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Discovery-driven planning
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<h2 id="five-disciplines">Five disciplines</h2> <p>A discovery-driven plan incorporates five disciplines or plan elements: </p> <ol><li>Definition of success for the plan or initiative, including a "reverse" income statement</li> <li>Benchmarking against market and competitive parameters</li> <li>Specification of operational requirements</li> <li>Documentation of assumptions</li> <li>Specification of key checkpoints</li></ol> <p>Using discovery-driven planning, it is often possible to iterate the ideas in a plan, encouraging experimentation at lowest possible cost. The methodology is consistent with the application of real options reasoning to business planning, in which ventures are considered "real" options. A real option is a small investment made today which buys the right, but not the obligation to make further investments.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Assumption-based_planning/fP8wUpAN">Assumption-based planning</a></li> <li><i><a href="/facts/The_Innovator%2527s_Dilemma/KvVeqKUV">The Innovator's Dilemma</a></i></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.discoverydrivengrowth.com/">Web site with additional reference material</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 1995. Discovery driven planning. Harvard Business Review, 73(4): 44–54. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>McGrath, R. G. & MacMillan, I. C. 2009. Discovery driven growth: a breakthrough process to reduce risk and seize opportunity. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Publishing" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Publishing</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Christensen, C. M. 1997. The innovator's dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_School_Press" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_School_Press</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Block, Z. & MacMillan, I. C. 1985. Milestones for successful venture planning. Harvard Business Review, 63(5): 84–90. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Rajesh, S. & Zafar, I. 2008. Stage-gate controls, learning failure, and adverse effect on novel new products. Journal of Marketing, 72(1): 118. JSTOR 30162204 <a href="/wiki/Journal_of_Marketing" target="_blank">/wiki/Journal_of_Marketing</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Christensen, C., Kaufman, S., & Shih, W. 2008. Innovation killers: how financial tools destroy your capacity to do new things. Harvard Business Review, 86(1): 98–105, 137. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Blank, S. 2013. Why the lean start-up changes everything. Harvard Business Review, 91(5): 63–72. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>McGrath, R. G. 1997. A real options logic for initiating technology positioning investments. Academy of Management Review, 22(4): 974–996. JSTOR 259251 <a href="/wiki/Academy_of_Management_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Academy_of_Management_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>van Putten, A. B. & MacMillan, I. C. 2004. Making real options really work. Harvard Business Review, 82(12): 134. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Business_Review</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Dixit, A. K. & Pindyck, R. S. 1994. Investment under uncertainty. Princeton: Princeton University Press. <a href="/wiki/Princeton_University_Press" target="_blank">/wiki/Princeton_University_Press</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>