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Archive for A3

Mar

Learn the One Page Project Manager

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I have been a big fan of the The One-Page Project Manager for many years. In fact, the author Clark Campbell reminded me in a recent phone call that I was the first one to write a review on the first book. Since then, he has added two more books to the collection:

The One Page Project Manager for IT Projects: Communicate and Manage Any Project With A Single Sheet of Paper
The One-Page Project Manager for Execution: Drive Strategy and Solve Problems with a Single Sheet of Paper

I have not read the OPPM for IT but of course have the first one and the latter which is the OPPM for use with an A3. If you are familiar with an A3, I would recommend the original OPPM as you will find the A3 material rather basic. If you are not familiar with A3 the description of the process is quite good in the book but it does not go into the tools used to construct the A3 in much depth.

The One Page Project Manager is not meant to replace a full blown project management system. It helps you identify and communicate the essential details of a project. I recommended the book in my book, Marketing with A3 (Marketing with A3(Kindle Version)) as an effective reporting tool. Utilizing Lean methodologies, I always felt that in the project management area Lean never had a defined method such as the “C” in Six Sigma DMAIC. I think the OPPM completes the job and is a great companion to Lean and especially A3s. I utilize the OPPM with A3s slightly different than the book describes. I use the entire back side of the A3 for the OPPM. I take advantage of a little artistic interpretation of what constitutes one page.

Though I have not read the OPPM for IT, I would assume from reading the Table of Contents it does not address agile practices. However, since it is basically a communication and reporting tool, it may be an ideal bridge between agile teams and management. Most managers are familiar with the Gantt style and no so much with burn charts. Using the OPPM to report progress may be an ideal crossover.

I have certainly stretched the use of OPPM and managed some rather in-depth and lengthy projects with it. In fact one such project I actually reconfigured the Excel sheet to hold over 100 tasks. It is a tool that should be in anyone’s toolbox. Below is a rather detailed view of the OPPM.

Using The One Page Project Manager

P.S. Clark Campbell is putting on a half-day OPPM workshop at the 2011 Shingo Conference.

Categories : Foundation, Lean Marketing

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Mar

Lean Problem Solving approach

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Practical problem solving is at the heart of the Toyota Production System and a Lean culture. These skills are based on the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle and are the bases of the A3 problem solving process. Why is learning the foundation of problem solving so important? When you start looking through the lens of Why? Why is this happening? Why is it this way? You start building a learning organization, a problem solving culture that will grow every minute of the day. The very best competitive advantage that you can instill within your organization.

Ron Pereira at the Gemba Academy introduces the 8 step Practical Problem Solving methodology in this video and touches on a few others. The steps are:

Clarify the problem
Breakdown the problem
Set a target
Analyze the root cause
Develop countermeasures
See countermeasures through
Evaluate both results and process
Standardize successful processes

Categories : Foundation, Lean Marketing

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Mar

Does Lean Marketing deliver what the customer wants?

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Customers do not want more choices. They just want what they want, period. And in an economy that there is less demand than supply, they can get it. Companies in response to this create more features, more options in their products or services. They will take the deep dive into segmenting their markets and through the use of technology may be reaching the ultimate goal of marketing to a single person. Marketing technology exists that allows us to customize mass mailings, e-zines, recordings and other media in an attempt to personalize each and every marketing effort.

Companies have embraced this marketing technology and without anything more than data can provide a very unique message. Their products and services are also provided under the disguise of tailored to your needs while just being a version of a core product line. You do not need to look any further than the universities. Their customized mailings to your children and the breadth of degrees they offer are just phenomenal. It is the manipulation of data that provides this ability and I venture to say does little in swaying a high school student to attend. I believe that decision is reached by the influencers in that person’s network.

This technology is important though. It allows us to capture information about clients in a non-offensive way and in a format that allows us to automate much of the information for distribution. From a product/service standpoint creating the different version of our core product allows us to extend our reach to a greater audience. Case closed?

If it is, we forgot about that influencer thing I mentioned. Trust is difficult to obtain from data. Trust comes from people. Knowing all the influencers and marketing certainly can help but quite unfeasible in most circumstances. The data you obtain must be used to facilitate a learning atmosphere between you and your customer/prospect. You must also be willing to share seats with the customer and leave him teach you versus you being the teacher. The more they teach you the more difficult it becomes for a competitor to take them away.

In the Marketing with PDCA cycles that are utilized in Lean Marketing, we create that collaborative environment where learning and knowledge creation takes place. In the landmark book, The Experience Economy , the authors built a pyramid of “The Progressions of Economic Value and Valuable Intelligence. You can think of your own product stages and how a customer/prospect looks at your product. Each level of economic value corresponds to a level of valuable intelligence (commodities to goods, goods to data, etc.). From the book:

While the economic offering becomes more and more intangible with each step up the next echelon, the value of the offering becomes more and more tangible. Economist often talk about the “line of intangibility” between goods and services – to which we add the line of memorability” before experiences and the “line of sustainability” before transformations. Goods and services remain outside of the individual, while experiences actually reach inside of the individual to the value of the offering.

They go on to say:

Nothing is more important, more abiding, or more wealth-creating than the wisdom required to transform customers. And nothing will command as high a price.

PDCA is looked at most as problem solving methodology. I think it is the core of a Lean Culture. In the beginning stages of developing a Lean Marketing program I distinguish the difference by using Marketing with A3 as the problem solving tool of choice. This enables me to distinguish the difference between the tool A3 and PDCA which is the knowledge creation culture that is the essence of Lean Marketing. The sharing, experience and interaction of knowledge with the customer created through PDCA is what the customer wants. He proves it by the value he assigns to it.

This is why I believe the Future of Marketing is Lean!