Part 1 - Build
We build Flind, supported by a vibrant community
Our cause is to make the maritime industry sustainable. The first two steps we need to take in order to achieve this cause, is to build Flind and Mr. Communability. We are guided by a set of principles we call non-negotiables. One of these principles is “Everything is a Project”. We can use that principle to make us a short-term plan for Mr. Sustainability, which is shown below.
This plan is but a guideline that aims to validate (or discredit) our value hypotheses as quickly as possible. More important than following a plan, is to become a flexible organization that adapts to new market realities faster than others. This trumps following the below plan to the letter.
Key Milestones
> What we need to achieve before we can go to the next level (in a not-so-specific order)
Mr. Sustainability needs to become a sustainable organization on its own. In order to achieve this, the following is needed.
- Make Mr. Sustainability into an official non-profit (stichting).
- Make the foundations for this non-profit organization to grow. That means the cause, non-negotiables and the plan are clear for everyone and people can easily contribute or become a part of the organization.
- Establish a proper functioning Virtual Office.
- Gather a crew.
- Build Flind (see below).
- Build Mr. Communability (see below).
Desired Result 1 - Flind
Our aim is to create a dashboard that gives you free insights on your vessel energy consumption and emissions. It helps you to determine what you can do to decarbonize, how you can do this, and how much it would cost. All for free.
Main milestones are described in Meet Flind.
Desired Result 2 - Mr. Communability
Our aim is to create a vibrant community of 150+ sustainable doers in the maritime industry who are sharing, helping and collaborating on sustainable solutions in the industry.
A timeline will be inserted here.
Guidelines
> Parameters within we operate, also: what to do and what NOT to do
- We are guided by our cause and values - curiosity, courage and collaboration.
- We are guided by the set of non-negotiables that we have described.
- We use a Virtual Office - Teams environment - to do the work in.
- We have a weekly meeting on Wednesday morning 08:00 with the captains and a monthly meeting with the entire crew including pirates.
- Main method of communication internally is via the Virtual Office (Teams). We also use Whatsapp and communicate via the existing platforms on Squarespace and Toolbox for Mr. Sustainability and Mr. Communability respectively.
- Our roles and responsibilities are described in the crewing blog.
- Unless stated otherwise, the Informed Captain decides, see rule 2 - Everything is Decided.
Resources
> Which resources - human, financial, technical, organizational, knowledge - can we use?
Financial resources are limited. Assume none. Be creative. The only limitation is your own imagination.
Our main resources are open-source tools, in particular Team, Squarespace, Toolbox and all the other tools we use to make, write and create stories, tools and databases.
Internal organizational knowledge of Mr. Sustainability and Communability is shown in our about section and internal stories. Unless stated otherwise, the publicly listed sources of information on these sites are considered the single-source of truth and trump any information or copies otherwise stated in the Virtual Office environment.
We only use the organizational knowledge of the companies we work for when it is considered open-source and publicly available.
Great tools to increase productivity that we use are: Fiverr.com, Balsamiq, Freelancer.com. These are used to your own discretion.
The only limitation is your own imagination.
Accountability
> Who makes the decisions, how are standards of performance evaluated and under which circumstances is the target reached?
Though responsibility is decentralized throughout the organization in line with our values and non-negotiables, Leadership is end responsible.
The decision making process is defined in the non-negotiable “Everything is Decided”.
Organizational structure is defined in the non-negotiable “Everything is Decentralized”.
The main standards, metrics or KPI that is used to evaluate performance of Mr. Sustainability and Communability has yet to be determined. Additionally, it is yet to be defined how project quality is measured and ensured.
The project is considered ‘finalized’ when we have made:
A Flind that is used by at least 8 clients and adds value to their organization (to be further defined).
- Mr. Communability has 150 users.
Upon ‘finalization’, the project moves on the next level.
Consequences
> When do we go to the next level?
We evolve to part 2 once both Flind and Mr. Communability are up and running. That is, we have achieved market fit and starting viral growth on both of them. The exact details of what defines market fit are to be defined later.
We are aiming for market fit for the 31st of December 2021. In order properly pass on to the next level, we would need to organize a ‘strategy weekend’ with the crew in which the goal is to evolve the cause (why), evolve the non-negotiables (how) according to rule 9, everything comes to an end, and evolve the plan (what). Also an updated overview on roles and responsibilities is required (who).
