360 Review
Much like the tool utilized by companies to evaluate their employees and managers, we can apply that type of systems thinking by taking your typical stakeholder map and expanding it to include shareholders and those that don’t fit in the first two categories. This will provide a comprehensive view of every entity that is affected by the ideation, creation, shipping, and scaling of the product. As you can surmise, this process is hectic due to the fact that most systems such as companies are nonlinear, which is why your end result for this exercise will likely look like a messy web. Donella Meadows has written a fantastic primer on systems thinking.
“A system is a set of things — people, cells, molecules, or whatever — interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world.”
For a really great resource on systems mapping, check out Leyla Acaroglu’s article, Tools for Systems Thinkers: Systems Mapping. When you are compiling the 360 review, reflect on how each node (entity in the system) might be affected by the product. Again, consider how they might be affected at each stage of the product. Think about effects in terms of emotional, physical, monetary, safety, etc. Also pay attention to the various power dynamics between certain entities. For example, if you’re factoring in your company’s employees as well as management, what is the relationship between the two like? How might they influence each other as well as the product? If there’s a strained power dynamic between two nodes, draw the connecting, dotted line. If there’s a mutually beneficial power dynamic between two nodes, draw the connecting, solid line. Revisit the dotted-line relationships and analyze what creates the existing and/or potential tension.
