Delivery measured against your business case
We set the return your program has to deliver before we write scope, run every steering committee against it, and stay after go-live until your people use what was built.
A free 30-minute chat with a senior consultant. You'll leave knowing your program's biggest risk, whether or not we work together.
Metagenics launched its direct-to-consumer channel on time and on budget, 6 months from kickoff.
of existing Metagenics customers opted in to the new channel on day one.
Every program has two sets of questions, and we lead with the business outcome
If your last program went green on every status report and still missed its business case, this is usually why. Below the line sits delivery: schedule, scope, reports and team capacity. Above it sits the business outcome the program was funded to change. Both matter, and we keep your steering committee looking above the line.
Above the line: the outcome
- Why are we doing this?
- What business outcome changes if we succeed?
- What return is this investment expected to make?
- How does it connect to the strategic priorities?
Below the line: delivery
- Are we on schedule?
- Is scope being tracked?
- Are the reports being produced?
- Is the team at capacity?
Ask one question of your current program. What business metric will change because of it, and how will we know it worked?
Four habits that keep delivery tied to the outcome
Set the return before the scope
We define the return the program has to generate, as a number, before we write scope. If we can't define it, we don't write the scope.
Track the outcome first
We agree which business outcome the program is chasing, then the milestones that show progress toward it.
Run steering committees that decide
Each steering committee makes business decisions, with go/no-go gates at each phase. Ticket tables stay in the team meetings.
Tie each deliverable to a number
Each deliverable ties to a number your organisation already tracks, so the board can see what it got for what it spent.
We stay until your people use what the program delivered
The return in your business case depends on staff using the new system the way the plan assumed. We stay with your team after go-live, report against the KPI and hand the work to your people before we leave. On the Metagenics launch, the hand-off ran in three steps.
During delivery we ran the in-house digital team as a squad, with the ceremonies and cadence they would keep.
James Hallam then stepped back from running meetings and coached the incoming product manager hands-on before he left.
The squad still runs the channel today, using the practices built during the program.
How the approach ran on the Metagenics launch
The Metagenics board set a target to grow direct-to-consumer sales from 1% to 20% of ANZ revenue by the end of 2025. The channel launched on time and on budget, 6 months from kickoff, with 280 regulated label artworks moved across. 24% of existing customers opted in on day one.
“The way we conquered scope creep was disciplined project management and internal communications.”
Suzie Young, Head of Digital ANZ, Metagenics
Four principles we set before planning started
Mostly out-of-the-box Shopify, so there was less custom code to build and test.
A fallback plan, with the criteria for switching to it agreed up front.
Go/no-go gates at each phase, launch included.
A risk register the steering committee saw from day one.
Check your program against the line
A senior consultant asks which business metric your program will change and how you'll know it worked, then names the biggest risk and what to fix first. The chat is free and takes 30 minutes.
Or email hello@softwired.com.au with two lines about the program.
