Measure effect
You can measure the effect of both the work you have carried out so far and the work you will do in the future. Traditional objectives and meassures do not always work well for activities such as creative problem-solving, experimentation, prototyping, and trial and error. You are using methods and tools that probably encroach on established business rules, and where customers are involved more than the business is perhaps used to. This way of working cannot always be measured in results on the bottom line. Therefore, it is important that you, your team and decision-makers are clear about how your work will be measured
Good performance indicators are linked to the actual activities you perform. Examples of such activity parameters may be:
- Number of customers you have interviewed in depth
- Number of observations you have made of a typical customer situation
- Number of ideas generated and further developed
- Number of specialist environments, functions or roles involved in the various activities
- Number of prototyping activities carried out (including active testing on real customers)
- Number of tests and validations against existing business (e.g. using a business model canvas)
It may also be helpful to have an idea of potential external performance indicators. These may help you and your business to evaluate the overall effect of investment in the various activities on business performance and possible scaling. Examples of these are:
- have we succeeded in exploring a new technology?
- have we succeeded in exploring a new business area?
- have we succeeded in developing internal work processes?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you have developed a good process using the guide.