Performance Culture

Mental Model · 03

Levels of Abstraction

A model for framing detail — 100ft, 50ft, 0ft — so you invite engagement without talking past one another.

2 min read

3 Levels of Abstraction

  • 100 ft view
    • The strategic perspective of an intended outcome (what & why)
    • Often a TLDR
  • 50 ft view
    • Larger items that are required to realize the outcome including who is involved
  • 0 ft view
    • Individual Jobs to be done that when completed realize the 100ft outcome
    • Tasks are assignable to individual owners

Example

An executive team is working through a new pricing strategy for an upcoming platform release call G-Net. They want to place all new customers on G-Net and slowly migrate old customers. You will see in this case how levels of abstraction can focus the conversing group on what needs to be discussed when and what natural interdepencies exist in making this outcome a reality

  • 100 ft view
    • Prepare all the team to sell G-Net to all new customers and methodically migrate existing customers to G-Net so that we can grow the average LTV of our customers.
  • 50 ft view
    • Sales, led by our Chief Revenue Officer, will put together training materials and prepare their revenue operations to include G-Net as part of our core offering identifying key touch points to sell G-Net and where discount pricing or waivers can be offered.
    • Marketing, led by our Chief Marketing Officer, will design a set of campaigns around the product and service layer of G-Net and begin to create a set of branded materials for other team as they sell and onboard customers to G-Net.
    • Product led by our Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officers, will put together a clear list of features within G-Net including but not limited to sales & marketing and support collateral. Ultimately, Product is responsible for onboarding new customers and planning for how to migrate existing customers onto G-Net.
    • Customer Success led by our Chief Customer Officer, will work specifically on existing customers in the migration process. They will assign CSMs to each customer cohort and work on a migration roadmap including key risks to watch out for. Ultimately we need to see 100% migration by Q4 of next year.
  • 0 ft view
    • Sales
      • Training materials for onboarding to G-Net
      • Sales Materials outlining the benefits of G-Net
      • Pricing Materials for G-Net
      • Script and allowances for Pricing waivers on G-Net
      • ETC…
    • ETC for each department..