Solution Launch Preparedness

Conduit Consulting’s Solution Launch Preparedness offering ensures executives, key stakeholders and program leaders assess the technical, operational and people readiness to cutover to new systems, processes and/or ways of working.  The “Go/No-Go” decision is supported by a rigorous governance framework and assessment process that begins well before the final decision is made.  Each go/no-go objective and key result (OKR) is measured over time, assessing progress towards the target for a “Go” decision.

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Key components include:

• Prioritized Launch OKRs and targets across multiple categories

• Assessment process, dashboards and status reporting

• Governance framework including who makes the decision and how the decision will be made

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Launch Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

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Leveraging our Launch OKR library, we collaborate with clients to establish Launch OKRs across seven categories. These OKRs evaluate the preparedness to transition to, operate, and provide support for a new solution. Example OKRs include: acceptable number of defects, demonstrated application functionality, satisfactory system response time, prepared support organization, minimum end-user proficiency, and verified SOX controls. Depending on the complexity and organizational impact of their program, our clients generally define 30 to over 50 OKRs for measurement and assessment.

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Launch Preparedness Assessment

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A structured assessment framework is established by defining a quantifiable metric and a specific Launch target for each Launch OKR. The frequency for measuring progress—which may be weekly, monthly, or milestone-driven—is also determined. To measure improvement, progress is assessed over time against a series of progressively more ambitious point-in-time targets that lead up to the final Launch target.  We maintain a dashboard showing status for every OKR against each point-in-time and final target.

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Launch Governance 

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We work with the program team leads and team members to determine who will be responsible for achieving the necessary outcome for each Launch OKR and how they will be measured and reported.

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To ensure Launch Preparedness, we ask the steering committee to assign one or more members to each preparedness category. These assigned members are responsible for understanding the measurement, targets, and current status of every Launch OKR within their category. This often involves direct interaction with the program team leads who are accountable for achieving the Launch OKR outcomes. The steering committee member then provides a readout on the status of their assigned readiness category to the committee. The steering committee can therefore evaluate the status directly, eliminating interpretation by the program team.  Conduit Consulting provides close support to the steering committee members throughout this process.