The 'D' in BUILD

Whew. It has been a long 7 weeks but we have FINALLLLYYY made it to the last acronym of BUILD.

 

D means DELIVER. That sounds simple, right? I like to think so too.

 

Deliver (Read this out loud to yourself)

I critically evaluate solutions for long-term viability and sustainability to discover the greatest opportunities, mobilize resources, deliver with careful planning and excellence, and measure the impact of the solutions on addressing the needs.

 

Read that again.

 

Yes, Delivering looks straightforward forward especially if you have been following the blog because you have Believed, Understood, Invented, Listened, reinvented, Listened again and again and again (at least I hope so). However, it’s straightforwardness does not take the deliberate nature of the process away from it.

 

Yes, we have toiled hard, making sure we are BUILDing the right thing for the right people to solve the right problem and that is why we do not Deliver the results recklessly. Taking into consideration all of the findings from our research (Understanding), experimenting and prototyping (Inventing) and endless feedback (Listening), this is where we present the solution (Deliver) with a strategic plan in place to measure the impact of the solution. After all, what is the point if we cannot tell how useful the solution is for the problem?

 

Notwithstanding, it is not impossible to find yourself back at the Listening and Invent stage after Delivering. As stressful as it may seem, it happens sometimes. Breathe, Rinse, and then Repeat the process anyway.

 

I promised to finish up my Jabali and Renee of Ghana stories here and so I will.

 

At Jabali, although we did not get to the Deliver stage before we graduated, we did get to see the final work our successors did. Not only did they finalize the prototype using the research and earlier prototypes my mates and I had spent an entire year working on, but they went ahead to supply kits to the various sports departments at school. They supplied one team, and the others placed their orders. That in itself is a great measure of impact  This was a very clean and clear execution of the goals we had set at the beginning of Jabali. That is how BUILD should work- it should take you from thought to understanding, to trying and failing forward, to execution, in carefully planned and monitored steps.

 

With Renee of Ghana, although the solution I pursued was not the best option available, the fact that I used BUILD meant that I was going to achieve the best possible results that I could. For example, if the solution I decided to execute was capable of solving just half of the problem, then it did solve half of the problem. In terms of creating awareness among the new intended target audience of the clothing line, that was achieved. The average active social media user between 16 and 35 knows Renee of Ghana and what they do. Why? In planning, BUILD gave me enough guidance to be able to pay as much attention to detail (marketing and advertising in this case) as possible, not leaving things to chance.

 

In BUILD, we don’t leave things to chance.

 

The whole point is the credibility of the BUILD model and its effectiveness.

 

I am very very eager to know how you are applying BUILD to whatever you’re working on and look forward to hearing the cool things you will be rolling out or changing. Do reach out to me via any of my social channels (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) or email and share it with me! 

As usual, please leave comments and questions below and I will respond to them! 

Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your week!