Chapter 4: The Three Keys to Unlocking Productivity

In business, the quest for productivity is like the Holy Grail—universally sought but rarely attained. This chapter unpacks the three key factors that can set your organisation on the path to a 10x productivity revolution. Drawing from time-tested principles and contemporary insights, we delve into the new ways of Leading, Thinking, and Working that every organisation needs to adopt.

 

The Magic Number: Three

The number three has a magical significance, not just in folklore but in cognitive psychology as well. Our brains are wired to remember things in threes. This chapter presents a triad of factors—Leading, Thinking, and Working—critical for achieving unprecedented productivity. The sequence matters: starting with leadership sets the stage for organisational culture and process improvements. Many organisations start with the ways of working and concentrate on operational methods, such as Scrum, Kanban, or Agile, bypassing the critical steps of cultivating the right mindset and leadership style. This oversight can stymie progress. Consider the servant leadership model integral to Scrum; it’s often conspicuously absent when businesses hastily assemble Scrum teams. Similarly, leadership teams may rush to adopt Agile methodologies without a foundational understanding of constraint theory, undermining their efforts.

New Ways of Leading: Diverse Culture, Outcome-Based Objectives, and Effective Measures

Leadership is the lynchpin of any organisation’s success. Effective leaders set the tone, define the culture, and create the right motivational ecosystem. They understand the importance of a diverse culture that encourages different perspectives and innovative solutions. They also emphasise outcome-based objectives, steering clear of the vanity metrics that often mislead organisations.

 

Culture and Incentives

Financial incentives are not the silver bullet for motivation. Research reveals that performance-based pay can actually demotivate employees. Instead, organisations should focus on intrinsic rewards like job satisfaction, creativity, and teamwork. For example, Google’s “20% time” allows employees to work on side projects, which not only fosters creativity but has also led to some of Google’s most successful products, like Gmail.

 

New Ways of Thinking: An Agile, Adaptive, Constraints-Aware Mindset

An agile mindset isn’t just for software development; it’s a way of approaching any problem. Organisations need to move from a fixed to a growth mindset, encouraging employees to learn, adapt, and improve. Businesses often fall into the trap of hiring more people to solve problems, but the answer often lies in better utilising existing resources. By adopting a constraints-aware mindset, organisations can do more with less.

 

The Productivity Paradox

Executives often acknowledge the need for productivity improvements but fail to act. This paradox can be broken by a holistic approach that includes training everyone in the organisation to overcome constraints. A Chief Productivity Officer or a Lean Six Sigma consultant can offer short-term gains but for sustainable growth, the change must be organisational.

 

New Ways of Working: Streamlined Processes and Integrated Tools

In the digital age, the right tools and processes can significantly boost productivity. Tools should not only automate tasks but also provide actionable insights. Organisations should aim to build digital operating models that facilitate real-time decision-making.

 

The Pitfalls of Traditional Processes

Ironically, some processes meant to improve quality and efficiency, like ISO 9000, can become burdensome and counterproductive with team maintaining documents that few people ever read apart from the assessor. Companies should aim for a balance between structure and flexibility.

 

The Synergistic Triad: Leading, Thinking, Working

It’s crucial to understand that Leading, Thinking, and Working are not isolated pillars but form a synergistic triad. Each element influences the other, and the absence or failure of one can bring down the entire structure. Achieving a 10x productivity increase isn’t just a lofty goal; it’s a necessity in today’s fast-paced, competitive landscape. Organisations that invest in effective leadership, adopt an agile mindset, and streamline their processes are not just setting themselves up for incremental gains; they are igniting a revolution.
Interested in learning how to implement these strategies in your organisation for a 10x productivity boost? Book a meeting with me to discuss customised solutions tailored to your needs.

Prologue: The 10X Productivity Revolution Starts Now?

In a recent contemplative period, I found myself inspired to captrure some ideas I have had for some time – as a series of insightful blog articles. Should they resonate positively with readers, I envisage them amalgamating into a cohesive, self-published volume.

Jason Nash

Revolution need not be a tumultuous upheaval that topples the old regime. Instead, every revolution involves catalyzing a movement that captivates hearts, minds, and imaginations.

We are on the cusp of an epoch in human history. Our economies labour under unprecedented debts, and social harmony is fraying due to inequality and polarization. Meanwhile, climate change hastens, and biodiversity dwindles. These looming threats cast long, ominous shadows on our shared future.

Yet, within this challenging moment lies an extraordinary opportunity for daring leaders. Imagine multiplying productivity not merely by 10%, but by 10X. By embracing innovative leadership styles, thinking paradigms, and work practices and leveraging transformative technologies like artificial intelligence, we can unlock exponential advances in efficiency, innovation, and sustainable growth.

The hour is ripe for a productivity revolution. We need 10X heroes – particularly visionary executives and business leaders – to spearhead this movement. Radical solutions are essential to address our systemic issues. The era of escalating debts, societal divide, and climate crisis won’t yield to business as usual. We must question traditional wisdom and established economic models.

This book gives executives and leadership teams the knowledge and strategies to spark a productivity revolution within their organizations. You’ll learn how to identify and eliminate constraints, cultivate a high-performance culture, harness AI, and optimize team management for efficiency.

The future depends on everyday business leaders achieving extraordinary outcomes. You hold the latent potential to be a 10X hero. With creativity, determination, and constant improvement, we can forge a brighter, sustainable future. The productivity revolution commences now. Turn the page and embark on your journey.

10x The productivity Revolution

Table of Contents

  • Prologue: The Dawn of the Productivity Revolution
  • Part 1: Understanding the Productivity Puzzle
    • Chapter 1: Understanding the 10x Productivity Revolution
    • Chapter 2: A Productivity Paradox: The Power of Constraints
    • Chapter 3: Human Obstacles to Productivity
  • Part 2: Charting the Path Forward
    • Chapter 4: The Triple Keys to Unleashing Productivity
    • Chapter 5: The Ascending Role of the Chief Productivity Officer
    • Chapter 6: The Interplay of Motivation, Psychology, and Productivity
  • Part 3: Reaping Exponential Gains
    • Chapter 7: AI, Automation, and the Future Work Landscape
    • Chapter 8: An Introduction to Prompt Engineering
    • Chapter 9: The Synergy of Human-AI Collaboration
  • Section 4: Spearheading the Revolution
    • Chapter 10: Cultivating a Culture of Productivity
    • Chapter 11: Orchestrating Teams for Optimal Productivity
    • Chapter 12: Leaping Towards the 10X Milestone

Navigating the Growth Crossroads: When to Shift from Sales-Led to Product-Led Growth

I often speak to organisations who find themselves at a crossroads. One of the most critical junctures is the decision to transition from a sales-led growth strategy to a product-led growth strategy. Sales-led growth focuses on acquiring customers through sales efforts above all else. In contrast, product-led growth leverages the product itself to drive customer acquisition, often using growth hacking along the way. Some well-funded (startups are organisations set up to prove product-market fit through validated learning) scale-ups go down the product-lad growth route from the outset. Knowing when to make this shift and IF to make it is crucial for the long-term success of a business. This article aims to provide insights into why and when to make this transition and how a product growth coach can be an invaluable asset during this shift

Understanding Sales-Led and Product-Led Growth

  • Sales-Led Growth: Here, the primary driver of customer acquisition is the sales team. This strategy is common in B2B companies where the sales cycle is longer, and the focus is on building relationships with the customers.
  • Product-Led Growth: In contrast, product-led growth relies on the product itself to attract, retain, and expand the customer base. This approach is more common in consumer-focused companies or those with a shorter sales cycle.

Why be product Led? Apple & Tesla?

Apple and Tesla are renowned for being quintessential examples of product-led organisations, where the emphasis is placed on product innovation and customer experience. Until recently, Tesla has primarily relied on the allure of its cutting-edge electric vehicles and the public persona of its CEO, Elon Musk, for promotion, rather than traditional marketing efforts. However, during a recent investor meeting, Tesla announced its plans to explore conventional marketing channels.

Apple, on the other hand, has masterfully built a loyal customer base, often referred to as ‘Apple fanboys and fangirls’. This is a testament to the powerful impact of investing in products and understanding customer evangelism – a strategy whereby customers become ardent advocates for a brand or product. The devotion of Apple’s customer base is rooted in the company’s commitment to design excellence, seamless user experience, and continuous innovation. These customers are so enamoured with Apple’s products and brand that they not only eagerly anticipate new product releases but also passionately promote them through word-of-mouth and social media – such is the power of great products and great service

For both Apple and Tesla, the focal point has been creating products that resonate deeply with consumers. This strategy has led to the organic growth of a community of brand evangelists who are profoundly connected to the products and are willing to champion them to others. This form of marketing is incredibly powerful as it is based on genuine customer satisfaction and trust, and often results in higher customer retention and acquisition rates – key reasons for being product led

Product Led → Sales Led Atlassian Software SaaS B2B

Atlassian’s IPO in 2015 was noteworthy because the company had shown strong financials, efficient growth, customer loyalty, and an intriguing cost structure. Atlassian’s IPO documents revealed that it was a rapidly growing software business. For example, in its fiscal year 2013, the company generated $149 million in revenue, which rose to $215 million in 2014, and by fiscal year 2015, it had a total of $320 million in revenue. This revenue growth was underpinned by a significant increase in its customer base, which grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 34% between fiscal years 2010 and 2015

Three key financial elements stood out in Atlassian’s IPO documents:

  1. Efficient Growth: Atlassian demonstrated a history of efficient growth, indicating that it was able to grow its business without excessively increasing its costs. Efficient growth is vital for a company’s long-term success as it ensures that the company is not just growing revenues but also managing its costs effectively.
  2. Customer Loyalty: Atlassian had established strong customer loyalty, which is crucial for sustaining revenue streams. Customer loyalty can lead to repeat business and can also create advocates for the brand, leading to new customer acquisitions.
  3. Intriguing Cost Structure: The company had an interesting cost structure (considerably lower cost of sales & marketing). That played a role in its growth. Having a well-thought-out cost structure can help in managing expenses in a way that supports sustainable growth.

Atlassian’s case is a good example of the advantages of a product-led growth strategy. By focusing on building a strong product that met customer needs, the company was able to attract a growing customer base. Jira had a free 30-day trial that was front and centre on the homepage and instrumental in growing loyal customers. This led to the below-industry average costs of sales and marketing. In 2023 for example, Salesforce allocated 43% of its total revenue to marketing and sales expenses, which is a slight decrease compared to 45% in both 2022 and 2021. But way above what you would expect from a product lead organisation. Atlassian product focus contributed to its revenue growth and made it an attractive investment during its IPO. The product-led growth strategy often focuses on letting the product itself be the primary driver of customer acquisition rather than heavy spending on sales and marketing efforts. This can lead to a more efficient and sustainable growth trajectory, as seen in Atlassian’s case. Clearly, since the IPO they have shifted to more of a sales-lead strategy interested in how their customers feel Companies that offer freemium models generally tend to be product led and have confidence in their customer/user experience. Always be wary of products that don’t allow trials. It generally means the products are over-engineered, with poor user experience resulting in costly and time-consuming setup and training, further increasing the overall cost of ownership!

A checklist for product led

Before making the leap from sales-led to product-led growth, it is essential to evaluate if both the product and the organisation are ready. Here is a checklist to guide this assessment:

  1. Product Maturity: Is the product developed enough and does it have unique features that can attract and retain customers without heavy sales efforts? have you build feedback loops into the product that allow customers to share their good experiences with your prospects
  2. Market Demand: Is there sufficient market demand for the product that can be tapped into through product-led strategies?
  3. Customer Feedback: Have customers indicated that the product is solving a significant pain point for them? Have you confirmed problem → solution fit and product → market fit?
  4. Internal Capabilities: Does the organisation have the necessary skills and resources to support a product-led growth strategy? For example, are you going to invest in improvements in support, addressing the top 5 recurring support issues every six months? Or invest behind what you are learning from measuring customer satisfaction measurement (I.e. NPS).
  5. Scalability: Can the product and the organisation scale without a proportional increase in costs? For a service business, product-ising the service offering is an essential first step.
  6. Competitive Landscape: Is the market saturated, or is there an opportunity for rapid growth through product differentiation?
  7. Organisational Alignment: Is the entire organisation, especially the sales team, aligned with the shift to product-led growth?

So what does it ‘feel’ like when you shift to product-led

When a company shifts from a sales-led to a product-led growth strategy, several changes occur in its operations, strategies, and interactions with customers, prospects, and employees. Let’s break down what this shift entails and how it impacts different stakeholders:

1. Focus of Growth Strategy:

  • Sales-Led: The company primarily relies on the efforts of its sales team to acquire customers. This usually involves direct outreach, cold calling, sales presentations, and relationship building.
  • Product-Led: The product becomes the main driver for growth. This means that the focus shifts to making the product so valuable and user-friendly that customers come to it organically. The company might offer a free trial or freemium model to allow users to experience the product before purchasing.

Implication: The company will invest more in product development, user experience, and customer feedback. Sales teams might still play a role, but they will focus more on facilitating product adoption rather than being the primary driver of new customer acquisition.

2. Customer Acquisition and Experience:

  • Sales-Led: Customers are often acquired through persuasive sales pitches and might not have a clear understanding of the product until after the purchase.
  • Product-Led: Customers are more likely to discover the product through recommendations, online searches, or trying it out themselves.

Implication for Customers: In a product-led model, customers are likely to have a better understanding and affinity towards the product because they tried it before making a purchase. This might lead to higher customer satisfaction.

3. Sales Cycle:

  • Sales-Led: The sales cycle tends to be longer as it involves nurturing leads and building relationships.
  • Product-Led: The sales cycle is usually shorter as customers are making the decision based on the value they perceive from the product itself.

Implication for Prospects: Prospects have more control over the buying process in a product-led model. They can decide at their own pace, based on the value they find in the product.

4. Role of Employees:

  • Sales-Led: Salespeople are the stars in this model. They have targets to hit and are crucial to the company’s growth.
  • Product-Led: The product team takes center stage. Engineers, designers, and product managers become vital for growth.

Implication for Employees: Sales teams might feel a shift in their role and importance. They may need to adapt to new ways of engaging with customers that are more focused on supporting product adoption. The product team will likely experience an increase in resources and responsibilities.

5. Marketing and Messaging:

  • Sales-Led: Marketing in a sales-led model might be more focused on generating leads for the sales team, often through content marketing, events, and partnerships.
  • Product-Led: Marketing shifts towards product education, showcasing its features, and encouraging trials or adoption.

Implication for Marketing Team: The marketing team will need to adapt their strategies to focus more on product messaging and education.

The Role of a Growth Coach

In any organisation, internal dynamics such as politics, egos, and insecurities can pose challenges. Research suggests that a well-aligned and supportive leadership team is not common in businesses of all sizes. This is where a product growth coach comes into play and strong product management leadership.

  • Neutral Perspective: A growth coach provides an independent and unbiased perspective, free from internal politics.
  • Alignment and Support: They work towards aligning the goals of various departments, with particular emphasis on how we make the product better for the customer, removing the friction from all of the processes across the customer journey which is critical for product-led growth.
  • Operational Efficiency: By promoting alignment and resolving internal conflicts, a product growth coach can drive improvements in business operations.

Conclusion

Making the shift from sales-led to product-led growth or visa versa is a significant decision that requires careful consideration and planning. Investing more in the product, CX and support over sales and marketing is a strategic decision that will ultimately build a more valuable and sustainable asset. Such a shift in strategy does now work make sense for everyone and might require a new CEO in order for this to successfully happen. Early sales lead startup CEO often struggle to make such a transition. Understanding the readiness of the product and the organisation, coupled with the guidance of a product growth coach, can be instrumental in navigating this critical transition. The ultimate goal is to create a growth strategy that is sustainable and aligned with the market demand and organisational capabilities. If your business is at this crossroads, it might be time to consider bringing in a product growth coach to facilitate this transition and set your company on a path to sustainable success.

Productivity Paradox: Embracing Constraints to Drive 10x Performance

To achieve a 10x productivity revolution, it’s essential to challenge the belief that more resources lead to greater productivity. Not every resource request must feel like a tug of war when you make fewer of them. A focus on the skill level and effective utilisation of your resources make all the difference. Constraints can be helpful, especially when developing a product with undefined scope. By defining a set of constraints, you can keep your product on track to meet your desired outcomes.

The Theory of Constraints is a systematic approach to improving a system’s performance by identifying and addressing its limiting factors. Your organisation’s productivity is limited by its most critical constraint or bottleneck. By identifying and addressing these constraints, you can boost your productivity significantly. For example, in a manufacturing company, optimising the production line constraint can lead to improved overall productivity, knowledge work is not manufacturing to be however.

Another common constraint in many businesses is a key person everyone turns to for specific tasks. This individual may be one of the best on the team, with unique knowledge or the one who knows the process best. However, this can lead to a bottleneck if that individual is overworked or unavailable. Identifying such constraints and addressing them can lead to a significant boost in productivity.

By embracing the theories of constraints and other productivity approaches, like agile, lean, six sigma, design thinking, and systems thinking. You can drive a 10x productivity revolution in your organisation. Join me on my blog for more insights and tips on increasing productivity and achieving more with less. My book will be out in the next few weeks.

#ProductivityRevolution #TheoryOfConstraints #ProductivityTips #ConstraintsAreFriends #Agile #Lean #DesignThinking #SystemsThinking #SixSigma #Optimization #Bottleneck #dalle

Drive your teams productivity 10x: Why Backlogs are not just for development teams.

If you work as part of a technology team or are a product owner, you’ll be familiar with the concept of a ‘backlog.’ In short, a backlog consists of a list of incomplete work items, ideally in priority order and only containing items you can complete in a reasonable amount of time.

Backlogs are common in development environments and are part of Scrum and Kanban, but don’t just think of them as being exclusive to tech startups or new product development. Backlogs can play an important role in helping any business become more productive.

When I headed the global marketing department at Travelport, we ran the whole department off a set of interconnected Kanban boards. After a lot of initial pushback, the team slowly started to recognise the value of visualizing work, understanding work in progress (WIP) limits, and measuring velocity and gained a basic understanding of the underlying principle behind most agile and lean tools.

With access to automation tools, increased data, and better analytics, the traditional marketing department that once focused on creative is beginning to look and function like a development environment. In a growth hacking oriented environment, managing marketing in this way might be a distinct advantage. Combine that with AI to stimulate ideas and support SEO and blogs and you can deliver a step change in marketing productivity learn more in ‘10x The Productivity Revolution” coming soon!