Trigger Strategy

This is kind of a follow-up to our previous episode that was recorded before the UX London conference. With the whirlwind of travel and baby-care, this was the first chance Tom & Corissa have really had to talk about the conference, and we captured it for the podcast too.In our longest episode yet, we touch on Pitch Provocations, Multiverse Mapping, Zenko Mapping, rewilding, research repositories, behavioural design, regulations, stories, metaphor, communication, collaboration, validation, information architecture, design systems AND MORE. Whew.Also lots of shout outs and thanks to folks who gave talks and workshops, including Serena Verdenicci, Luke Hay, Emma Boulton, Dr Harry Brignull, Ben Sauer, John V Willshire, Tchili Ndou, Alicia Calderón, Stéphanie Walter, Peter Boersma and Brad Frost ... and the folks who curated, helmed and scaffolded a great few days: Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and many other awesome folk from Clear Left.

This is one of those where you walk along with Tom and Corissa while we're trying to figure something out. This time, Tom's giving a conference talk next week (which is last week from the podcast's perspective). He knows what he's talking about, but there's TOO MUCH of it! We try to figure out the one point he wants to make and why someone should care. Do we manage to tame this unruly topic or does it get away from us? You be the judge ...

Tom saw a discussion on LinkedIn about why Cynefin hasn't caught on in some scenes. One take was that it's the "academic, technical" language that puts people off. Corissa has lots of experience of the power of simplifying your language from her background in copywriting, and especially usability testing her copy. On the other hand, weird new words can provoke weird new ways of thinking ... but it's also easier to dismiss weird things if you don't like their implications. Perhaps there's no right answer.We talk about our experiences getting to grips with ideas like Cynefin, our experiences sharing such ideas with others, and we even talk about a dance class to explain the idea of the disposition of a complex adaptive system.

Spoiler alert: when I shipped an idea in an hour it did not meet the pivot triggers I'd set for the probe. That was one of a whole array of probes we've been putting out into the world here at Trigger Strategy Group. The general sense we've been picking up is that we haven't nailed our positioning yet. That's normal for a business in the early days like ours, but figuring this stuff out is emotionally challenging. We talk through some of the journey we've been on, an epiphany we've had, and where we're thinking of probing next. For more on the original idea, check out:the podcast episode: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9311and the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Kma97f9v4

Corissa recently re-learned to drive and noticed links between the stresses on the road and the stresses in the office. So we talked it through. We touch on the difference between complicated and complex, and between uncertainty and risk. When do you follow the rules in the highway code, and when do you muddle through and figure it out on the way?

Short little punchy one today: we bumped into one of our dad friends, who told us a lovely story about a parenting moment that was also a great example of emergent strategy and exaptation (radical repurposing).

Tom has a challenge: to convince Corissa that something called "Opportunity Method Format" is actually interesting and useful. We talk about examples like printing flyers to publicise dance classes and building MVPs in digital product companies. Tom reckons using these layers can help you make your experiments more effective for learning what you need to learn faster. Does Corissa agree? You'll have to listen to find out. And let us know: were you persuaded?

Of course it makes sense to build only exactly what customers will value – the Minimum Viable Product. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple in practice, and chasing the MVP dragon leads many a team into a life-sucking vicious cycle. There are a bunch of common conditions that lead teams into the MVP Death Spiral, from narratives about how product works to the very concept of features.If you've ever had a debate about MVPs — or felt that particular feeling of despair as yet another MVP fails to land with customers — then this episode is for you. Feel free to think of it as an MVP for some ideas that can free you from the dreaded Death Spiral. Wrapped in shiny paper with a big bow.