Decide between incompatible options

Problem: The organization doesn’t agree on what the problem is - or if there’s even a problem at all

Revenue from one customer segment isn’t growing as fast as revenue from a different segment. Is that a problem? If the product management team is optimizing for overall revenue, maybe not. If the finance team is modeling and reporting revenue from those segments separately, maybe it’s a huge problem. Unless leadership clearly communicates what the expectation is, the organization will probably be split.

• Costs: Lack of shared understanding leads to inability to make a clear decision, which means valuable improvements don’t happen until a decision is made. A common alternative: ambiguity means that works gets done, undone, and redone. Either way this consumes lots of person-hours, and it hurts morale.
• How Nemo Helps: Instead of a huge doc that people don’t read, or a massive table where most columns don’t make sense for any given row, Nemo gives you a visual way to show exactly how different groups are thinking about a problem (and what they’re not considering).

Problem: The most important choices are the fuzziest

Changing the org structure. Going after a new customer segment. Betting on a new technology. Sometimes you can estimate a topline revenue or cost impact for a fundamental decision, but data can’t tell you what to do because there’s no meaningful data available, and/or you’re factoring in unquantifiable dimensions of complexity, risk, perceptions, motivations, etc.

• Costs: Focusing solely on the quantifiable aspects of a choice (aka managing by spreadsheet) can incur huge risks from ignoring important factors (Seeing Like a State), cause frustration and low morale among people raising concerns that can’t be quantified, and lead to slow decisions delayed by arguments and gridlock over the validity and interpretation of estimates and data
• How Nemo Helps: Create a view of the situation that includes all the important elements, whether or not they’re quantifiable. Compare different options without manually creating unwieldy tables, automatically update the entire picture as you discuss each piece, and build up a reusable map of your business that can accelerate future decisions.