pacing

In [change the game], I wrote:

With each iteration, you move further ahead in time.

What you iterate and how often, your pacing, is a big question. And not all paces are created equal.

What-- there's pace of: marketing, product, strategy, back office, ecosystem growth, ecosystem cannibalization.

How often-- there's pace relative to: competitors, customers, technology advance, commoditization, ecosystem.

It's not at all clear that all of these things should be the same or that it's uniformly better to be functioning at a faster pace than competitors at all things. For example, consider what happens when your strategy changes too quickly and your products change ever so slowly (this happens more often than you'd think).. constant changes of direction, executives, board members, etc., all the while without anything new being brought to market, any changes being made to the portfolio, any response being made to competition. Dysfunction in the extreme.

It's also not clear that you should be moving at the same speed (or with the same strategy) throughout a particular business, product, or ecosystem cycle.

Eventually, people will realise that activities evolve and you need to use different methods depending upon the state of evolution.

— swardley (@swardley) August 14, 2012