Velocity is the most commonly used metric in agile software delivery. It is also perhaps the least effective metrics in agile software delivery. In "Escape Velocity", Doc Norton walks the reader through common issues with metrics and how to avoid them, alternative metrics that not only help agile teams perform better, but enable them to continuously improve, and techniques for forecasting that vastly outperform the use of velocity. In a quirky, casual, and information dense style, Doc Norton makes the topic of tracking data entertaining and shows us how to be more effective in the pursuit of excellent software.
Takeways
Chapter 1: Introduction
“Escape Velocity” explains the concept of overcoming a company’s past success to achieve new growth. The book provides strategies for businesses to break free from their legacy and innovate. It emphasizes the importance of aligning resources and executing a strategic plan to ensure the company’s future success.
Chapter 2: Category Power
Companies must identify the most promising market categories and position themselves as leaders. By focusing on category power, businesses can harness market momentum and create competitive advantages. The chapter provides guidance on assessing market categories and creating a winning strategy.
Chapter 3: Company Power
Businesses should leverage their unique strengths and capabilities to create company power. This chapter highlights the importance of building a strong brand, developing differentiating capabilities, and maintaining a robust customer base. It also offers strategies for companies to maximize their potential and achieve sustainable growth.
Chapter 4: Market Power
To establish market power, companies must develop a deep understanding of their customers and their needs. This chapter provides guidance on conducting customer segmentation, targeting the right customers, and creating compelling value propositions. By focusing on market power, businesses can increase customer loyalty and drive revenue growth.
Customer Segmentation: The process of dividing your customer base into distinct segments based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, industry, purchasing behavior, or needs. This allows you to tailor your products, services, and marketing efforts to each segment more effectively. Moore suggests using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, such as interviews, surveys, and data analysis, to gain insights into the unique needs and preferences of each segment.
Targeting the Right Customers: After identifying customer segments, it is essential to determine which segments are the most valuable and strategically important for your business. Moore emphasizes the need to prioritize segments that offer the greatest potential for growth and align with your company’s strengths and capabilities. By targeting the right customers, you can allocate resources more efficiently and develop products and services that resonate with those customers, resulting in increased customer loyalty and revenue growth.
Creating Compelling Value Propositions: A value proposition is a clear statement that outlines the unique benefits a customer can expect from your product or service, and how it solves their problem or fulfills their need better than alternatives. Moore highlights the importance of developing value propositions that resonate with your target customers and differentiate your offerings from competitors. To create compelling value propositions, it is crucial to understand your customers’ pain points, needs, and desires, as well as your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Your value proposition should address the specific needs of each customer segment, showcasing the unique benefits and features of your product or service that make it the best choice for them.
Chapter 5: Offer Power
Companies must innovate and create compelling product and service offerings to achieve offer power. This chapter emphasizes the need for businesses to develop a robust innovation pipeline, create differentiated offerings, and optimize their product portfolios. It also provides strategies for managing the lifecycle of products and services to maximize their impact.
Chapter 6: Execution Power
Successful businesses must execute their strategies effectively to achieve escape velocity. This chapter focuses on the importance of aligning resources, processes, and culture to drive execution. It offers guidance on setting clear objectives, establishing accountability, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to achieve business success.
By following the guidance in “Escape Velocity,” businesses can overcome the pull of the past, innovate, and achieve new levels of growth and success.
Key Actions
- Identify promising market categories and position your company as a leader (Chapter 2).
- Assess market categories and create a winning strategy (Chapter 2).
- Leverage your company’s unique strengths and capabilities to create company power (Chapter 3).
- Build a strong brand, develop differentiating capabilities, and maintain a robust customer base (Chapter 3).
- Conduct customer segmentation and target the right customers (Chapter 4).
- Develop compelling value propositions to establish market power (Chapter 4).
- Create a robust innovation pipeline to develop compelling product and service offerings (Chapter 5).
- Optimize your product portfolio and manage the lifecycle of products and services (Chapter 5).
- Align resources, processes, and culture to drive effective execution (Chapter 6).
- Set clear objectives, establish accountability, and foster a culture of continuous improvement (Chapter 6).