High Definition Line Of Sufficiency: Defining Sufficiency Sufficiently

By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Reading time: 9 mins


Summary: Most things can be improved indefinitely (ie are ceilingless); as such reaching perfection isn’t possible. So you have to stop somewhere, this place I call ‘sufficiency’. The higher resolution your understanding of sufficiency the better you can allocate resources. Not defining sufficiency is often a path to wasting time; either spending too little time or spending too much time. 


Levels Of Sufficiency Understanding

  • The levels:

    • L0: Not aware of the concepts of Sufficiency vs Perfectionism (see below for details)

    • L1: Have a low resolution understanding of Sufficiency

    • L2: Have a High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency

  • Comment

    • Building possible levels of sufficiency normally orients a team around where to get to and understanding the tradeoffs in how to get there.

    • In some respects, building a ‘High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency’ is building a ‘navigational framework’. The framework:

      • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done = The direction you are heading

      • 2. Define levels of Sufficiency = What are the possible places to stop and possible tradeoffs involved

      • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency = Agreed upon high resolution understanding of the place to stop

    • For large projects or projects with a large amount of new I’ve found it very useful to have a ‘High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency’. 

    • Please see below for examples of using this framework. 

  • If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

    • Defining Sufficiency sufficiently (AKA building a High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency) is a core way to understand where you are going and if you are there. 

    • Jingle: They say don’t work hard, work smart. Well I say, ‘work sufficiently’! 

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Details

This blog is a development of two prior blogs - I recommend reading each of them 

Sufficiency > Perfectionism” summary

  • Most things in the world do not have a ‘ceiling’, meaning you can never not improve further. For ceilingless places, perfection is not attainable. As such you need to stop somewhere as ‘enough’, I normally refer to the line you stop as ‘sufficiency’.

  • Ceilingless Vs Ceilings

    • Some places do have a ceiling. 

      • Eg do you properly administer the vaccine, you can’t 140% administer the vaccine. Eg is the water drinkable, you can’t have 140% drinkable water. 

    • For ceilingless places you can’t ever reach ‘perfection’. 

      • Examples of ceilingless places:

        • 1. How good a book can be. 

        • 2. How to make the best coffee. 

        • 3. How to best teach maths. 

        • 4. How to be a friend. 

        • 5. How to best help the common good. 

  • Sufficiency vs Perfectionism

    • Perfectionism = striving for something to be as good as possible, but perfectionism can be a concept that when what you are working on is ceilingless, can mean you strive for an infinite amount of time

    • Sufficiency = When something meets realistic criteria in order to get a ‘Job To Be Done’ done


A model to build a ‘High Definition Line Of Sufficiency’

  • The model: 

    • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done - the direction you are heading

    • 2. Define possible levels of sufficiency - possible places you can stop

    • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency - agreed high resolution place it makes sense to stop

  • Visual model

    • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done - the direction you are heading

      • Honestly I find it can often be really quite hard to define a JTBD well. I’m normally constantly updating my thoughts on what the JTBD is. You never stop. 

      • If you have the incorrect JTBD then it’s normally like one is pointed in the wrong direction. Nothing else can matter. 

  • 2. Define possible levels of sufficiency - possible places you can stop

  • This is the main thing this blog is trying to focus on. Building of levels for sufficiency is a core strategy I have to improve resource allocation. 

  • I’ve stopped the visual at L4 arbitrarily, it could technically go on forever.

  • So the JTBD defines what direction you are going in, then the levels of sufficiency define possible places you can stop. 

  • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency - agreed high resolution place it makes sense to stop

    • One you have the direction and levels, you can then discuss which level to stop at. Thereby defining a ‘High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency’.


Example of building a ‘High Definition Line Of Sufficiency’

  • Example 1: What is the right level of sufficiency for the Finance Division of a company?

    • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done - the direction you are heading

      • ‘The only mistake you cannot make in a startup is to run out of money.’

      • I see the core overriding JTBD of the finance division to map out the future to show possible cash low scenarios.  

    • 2. Define possible levels of sufficiency - possible places you can stop

      • L0: No financial model

      • L1: Accurately calculating financial model to see possible future cash positions

      • L2: L1 + Current (vs stale) forecasts for cash in and cash out

      • L3: L2 + Bear, Base and Bull scenarios modelled out

      • L4: L3 + Strategies to manage through Bear scenario put in a slide deck

      • L5: L4 + Significant presentation for the board 

      • L6: L5 + Building out sub finance teams for each division

      • L7: L6 + Building financial literacy in everyone mid level manager or higher and having metrics for them to manage to

    • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency - agreed high resolution place it makes sense to stop

      • What makes sense will likely be different for companies of different sizes. 

      • It might well be that L4 is minimum sufficiency for a business of 50 people but that L7 is minimum sufficient for a business of 5,000 people. 

  • Example 2: What is the level to stop product development?

    • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done - the direction you are heading

      • To improve education. But that does this actually mean? 

      • Each product normally has a higher definition articulation of the JTBD. For example ‘Optimal Frist Step = 1. Get to 70%+ market share as fast as possible + 2. While improving education outcomes for 90%+ of schools’. 

    • 2. Define possible levels of sufficiency - possible places you can stop

      • L0: Just improve education

      • L1: For all existing core areas (eg theory, activities, questions & answers) be the ‘new high water mark’ in market

      • L2: L1 + Have 2x+ instantly recognisable irrefutable dealmakers

      • L3: L2 + All core areas have instantly recognisable irrefutable dealmakers

      • L4: L3 + go beyond doing the existing core areas

    • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency - agreed high resolution place it makes sense to stop

      • Edrolo has very hard product deliverable deadlines (the start of a school year). So… finishing a product early isn’t a problem. Finishing a product late is a disaster.

      • Normally for Edrolo I define sufficiency as “L2: L1 + Have 2x+ instantly recognisable irrefutable dealmakers”. Having some parts of the product jump out at users as ‘wins’ really helps with usage. 

      • Also, we’ll be able to update things in the future. So this is just the starting point! 

  • Example 3: What amount of ‘operations’ do you need for a team? 

    • 1. Agree upon the Job To Be Done - the direction you are heading

      • That you get products done on time above sufficient level of quality in hopefully an enjoyable manner. 

    • 2. Define possible levels of sufficiency - possible places you can stop

      • L0: No operations at all. 

      • L1: Individual team level (bottom up) ops eg with fortnightly report on progress

      • L2: L1 + ‘Top down’ division wide level monthly report on quality, delivery time expectations and if there is enough resourcing

      • L3: L2 + Standardised reporting frameworks

      • L4: L3 + 12 month plan for an operations division

      • L5: L4 + hiring for the division

      • L6: L5 + adding upside

    • 3. Agree upon the High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency - agreed high resolution place it makes sense to stop

      • Everyone has ego distortions and blind spots… and to others our blind spots are often blindingly obvious. 

      • For important areas I think you should get two independent opinions. So for delivery of a major project I’d want the individual team to have a report but also for the division to have a ‘top down’ view on where delivery, quality and resourcing is at. So I’m going to argue that the minimum is L2. 


A ‘High Definition Line Of Sufficiency’ allows you to have a conversation

  • Building the levels of sufficiency allows you to have a discussion around priorities and tradeoffs. 

  • I’ve found it to be such a fantastic tool. 

  • Defining the JTBD well can be really quite difficult. Change the way you look at something, change what you see. So getting alignment around the JTBD is key. 

  • But even then how do you define if you have sufficiently completed the JTBD? One key strategy is to build ‘levels of sufficiency’ and then agree upon a ‘High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency’. 


If you only take away one thing

  • Optimising for sufficiency = Stopping at a reasonable point so you can solve the next problem = Overall delivering max improvement to the world

  • Without a levels of sufficiency and a chosen line a ‘High Resolution Line Of Sufficiency’ you likely are rudderless.