Ten learnings on delivering big bet initiatives

Shared at Agile Vietnam Conference 2023, Ho Chi Minh City – May 31, 2023. https://agilevietnam.vn/

Delivering features, experimental products and solving small, well-defined problems are relatively straightforward product development. What about delivering big bet initiatives, major solutions, and modernisation attempts that can be complex and involve multiple stakeholders from inside and outside of your organisation?

Transcript

1. Ten learnings on delivering big bet initiatives Sylvia Ng, GovTech Singapore sylviang.me nsylvia@gmail.com @nsylvia 1 1
2. Raise your hand if you work on delivering big bet initiatives, modernisation systems? 2 2
3. The messy path from idea to outcome 3 3
4. 1. Be a vitamin and a painkiller 4 4
5. 2. Neither overestimation nor underestimation is good 5 5
6. 3. Sequencing becomes a lot more critical 6 6
7. 4. Status updates can be meaningless 7 7
8. 5. Make tradeoff decisions early 8 8
9. 6. Adjust for dependencies 9 9
10. 7. Mitigate the risks 1 1: Pointe Du Hoc 10 10
11. 8. Leverage Elon Musk’s employee vector theory 2 2: Employee Vector Theory 11 11
12. 9. Use Sun Tzu’s Art of War in communication If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers. – Sun Tzu, Art of War. 12 12
13. 10. Move from event thinking to system thinking 3 3: Modified version of the “Vision Deployment Matrix 13 13
14. Ten learnings on delivering big bet initiatives 1. Be a vitamin and a painkiller 2. Neither overestimation nor underestimation is good 3. Sequencing becomes a lot more critical 4. Status updates can be meaningless 5. Make tradeoff decisions early 6. Adjust for dependencies 7. Mitigate the risks 8. Leverage Elon Musk’s employee vector theory 9. Use Sun Tzu’s Art of War in communication 10. Move from event thinking to system thinking 14 14
15. This talk is based on an article I originally wrote in March 2023. Deliver big bet initiatives 15 15
16. Questions? Comments? Thanks to everyone here for this session and to Agile Vietnam for inviting me to speak! Sylvia Ng, GovTech Singapore sylviang.me nsylvia@gmail.com @nsylvia 16 16