New Capabilities We Plan To Develop in 2011

To ensure that conversations and requests for help were productive, Anthony Scampavia kept a question at the top of his whiteboard in his various offices at Cisco for more than a dozen years:

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Here are three problems we have identified and capabilities we plan to develop this year to manage them:

Problem: Rich audio, video, and other multi-media are clearly emerging as a requirement for effective business communication. We will need to learn and deploy new systems to specify, create, edit, and manage a richer set of content than our current text oriented systems can support. It also means we need to develop a much deeper understanding of how to leverage media for effective business communication.

Solution: We need to develop a complex set of new capabilities, but will attack different aspects with different methods:

1. Partner for technical creation and editing capabilities. Already active–and delighted–with DreamSimplicity and LectureMaker, we will likely add one or two more partners that have audio and animation capabilities.
2. Systems for managing both finished audio and video pieces but also building blocks that are reusable assets.
3. Develop internal expertise in specifying content requirements.

Problem: As a consulting organization we are delivering our value primarily as a direct service, whether it’s scripted or improvisation. This puts a lower bound on what we can charge to help our clients and makes it difficult to impact the many bootstrapping startups who might benefit from our tools and methods.

Solution: Develop knowledge products such as e-books, simulation models, interactive planning tools, and other simple applications to assist startups in customer development and scaling their business. Near term objective is half a dozen e-books that collect content from blog and workshops with checklists and other material to make them useful stand-alone. We continue to evaluate other customer development applications and would be happy to leverage those that are appropriate for B2B markets. Please contact us if you have something you feel we could incorporate into our practice.

Problem: the Bootstrapper Breakfasts® work very well as platform for early stage entrepreneurs to compare notes–to “eat problems for breakfast®” to coin a phrase–on their technology businesses as they wrestle with the challenges of organic growth. The breakfasts’ unconference format allows for anyone to drop in as they need and has fostered a number of business partnerships and co-founder relationships. But they don’t work well to support focused execution and provide ongoing support from a small group of trusted peers.

Solution: offer one or more Mastermind Groups aimed at early stage technology businesses. There are a number of models that work well for CEO’s of larger firms, typically involving one four hour meeting a month with a dozen other members, where each members is the focus once per year. But smaller firms are operating with less structure and in comparatively more dynamic situations. So shorter, more frequent, interactions that leverage a mix of face to face and on-line environments are probably more appropriate for their needs. We will continue to support and expand the Bootstrapper Breakfast program as it’s meeting the needs of very early stage entrepreneurs, but will explore adding Mastermind Groups to complement it.

Please contact us if you have any suggestions or questions on any of this. Details as they unfold.