EVEREST▲Decision Support
EVEREST▲Decision Support™ is an AI-enhanced proprietary methodology that excelerates product envisioning, development and decision-making through facilitated, expert-led workshops called Sherpa Sessions.
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EVEREST▲DaaS™
EVEREST is a decision-support methodology designed to improve the success rate of consumer and B2B digital product development. The Everest process, Sherpa team and Bootcamps provide a "Decision as a Service" for companies looking for an alternative to expensive consulting and agency engagments.
We call our process 'Everest' because of the similarities between developing new digital products and climbing the world’s tallest mountain. Climbing Mt. Everest requires meticulous planning, technical acumen, mastery of specialized tools, domain experience and most importantly, good decision making in complex environments. The failure rate of both endevors is high.
~94% of consumer digital products fail. ~87% never launch.
~65% of people that attempt Mt. Everest succeed. 34% fail.
Product development is not like climbing Mt. Everest It’s actually harder. Why? Everest’ climbers have an advantage you don’t... 99% are guided by Sherpas.
The Philosophy
Three simple rules that prevent bad decision making:
- A small group of experts from a diverse background of disciplines make better and faster decisions than a large homogenous group of influencers and decision-makers. It’s not just our philosophy…it’s science.
- Making progress on small problems is better than solving for the big ones. Big problems can be divided into small problems.
- Unbiased, third party experts offer the best solutions faster because they are unhindreeed by groupthink, politics and history. Successful companies suffer most from groupthink, politics and history.
Powered by Data
The Everest methodology is based on a proprietary database made up of 1000+ projects (Consumer/B2B/B2E) across all types of digital channels. Ten data points that define a product including budget, effort, duration to first launch, # of change orders, discreet product launches, team type (onshore/offshore/mixed) and the big one…Lifespan. Some findings include,,,
- The average lifespan of a consumer product is 1.8 years.
- B2B and B2E projects fare better with lifespans of 2.4 years.
- The most successful products have a lifespan of ~3.2 years.
- The longest of the whole dataset is 10 years.
- The Tech industry has the worst record in building technology with a long lifespan.
- Transportation and manufacturing industries have the longest lifespans for digital projects.
- The longer the development cycle, the shorter the lifespan and the greater chance of failing to launch.
- The budget of the project has no impact on its success.
- If your product name starts with an X or Z, it will fail.
- The greatest single predictor of project failure is leveraging 3rd party offshore teams. That penalty goes away if the team are emplloyees vs. contractors.
Despite there being no clear path to repeatable success, failure is often prediclable.
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EVEREST: Origin Story
The EVERST▲DaaS™ methodology, created by Bradley Hill and put into practice by TruNorthern, originated from a desire to improve the dismal success rate of digital product development.
From the author…
“I wish I could say Everest stemmed from some positive, warm, new-agey place or a rediscovered ancient wisdom, but it doesn't. It comes from seeing the impact of bad decisions (from clients, consultants and agencies) over 27 years. Preventable bad decisions that fall into two categories: The wrong person or wrong time (too early or too late). So, I decided to find ways to improve the odds of success.
I looked to science, statisics, business, pyschology, government, military, self-help gurus, game theory and even spiritual disciplines to find a path to success for complex digital projects. The result of all that research? There is no single path to ensure success. But you can prevent bad decisions. That is where Everest started. With the revelation that avoiding bad decisions and making good ones are two very different things. ”
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SHERPA SESSION
The Sherpa Session is designed to answer critical questions about a company's product, organization or environment. This 3 hour work session with our Sherpas is facilitated by a TN Partner.
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- 1. Client fills out the Sherpa Session Questionnaire that captures details on the topics, questions and expected results for the session.
- 2. The TruNorthern Advance team performs the necessary research and analysis on the product, market, competitors and historical factors and reviews existing documentation to produce the “The Climb Guide” for the session.
- 3. Client meets with the TN Advance team to review and define the type of Sherpa that will serve as guides for the session.
- 4. TruNorthern selects a multi-discipline team of Sherpas from our Advisor Network of over 50 digital experts based on skill-set, product and industry experience.
- 5. Perform Sherpa Session
- 6. After the session, the TN Advance team compiles research, notes, recordings of the session and distributes them.
- 7. Post-Session: The client can reach out to the Sherpas via secure Slack channel with questions or clarifications.
- 1. Discuss/Debate: A live whiteboard session that explores all aspects of client's topic or question.
- 2. Solutioning: Propose potential solutions, opprituntites, pros / cons and expected results measured against real-world experience resulting in a scorecard of the best possible outcome
- 3. Take Action: Develop a tactical list of activities and decisions for the client to perform to achieve their goal.
- Whatever you need help with, we have an expert who can guide you to resolution.
- Provide unbiased expert perspective on critical organizational decisions.
- Build our own in-house digital team or use agency partners?
- Is it time to move from your current digital partners?
- Who would be a good fit for your company and products?
- Resolve organizational problems such as persistent delays in product launch, inability to reach defined goals and metrics, low app download and/or customer conversion.
- Evaluatie individual leaders and management style.
- Suggest culture changes during acquisitions and merger
- Retain top digital talent.
- Should you invest in building a product?
- Have you done enough market research and user testing to know what you know?
- What other companies have tried this approach and succeeded?
- Who are your target customers?
- How to drive higher conversion rates?
- What are your competitors doing in the digital space?
- Which platforms and frameworks should you use for your product?
- What are investors looking for?
