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How to launch a new product in the market successfully

October 24, 2020 by Luke Szyrmer Leave a Comment

This week my main update is that I had an appearance on the Startup Playground Podcast, as part of season 2 which he is calling the #CasualUndistancingTalks. The host Elvis (great name) and I had an in-depth chat. We mostly covered mindset about launching new products, and how to think about it, especially now during the pandemic. As well as the importance of teams and teamwork.

I had a lot of fun, and for some reason a lot of the examples were around mp3 players (remember those) and the launch of the original iPod. Makes sense, since we’re both podcasters. 🙂

Filed Under: podcasts Tagged With: covid, existential risk, launch, principles

Why the Launch Tomorrow process actually works

September 11, 2020 by Luke Szyrmer Leave a Comment

Recently I showed up on the Predictable B2B Success podcast. Vinay interviewed me. He originally worked with Dan Norris as his content guy, and is now running a content repurposing agency.

Filed Under: assumptions, innovation, Risk, unknown unknowns Tagged With: case study, founder market fit, hero canvas, market risk, principles, prioritization

Why addressing errors effectively lies at the heart of team performance

July 2, 2020 by Luke Szyrmer Leave a Comment

No one wakes up in the morning excited to go to work and look ignorant, incompetent, or disruptive. While it’s not true of everyone, I think it’s fair to say that anyone who gets a job wants to be there and usually wants to do well–for the purpose of self-respect. Look at how elated most people are when they accept a job after getting an offer. It’s when they enter into the “systems” at a particular company, that everything usually takes a left turn.

Modern Times (1936) trailer: capturing the essence of managing

In established companies, it’s sadly common for employees to be habituated in a context of fear of failure. Especially if there is a lot of pressure from management to perform at a high level. There are ambitious goals, often coupled with a lack of clarity on how they will be achieved. In practice, employees focus on looking busy (however that is defined). They end up fearing failure, of not living up to expectations.

As a manager, there is a fine line to draw here. You don’t want to set the bar too low and cause everyone to just slack off. The starting point here is one of psychological safety; according to the research, this is one of the main factors driving high performance in teams. In particular, how you handle errors, failures, or surprises in a way that keeps the team accountable while enabling them to believe that they will be listened to–if they speak up.

Common error types

According to Amy Edmondson in The Fearless Organization, there are 3 different types of errors which happen professionally, and their meaning is largely driven by context:

  1. mechanical errors in a highly repeated process that just need to be minimized in frequency: this is what Modern Times parodied
  2. interaction errors which result from highly complicated relationships, especially in a larger company
  3. thwarted expectations around a goal in the context of experimentation, often a surprising result of an experiment

A large part of the challenge of large companies is that they treat all errors as if they were all #1 by default. This approach may be tied to political gamesmanship. But not everything is just a deviation from a standard (regardless of who actually decides and imposes that standard). Especially in knowledge work like software, where completing something requires you to learn something you don’t know up front. Edmondson quips, “For knowledge work to flourish, the workplace must be one where people feel able to share their knowledge!”

Your riskiest assumptions are probably related to your prospects and customers. Establish empathy quickly with your target prospect, figure out what's valuable, and get your innovation into the market.

I don’t know who dropped this in Leeds city centre but I feel their disappointment.

Filed Under: alignment, assumptions, metrics Tagged With: digital taylorism, output, principles, process risk, throughput

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  • About Luke

    Luke Szyrmer is an innovation and remote work expert. He’s the bestselling author of #1 bestseller Launch Tomorrow. He mentors early stage tech founders and innovators in established companies. Read More…

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