Christopher Chant

Why Products, not Projects and How Delivery Managers Can Succeed under Project Constraints.

Avoid the project trap.

What's the issue with projects?

• Projects have end dates with neat little deadlines.

• Projects look great on a Gantt chart but give a false sense of predictability. 

• You have a roadmap of projects, each 3, 6 or even 12 months long.

On a Gantt chart, your team can move on, and your organisation acts that way, handing you your next project. So your team move on and miss out on valuable feedback.

The trouble with deadlines is that the work expands to fit the allotted time. So despite all the effort in the planning, you miss the deadline, and you're yet to realise any value from work. 

Often, with projects, a post-mortem is run as a singular event after an extensive scheme of change has been delivered (or not). The post-mortem is the first time anyone on the project looks at the project's impact. 

The work is broken up to be delivered by a deadline and not to realise a return on investment as soon as possible.

Even though the development team can deliver code quickly, releases are limited to specific release windows, defined by marketing spend and shareholder promises.

A better way: How you can deliver value despite the constraints of a project culture.

Working towards a theme and objectives beats working to a deadline. 

When you work towards an objective, you can break the work up into small bets, which give you an early indication of whether they have the desired outcome. 

Regular feedback and reflection on objectives enable you to course correct or wait for more data. 

If a piece of work moves things towards your goal, you can continue improving it, adding other features and optimising the experience. If it doesn't have the impact you want, you can switch to working on a different idea or run a different experiment. 

Conclusion

You can still work towards a deadline and show a better way of working:

• Review results regularly and have conversations on how to realise value as soon as possible.

• Use the feedback to help you plan and prioritise.

• Report feedback up and across the organisation, highlighting what you've learned and what opportunities you have found.

Another great example of exploring the opposites. Where most record labels are known for charging as much as they can from fans, and artists, Discord Records go against the grain.

Dischord Records

Dischord Records is hugely influential in the DIY scene and is a great example of sticking to your values. Started by Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson in 1980, Dischord Records set out to celebrate the music of the DC scene without exploiting artists or fans.

Record prices are kept low to make them affordable to fans. In 2020, prices were still low. $10 for a CD and $15 for vinyl, with digital downloads available for $7. 

A deal with Dischord was simple and fair. Dischord would pay for the record to be recorded and manufactured. Once costs are recouped, profits are split, with 30% going to the label's distributor and the remaining 70% being split evenly between the label and the band. 

Bands were not tied into contracts, making them free to sign with someone else if they saw fit to do so. The transparency and fairness of the deals meant that most bands stayed with Dischord Records.

Discord Records' approach has built a strong community of fairness and trust.

How does your business compare to your industry competitors?

Here are three common personality traits among successful entrepreneurs who have built strong networks without relying on traditional marketing methods:

Persistence 

Successful entrepreneurs often exhibit a high level of persistence. They don't give up easily and continue reaching out and building connections even when faced with challenges or rejections. Get a rejection and move on to the next opportunity.

Open-mindedness 

Being open to new ideas, different perspectives, and unconventional approaches is crucial. Successful DIY networkers are willing to explore various avenues for building relationships. Try starting something new in an unusual place, like a meetup in the park instead of a pub or cafe. Start a bouldering group for people in your community!

Resilience 

Building a network can be challenging, but resilience is key. These entrepreneurs bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and adapt their strategies as needed. Not every idea will land, and not every event will be a success. The key is to keep showing up and to improve continuously.

Awareness

We need to understand five levels of awareness for us to show up in the right way and places.

1. Unaware

2. Problem Aware

3. Solution Aware

4. Product Aware

5. Most Aware

Unaware

at this level, your community members are unaware of your product and the problem your product solves.

Problem Aware

Community members are aware of a problem, and you'll see them asking questions related to the problem.

Solution Aware

At this level, people know several solutions but don't know enough about any particular one.

Product Aware

At the Product Aware level, members know of your product and what problem it solves.

Most Aware

At this level, the members are likely to have intimate knowledge of your product. They're likely a customer or ex-customer.

Think about where your copy is going to be presented and write to the appropriate awareness level. No matter the level, you want to build awareness and trust.

Take a look at your last email campaign or the last piece of copy you wrote for an advert or website. What level of awareness are you writing for?

Death by Meeting

Written as a novel and easy to read and relate to, Death by Meeting takes you on a journey from the classic dull meeting through iterations to a framework of efficient sessions in terms of time and reporting updates.

The end result is four recommended meetings.

The Daily Check-in

A 5-minute meeting for people to share what they're working on today.

The Weekly Tactical

45-90 minutes that kicks off with a lightning round where attendees get 60 seconds to share their priorities.

Next is a progress review where you share any key metrics. The idea is to get used to reviewing the data. 

Once the lightning round and progress review is complete (it should take about 5 minutes), the meeting focuses on the Real-time agenda. Rather than sending out the agenda before the meeting, the agenda is created during the meeting. The key here is that the agenda is created after hearing what everyone is focused on and reviewing your key metrics. Once those two critical bits of information have been shared, the agenda should be easy to create as problems and obstacles should have presented themselves. Focus on clearing obstacles and gaining alignment.

The Monthly Strategic

With the Weekly Tactical meeting taking care of issues, the Monthly strategic allows leaders to focus on larger topics without having to worry about squeezing in anything else. Each topic is given at least 2 hours to be presented and discussed. The key is planning enough time for proper discussions. In most businesses, meetings try to cover too much in too short a time. Calendars are littered with 1-hour meetings, which provide an unnecessary constraint to discussions.

The book also describes a Quarterly Off-site Review, which I won't cover here. The takeaways for me are to keep most meetings laser-focused but make sure you book out longer sessions to tackle the big things well.

Creativity Inc.

Creativity Inc. is the Pixar story and details how they run their meetings with stories from the development of some of their biggest hits.

My biggest takeaway was that building a safe space for people to be open to fearless feedback will enable you to work together more effectively, making difficult decisions easier to discuss.

I love to see meetings that are to the point and completely honest, where disagreements are encouraged while maintaining a safe environment.

How to Grow a Small Business

A great book for anyone growing a small business. There's a whole section on the five most effective meetings to run your business. 

The All-hands meeting

The Leadership Meeting

The Department standup

The Personal Priority Speed Check

Quarterly Performance Reviews 

Each meeting has a single A4 sheet which covers all the important information. They do a great job of keeping everyone aligned with the company goals as well as highlighting anything that needs to be done.

One of my favourites is the weekly all-hands. Each week you share the company's three top objectives, and one by one, each department shares with the team:

1. What they have done and are doing to achieve the company goals

2. How they added value to the customer last week

3. What they're doing this week to add value to the customer
   

Give them all a read, and let me know what you takeaway.

Recently, one of my companies received a complaint from a customer in Sweden. 

Since the UK left the EU, parcels sent from the UK to Europe are now held by customs, where the customer now needs to pay customs fees and taxes. 

Prior to Brexit, we could ship to anywhere in the EU, and parcels would not be subject to additional fees and taxes.

We've been using a service to make selling to the EU easier by using a SaaS company to handle the VAT/customs submissions. The service converts to the buyer's local currency, charges the appropriate taxes, and files them to the relevant tax authority. Each parcel going to the EU should now include our IOSS number, fly through customs, and land at the customer's address. 

On this occasion, the service didn't work as intended. The parcel got stuck in customs in Sweden, and Swedish customs failed to notify the customer. It was only when the customer used the tracking number we provided that they discovered the parcel was being held. 

Not only did the customer have an unnecessary wait, but the customer ended up paying more than twice the cost of the goods ordered in customs fees and additional tax.

How would you feel if you were the customer in this situation? 

I hate it when people have a bad experience when purchasing. It happens rarely, but when it does, I do my best to put it right and ask the team to do whatever they can. 

What did we do on this occasion? I gave the customer a full refund. I want people to have a good experience when buying from my company, even when things don't go as planned. This sale has cost us, but I'd rather win a customer's heart and have them share their positive outcome than protect the revenue. 

Experience doesn't end with a product. Any touch point is an opportunity to build a relationship, and it's important to maintain and build that relationship, even when you've delivered. Go out of your way to be memorable for doing the right thing.

Be a force for good in your community, and your community will thank you.

Apple

Upon Steve Jobs's return, Apple reduced the product range to just three lines. Most PC retailers offered endless configurations, meaning you had to have at least some basic knowledge of CPU, RAM, GPU, Disk Space and external media.

Typically, Apple offer 2 or 3 choices of desktop machines and 2 or 3 choices of laptops.

Apple has a long history of bucking trends.

They got rid of floppy drives once CD burners became popular. It enabled them to design computers without a floppy drive, saving space and reducing costs. They did the same with CD/DVD drives once cloud and USB storage became more readily available.

These decisions weren't popular with the majority, and some people ridicule Apple when they make moves like this. 

Apple's focus is making machines that do a job well and reliably. One of the reasons their software and operating systems are renowned for stability is the reduced number of configurations they need to support.

They make the hardware, limiting the number of configurations, making supporting them much easier. 

Another bonus of limited configuration is inventory management becomes a lot easier. Apple's choices appeal to a few types of people; they don't try to please everyone. 

Want to be able to buy a computer and not have to worry about choosing the right specification? Choose Apple. 

Love the minimalist design and want objects to look beautiful? Choose Apple.

HebTroCo

Look at the label of most Western clothing companies, and you'll see that it's been made overseas, particularly in countries where labour costs are low and, in some cases, their labour laws are... suboptimal.

In 2015, two guys in the UK went for a pint and asked themselves, is it possible to design, manufacture and sell clothing here in the UK? They used Kickstarter, a crowd-sourcing platform, to find out. 

Everything is made here in the UK, made to last from quality materials. All these things come at a cost, so naturally, the price isn't what people are used to seeing outside luxury brands. They've used this to their advantage and sometimes turn criticism into products.

Fans buy their clothes not only because they look great but also because they're functional and made to last. Their famous "Hipster Twats" scarf was born from a comment left on their Facebook page. 

HebTroCo is showing that leaning into your uniqueness will help you find a loyal fanbase.

In the post, I highlight three amazing humans who have helped me understand marketing and community and how I want to interact with them. I feel like I've found my people :D

Marketing: Louis Grenier

I'm so glad I discovered Louis. His podcast, daily emails, and courses have been transformative. If you want to stand the fuck out, then Louis is a must follow https://www.everyonehatesmarketers.com

Community: Rosie Sherry

Rosie is my go-to person when it comes to learning about Community building. Rosie built her company, the Ministry of Testing, around the community, and Rosie has taken that success; over the last few years, she's formed a new community focused on helping build better communities.

Checkout Rosie Land for a vast amount of resources and to join the mailing list https://rosie.land

Copywriting: Lianna Patch

Lianna teaches that it's okay to inject humour into your copy and that it'll help build trust and make sales. Lianna has some great, affordable templates and courses to help you inject humour (and ultimately more personality) into your copy. 

For all things conversion copy, visit https://punchlinecopy.com

Who has opened your eyes to new ways of seeing the world?

DIY Punk has always appealed to me.

The spirit of wanting to see something in the world and making it yourself led to me launching Exit 23 Games.

To grow Exit 23 Games, I've explored options and spoken with agencies. Time and time again, I realise that authenticity and integrity are so vital to me that it would go against ethos to outsource so much.

Controlling the Message and Brand

A couple of things on some of the agencies out there: Many companies that promise to help you scale are so expensive, as a small business or startup, it can be hard to justify such a huge outlay.

A common requirement is for your business to be making £10k a month already. At this point, you've already done much of the hard work, and you'd probably benefit from business coaching more than outsourcing to an agency. 

What does scaling look like with an agency? Paid Ads and email campaigns. 

If your message and brand are essential to you (they should be!), then outsourcing your advertising to an agency might not be the time saver you're hoping for.

You should be able to approve all designs and copy, but the back and forth can be a huge time sync.

It is a better return on investment to work on your own messaging and design and learn how to get inexpensive, actionable feedback from low-cost Paid Ads before investing significant amounts of money into Paid Ads. Documenting your process and ensuring your values are at the heart of it allows you to hire

I Still Outsource Some of The Work

There are some things I need to gain the skills I need to deliver the desired results, so I look to outsource those tasks.

I work with artists and designers, choosing to work with people I know are aligned with my ethos towards treating others. I recognise that we're all trying to make a living, so I'm prepared to pay for people's time and skills.

I'll work with local freelancers and businesses, and once I've worked with someone, I'll go to them first when I have more work.

What is important to you: growing your business and retaining its culture or profits at any cost?

By thinking in communities rather than audiences, you open yourself to possibilities. 

When it comes to messaging, the focus turns to how you can help your community. Writing original content is important, but curating content can be equally valuable in becoming an important member of your community. 

Things to consider 

How do you want to be seen within the community? 

What ways can you help?

Where your community hangs out will influence how you interact. Most communities have a presence across multiple social media platforms, each with its own style. Instagram and Pinterest are visual platforms. On TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, video is the way to go.

Research and analysis

Find the influential content creators in your community, create a list of the hashtags and trends and use this information to guide you in your content creation.

If following the trends makes you want to vomit, forge your own path, but keep an eye on the data. You need to learn what resonates with your community so that you can make future messages and content resonate. The Lean writing method is your friend here.

Marketing is gross, and Marketers are scum, they sell you shit you don‘t need

Marketing is often perceived to be a sleazy business, and if you‘re anything like me, you have felt grossed out by marketing at some point. The thought of doing your own marketing and business probably feels gross and inauthentic and, therefore, is the last thing you want to do, right?

The truth is marketing can be gross, sleazy and generally shitty, but that doesn‘t mean the marketing you do has to be gross, sleazy and shitty. You get to decide how you advertise, and you get to control your messaging. Want to be authentic? Sit down and think about what that means to you and what it means to people in your community. Look at your competitors, especially the big players and think what the opposite looks like.

Why did you start your business, and who did you start it for? Who are you trying to serve or sell to, and why should they give a shit about you?

People buy from businesses they relate to or aspire to be like. Everything from your social media presence to your website to your emails needs to reinforce that your company is relatable or something that people want to aspire to be, do, etc.

Doing things your way allows you to stand out from the crowd. I love reading about businesses going against the grain, forging their path and getting results. Here are three examples: 

1. Ian MacKaye: The frontman of Fugazi and Minor Threat, Ian MacKaye is also the co-founder of Dischord Records. His approach to business has always been deeply rooted in DIY ethics, focusing on community, independence, and keeping prices fair. Rather than striving to maximise profit and end up price-gouging fans, Fugazi insisted on low entry costs. During early tours, rather than incur the cost of hiring a full-time merch salesperson, the band didn't sell merch at shows. Dischord Records kept the overheads low and set their RRP low. At the time of writing, a 12-inch vinyl album by Fugazi was $18. A typical 12-inch album in the UK costs around £30 these days!

2. Muji. No Logo, quality goods: Among other things, Muji produce clothing, furniture, and stationery, focusing on minimal, quality designs. Their products do not carry a logo, and no money is spent on advertising. Their no-logo policy attracts an audience looking for an alternative to the heavily branded goods that are typically available. 

3. Forest Green Rovers Football Club: Forest Green goes against the grain, showing that sports don't have to be about excess. The club is recognised as carbon neutral, making use of solar panels on the roof of the stadium, organic football pitches and vegan food. The club only serves vegan food to fans and staff, including the players! 

What would happen if you did the opposite to everyone else in your industry? 

As someone who used to hate selling and thought marketing was evil, sharing content with a community feels so much easier than for an audience. 

To share with a community is to be open to conversation. Being part of a community is give and take. To be a good community member, you must care about others.

Being active in the community means contributing to the conversation, starting new conversations or adding to others.

Creating for an audience is much more one way. An audience suggests spectators, listeners, viewers or on-lookers. 

Creating or curating content for a community rather than an audience has many benefits. In terms of mindset, I find it easier to share with a community because I'm a part of it.

Everyone has a voice and should feel like they can share and comment on anything within the community.

For me, writing for an audience feels a little egotistical. I think of bands, comedians, authors, etc, who create in isolation and then share with their fans—a one-way relationship.

Become a popular and helpful community member, and you will build an audience. Along the way, you'll build so many great relationships that will aid you in building and scaling your business, and you'll be able to help others do the same.

How can you help your community today?

What is a connected organisation, and why do I love the idea so much?

A connected organisation is an organisation that shares its objectives and values throughout itself. Every department is aligned, and everything they do is to meet those objectives. The objectives may be long-term goals.

Ultimately, individual or team decisions can be tied to those goals.

Goals should be medium to long-term and worthwhile.

Budgets should be flexible so that money is spent on what is needed now and to support adaptation. 

Annual goals and budgets leave room for gaming the system. Teams end up spending budget in the fear that if they don't, they'll get less money next year. Teams failing to hit sales for this year may start to defer sales to get a bump in next year's sales figures.

What does success look like for a company? 

In a typical business, the numbers usually boil down to:

1. Average order value

2. Number of orders/sales

3. Number of repeat customers

An increase in any of these numbers will result in more profit.

Can you see how your current work supports these three metrics?

Lots of things can be related to these numbers. For instance, community. The larger your community, the larger the number of visitors. Knowing your average conversion rate lets you calculate what an increase in visitors could do for your business.

Knowing all this, it makes sense that community, marketing, sales, customer services, and packaging should all be on the same page. 

Copywriting should target different levels, attracting new people, increasing the average order value, and making additional sales.

Questions you should ask yourself:

• How do we attract new people? 

• How do we help those people make high-value purchases? 

• How do we get people to purchase again?

Look at each of these and let me know what you would try first.

So many sources talk about building an audience and focus all their help on helping you build your audience.

Building a community trumps building an audience. An audience will come from a community. Working with or building a community is a great way to get noticed as a small business. In a crowded marketplace, people will lift those who contribute to their community.

For entrepreneurs striving to stay true to their beliefs and remain authentic, building a community feels more natural than building an audience. You stand out by creating content that helps, commenting, engaging with, and resharing others' content.

Find influential people within your community and interact with them regularly. It takes time, but it also has a compound interest effect. Focus on building a relationship through helping rather than just trying to be seen.

If you're trying to figure out where to start, curate the best content each week and share it. Share your thoughts on why you included each post/video. Tag the creators so that people will see where the curated content originates, and you'll also have the bonus of notifying the creators of your curation efforts.

We make purchases for many reasons, and you might be surprised by some of them.

Once you identify the triggers that lead to purchasing your product or services, you'll be able to write your copy and produce content that leads to sales.

Context is key. Spend some time answering these five questions, and you'll be on your way to writing better copy and creating better funnels.

Why do people buy your product?

Typical answers will be: "to feel good", "to satisfy X" or "to improve Y."

Where do they use it?

At home, in the car, at the office, at the gym, on a hike. You get the idea.

When do they use your product?

When they wash the dishes, walk the dog, wake up, get to the office, birthdays, and gaming nights.

Who do they use it with?

Friends, family, colleagues, partners etc.

What do they use your product with?

With food, a film, their car.

Social Proof, like reviews, can help people to make a purchasing decision. Discounts and promos are also common.

Some companies use dark patterns like the Fear of Missing Out and produce limited runs despite owning the manufacturing process.

Don't be a dick like those companies.

Here are three personality traits that will serve you in your journey to building a successful company:

Passion for Your Craft

A deep and genuine passion for what they do drives you to maintain authenticity and resist conformity to norms.

Innovativeness

A creative mindset constantly seeking new and unconventional ways to solve problems, develop products, and engage with customers.

Integrity

A strong sense of personal and business ethics guides you to make decisions that align with your values, even in the face of challenges.

Above all, you must be daring enough to start something new and see where it goes. It's never been easier to start something new and quickly learn if it works. 

Try something new today, I dare you.

In this post, I'll cover some essential tools for running an online business in 2024

Shopify

Shopify is incredible. If you want to sell products online, there is nothing better. 

Out of the box, it provides all the essentials like inventory management, analytics, and payments and is customisable, so you can make the store look and feel however you like without the need to write code. 

Best of all, Shopify handle all the web hosting. 

Klaviyo

If you're building a business, you'll need to be able to build an email list. 

There are plenty of options, but Klaviyo's list management, segmenting and flow creation features are amazing. The level of customisation available is superb and enables you to dial in your email and flow triggers to cater for pretty much any scenario you can come up with. 

Klaviyo is my most recommended app, as you need to be able to manage email lists in most businesses these days. 

With Shopify and Klaviyo, you have two powerful and observable elements for your business' core system.

Canva

Before Canva, If you wanted graphic design work done, you needed to either work with a Graphic Designer or learn to use complicated tools like Photoshop, InDesign, etc. 

Canva makes graphic design accessible to anyone. Logos, images, adverts, LinkedIn Carousels; whatever I need, I can make it quickly and easily in Canva

. 

The feature that made me pay for Canva is the Background remover tool. It's SO SIMPLE to use; it's worth the small fee alone.

Another feature I love is the option to save all your branding assets. Store your company logos, fonts, colours and anything else and have them easily accessible, no matter what you create. 

What are your must-have tools in 2024?