"To get 10 yards in 4 downs, you only need to average 2.5. Sustain the drive for the long haul. Small incremental changes add up to big changes. Continual improvement is essential."
This idea of incremental innovation, of moving 2.5 or 3 yards at a time is quite interesting and it is a piece from our class in Texas that initially challenged me-in a good way. It challenged me because I was sitting in class thinking, "If I know there are 20 things wrong with this product,why wouldn't I want to change them all?"
Often times, we equate success with the big end goal, in terms of getting a touchdown, or hitting a home run. We want our product to be a huge win right out of the gate, even if the product is being released as revision. Who doesn't? The concept of moving only three yards is a challenging one because we want to fix everything. All or nothing right? We want to fix it so its working perfectly.
Remember the phrase from Voltaire that John shared --when was it--a year ago?
Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
What is hard to fathom sometimes is that we don't have to change 20 things --or everything that could be changed--on a product to make that product more usable for our customers. Sometimes, it's a matter of making what we would consider "small" incremental changes- that can make the most difference --and have the most far reaching effect on a customer's experience of a website or a book or a service. Three yards, three yards......
What does "3 yards" look like? The specific "3 yards" we move each time is going to be dependant on who our customers are and what they are trying to do, i.e. what the key tasks are that our customers are trying to complete and what's keeping them from quickly and easily completing those tasks. Do we know what those tasks are? (If not, some discovery work might be in order.)
Example 1: In a book where navigation is a key task and yet seems to be posing a challenge for young kids, it might mean adding colored tabs to the side of the book or coloring the index section a different color to make it possible for them to see "IMMEDIATELY" where they need to go.
Example 2: On a website that customers go to specifically to find certain types of information--strengthening the search functionality or the way the content is tagged on the site could significantly increase a customer's satisfaction of a website experience.
When we are clear on what tasks our customers are trying to complete, we can then choose which pieces to fix based on that task.
Three yards is a challenge, but it's a challenge I would issue to all of us. What does 3 yards mean for this project we are working on? What can we fix NOW to make this a better experience for our customers--to make it more usable NOW? This is one of the things I always appreciated about Paul Casper. For those of us working regularly with the online learning environment, he was like that driver who would re-align us when our conversation would start veering us off the 3 yard road toward fixing the 20 things. He would say, "We know we can't fix everything right now, what is the next 3 yards? Let's get to the next 3 yards."
What do you think is the best/most creative/most effective way to illustrate or convey 3 yards?
Take the "3 yard" Challenge
Come up with your approach to conveying "3 yards" by December 1. (For off site employees, just submit a photo of your "3 yards" to hsutton@smp.org and your model will be part of the challenge.)
A visiting guest will determine the top 3 winners. The winner of the top model of conveying "3 yards" will receive a gift card to the local restaurant of their choice.
The value is in the strength of the team being able to keep each other in check. I guarantee I was reigned into focus on the 3 yards as much as I did the reigning. This was important two-fold. 1) stop the team from getting overwhelmed and 2) focusing on improvements for the customer over launching something "new" that they'd have to relearn.
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