The sense of freedom in a start-up (or incubation) environment is incredibly exciting. However, it is very easy to let this freedom lead you down the path of “what if”, distracting you from achieving success. You only have – at most – three years (many would argue two) to go from spending the “first opportunity dollar” to demonstrating commercial success. This leaves little room for distraction. Over many successes and failures, I found three things separated ventures that went on to commercial success from those that simply remained “interesting ideas.”
Prioritizing risk response using the Pareto Principle
-->When using Active Risk Management (ARM) it is very easy to spend TOO much time and attention managing risks. By using the Pareto Principle to prioritize how you response to identified risks, you can assure your risk management efforts yield more benefit than they cost—in a simple, easy-to-understand manner…
Risk management is more than just risk mitigation
-->There are four different techniques to manage identified risks. Some try to prevent them from occurring; others deal with the consequences if they do occur. Too few people realize that they have this many tools at their disposal. As a result they do not manage risk as effectively as they would like…
RIPping up risks to figure out which are largest
-->It is very easy to get so caught up in analysis paralysis that you never get around to actually responding to your identified risks. Estimating them instead provides a quick, low-cost way to figure out how big each of your risks are relative to each other. Risk estimation is easy when you remember that risk consists of two components: impact and probability—each of which has a simple proxy for quick estimation…
Ten critical success factors for using dashboards to manage your program portfolio
-->Even the greatest Program Dashboard will not help if you do not use it to manage your portfolio more effectively. Here are 10 critical success factors I have learned in the process of using dashboards to drive successful outcomes on over 3,300 projects and programs…
Tip 2 – Pick dashboard metrics that drive success
-->I have heard metrics that indicate that anywhere from 50% to 75% of all projects and programs are late or fail to meet their business objectives. However, I repeatedly see Program Dashboards that indicate that everything is “Green.” They key to avoiding this is picking Dashboard Metrics that create incentives for forward-looking behaviors that will drive success…
