MapOne is a powerful insight-driven, one-page strategic plan for IT. An actionable roadmap to success which provides a clear view on where you need to get.
TIMESTAMP
00:08 Introduction
01:30 What is a MapOne looking to accomplish? What outcome?
02:23 What is involved in a MapOne project?
04:22 How long should we expect this process to take?
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Robert Buktenica: Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Late Night Brew where we talk brews first, and then we get around to the business after the fact. I’m Robert Buktenica, otherwise known as Buk, and tonight on the show with me for the second episode is Lee Foster. Once again, welcome back, buddy.
Lee Foster: Thanks, man. Awesome to see you again, dude. This has been a lot of fun so far.
Robert: Always, so you know the drill. By now, across many, many episodes, what are you having with me tonight or today?
Lee: Mine will be a 4 Pines. I‘ve got to get it from the fridge. 4 Pines, a Pale Ale, mate. I’ll show you a can next time we speak.
Robert: All right. Well, the brew is delayed then. In this case, I have got myself a Nu Haze Hazy IPA. There we go.
Lee: Nice.
Robert Buktenica
It’s quite good. It’s one where it’s got flavor, but it’s not overpowering and it’s not disgustingly happy, so very, very good, easy-drinking beer.
Lee: And a good aftertaste.
Robert: Exactly. No aftertaste, which usually is kind of rough. Last episode, we gave that glorious high-level overview of what exactly is an advisory service. What exactly is the project overview? This week, let’s deep dive into MapOne.
What is a MapOne looking to accomplish? What outcome?
Robert: In a MapOne, what are we looking to accomplish? What’s the outcome?
Lee: Right. Perfect, mate. What we need to get to for clients is helping them come from a position of what are their anchors, what are the things that are kind of holding them back, what’s stopping them doing the things that they need to do and helping them understand why they’re important to do. We talk about those anchors, and ideally, we want to bring them all the way through to how we can solve those, so lead to the outcome. These are your anchors. These are the things that are holding you back. These are the challenges that you’ve got business problems misunderstood situations.
We want to take you through to what will be the outcome to solve for those problems. It’s taken through a road map of what needs to happen through anchors, enablers, what problems are solved, how they’re solved, and what the outcome will look like.
Robert: Brilliant.
What is involved in a MapOne project?
Robert: Now what is involved in that to get there?
Lee: A number of workshops to start with. First things first, we have a questionnaire that goes prior to the workshops to gather that stakeholder thinking. Very quickly, we want to gather independent views from different stakeholders, not just one individual. It’s almost psychometric. Everybody is looking at a problem from a different lens, so we want to get different opinions on the problems. We start with a questionnaire, then a series of workshops to then playback what’s in a questionnaire, identify gaps, and then push, poke, and prod.
We really try and surface insights to help them understand why those problems are worth solving. The real value prop is not telling them how, and most people can tell them that. It’s really helping them really connect and emotionally attach to why these things are worth solving. What these actually mean for the business, not what tech are we going to use.
Workshops, well through a series of workshops, we pull all that information together, surface the insights, collaborate to create a road map, and then play that back in lockstep with the client.
Robert: If I got that right, it’s, I wouldn’t say, ignoring the how of what you want to do. It’s more of looking at why you want to do what you want to accomplish.
Lee: Yes, exactly. Almost everybody will come to you with something they want to do. You ask them why it’s worth doing. Why is it important to do? That’s a more challenging question. I’ve been told we need to do this because of X. We have to do this because of Y. But why? For the business, why is that important? That’s when you get a lot of lightbulb moments and OSMs (Oh S**t Moments).
Robert: [laughs] I love that. Now that questionnaire workshops, right, it sounds relatively involved, relatively lengthy.
How long should we expect this process to take?
Robert: Let’s say, on average, there’s always outliers. How long can we expect a MapOne to take?
Lee: Look, simple low end is around four weeks, high end is around eight to nine weeks. That’s duration. Consider that’s duration because there’s lots of things we got. We need to allow people time to think. We give a questionnaire. We need people– to give them the time to think about these things, come to the workshops prepared, after the workshop, give them time to collate, collaborate, come back, think, and get prepared for the next workshop.
Some of the tools we’re using in the sessions are making that really easy for us because they’ve got a live view. We use a thing like Miro board that allows people to connect and see that board during and after the workshop. They can come back to that board as an internal group and review and refresh their thinking as to where we got to. Low end, four weeks. High end for a MapOne is around eight to nine weeks.
Robert: Awesome. Well, that pretty well wraps up the MapOne overview and, unfortunately, also our time, which means we have to come back next night for–
Lee: Oh no.
Robert: Oh no, another beer. For the MapTo. Unfortunately, this is not Episode 1. Otherwise, we could be really kicky, but Episode 3 will be MapTo. Keep it straight. If you have any questions, keep in touch. Please reach out. We’re here. Look forward to having you again, mate. Until then, take care.
Lee: Awesome. Bye. God bless you, mate.
Robert: Cheers, mate. Take care.
Next Episode: The Late Night Brew – Will it MapTo our IT transformation roadmap?
