I think we all recognise those meetings that start with the best of intentions yet can tail off into no mans land as soon as everyone, although well intended, wishes to offer their opinion and make sure everyone hears it and understands it.

It’s a very common phenomenon, so common that it has a name! “Parkinson’s Law of Triviality” after the observations of one C. Northcote Parkinson. Parksinson noted, back in 1957, that organisations give a disproportionate weight to irrelevant issues.

Parkinson dramatises his law by explaining the amount of deliberation a committee gave to the building of a nuclear power station versus that of the bike shed on site. While only the experts in their field would discuss and offer suggestion on the nuclear power plant, everyone would want to offer their suggestion on the colour of the bike shed.

It is the trivial that will generally bog down any discussion as everyone can have an opinion. Cobalt Storm use the MVP approach to attempt to stop this from happening. By focusing a meeting on what is viable and the constraints upon the business the MVP forces people to make a decision on what is required as opposed to the more fluffy outlying parts of a project that will naturally happen regardless.

Cobalt Storm have repeatedly used the MVP approach to stand by their guiding principles of “We are impatient with wool-gathering, so while our perspective is long, our meetings are short”. Its not because we don’t like to hear the grand plans, but there is a time and a place. The main thing everyone has to bear in mind is that you need to get to market fast and in the correct manner in order to be most efficient.