow us to come closer to our customers, the new information and interactions should provide clues as to how better serve them and increase the revenue coming from them, but along with this increased revenue comes increased service and information mining costs (among others).

The challenge for us is to identify those customers that matter and it is useful to get closer to, for example: customers that represent the bulk of our user base, customers that lead in trends and know where the service should go, repeat customers. Also identify those customers that negatively matter, for example: serial complainer, serial returner or service abuser.

But there is a third category: the useless customer - this may be a one time customer and it is circumstantial that is using your service or product. This category of customer needs to be serviced to the highest standard (to avoid bad word of mouth and because it should be part of the service experience), but you have to be careful about the information gathering and relationship forming. Also, get a lot of misidentified customers like me and you get an skewed vision of your customer base.

When there is no benefit for you to have a relationship, you should not form it. Avoid wasting resources in customers that will not have an effect in your business, concentrate in those that matter.

Thinking traps

2009-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was reading an interesting blog post by Litemind about thinking traps. A lot of them have to do with our natural bias:

Thinking we are better than we are (overconfidence in our abilities, memory, intuition or gut)
Trying to confirm decisions we already made (shopping for confirmation, protecting our status quo or sunk costs)
Unquestioning our thoughts and assumptions

We can avoid some of the traps by talking to people who hold different points of view. This article reminded me why it is important to have diversity in our teams. Our teams can protect us from some of the traps. There is one trap that is not in the article and that is intrinsic to groups: the "group think" trap. This trap makes the team assume one position or opinion and none others are considered (from wikipedia: groupthink).

To avoid falling into "group think" we have to make sure that dissenting opinions are heard, that timid or softspoken team members get a change to talk, and that critical thinking is always on the table. As a team lead or member, we all share that responsibility. Remember that this trap can make a team behave like lemmings and jump off the cliff.

Going to the moon

2009-07-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US moon walk. This gives us a great opportunity to think about setting challenging goals for our companies, departments and endeavors. If we do not challenge ourselves, the status quo and everyone around us, we will find ourselves in the same spot year after year.

“We can challenge ourselves to do great things again by joining forces, cooperatively, with patience and perseverance, by setting our objectives high and helping other people to join us in the quest for expansion of our thinking, of our capabilities.” – Buzz Aldrin

Note: For those of you who don't know, Buzz Aldrin is the astronaut that piloted the lunar module of NASA’s Apollo 11 who took him and Neil Armstrong to the moon.

Money Management in Times of Crisis

2009-07-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is the shorthand from a lecture I gave last week for dealing with a personal financial crisis:

When we are facing an economic crisis, there are four issues that we must understand:
1) What the crisis is and entails
2) What are the assets we can use during the crisis
3) What changes we can make to reduce the impact or evade the crisis
4) How to avoid making the crisis worse by taking more debt

There are 8 steps required when dealing with a financial crisis. Three steps we need to take before the crisis, and five we will take during the crisis.

The three steps we take in preparation are:
1) Understand what is our net worth - we need to understand what our assets are and where our obligations stand
2) Understand our operating financial needs - Yes I am talking about a budget
3) Establish an emergency fund - 100% liquid asset

Once the crisis strikes, then we do the following 5 steps. Not really one at a time, but all together as much as possible. The steps are:
1) Keep calm - understand the emergency and develop a plan
2) Find alternative funds - either sell assets or develop an additional income stream
3) Renegotiate our debt - I am talking mortgage, car payments, personal loans and/or any other financial obligation
4) Reduce or eliminate operational and discretionary expending - reducing or eliminating cable, cell phone, internet, Starbucks addiction, etc.
5) Ask for help of friends and relatives - just not more debt. Ask grandparents for help with child care, friends for employee store discounts, etc. Avoid increasing the number of creditors.

The talk was a success.

Too many priorities

2009-06-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

When setting priorities people are usually overoptimistic about what they can realistically accomplish. We see individuals trying to do everything at once: lose weight, exercise, eat healthier, be a better spouse, dedicate more time to the children, fix the house, reinvigorate their careers, build a better network. The reality is that you can’t do everything at once. If everything is a priority; then, nothing is a priority.

Companies don’t fare better than individuals. The illusion is that 100 employees should be able to handle 100 priorities. But companies have to understand that the average employee probably can’t handle more than 3 priorities at a time.

The impact on a business is that employees can’t find optimal solutions to problems that satisfy all priorities: should they be focusing on client experience or on cost management? Product innovation or bug eradication? This in turn can create paralysis in an organization while the decisions makers figure out which one is the most important priority.

Another side effect is that the company makes it impossible to do something that would please everybody. If they execute something thinking of customer experience, then somebody complains about cost management. Thus the actions of employees are based not on the priority but on who they do not want to anger.

The way around this problem is simple: first figure out what the top priorities are, then execute on them. Everything else doesn’t get a pass.

Instinct in business

2009-05-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

What is good instinct? I would define it as being able to make the right decisions based on inadequate or incomplete information, continuously spot trends in the market and see opportunities ahead of everyone else. For me, this is the quality that separates the high achievers from everybody else.

I’ve met a guy who has a great instinct for business. He never does much analysis, he doesn’t have an MBA, and he doesn’t have MBAs working for him (he likes to keep his costs down). Yet he makes all the right business decisions and makes upward of 50K dollars a month. During his worst month this year he *only* made 25K. He starts and stops businesses with what we would normally classify as “insufficient information”, yet he makes a lot of money. He has a high risk tolerance but his net performance is above market average.

On the other hand, I have friends with MBAs that use a spreadsheet to make decisions, make all sorts of rational analysis and come up with good business decisions. In general, they make a good living, probably around 20K to 30K a month. They are medium to low risk takers with a net performance about market average. The lesson here is that analysis will only take you so far.

My advice?

If you have a good instincts and high risk tolerance, then rely on it. Use you instinct every chance that is useful. But keep track of your wins and your failures – this will hone your skill. Go all the way to the edge but make sure you do not fall.

If you don’t have a good instinct or are extremely risk averse. Then: do your homework, analyze everything, use mentors, use advisors, and get an MBA. Your reward will probably not be as high, but you will come out on top most every time.

If you have good instincts, high risk tolerance and an MBA you should be well on your way to be the next Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or Carlos Slim. If you aren’t, ask yourself which one of your assumptions is wrong – maybe your instinct is not as good as you think, maybe you have passed on opportunities because of a lower than acknowledged risk tolerance. See what is stopping you and break it down.

In this economic climate where the old rules don’t apply as well anymore, it would be wise to follow your instinct. If yours is lacking, you will have to hone it (and fast), start taking chances, start making choices based on it, see when you can rely on it, and when you cannot. Your spread will increase. If you don’t, you may have a good return on your decisions, but there is no assurance that it will be enough to give you the life that you dream about.

Dream teams

2009-05-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

We all desire to have dream teams in our organizations. A dream team is one that is high achievement, high performance and where everybody gives their personal best. Dream teams are those that achieve excellent results consistently. Sometimes dream teams form as a result of a deadline, a company event or a special project. The camaraderie, support and understanding amongst the members create the environment necessary for high performance. The manager roles in this case are to get out of the way and keep the team focused. If you are lucky to have a dream team keep it going as long as possible.

There are some special circumstances that may prove fatal to your team:

11th hour stress – The team may be great but unnecessarily taxing them will only frustrate the members. If the project has some unrealistic expectations, such as impossible requirements or too short datelines, the stress may get to the team. While some stress is unavoidable, try to set reasonable deadlines, or move the emergency period up front so as to flatten the final spike as much as possible. If the project becomes a death march, the first casualty may be your dream team. Think about project management and executive expectation management.

Company instability, like reorganizations – Even when the reorganization (use appropriate euphemism here) will not affect the team directly, it is sure to distract them. Try to contain office gossip as much as you can, and keep reaffirming them that their positions are safe (as much as it is true). If their positions are not safe, then give them as much information as possible and help them prepare. They will remember if you work them to the bone before firing them.

Uneven recognition or compensation – If you are giving out bonuses or awards, make sure the whole team is included – not just the leader or your protégé. Identify their individual contributions to let them know that you were watching. If resentment builds in your dream team, their days are numbered.

All teams have a life cycle and eventually all teams must dissolve. Know when to let go. If the team has grown beyond their assigned task, or the members are getting bored by the assignments, or they want to grow their careers in a different direction, you let them. Help them reach their objectives. A dream team may be short lived, but the repercussions to your career and theirs may be long lived. Who doesn’t remember that team where everything just clicked?

Price war

2009-05-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Recently I was helping a small business that is in the middle of a price war with a close competitor. The owner was afraid that they were losing money but didn’t know how much and in which jobs as they didn’t have a cost model for the business. The partners hadn’t talked about what to do if the business viability was seriously compromised.

The cost model was a relatively simple exercise as their business was not a complex one. The first thing they wanted to understand is what clients and which jobs were profitable. Once they were identified, it was a matter of focusing on expanding on the type of transactions and clients that were keeping the company going and making money. If you are a small company, your accountant and operations persons should be able to put together a cost model in a spreadsheet program. If you are a medium to large company you will probably need consultants and some costing software.

Of course, during a price war there may not be an option to focus on the profitable jobs or clients. Your competitor may be trying to increase their business at your expense precisely by targeting those jobs or clients. If you have a strong relationship with your clients you may be somewhat shielded from this scenario, but as other factors put pressure on your clients to reduce their own costs, you may be forced into a price war. Unfortunately, everything else being equal, a price war will be won by the company with the deepest pockets.

One way to try to avoid a price competition is to offer value added services. If before you only delivered your goods, maybe is time to make free installs. Or form some sort of customer rewards program – you don’t even have to do it yourself, there are companies that will run them for you. The caveat here is that the value added must be perceived by the client as sufficiently large as to offset your higher price. And even then, the short term gain (lower price) may be the only factor your client is focusing on.

Another thing to do is focus on new revenue streams. Can your product or service be applicable to other industries/clients? What about new uses for your product? Can your equipment be made to produce different products? If your focus is local, maybe you can expand regionally. The internet can help you reach customers from all over the world. Have you tried to reposition your product as a luxury item? Think Apple vs. everyone else. Luxury or premium brands can and do command a premium in price. What about niche markets? A new revenue stream may give you enough of an edge to survive until the worst is over.

Obviously you have to find ways to cut costs – it is imperative that you reexamine your operations and find ways to be more cost effective. Eliminate product lines that are not profitable today and may never be in the future. Much has been written about this so I won’t go into more detail here.

As important as figuring out ways to improve your cost structure and your business strategy, you also have to determine your exit strategy. Decide how much you are willing to lose before pulling the plug. If you can, set aside the money you are not willing to lose today. Have this talk with your business partners. Be realistic, not every business survives. So it is better to figure out your exit strategy now than when your money is depleted and there is no other choice but to fold.

Is your BCP/DRP prepared for the swine flu?

2009-04-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

Companies have to prepare for emergencies, and with the possible threat of a swine flu epidemic it is a good time to review your company Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans. Threat to health and life aside (extremely important but not the focus of this entry) the impact to your business has to be assessed. In Mexico, for example, companies have had to close their doors some by order of the government, some by necessity because suppliers can’t deliver parts.

Review your BC/DR plans and identify if at least some of the most probable scenarios that you may experience are covered. The most generic examples are:

A significant portion of your employees or key employees get sick – do you have appointed employee backups? Are they up to date?
Families get sick or need assistance – what if schools get closed (like in Mexico)? Are you prepared to have your workforce working from home? What about emergency day care?
Your customers get sick or are afraid of getting sick (like in the case of restaurants, movie theaters, etc) – restaurants in Mexico are closed because the government won’t allow them to provide service, Hotels in Cancun are experiencing thousands of cancellations, same with airlines. Are you prepared to weather that storm?
Your building or installations get quarantined or need to be closed for sterilization after an outbreak - are you prepared to have your workforce working from home? What about backup installations?
Your suppliers can’t deliver components or services – do you have backups in place? Last minute negotiations will cost you in time and money.
Your employees can’t leave or can’t return to the country – some countries have already closed their borders to Mexican flights, while cruise ships sit outside of Mexico waiting to be redirected. How may your operations be affected by this?

Your plan needs to reflect the realities of a pandemic – maybe you are prepared and your plan contemplates everything that may affect you. But if you are not, it is a good time to review and decide what your next steps should be.

Pareto is wrong

2009-04-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

If you want to thrive in business you have to forget about applying Pareto’s principle to your problem solving. I know at first it seems to make sense: “solve 20% of the problems that cause 80% of customer dissatisfaction” (or whatever you are trying to solve). The problem with that way of thinking is that:

Nobody wants to be satisfied only 80% (or given an 80% working product)
As soon as you solve that 20%, another Pareto raises its head – it never ends.

If we apply the idea that solving 80% of an issue is ok to provide for everyday situations, we would quickly realize that working like that is unacceptable (and leads to failure). For example, would you accept 80% of your laundry done? What about an 80% warm cup of coffee? Would you take an 80% cooked meal?

Let’s face it. In today’s business environment solving something 80% is not good enough. Servers have to have an uptime of 99.9995%, customers expect (and demand) 100% satisfaction, project budgets have to be accurate at least 95% of the time, six sigma expects 99.9997% efficiency in processes and products. You can see that 80% of something is way below expectations.

Why then, whenever there is a problem and a meeting is held somebody always brings Pareto into the discussion? Because there is no company that has infinite resources (well, maybe Microsoft), you always have to prioritize – it is just a matter of necessity. How then, can we escape the Pareto trap?

First, get rid of Pareto thinking! Then, follow these steps:

Clearly define your problem(s)
Identify all relevant measures or indicators to the problem – for example, percentage of customer satisfaction, number of defects per million opportunities (DPMO), or number of dropped calls. The fewer the better.
Measure the initial state (use the indicators selected)
Define your goal as the conditions necessary to consider the problem(s) solved and, if appropriate, your tolerance (nobody gets it right all the time) – be sure to use the measures or indicators selected in the second step.
Identify all steps necessary to get there – make a plan (and hire a Project Manager)
Take all of the steps, solve all of the problems until you get to your goal - don’t forget to measure progress along the way or you may not know you’ve arrived.

What happens if the steps necessary are not doable, the problem is unsolvable or your company can’t afford to make it happen? That means it is time to reconsider your strategy: either lower expectations, reposition the product or service, or exit the market.