HBX Management Essentials on an After Action Review

The Army has an “After Action Review”

1. What did we set out to do?
2. What actually happened?
3. Why did it happen?
4. What are we going to do next time? In particular:
   1. What will we sustain/continue to do?
   2. What will we improve/change?

Don’t neglect to clarify what you set out to do and what actually happened. That is, don’t just jump into a discussion of what can be improved. That will only create confusion if you haven’t agreed on how well you fulfilled the original goals. In fact, teams can learn a lot when there are initial disagreements on what you set out to do and what actually happened.

Don’t forget to discuss how you might incorporate these lessons into future projects. That is, don’t just talk about the things you’ll do differently next time. Create an action plan so that you’ll actually do them.⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)

Most organizational and managerial learning occurs via three main channels:

• Reflection (reviewing past experiences)
• Intelligence gathering (collecting information about the environment)
• Experimentation (trying new approaches)⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)
  
  

Unfortunately, most managers who’ve had 30 years’ experience have been having the same experience for 30 years⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)

There are 3 types of failure: - Preventable - Complex - Deliberate/intelligent experimentation

Probe-and-learn processes have four critical elements:

• A viable starting point: The first product should not be perfect, but merely “good enough.” In startup lingo, the company should aim for a “minimum viable product”–an MVP–that generates sufficient interest among users to get them to try it and provide reactions.
• One or more feedback loops: Once the initial trial is underway, the company needs a way to collect information from users and channel it to those who will work to improve the offering.
• A process for redesigns/revisions: The team needs a process for incorporating useful feedback into the next design of the product. After redesign, it can then be market-tested again and more feedback gained for another iteration.
• Some stopping rule: A rule is needed to avoid endless fine-tuning and wasting time on dead ends. At some point, either the product is good to go (despite some imperfections) or managers must pull the plug.⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)