Improve this page

第五章 纠错-解决问题和避免陷阱

目录

In this chapter, you will learn:

  • The two categories of problems you might experience as you build your North Star
  • How to improve shared understanding by mapping beliefs, aligning your North Star to your product vision, and identifying your key value exchanges
  • How to identify and avoid common traps

在这一章中，你将学到:

  • 当你构建你的北极星时，你可能会遇到两类问题
  • 如何通过映射观念，将你的北极星与你的产品愿景对齐，以及确定你的关键价值交换来提高共同的理解
  • 如何识别和避免常见的陷阱

Some teams are able to converge on a North Star Metric and its Inputs after a short workshop session and a bit of follow-up. Other teams require more facilitation, collaboration, and troubleshooting. And that is OK. You want your North Star to reflect the heart of your product strategy and your value to customers, so it’s worth taking time to resolve misunderstandings and ensure alignment.

一些团队能够在一个简短的工作坊会议和一些后续工作之后集中于北极星度量及其输入。其他团队需要更多的帮助、协作和故障排除。 这没关系。 你希望你的北极星能反映出你的产品战略的核心和你对客户的价值，所以花时间消除误解和确保一致是值得的。

The difficulties teams experience often fall into two categories: struggling with shared understanding, or falling into common traps.

团队经历的困难通常分为两类: 达成一致理解的困难，或者跳不出共同思维陷阱的困难。

Category 1: The team needs shared understanding

If you’re experiencing this, try:

  • Surfacing beliefs
  • Connecting the North Star to your product vision
  • Understanding key value exchanges

第一类: 团队达成一致理解的困难。

如果你正在经历这种情况，试着:

  • 表面化的观念
  • 将北极星与你的产品愿景联系起来
  • 理解关键的价值交换

Category 2: The team needs help avoiding common traps If you’re experiencing this, watch out for:

  • Jumping immediately to 「Can we measure that?」
  • Focusing on the North Star Metric only, not the Inputs
  • Insisting you need more than one North Star Metric
  • Letting current dysfunction overwhelm your ability to improve

第二类: 跳不出共同思维陷阱的困难。

如果你正在经历这种情况，请注意是不是你们有:

  • 立刻跳到「我们能测量吗? 」
  • 专注于北极星指标，而不是输入要素
  • 坚持讨论不止一个北极星指标
  • 让当前的机能障碍压倒你改善的能力

If you are facilitating a North Star workshop, we recommend that you read this chapter so you can be prepared for misunderstandings or challenges that might bubble up. With these actionable tips in your back pocket, you’ll be able to cut through conflict and align your team.

如果你正在组织一个北极星工作坊，我们建议你阅读这一章，这样你就可以为可能出现的误解或挑战做好准备。有了这些可行的提示，你就能够解决冲突，并与你的团队保持一致。

Creating Shared Understanding

创造共同的理解

Often, if a team seems to struggle to converge on its North Star, it’s because teammates lack a common understanding of their product’s purpose or what customers value. If your team is struggling with shared understanding, we suggest you dig into beliefs, your product vision, and key value exchanges.

通常情况下，如果一个团队没办法向北极星靠拢，那是因为团队成员缺乏对产品目的或客户价值的共同理解。 如果你的团队正在为共同理解而挣扎，我们建议你深入挖掘观念、产品愿景和关键价值交换。

Beliefs

观念

Every person in an organization approaches a business problem or product opportunity with beliefs and biases. These often describe:

  • Assumptions about what your customers value
  • Assumptions about causation or results of actions
  • Theories about where the market is going
  • Predictions about technology trends
  • Conjecture about competitors’ strategy or position
  • Opinions about the value you provide to your market

组织中的每个人都带着观念和偏见来处理商业问题或产品机会。 这些经常被描述为:

  • 关于你的客户价值的假设
  • 关于行为的因果关系或结果的假设
  • 关于市场走向的理论
  • 关于技术趋势的预测
  • 猜测竞争对手的战略或地位
  • 对你提供给市场的价值的看法

We’ve found that identifying these beliefs can help you define and implement an effective North Star. If you fail to uncover the beliefs of your colleagues, you may leave unresolved tensions within a team, miss opportunities to align, and overlook unique perspectives about your product.

我们发现，识别这些观念可以帮助你定义和实现一个有效的北极星。 如果你没有发现你的同事们「信什么」，你可能会在团队中留下无法解决的紧张关系，错过结盟的机会，并且忽视对你的产品的独特观点。

The following are examples of statements that contain beliefs.

  • 「I am sure that customers aren’t able to use the product successfully without the advice of our implementation services. We need to increase our investment in implementation services to stay ahead of our competitors.」
  • 「Machine learning is the next big thing in this industry. We need to have a chatbot driven by machine learning to keep up.」
  • 「This kind of technology will become a commodity in 3-5 years, rendering our efforts to build this in-house obsolete.」
  • 「Customers leave us because we can’t easily integrate with their third-party systems.」
  • 「If we don’t improve the mobile app to the level of our competition, we’ll never take market share from them.」
  • 「After the next election, the regulatory environment affecting our product will change.」

下面是包含观念的语句的例子。

  • 「我相信，如果没有我们的服务，客户是无法成功使用该产品的。 我们需要增加在服务方面的投资，以保持领先于竞争对手。」
  • 「机器学习是这个行业的下一件大事。 我们需要一个由机器学习驱动的聊天机器人来跟上潮流。」
  • 「这种技术将在3-5年内成为一种商品，使我们内部建设这种技术的努力过时。」
  • 「客户离开我们，是因为我们无法轻易与他们的第三方系统集成。」
  • 「如果我们不把移动应用提高到我们的竞争水平，我们就永远不会从他们那里夺走市场份额。」
  • 「在下次选举之后，影响我们产品的监管环境将会改变。」

How to Identify Beliefs that Inform a North Star

如何识别观念

One simple way to identify beliefs: Ask your North Star team to spend a few minutes independently filling in one or more of these templates. The goal at this point is to cast a wide net that catches biases and assumptions, so be sure to remind your team that there are no wrong answers.

  • Our direct competition is [……………]. We are disrupting legacy options like [……………]. In turn, [……………] may disrupt us.
  • One technology change that will affect us is [……………]. This change will impact us because [……………]. As a response, we will [……………].
  • I think the real reason we win new customers is because [……………].
  • I believe [some behavior in our market] is due to [reason].
  • If we focus on meeting [a specific customer need], and do that extremely well, we will have some leeway when it comes to [less important challenges].

识别观念的一个简单方法是: 请你的北极星团队花几分钟时间独立填充一个或多个模板。 此时的目标是广撒网捕捉偏见和假设，所以一定要提醒你的团队没有错误的答案。

  • 我们的直接竞争对手是[ … … ]。 我们打败它们的突破口或者差异点是，比如[ … … ]。 反过来，[ … … ]可能会扰乱我们。
  • 影响我们的一个技术变化是[ … … ]。 这个变化将会影响到我们，因为… ..。 作为回应，我们将[ … … ]。
  • 我认为我们赢得新客户的真正原因是因为… ..。
  • 我相信[我们市场上的一些行为]是由于[原因] 。
  • 如果我们专注于满足(特定客户的需求) ，并且做得非常好，那么当遇到(不那么重要的挑战)时，我们将有一些回旋余地。
Designers and Developers Should Embrace Belief Elicitation

Many product designers are concerned that decision makers don’t understand the ROI of user experience (UX). Similarly, developers often struggle to explain the value of non-feature or non-customer-facing work, like tooling, refactoring, and technical debt reduction.

Belief mapping is a great opportunity to get these concerns on the table. Developers should explain what they believe will happen if technical debt continues to mount. Designers should outline how they believe that under-investment in UX will result in customer pain.

设计师和开发者应该接受观念引导

许多产品设计师担心决策者不了解用户体验(UX)的 ROI。类似地，开发人员经常很难解释非特性或非面向客户的工作的价值，比如工具、重构和技术债务减少。

观念映射是一个很好的机会来把这些问题放到桌面上。开发者应该解释一下，如果技术债务继续增加，他们认为会发生什么。设计师应该概述他们如何相信在用户体验上投资不足会导致客户痛苦。

Connecting the North Star to Your Product Vision

将北极星与你的产品愿景联系起来

Your business may have already done the important work of crafting a product vision statement. These existing statements of product vision can be great catalysts to teasing out a good North Star.

你的业务可能已经完成了起草产品愿景声明的重要工作。 这些关于产品愿景的陈述可以成为很好的催化剂，帮助我们梳理出一个好的北极星。

As your team defines your North Star, review your product vision statement. Ask yourself: What does this statement say that is distinct or foundational? What can we learn about our product’s value from this statement?

当你的团队定义你的北极星时，回顾一下你的产品愿景声明。 问问你自己: 这个陈述说明了什么是不同的或基本的？关于我们产品的价值，我们可以从这份声明中了解到什么？

Examples of Product Vision Statements that Can Inform a North Star

产品愿景陈述可以得出北极星的例子

Here are a couple hypothetical vision statements of fictional products. Note how these statements contain insights about the product’s value that might help a product team design a good North Star.

这里有一些虚构的产品的假设性的愿景陈述。注意这些陈述是如何包含关于产品价值的见解的，这些见解可能有助于产品团队设计一个好的北极星。

Hypothetical Vision Statement 1:

「For the film aficionado, our documentary streaming service is the world’s most authoritative source of expertly curated short films, expert commentary, and informed community.」

What we learn from this statement:

  • The product isn’t for everyone; it’s for aficionados.
  • The product doesn’t endeavor to be comprehensive. A relatively small selection of films is a feature, not a bug.
  • The films in the service’s library are short.
  • 「Authoritative」 is a key characteristic of the service.
  • The service is differentiated from competitors through quality of curation, commentary, and a community of like-minded people.

Questions this statement raises:

  • Does the company differentiate through deep technical expertise in video streaming?
  • Communities are hard. How will the company build a community?

假设愿景说明1:

「对于电影迷来说，我们的纪录片流媒体服务是世界上最权威的来源，提供精心策划的短片、专家评论和知情的社区。」

我们从这句话中学到了什么:

  • 这个产品并不适合所有人，它是为爱好者准备的
  • 这个产品并没有努力做到全面。 相对较少的电影是故事片，而不是虫子
  • 服务机构图书馆里的电影都很短
  • 「权威性」是该服务的一个关键特征
  • 通过管理质量、评论和志同道合者的社区，服务与竞争对手有所不同

这一声明提出的问题:

  • 该公司是否通过视频流的深层技术专长来打出差异化？
  • 社区是困难的，公司将如何建立一个社区？

Hypothetical Vision Statement 2: 假设的愿景陈述2:

「For the boutique maker of bottled goods, our label-design app is the most reliable way to produce high-quality but affordable label designs that fit your manufacturing workflow while distinguishing your product on the shelf and your brand in the marketplace.」

What we learn from this statement:

  • This product isn’t for huge brands; small, boutique customers are the target.·
  • Reliability is critical.
  • Affordability is a distinguishing characteristic.
  • The labels need to fit into a manufacturing workflow.
  • The customer’s real value is how a label distinguishes its product and brand.

Questions this statement raises:

  • Does the app need to integrate with third-party applications?
  • How is the label-design app distinct from more generic and widely available layout and graphics production tools?

「对于瓶装商品的精品制造商来说，我们的标签设计应用程序是生产高质量、价格合理的标签设计的最可靠方式，既符合你的生产流程，又能在市场上区分你的产品和品牌。」

我们从这句话中学到了什么:

  • 这种产品不适用于大品牌，小型精品客户才是目标客户
  • 可靠性至关重要
  • 性价比高是一个显著的特征
  • 这些标签需要适应生产流程
  • 顾客的真正价值在于标签如何使得其产品和品牌有区分度

这一声明提出的问题:

  • 应用程序是否需要与第三方应用程序集成？
  • 如何使得标签设计应用程序区别于更通用和广泛可用的布局和图形生产工具比如 Photoshop？

Some teams find that their vision is too broad to inform their North Star—or maybe the vision doesn’t exist at all. Such teams should consider revisiting their beliefs and collaboratively defining their product vision.

一些团队发现他们的愿景过于宏大，无法导向他们的北极星(North star) ，或者这种愿景根本不存在。这样的团队应该考虑重新审视他们的观念，并合作定义他们的产品愿景。

There are many models for writing a vision statement. One simple template was popularized by Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm:

写愿景陈述有许多模式。 一个简单的模板是由 Geoffrey Moore 在《跨越鸿沟》里推广的:

For [target customer] who [need or opportunity], the [product] is a [product category] that [key benefit]. Unlike [competitive alternative], our product [statement of primary differentiation].

对于[需要或机会]的[目标客户] ，[产品]是[关键利益]的[产品类别]。 与[竞争性替代品]不同，我们的产品[初级差异声明] 。

Don’t Manufacture Certainty when Formulating Your Strategy

We’ve seen it happen repeatedly: when a team is expected to finalize a strategy, they may manufacture certainty. The team equates their uncertainty with a lack of confidence or skill. So they manufacture a strong point of view, even when—below the surface—there are a lot of questions lurking. Your North Star and Inputs should represent your current thinking, wants, questions, and all.

不要为了制定站略制造确定性

我们已经多次看到这种情况发生: 当一个团队被期望最终确定一个站略时，他们可能会制造确定性。 团队将他们的不确定性等同于缺乏信心或技能。 因此，他们制造了一种强有力的观点，即使在表面之下潜伏着许多问题。你的北极星和输入应该代表你当前的想法、需求，**以及所有的问题**。

For example, a team we worked with was under a great deal of pressure to come up with a personalization strategy. Their presentations were impressive, and they incorporated this element into their North Star Framework, but the team glossed over key assumptions about the limits of personalization.

例如，与我们合作的一个团队在提出个性化策略方面承受着巨大的压力。他们的演示令人印象深刻，他们把这个元素融入了他们的北极星框架，但是团队掩盖了关于个性化限制的关键假设。

The North Star and Key Value Exchanges

北极星与关键价值交换

Even with complex products, you can typically isolate a handful (3-6) of essential actions or events where customers derive value from the product. These key value exchanges demonstrate the true essence and intent of the product. If possible, they should be reflected in your North Star.

即使是复杂的产品，你通常也可以将客户从产品中获得价值的少数(3-6)关键行动或事件提炼出来。 这些关键的价值交换展示了产品的真正本质和意图。 如果可能的话，它们应该反映在你的北极星上。

To identify key value exchanges, visualize the customer journey. As you do, note those important moments where your product solves a problem for the customer or enhances a customer’s ability to accomplish a goal. These moments—where the customer’s investment in time, attention, energy, money, are rewarded with meeting their needs—are the key value exchanges.

为了识别关键的价值交换，可视化客户路径。 当你这样做的时候，注意那些重要的时刻，你的产品为客户解决了一个问题，或者提高了客户完成一个目标的能力。 这些时刻——客户在时间、注意力、精力和金钱上的投入得到了满足他们需求的回报——就是关键的价值交换。

Tristan Harward, a UX Manager at Rapid7, recommends starting with a short collaborative activity to make a high level map of all the activities your users go through in your product. 「Try to brainstorm or capture every major thing users do or accomplish on post-its, then identify what’s most valuable afterward by voting or rating,」 suggests Tristan. 「That way, you’ll get a more complete view of the journey to value.」

Rapid7的用户体验经理 Tristan Harward 建议从一个简短的协作活动开始，为用户在产品中经历的所有活动制作一个高层次的地图。 Tristan 建议: 「尝试头脑风暴或者捕捉用户在即时贴上做或者完成的每一件重要事情，然后通过投票或者评分来确定什么是最有价值的。」。 「这样，你就能更全面地看待价值之旅。」

「By organizing the key activities in your product, you’ll start to see patterns in value you might not have picked up on otherwise, and that’s a good start.」

—Tristan Harward, UX Manager at Rapid7

「通过组织产品中的关键活动，你将开始看到价值模式，否则你可能不会发现这些模式，这是一个好的开始。」

ー tristan Harward，Rapid7的 UX 经理

To jump-start your North Star process, it’s useful to capture your existing shared understanding of your customer experience. It’s even better to include existing research that you may have already done, or to follow up with additional research to understand what your users really value. As Tristan says, 「By organizing the key activities in your product, you’ll start to see patterns in value you might not have picked up on otherwise, and that’s a good start.」

为了快速启动你的北极星流程，捕获你现有的对客户体验的共同理解是非常有用的。更好的做法是加入你可能已经做过的研究，或者继续进行额外的研究来了解你的用户真正看重的是什么。 正如 Tristan 所说，「通过整理产品中的关键活动，你将开始看到价值模式，否则你可能不会发现这些模式，这是一个好的开始。」

For many products, some key value exchanges happen outside the actual product—for example, the concert-goer arriving at their chosen seat is a key value exchange for a ticketing app. Don’t exclude these important stories just because they don’t occur within the product itself. You may also find yourself guessing about the customer journey, or using an idealized version of the journey. This is a good signal to either do a bit more research, or to make those assumptions explicit (e.g. 「We’re not exactly sure if this is what our customers are doing, but this is our best guess at the moment」).

对于许多产品而言，一些关键价值交换发生在实际产品之外，例如，音乐会观众到达他们选择的座位，是票务应用程序的关键价值交换。 不要仅仅因为这些重要的故事不发生在产品本身，就排除它们。 你也可能发现自己在猜测客户的旅程，或者使用一个理想化的旅程版本。这是一个很好的信号，要么做更多的研究，要么明确这些假设(例如，「我们不确定这是否是我们的客户正在做的，但这是我们目前最好的猜测」)。

Examples of Key Value Exchanges:

  • The delivery arrives intact outside your apartment in under 30 minutes
  • Monthly account reconciliation was successful
  • A collaborator makes their first comment on your design
  • 「Wow. This music recommendation is actually pretty decent.」
  • Based on the logging, it looks like the SDK is working
  • Your significant other says, 「Yes!」
  • Your medication arrives before you need to call for a refill
  • Your student was pre-registered for the next courses in their degree plan at days and times that fit their preferences

关键价值交换的例子:

  • 邮件会在30分钟内完好无损地送到你的公寓外面
  • 每月账目核对成功
  • 一个合作者对你的设计提出他们的第一个意见
  • 「哇，这个音乐推荐功能推荐得其实挺不错的。」
  • 根据日志记录，看起来 SDK 正在工作
  • 你的另一半说，「是的! 」
  • 你的药在你打电话续单之前就送到了
  • 你的学生已经在他们的学位计划中预先注册了适合他们喜好的下一门课程的日期和时间

Avoiding Common Traps and Resolving

避免常见陷阱解决问题

Avoid these common problems as you design your North Star

当你设计你的北极星时，避免这些常见的问题

Has your team struggled to converge on a North Star? First of all, that’s normal (and valuable). If you’re struggling, spend some time digging into potential causes of this disagreement and divergence.

你的队伍有没有在形成北极星的过程中特别挣扎？ 首先，这很正常(也很有价值)。 如果你正在苦苦挣扎，花些时间挖掘这种分歧和分歧的潜在原因。

We’ve noticed several challenges that teams might experience.

我们已经注意到团队可能会遇到的一些挑战。

  1. Jumping Immediately to 「Can we measure that?」

Yes, 「measurable」 is a characteristic of a good North Star on our checklist, but watch out for getting too concerned too soon with determining exactly how you’ll calculate the metric or its Inputs. This is especially common for companies with a long history of struggling to predict customer success. They disregard promising concepts because they aren’t yet sure how to measure them.

It’s important to focus on important decisions and on reducing uncertainty, as Douglas W. Hubbard’s book How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of 「Intangibles」 in Business reminds us.

  1. 立刻跳到「我们能测量吗? 」

是的，「可测量」是我们清单上一颗好的北极星的一个特征，但是注意不要过早地关注如何确定你将如何计算这个指标或其投入。 这对于那些长期以来努力预测客户成功的公司来说尤其普遍。 他们忽视有前途的概念，因为他们还不确定如何衡量这些概念。

正如道格拉斯•w•哈伯德(Douglas w. Hubbard)的著作《如何衡量任何事情: 发现商业中「无形资产」的价值》提醒我们的那样，关注核心结论的形成和不确定性的消解更重要。

Myth: When you have a lot of uncertainty, you need a lot of data to tell you something useful.

Fact: If you have a lot of uncertainty now, you don’t need much data to reduce uncertainty significantly. When you have a lot of certainty already, then you need a lot of data to reduce uncertainty significantly. In other words—if you know almost nothing, almost anything will tell you something.

谬论: 当你有很多不确定性时，你需要大量的数据来告诉你一些有用的信息。

事实: 如果你现在有很多不确定性，你不需要太多的数据来显著地减少不确定性。当你已经有了很多的确定性，你才需要大量的数据来显著地减少不确定性。换句话说，如果你几乎什么都不知道，那么几乎任何东西都会告诉你一些方向，于是你会变得没有方向。

For example, say you’re converging on the idea of Project Health as a North Star Metric. You agree that Project Health is a hallmark of your product strategy, and your sales team already pitches Project Health to the market. However, you aren’t yet measuring Project Health—you don’t even know how you would measure it. Don’t disregard the metric. Instead, identify how you might measure it, even if it’s imperfect. After all, you need to start somewhere. If you could simply reduce uncertainty regarding your claims and focus, imagine what that might be worth.

例如，假设你正在将 Project Health 作为一个北极星指标。 你同意 Project Health 是你的产品策略的一个标志，并且你的销售团队已经将 Project Health 推向市场。 然而，你还没有开始测算「Project Health」——你甚至不知道如何衡量它。不要因此抛弃这个指标。 相反，努力去确定你可能如何衡量它，即使它并不完美。 毕竟，你需要从某个地方开始。 即使是减少你的观念和聚焦在哪里这些部分的不确定性，有一个北极星指标也是值得的。

  1. Focusing on the North Star Metric Only, Not the Inputs

Even after teams review the product formula and examples of the combined effect of a North Star Metric and Inputs, it can be difficult to shift focus from driving the metric to driving the Inputs. By design, the North Star Metric is not immediately actionable—the Inputs are where you apply actions. If you find yourself thinking only about the metric, revisit Inputs. Do some brainstorming or group mind-mapping about the formula of Inputs that produces the metric, and vice versa. It is perfectly normal to jump back and forth between the two. Try the depth, breadth, frequency, and efficiency heuristic, asking the team how it translates to your product and business.

  1. 只关注北极星指标，而不关注输入要素

即使在团队审查了产品公式并按照例子设计出了北极星指标，常见的问题是大家很难将重点从推动北极星指标转移到推动输入要素。 按照设计，北极星指标不是我们应该做行动的对象ーー输入要素才是你应该采取行动的地方。如果你发现自己只想着北极星指标，那么重新审视一下输入要素。 做一些头脑风暴或小组思维导图，推导如何通过输入要素的变化来影响北极星指标，反之亦然。 在两者之间来回跳跃是完全正常的。尝试深度、广度、频率和效率这些启发式纬度，询问团队它如何转化为你的产品和业务里有意义的内容。

北极星指标不是我们应该做行动的对象ーー输入要素才是你应该采取行动的地方

  1. Insisting You Need More Than One North Star Metric

Workshop participants are often sure that their company needs more than one North Star. Certainly, in some cases, when a company has distinct lines of business with different customer bases, this might be true. However, the number of times one metric will suffice outnumbers situations that require multiple North Stars by a large margin.

Here’s an example. A large bank has dozens of consumer banking 「products」 (savings accounts, checking accounts, investment accounts, etc.). From a balance sheet and organizational chart perspective, it makes sense to call each of these things 「products.」 But do customers view these as distinct products? Or do they view the bank as a single product: a trustworthy partner in their quest for financial independence? In this case, a single North Star for all consumer banking products is usually appropriate.

Challenge the need for multiple North Star Metrics. Look for real boundaries in terms of users, their needs, and the strategy to meet those needs. Note where products are actually 「packages」 or add-ons.

  1. 坚持你需要不止一个北极星度量单位

工作坊参与者通常确信他们的公司需要不止一颗北极星。 当然，在某些情况下，当一家公司拥有不同的业务线和不同的客户群时，这可能是正确的。 然而，一个指标的足以满足号称需要多个北极星指标的大多数情况。

这里有一个例子。 一家大银行有几十种银行「产品」(储蓄账户、支票账户、投资账户等)。 从资产负债表和组织结构图的角度来看，将这些东西分别称为「产品」是有意义的。但是，消费者是否认为这些是不同的产品？或者他们把银行看作是一个单一的产品:一个值得信赖的合作伙伴，在他们寻求财务独立的时候？ 在这种情况下，一个单一的北极星所有银行产品通常是适当的。

挑战对多个北极星指标的需求。 在用户、他们的需求和满足这些战略要素方面寻找真正的界限。 注意有些产品实际上是「功能包」或「附加组件」。

  1. Letting Current Dysfunction Overwhelm Your Ability to Improve

In workshops, we often observe a moment when the real world catches up to a team. They start with enthusiasm, but then realize that their company has so many problems that they fear they can’t ever actually change. It’s the classic 「it’ll never work here」 syndrome, exacerbated by the lack of a common framework.

Your company may currently do many things imperfectly. You focus on vanity metrics, chase short-term revenue, run a feature factory, crank out features to close deals, organize around the tech stack (not value streams), or routinely abuse metrics and KPIs. That’s natural, and shouldn’t prevent you from making progress towards the North Star Framework. There are two strategies here that can be especially effective:

  • Start where you are. Get it all on the table. What is the current strategy, imperfections and all? How does all that prescriptive work map to that strategy? How does that A/B testing really map into customer satisfaction? Acknowledge imperfections in what you’re doing now, but don’t let them stop you from making progress. Just start using the language of the framework, socialize assumptions, and slowly chip away.
  • Start small. Don’t try to do too much. Pick a product scope you have an ability to impact, even if it just represents a small percentage of your company’s business. Then build and test a North Star—the metric, the Inputs, the results they impact—for just that portion of your company or product portfolio.
  1. 让当前的功能缺陷妨碍你变得更好

在工作坊上，我们经常观察到现实世界碾压一个团队的时刻。 他们以热情开始，但随后意识到他们的公司有太多的问题，以至于他们害怕自己永远不能真正改变。 这是典型的「在这里它永远不会工作」综合症，缺乏一个共同的框架加剧了这种症状。

你的公司目前可能做了很多不完美的事情。 你专注于虚荣的指标，追逐短期收入，运营一个功能工厂，为了赶单牺牲质量，围绕技术栈架构组织(而不是价值流) ，或者经常滥用错的指标。 这是很自然的，不应该妨碍你朝着北极星框架的方向前进。 这里有两个特别有效的策略:

  • 从你所在的地方开始。 把它们都放在桌子上。 目前的战略是什么，有哪些不完善之处？ 所有这些规定性的工作是如何映射到这个策略的呢？ A/B 测试如何真正映射到客户满意度？ 承认你现在正在做的不完美，但是不要让它们阻止你前进。只要开始使用框架的语言，社交化假设，慢慢地削减这些障碍。
  • 从小事做起。不要试图做太多。选择一个你有能力影响的产品范围，即使它只占你公司业务的一小部分。然后针对你公司或产品组合中的这一部分，建立并测试一个「北极星」(指标、输入要素、它们对结果的影响)

Chapter in Review

本章回顾

  • Everyone approaches a business problem with preconceived beliefs. Identify these beliefs to become more aligned and to converge on a North Star.
  • A good North Star reflects your product vision.
  • Key value exchanges, the moments where your customer experiences the value of your product, can help you identify your North Star.

  • Watch out for a handful of common traps and issues.

  • 每个人在处理商业问题时都带着先入为主的观念。 找出这些观念，使它们更加一致，并汇聚成一颗北极星
  • 一颗好的北极星反映了你的产品愿景
  • 关键价值交换—- 你的客户体验你产品价值的时刻—- 可以帮助你识别你的北极星
  • 注意一些常见的陷阱和问题