The Challenge

3D Systems, a global leader in the 3D printing market, was growing fast — too fast. They needed to quickly get hold of competing projects and strategic priorities, and the next global strategy meeting was only days away.

The Solution

The ultimate two day offsite: make sure the stakeholders were prepared and take them through two days of intense Agile frameworks-driven decision making.

Process

1. Preparation Boards
   We gave all the meeting participants four days to complete a matrix outlining all their competing projects by their business relevance and size.
2. Cover Story
   When the meeting kicked off, we used the Cover Story framework to help everyone develop a vision of success with a hypothetical Harvard Business Review case study.
3. 20/20 Vision
   We then combined all the key Cover Story elements and prioritized them with 20/20 Vision.
4. Impact Effort
   With vision established, we went back to the preparation boards, combined them and reorganized around two axes: 1. Impact on the company and 2. Effort/Risk/Complexity.
5. Fund a Project
   Initiatives from the Impact Effort exercise were scored using a Decision Engine framework and then funded independently by diverse teams.
6. Remember the Future
   Finally, we worked backward from a Perfect Future Outcome to establish a series of tasks and milestones to reach the objective.