How to Create a Resource Optimization Roadmap

The easiest part of building #optimization and #decisionintelligence solutions is writing the code. Yet, I've found few references dealing with the more critical parts of successfully delivering the right solution. Here's my step-by-step approach to increasing the likelihood of delivering a solution with high business impact. 1) Understand the business process: Expanding your view from the problem presented to the process in which it is embedded allows for more holistic solutions and de-risks solving the wrong problem. 2) Interviews with business users and stakeholders: Understanding how users perceive their business process gives a better picture of the communication flow. This is important for change management as you roll out your solution. In addition, it provides a first glimpse to assessing the client's "tech maturity" which influences how you architect your solution. 3) Present an initial solution in plain English: Write a document with a clear problem statement, a high-level description of the solution, and the expected metrics improvements without technical jargon. This serves a double function as an exercise to have mental clarity and a means to #communicate and align with stakeholders. 4) Build a "scrappy" prototype and get it to stakeholders: This is one of the best ways to keep stakeholders engaged, validate that it's on the right path, and streamline change management. The prototype should include the solution, a method to evaluate the relevant metrics, and an interface for stakeholders to interact with your solution. 5) Build a metrics tracking mechanism: Create a dashboard that will be used to review the latest performance metrics of interest so that you can clearly build the story of how your solution is improving them over time as you iterate. 6) Build a CI/CD pipeline: After the prototype's initial validation, build a pipeline that allows you to ship new releases quickly to stakeholders. Establish cadenced checkpoints and demos to get feedback and review metrics. This is an important part of your change management. 7) Pilot: Once the metric improvements have been achieved, run a pilot where you follow how your solution is used as part of the business process. Make any final necessary tweaks to secure adoption. 8) Documenting and closing: Once adoption is satisfactory, close out the project by properly documenting your artifacts for your stakeholders. Include a section identifying other potential improvements to the process and an estimate of their impact for future work. Successful projects go far beyond models and algorithms, they ensure business impact and adoption. This is how we'll make #decisionintelligence the most widely adopted #AI in business. What steps would you also include?

Years ago we were drowning in Systems Admin - CROs flooded us with ad-hoc requests - Never leaving time to do strategic work So I called them up and said “Look, we’re not your gofers! We’re here to do strategic work and you need to submit your requests to our ticketing system and be patient as we prioritize and process them!” I’m kidding. Can you imagine that? We would have lost every single client we have! Instead, we took a different approach. 𝟭. 𝗪𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗮 - We logged every request into Asana - We organized and shared it with them More visibility for them with zero effort on their part. 𝟮. 𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗶-𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 - We booked calls every two weeks to go over it - We asked what was most important to get done - We asked which tasks should go onto the backlog This was a small ask of them and they started to see the plan more. They started to become conditioned to think about prioritzation and less demanding for everything to be done in 15 minutes. 𝟯. 𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽𝘀 - We asked more about long-term goals - What needed improved most to get there - We identified initiatives in RevOps to help - We presented a Roadmap, asking for feedback They were very receptive. Instead of giving them homework to prioritize initiatives, we did it for them, asking for simple feedback. 𝟰. 𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 - We then booked a meeting every quarter - We reviewed the RevOps Roadmap together - And we asked for feedback and support on it Over time, they became more conditioned to think of RevOps as something to plan for, not as a help desk. 𝟱. 𝗪𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 - We continued bi-weekly sprint planning - Using the RevOps Roadmap as our guide - New requests would still come in of course - We asked to prioritize against the Roadmap - Which item on the Roadmap should get pushed? This further increased alignment. They saw that every new request came at the cost of the Roadmap and were more careful about what was deemed an emergency. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 We regained our sanity and started doing much more impactful work. That’s not to say we don’t have occasional fire drills, but they’re much less frequent and more managable now. For more on the 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽, including an editable copy of our template, check out yesterday’s 📰 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 📰 Read it on demand here: https://bit.ly/3W8fhCq ✌️

In RevOps, if you don't own your roadmap, someone else will; on small teams, managing one is sometimes more complicated than not having one, but the effort is worth it. 🚫 Without a roadmap: - Generally, the loudest voice in the room decides what you focus on, - Your team becomes reactive and burns out, - Resources are drained away from projects that drive revenue, - The "must do" projects become "might do" projects, - Quality slips, - You lose a strategic voice in go-to-market decisions, and - Changes are not successfully adopted ✅ With a roadmap: - The loudest voice now has to "give-get", - Reactive projects are submitted as tickets and prioritized against priorities, - The team has better visibility into their current and upcoming workload, - Resources can be allocated to revenue drivers first, everything else second, - Projects can be scoped, designed, and implemented in phases, - You buy time to run quality assurance testing, - Impact, resource, and time are considered with go-to-market decisions, - The team can adequately train and rollout changes I've learned and continue to learn that you don't have to have anything fancy to have a roadmap; in fact, simpler is usually better. Here's what has worked for me: 🧠 Do a brain dump with your team ⭐ Group everything into two buckets: "Reactive" and "Proactive" 👑 Rank every item based on its ability to impact revenue, "High", "Medium", and "Low" ⏲️ Assign an estimated amount of time to complete each item (remember to allocate time to design, build, test, and train where necessary) 🥇 Priorizte High Impact, Proactive, Fast to Low Impact, Reactive, Time Consuming 👩⚖️ Get sign-off with leadership to make sure everyone understands and agrees with the prioritization 🚧 Start a sprint and get going! Remember, the smaller the team, the more difficult this can be. Sometimes, a team of one can keep a to-do list in its head better than a team of ten. So write it down and share it out so you own your roadmap! #revops #salesforce #mops #startup #revenueoperations #salesops #marketingops #roadmap #sprintplanning #friendsofyeti

Resource planning separates successful firms from those constantly scrambling to meet deadlines 📊 Most finance teams operate in reactive mode, putting out fires instead of preventing them. I've worked with dozens of clients who struggle with this exact problem. They're always stressed, always behind, and wondering why profitability suffers despite working harder than ever. ➡️ CAPACITY PLANNING FOUNDATION You know what I've learned after years of helping firms optimize their resources? It all starts with forecasting your hours correctly. See, when you can predict workload based on historical data and upcoming client needs, you avoid that feast or famine cycle that absolutely crushes profitability. Monthly recurring revenue clients need consistent attention too. Don't make the mistake I see so many firms make by forgetting about them during busy season. Client volume scaling requires a completely different approach. Growing your client base means different staffing patterns and retention strategies. Plan resources based on both current clients and realistic growth projections. ➡️ BUDGET VS ACTUALS Track your planned versus actual resource utilization religiously. Variance patterns tell you exactly where your assumptions are off. Sometimes it's scope creep eating up resources. Sometimes it's inefficient processes slowing everyone down. Sometimes it's just unrealistic estimates from the start. Your resource planning gets better when you learn from what actually happened versus what you expected. Create accountability across your team so everyone understands how their work impacts overall capacity. ➡️ TIME TRACKING Without accurate time data, resource planning becomes pure guesswork. Monitor your billable versus non-billable ratios to understand true capacity. That administrative time still consumes resources and needs planning. Track project profitability in real-time so you can course-correct before it's too late. Waiting until project completion to assess profitability costs money. Use time data to identify productivity bottlenecks. Maybe certain work takes longer than expected, or specific team members need additional training. ➡️ STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES Document your repeatable processes and workflows. This dramatically reduces training time for new team members. Consistent processes mean more predictable resource requirements. When everyone follows the same approach, you can actually forecast capacity accurately. ➡️ CLIENT SCOPE DEFINITION Clearly define project boundaries upfront. Scope creep destroys resource planning faster than anything else I've seen. Set realistic client expectations from the start and stick to them. When clients want additional work, have a system to price and resource it properly. === Resource planning isn't glamorous work, but it's what separates profitable firms from those working harder for less money. What's your biggest resource planning challenge?