Inceptions

This Inception playbook takes learnings from a variety of Equal Experts consultants who have spent time running inceptions for a varity of clients. If you would like talk to us about running an inception get in touch with our teams across the world.

Better outcomes

At Equal Experts, we’re passionate about building great software. For over 10 years, we have helped hundreds of clients around the globe, from blue chip clients to startups, both build the product right and build the right product.

Collectively, the contributors to this playbook have some 500 years of software delivery experience. But starting something new always has its challenges, and we’ve experienced the pain when things work out, but also when things go a bit pear-shaped.

The common root causes? Misaligned values and expectations, overlooked risks, missed dependencies and unsophisticated approaches to managing uncertainty and complexity.

The most frustrating thing is when that pain could have easily been avoided. The complex interplay of people, processes and technology will always bring change, uncertainty and unknowns. By acknowledging and addressing these factors early, we can massively reduce the various types of risks we’re exposed to .

Technology initiatives, if done in the right way, can be successful and fun.

This is why we run Inceptions. They systematically address the issues that threaten to derail delivery, by reducing risk, fostering alignment, building trust and providing us with the best possible starting point.

Of course, knowing why you might want to run an Inception is not the same as being able to run an effective one! This is where this Playbook comes in.

We believe it’s possible to distil the essence of an Inception into a blueprint. This document is that blueprint.

By taking away some of the complexity and providing ideas to riff off and make your own, this playbook aims to support beginners and experts alike. Over the pages that follow, you’ll find the tools to build better foundations for the initiatives you work on.

Download a PDF version of the inception playbook