Do you find that you, your team or board are spending too much time talking and trying to get everyone to agree, and not enough time progressing actions and making an impact?
You are not alone and the good news is there is an easy solution. One of the best ways to encourage organisations and teams to speed up their decision making is to give up agreeing on the right answer. Rather than trying to work out what the people you care for are going to find easy to use or like, you can simply ask them.
So what if you need to move quickly, how can you easily test out what is going to work before investing more time or money?
Here are 3 tips to get you started
Create a prototype You could quickly create a mockup of your new idea and ask some of your clients to give you their feedback. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking to your clients about the idea, do you know somebody well that would use your service? Can you take some time to show them what you are looking to create or change, and get their feedback? Yes, you may have some bias when you are talking to people that you already have a connection with, but one way to reduce the risk of bias is to ask why they would or would not use the service? This would then ensure you understand their reasons for this, and they aren’t just being nice.
AB test the idea If it's a communication that you are looking to test, then can you segment your mailing list into two groups and monitor which groups you get the best response from?
Create a pilot program Can you create a pilot of your new program and get feedback along the way and involve the participants of the pilot in creating the final version?
One of the unexpected benefits of adopting the “test and learn” mindset is that it encourages the entire team to be more creative, by reducing the cost and stigma of making mistakes.
So you see, It doesn't have to be difficult. It doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be arduous to get the people who use and appreciate your services involved in your decisions. Having these answers will make it easier for you as an organisation to be confident in the way forward.