In previous posts, I have described a high-level way of thinking about Agile Tactics for the TASTE model and the X-Matrix. This post follows them by introducing a generic way of thinking about Aspirations.
What are Aspirations?
On the X-Matrix template, I describe Aspirations as the “results we hope to achieve”. Aspirations are just hopes and desires, and that is an important point. They describe ambitions and the size of those ambitions. As such, aspirations are intended to help provide a sense of the magnitude and scale of the journey, along with the direction set by the True North. I sometimes ask the question, “at the end of the year (or another period), how will we know if we have been successful?” The goal is to be able to recognise progress and achievement. That may be subjective, and not have any specific numbers. Equally, it may be defined in relative terms rather than absolute numbers.
I have already discussed some considerations regarding measures with the X-Matrix to avoid the “tyranny of the explicit” and a “cliché of platitudes”. Additionally, we want to avoid Goodhart’s Law, often stated as “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”. Thus, aspirations are not targets or specific goals and are not there to incentivise or reward people. Instead, they should help people recognise and focus on what is important.
A Value Framework
With those caveats dealt with, how can we identify aspirations? Typical examples I give tend to be around the nature of a specific business and its business model. For example, that might relate to markets, customers, products, or subscriptions. However, in general, I find that the aspirations can be tied back to a value framework described by Joshua Arnold. I’d recommend reading his post on understanding value which describes the framework in more detail.
In summary, there are four buckets:
- Increase Revenue – Additional sales to new or existing customers, by delighting or disrupting to increase market share and size.
- Protect Revenue – Improvements and incremental innovations, to sustain current market share and size.
- Reduce Costs – Becoming more efficient with improved margins or contribution, to lower costs that are currently being incurred.
- Avoid Costs – Improvements which sustain and do not increase the current cost base, or prevent costs that are not currently incurred but may be in the future.
Value Buckets as Aspirations
I think that this can be a useful framework to help organisations think through what their aspirations are for their agile transformations. It helps clarify what they hope to achieve through a transformation. For example, it could be that they want to be able to go after new customer segments or markets. i.e. Increase Revenue. Or they may want to improve quality and reduce customer churn. i.e. Protect Revenue. They may want to improve internal processes through automation. i,e. Reduce Costs. Or they may want to increase employee engagement and reduce employee churn. i,e. Avoid Costs.
Thus, the value framework can help articulate what success might look like, in terms of direction and magnitude. As a result, the challenges or opportunities that need to be addressed in order to meet the aspirations can start to be diagnosed and identified. That in turn allows coherent strategies for agile transformations to be explored. I plan to write about this more in a future post.
A crude metaphor might be that Aspirations, and this value framework, can be a guide towards the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and help determine when it has been found. However, the Aspirations don’t indicate exactly where that pot of gold is, or guarantee how much will be in it.