064 #2 Identify Critical Success Factors

Approach #2: Identify Critical Sucess Factors

Another approach is to systematically define a total solution. Part of this approach is to describe the necessary features and qualities of such a solution.

Concrete Use Cases

In terms of concrete examples, I like to use the following questions to qualify whether a solution can be  highly effective, widely applicable, and easy to use:

Would you use it in:
  - a sales call?
  - an evolving marketing campaign? 
  - a contract negotiation?
  - a online customer service call?
  - an everyday business meeting?

These are all situations in which there is a gap between

 

Separate knowledge and interests

=>  X  <=     

Stakeholder alignment on detailed processes and plans

All of these situations can benefit from increased collaborative solutions development capability. 

Critical Success Factors - the Big List

Below is a list of what I believe are critical success factors for a general solution for collaborative solutions development.

What is meant by “critical success factor”?  It means that if a solution does not have these features and qualities, it will not succeed as a highly effective, widely usable solution for collaborative solutions development.  

The fact that it’s a long list says a lot about why there isn’t a highly effective, widely distributed on the market today.

Here’s the list:

- significantly accelerates collaborative process development meeting and communication cycles;
- integrates rigorous process development with strong-consensus building;
- engenders energetic participation from “mechanically reproducible” procedures;
- produces reliable and effective results;
- “friendly”, sensitive and respectful of participants’ interests;
- widely applicable;
- highly scalable; easily transferrable as a capability through software, books, training
- fast and easy to start, learn and use;
- transferable as a skill for ad-hoc “white board” use;
- available in electronic meetings for geographically distributed groups;
- accessible in a variety of modes including “on demand/SaaS”;
- produces standalone value: no up-front “adoption” or ongoing commitment required;
- serves as a “front end” to associated applications and disciplines;
- translates rapidly across languages, cultures, and areas of expertise.

Construction Guide and Evaluation Criteria

We invite people to use the above criteria as:
  - a construction guide for building new solutions, and
  - a checklist for evaluating existing and proposed solutions.

Next:  Produce One Such Solution