Information Architecture - Strategy Magic
I'm sure you've put together a few Power Point decks and modeled data in Excel. Both are great tools. But are you taking advantage of information architecture (IA) to make strategic decisions?
When using IA for strategic purposes it may end of looking more like a mind map. Although mind maps tend to stem from a common "seed" idea and branch out. I'm a fan of making lists of related things, and using connecting lines to demonstrate cross dependency. The more related lists you get, the more inter-related cross dependencies and touch points.
One thing that will become apparent very quickly is if you have a high degree of variability in your diagram, characterized by multiple intertwined many-to-many relationships. Note that many-to-many relationships aren't bad per se. If you have a clearly defined process that minimizes the impact of these relationships it may demonstrate the mature capability of your system. On the other hand, when variability and cross dependency are the rule, what you are seeing is an undisciplined approach that introduces significant risk into your business.
But here in lies the value proposition of strategic IA, especially considering that many people are visual learners, but can't visualize from a bullet list on a Power Point or connect the dots between numbers on a spreadsheet and the underlying processes that create that number.
The trick is finding people who can create the IA documentation. It takes more than just knowing how to draw this type of documentation. You need to have an understanding of business, operations, clients, technology, or whatever the relevant pieces are that drive your business >> or more to the point >> someone who is capable of learning these pieces, and represent that as they draft the IA.
See my post "Legacy to SaaS Transition? Mind the Gap!" and my thoughts on the role of product management. I believe that this type of IA documentation will naturally result from the discovery process. And in my opinion this type of documentation is an essential part of Product Management, because it enables better strategic design within the organization by maximizing the discovery time invested with a comprehensive output that is visual and easy to quickly understand. I'm tempted to post examples of the strategic IA work I've done, but as you can imagine all of my work contains confidential intellectual property.
Finally, for this to be effective senior leadership needs to embrace this as a learning mechanism. It isn't that Power Point decks and Excel models and CBAs aren't just as relevant. But the IA diagrams create the context for all of this to come together. Without being able to "see" what you are currently doing, and "see" what the impact of the proposal will be, conceptualizing the reduction of risk, or the expansion of capability, or the impact to clients and operations, etc., is difficult. At the very least it can give some perspective about why a significant investment is worth it, or why a problem is worth fixing, and so on.
