Stop! Do this before your project launches its clunky solution

As Change Managers, we can often be stuck working on projects that are delivering clunky solutions that are not fit-for-purpose, customer-friendly or value-adding. Solutions where:

• The customers aren’t being put at the centre of it or getting their needs met
• Key features or aspects are descoped
• It’s not user-friendly
• It’s no longer even meeting the business case or business needs

It’s the project’s job to deliver the solution, and your job to help stakeholders be informed, inspired, confident and ready for that solution. So what do you do when the solution is clunky and you still have to sell it? How do you avoid pumping it up too much, overselling it or over-egging the pudding? And can you actually affect the solution design?

Yes - though you may need to do this via a two-pronged approach.

1. The first prong is showcasing how bad the solution is and how much it needs to be fixed. 
2. The second prong is being honest, transparent and authentic about the solution and what it will provide.

PRONG #1: Showcasing how bad the solution is

First, let me make it clear. It’s not your responsibility, but it is your opportunity to get the solution to be more user-friendly, relevant or in line with what was promised or needed to meet the business benefits or simply the business case. If it’s so watered down or so much has been descoped it won’t meet half the business case, what’s the point? So you might need to put it to the Sponsor or the project: should we even be doing this project at all? As a Changie, you'll sometimes be the bearer of bad news, you'll be the messenger that they shoot. But being a change leader is being able to bring that awkward information and hard truth to the surface. 

Here are some ways to soften the blow and hopefully influence your project team to rethink what they’re designing and planning to roll out:

Run an early readiness check

You could run a Business Readiness Check earlier, way before launch and ask: “If we were to launch, how ready do you think would be?” You could lead the witness and build some stuff into the checklist around what was meant to be delivered to highlight the gaps i.e. how confident are we that it’s actually going to achieve x dollars or that customers will actually save time?

Run a change risk workshop

You could run a change risk workshop, and even put the business case down as a change risk and take one for the team even though it’s actually a project or business risk. Once on a major change that was going to affect the pay and entitlements of 100,000 people, I didn’t have the time to do change impacts or run change planning but needed to showcase that the project was being run poorly and we were very far away from people being able to understand how their pay would change. So, I met with all the stakeholders, understood the change, documented the top 8-10 change risks and ran a risk workshop where we discussed the risks and how we could stop them from happening and did change planning off the back of that once I’d gotten commitment.

Get early user feedback

You could also do interviews or case studies or listening sessions with the end users or customers, or show wireframes, design documents, operating model drafts, or anything else that shows the solution as it currently stands or plans to get stood and invite feedback. Collate the feedback and present it back to the project to highlight the solution isn’t fit-for-purpose or going to cut it.

These are some ways you can highlight the gaps or misses in the solution to the project team. Whether or not they do anything with it is up to them. But at least you've given them the information and you can hand on heart say that you informed them about it. 

PRONG #2: Being transparent about the solution

The second prong is presenting the solution in a way that is authentic and honest and making sure you’re not overselling or over-egging the pudding, because you might break more trust by banging on about all the bells and whistles. Here’s some ideas:

Use qualifying language

You do want the solution to be inspiring and motivating and aspirational and encouraging and empowering, but you can also use qualifiers in your language to pull back on expectations and temper excitement without completely fizzling the entire spark. Instead of saying: “We're transforming the business”, you can say: “We’re on the journey of transforming the business” or “We've taken the first step on the journey of transforming the business.” Some other ideas:

• “We're on the first step”
• “We've listened to your feedback and we've started making changes”
• “This is an evolution, not a revolution”
• “We've got a lot in the pipeline and we’re prioritising what's needed right now”.

Call it out in comms

I like to be really honest in communications and if I know things will be clunky for a while or features will come later down the track in a Phase 2, I’ll simply call that out upfront in announcement comms, town halls, briefings or any opportunity to temper people’s expectations. If I know that things are going to be a little bit clunky for a while, if I know that things might not have everything that people asked for, I like to call that out upfront. It can be helpful to say we need foundational things in place to be able to get to Phase 2 and that’s why the project has had to prioritise on what will create the foundation.

Get balanced testimonials

Grab people who have seen or used the solution and instead of selecting 100% glowing reviews, pick testimonials that are more balanced. If they have a few good things to say, a few areas to improve, and can see the potential benefit in the future, that can feel like a fair review and more authentic and trustworthy. If the actual solution isn't even going to tick 50% of the boxes, perhaps make a decision to swap out a raving fan for someone who’s more measured in their feedback.

Being more transparent and balanced in how you communicate the solution will reduce fall out and help you feel more ethical in your change work.

Often as Change Managers, it’s our job to show and showcase what’s really happening with leaders, staff and customers to the project. Projects might be off working in a back room or an ivory tower, they're not hanging out on the frontline like Changies are. So it takes courage.

Of course, one of the best ways to avoid a clunky solution altogether is to actually involve real business end users or stakeholders in the design and development of the solution. Did you know… this is exactly how I developed my Leading Successful Change program? I ran a small pilot with a handful of students, co-created and co-designed as I launched and tested the course product, then gathered feedback and ideas before then building the course into its final version. 

I learned how to craft, launch and develop my Leading Successful Change product with Jeff Walker’s world-class Product Launch Formula coaching program. I created a course, but you could create anything using PLF: a book, a podcast, a physical product, a digital service, a membership, a retreat, and more. So if you’ve been dreaming of a side hustle or passive income, or just how to take your ideas and monetise them, PLF might be a great next step for you. Jeff opens up PLF once a year and registrations for this year’s intake closes in 2 days. 

Join via my exclusive affiliate link below and you'll get my bonus "Seed Launch Learnings Playbook" which steps through how I created LSC and what I learned along the way:

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Lata xx

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