Proposal for Decision-making

1. Overview

At the end of every iteration of a Phase IV project, one crucial step stands on the agenda: decisions. The Project Sponsor decides how to assess the results so far, and what conclusions follow for the next steps. This decision needs professional preparation. The Project Team gets started on it during the Review Workshop, working on two documents:

1. Decision-making proposal: the proposal is usually a compact text document that summarises all relevant results, the outlook and the decisions to be made. Distribute it to participants during the Decide Workshop.

2. “Decide Wall”: for presenting at the Decide Workshop, it works best to skip PowerPoint and present results to the sponsor on an oversized poster instead. And by oversized, we mean 3x2m or bigger. That way, the project sponsor has everything in view at all times and can decide faster.

You can structure the Decision-making Proposal into the following chapters:

• Motivation

• Problem statement and solution space

• Objectives for the project

• Objectives for the iteration

• Team and other stakeholders

• Methodology and timeline

• Results of Step 2: Discover Phase

• Results of Step 3: Design Phase

  • Business Model incl. DNA

  • Customer Journey

  • Prototypes

  • Financial Case

• Results of Step 4: Validate Phase: Hypotheses & Validation results

• Reflection of teamwork and organisational caveats

• Scenarios for next steps

• Decisions

The “Decide Wall” covers similar points, but in a more compact form – especially where financial details are concerned. The advantage of a visual “Decide Wall” is that all relevant content stays visible at all times, so you can quickly draw connections between ideas. For example: an idea gets prioritised because customer research in the Discover Phase produced a particular insight. Or a prototype has certain core features because the business model relies on a specific way of generating revenue.

Don't mix the proposal up with the New Business Blueprint: the chapters overlap, but that document opens Phase V and asks who takes a new business to market, while the proposal closes this iteration and asks whether the work continues at all.

2. Usage Scenarios

• Reflect on the insights you’ve gathered and derive a recommendation for the Project Sponsor

• Present project results at the Decide Workshop

• Document the results of a project iteration

3. Instructions for Coaches

• Help your team choose the right tool(s) for presenting, based on the audience, premises and content.

• Introduce the structure of the "Decide Wall" to the team carefully, and use visual examples when guiding them through the sections of the template. It can be hard for a team to imagine the effect a fully filled "Decide Wall" has on the audience during the Decide Workshop.

• Your team might question why the project results need yet another format for the presentation. Spend enough time clarifying why the Decide Workshop is not just another company presentation, and let one Team Member step into the Project Sponsor's shoes during rehearsals. That hands-on change of perspective helps them understand it.

• In many cases, Team Members are not used to presenting in front of a Project Sponsor. Make sure your team gets ready for it – a few rehearsals may be necessary.

• Don't forget to present the physical and/or digital prototypes you created during the project as part of the "Decide Wall". The more tangible, the better!

• If your project team is using a digital tool for the presentation, avoid "death by PowerPoint" situations.