Creating “High Impact”

As team members of Openview Labs, we engage in many value-add initiatives with our portfolio on a daily and weekly basis. Most of what we are doing right now is focused on sales and marketing support for our expansion stage portfolio companies.

Our process starts with working with our portfolio management teams to figure out what is most important and creates “high impact”.

I thought it might be valuable to show you the checklist we use. If you are responsible for any initiative in your company, this will be really valuable.

1. Opportunity for high impact- The initiative will have a significant business benefit and is one of the most important things the company needs to do.

2. Extreme clarity of business goals at the beginning of the project- The Problem Statement is completely clear and vetted with all key stakeholders necessary for success, and the focus is on few critical results.

3. Leverage- The initiative recruiting support and workplan has been designed for maximum impact (using a lot of creative problem solving) while minimizing wasted time and resources.

4. Quick hits- The workplan has been designed to get to tangible results in as short a period of time possible and then results are iterated on. People don’t waste time on infrastructure (software and other long term items) until the impact is clear.

5. Robustness- Key failure risks and impediments to success have been considered and built into the workplan, and the initiative owner has considered what paths to take under various scenarios (like a chess master, he/she thinks 5 moves ahead. Like a director, he/she plays alternate movies in their head).

6. Appropriate team- The team has the right members with the appropriate skill sets and motivation to accomplish the work.

7. Teamwork and sense of urgency- The team (all stake holders) is (and stays) excited, committed, and accountable for executing the initiative and carries a real sense of urgency to create business results. People see that success depends on them.

8. Creativity and experimentation- People realize that they must experiment to achieve the goals and constantly rethink the work effort relative to the business goals to try to find better ways for meeting those goals.

9. Ongoing adjustments and re-commitment- As more is learned, the project needs to adapt. Team reviews and outside expert reviews are important to check and reflect on the work and results as well as propose adjustments. Changes are completely clear and vetted with all of the key people necessary for success.

Hope this helps!!