Three stylized cartoon characters are climbing inside a giant pencil case. One person is standing, holding a large pencil, while the other two are crouching and gripping the edges of the case.

THINKING – Sprint 15

Leading from idea to mature enterprise

The reason for this sprint

Keeping with the metaphor we used in sprint 14 of waking up a finding yourself at the control of an airplane, in this sprint we describe how to pilot the takeoff, climb, cruise and landing of your enterprise.

The takeoff, climb, cruise and landing correspond to 4 very specific stages of enterprise maturity. In the previous sprint you learned about the 3 essential flight controls: projects, processes and culture.

Without understanding how these controls work and how to pilot your enterprise through the 4 stages, expect poor performance and then failure.

Sprint exercises

Start with reading or listening to the article “Understanding how you lead from idea to fully mature enterprise in 4 stages”.

It describes each stage, when it starts and when it finishes, and most importantly it identifies the tricky aspects of leading a team and enterprise through all four stages.

While you need to understand the big picture of what is ahead, the exercise for this sprint focuses on preparing how to successfully navigate the rest of stage 1.

  • Describe a culture that aligns with the product you have in mind. What behaviors and activities do you specifically want to recognize and reward with your first teammates to start creating this culture?

  • Describe what would be the goal of the project you put in place to create a commercially viable prototype of the product or service you have in mind?

  • Make notes for yourself on which Ducks, described in sprint 13, you feel will be particularly hard to align for your prototyping project.