Summary of Marina Nitze & Nick Sinai's Hack Your Bureaucracy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Bureaucracies are important and relevant, and they often provide employment to a significant portion of the world’s population. They are resistant to change, and they offer stability and continuity. They are not to be despised. -> bureaucracies are large organizations with hierarchy, rules, processes, and power. They are characterized by their complexity, division of labor, permanence, professional management, hierarchical coordination and control, and legal authority.

#2 Bureaucracies are unavoidable, and you’ll almost certainly end up working within one at some point in your life. They offer stability and continuity, and they can be quite important.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350029758

IRB Media

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Insights on Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai's Hack Your Bureaucracy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

A bureaucracy is a large organization with hierarchy, rules, processes, and power. While most people focus on the problems of dealing with a bureaucracy, few consider the benefits that the stability and continuity of a bureaucracy offers.

#2

Bureaucracies are all around us. They are the result of rules and process that were created for a reason. It’s easy to blame the person who created the current broken process, but in reality, they probably made the best decision they could at the time.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

To improve the value of college, President Obama created the College Scorecard, which ranks colleges based on how well their students graduate and earn money after graduation. But it was a difficult process that required understanding the behavior of students and their parents.

#2

The Department of Education worked with colleges to make the scorecard more useful to students. They realized that students didn’t care about the ability to compare schools, so they removed that feature.

#3

The College Scorecard data was finally making an impact. Three years later, the New York Times was singing a different tune: Despite the hand-wringing of many in academia, who saw the immeasurable richness of a college education crassly reduced to a dollar sign, the data has wrought a sea change in the way students and families evaluate prospective colleges.

#4

Companies that are obsessed with their customers are able to deeply understand their needs and desires. Large bureaucracies, on the other hand, are not necessarily designed to listen to and learn from their end users.

#5

After working at the VA, Marina was invited to spend an afternoon in Rhode Island talking to potential foster parents. She learned that potential parents were often confused about the process of becoming licensed, and thus dropped out.

#6

Going outside the building can help you have a outside perspective on an organization. This can be done by meeting with people, and recording their interactions, which can be used to demonstrate the benefits of a new system.

#7

Grounding your initiative in the context of real stories of real users will give you more than survey data. Your strongest competitive edge will come from immersing yourself among real customers, even if that isn’t part of your job description.

#8

You can talk to your customers through existing channels, such as customer support, customer service, or customer success groups. You can also talk to customers at conferences or trade shows.

#9

The UK government requires cabinet ministers to use a website or application before it launches to the public. This serves a few purposes. First, it allows the minister to identify any confusing aspects of the website or application, which can be revised before it publicly launches. Second, it gives the minister an up-close view of the digital experience he or she is responsible for.

#10

Mystery shopping can help you understand your customers’ experiences, and it can help you improve your product or service. It can also help you