Serverless Craic Ep61 Finding your North Star

Serverless Craic from The Serverless Edge

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This episode centres on Chapter Five of the book "The Value Flywheel Effect," focusing on the North Star framework.
We explain how this framework helps teams align their work with a clear, meaningful metric (North Star) and its related leading and lagging metrics.
North Star Framework Overview
We explain the North Star framework, emphasising its use in helping teams coalesce behind a mission or purpose with a visual, collaborative tool. And the importance of leading metrics and lagging metrics, explaining how the North Star framework helps teams reverse engineer leading metrics from lagging ones.
Application of North Star Framework
We look at the usefulness of the North Star framework at both the small startup level and the enterprise level, where it helps link lead measures back to overall business impact.
The North Star framework is powerful for team and individual morale by making work meaningful and aligning it with organisational objectives.
We reference Dan Pink's "mastery, autonomy, sense of purpose" to emphasise the importance of knowing what you are doing and why.
The North Star framework is complementary to mapping for strategy, helping to narrow down on value and focus conversations.
Challenges and Benefits of North Star Framework
It is valuable to ask teams about their metrics and how their work influences them, leading to valuable conversations about measurement and alignment.
We look at the importance of measurement, referencing Grace Hopper's quote about the power of accurate measurement.
Having data and clear alignment to organisational strategy helps teams advocate for change more effectively.
The North Star framework can sometimes reveal that teams are not aligned or that the overall strategy is flawed, likening it to the emperor's new clothes.
Connecting North Star to Business Value
A structured North Star often reveals disconnects in the work being done and its impact on business value, serving as a corrective measure.
We compare the North Star framework to impact mapping, both helping to create a compelling narrative and understand the story of what the team is working on.
It is challenging to craft the North Star for behind-the-scenes teams, but the framework helps align value delivery with business goals.
We discuss Amazon's working backwards process and its similarities with the North Star framework, emphasising the importance of understanding the customer's need and working backwards from there.
Critical Thinking and Leadership
These frameworks are enablers of critical thinking, challenging teams and organizations to question their assumptions and goals.
North Star metrics and key input metrics make it easier to write a compelling press release that aligns with the company's strategy.
Clarity of purpose is the foundation of everything, requiring leadership and courage to implement.

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