Trigger Strategy is now Tentacles

Spoiler alert: when I shipped an idea in an hour it did not meet the pivot triggers I'd set for the probe. That was one of a whole array of probes we've been putting out into the world here at Trigger Strategy Group. The general sense we've been picking up is that we haven't nailed our positioning yet. That's normal for a business in the early days like ours, but figuring this stuff out is emotionally challenging. We talk through some of the journey we've been on, an epiphany we've had, and where we're thinking of probing next.

For more on the original idea, check out:

• the podcast episode: https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9311
• and the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Kma97f9v4

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Corissa recently re-learned to drive and noticed links between the stresses on the road and the stresses in the office. So we talked it through. We touch on the difference between complicated and complex, and between uncertainty and risk. When do you follow the rules in the highway code, and when do you muddle through and figure it out on the way?

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Short little punchy one today: we bumped into one of our dad friends, who told us a lovely story about a parenting moment that was also a great example of emergent strategy and exaptation (radical repurposing).

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom has a challenge: to convince Corissa that something called "Opportunity Method Format" is actually interesting and useful. We talk about examples like printing flyers to publicise dance classes and building MVPs in digital product companies. Tom reckons using these layers can help you make your experiments more effective for learning what you need to learn faster. Does Corissa agree? You'll have to listen to find out. And let us know: were you persuaded?

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Of course it makes sense to build only exactly what customers will value – the Minimum Viable Product. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple in practice, and chasing the MVP dragon leads many a team into a life-sucking vicious cycle.

There are a bunch of common conditions that lead teams into the MVP Death Spiral, from narratives about how product works to the very concept of features.

If you've ever had a debate about MVPs — or felt that particular feeling of despair as yet another MVP fails to land with customers — then this episode is for you. Feel free to think of it as an MVP for some ideas that can free you from the dreaded Death Spiral. Wrapped in shiny paper with a big bow.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HALF WAY TO DO 100 THING!

One night, Corissa messaged Tom:

"It’s often unhelpful to get trapped in simple stories, but how do you know when to trust your gut? Our instincts aren’t always wrong. And pushed too far, obsessing over telling lots of different stories (overthinking??) could also become a trap in its own right?"

Today, we tell some stories, and we talk about how to get untrapped.

Overthinking vs underthinking. Rumination vs experimentation. Gut instinct vs rational consideration.

When are you telling too many stories? When are you not telling enough? We talk through this question, and share ideas for how you can escape from all the traps.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In SWOT analysis, you list your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Maybe you love it? Maybe you hate it? We've been in the second camp for a long time, but it was worth revisiting our thinking about the method. If it's so terrible, how come it's so enduring? Maybe there's some good in it? Or maybe our concerns and criticisms are warranted.

Strap in as we walk and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of this simplistic strategy 2 by 2.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one's definitely designer-centric. And it's pretty hard to explain without visuals, but we give it a good go.

Tom talks about the shift that conceptual models enabled for him. When he was a younger designer, he often struggled to articulate design decisions, struggled to defend elements of the design that were crucial for things to be coherent, and constantly butted up against technical architecture that made it weirdly hard to design easy-to-use software. Once he figured out how to make and socialise a conceptual model, and then evolve the design around it, everything got way easier.

We talk through what a conceptual model helps you do if you're designing a software product or service, how you can use them to diagnose tricky problems, and share some references to help you get started.

References:

OOUX by Sophia V Prater

UX Magic by Daniel Rosenberg

Domain Driven Design

Elements of Product Design by Jamie Mill

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this one, we talk about complexity in parenthood and in business. In both cases, there are plenty of people willing to sell you "the way" in their book. And there are millions of books that disagree, so anyone can cherry pick one that fits what they would like to be true. This is what you get when you try to treat a complex, dispositional system as if it were ordered and causal. And it's why so many of the efforts to determine what is the "best" way to parent, or run a business, or live a good life, end up inconclusive, contradictory and confusing. We talk about how we cope with all this.

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some constraints are limiting, some are enabling. But what's the difference? What if most constraints are both at the same time? (Depending to some degree on your perspective.) We talk through lots of examples of constraints from design and Twitter poetry, through Lindy Hop and yoga, all the way into business breakfasts and research operations.

We reference a book by Alicia Juarrero. we can't remember the title during the podcast. It's Context Changes Everything: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545662/context-changes-everything/

We also reference some past episodes where we talk about emergent properties and hint at constraints – check out episodes 10, 11, 12 and 14 in particular. But if you listen to most of our episodes we bet you'll find examples of constraints and emergence :D

Trigger Strategy Podcast has evolved into Tentacles – the podcast from Crown & Reach.

You can find all our latest episodes here: https://shows.acast.com/tentacles

... and more information about our work and resources at crownandreach.com

... and you can contact us through [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.