Diamonds aren’t just a girl’s best friend; they’re also an enterprise’s BFF. Here’s why: when an enterprise wants to get market-defining products into customers’ hands faster than ever before, it needs a partner with a diamond-shaped team structure to help it shine bright.
This isn’t the norm, though. Most team structures look like a pyramid, with a few senior leaders at the top, a slightly larger group of managers in the middle, and a sprawling base of junior-level folks. That leaves you with the majority of the work being done by junior employees. As much as we love up-and-coming talent, the speed and scale you need can’t come from the junior level.
While pyramids look great on a postcard from Cairo, they’re the last place your product roadmap should live because you’re not buying a prototype. You’re investing in expertise, strategic thinking, process management, and human capital — from initial discovery to customer feedback and iterations. And you’re banking on all of it getting done, like, now.
“Now” isn’t a tenet in pyramid structures because they come with a sea of administrative policies and red tape. The junior employees aren’t seasoned enough — and don’t have the approval — to put their foot on the gas pedal and make really hard decisions themselves. Instead, every idea and next step has to go up the chain of command. All the while, you’re left wringing your hands, wondering when that MVP will stop wandering through the desert and actually be ready for the market.
Allow us to do a quick humble-brag to drive this point home. No matter the vertical, our clients keep telling us the same thing: they love getting boutique-style attention from a company that has global scale. You know how we do it? With a diamond of people.
We have a small group of leaders at the top, a pinch of junior employees at the bottom, and the middle is packed with specialists who have been there, done that, and even bought the t-shirt to prove it. Our Aim, Engage, Grow model for solving the biggest needs, proving (or disproving) that MVPs are right for the market, and driving growth would never work with a slew of junior employees at the helm. It requires expert hands on the wheel, driving our clients forward with speed, confidence, and precision.
We’ve learned that when the bulk of your organization is made up of seasoned experts, you can get higher-quality work done faster. Plus, they have the know-how to identify any emerging issues sooner. As an added benefit, the less experienced employees at the bottom of the diamond get a front-row seat to see how successful projects unfold, and thus, move up the experience ladder faster. That means we’re constantly expanding our roster of specialists.
A culture of innovation is the exact opposite of one-off projects duct-taped together by a sea of junior professionals. Sure, you may get a temporary reprieve in some areas, but that’s not how you create impactful, lasting change. What you need is an opportunity to simplify and streamline your customer experience. That’s where the massive value lies, and only true specialists can bring it to life.
