The phases (Explore/Expand/Extract) derive from the risks we face. The big risk in Explore is that nobody cares. That’s why we put stuff out there quickly until something makes a difference to a customer. Our Service 100X project does not have the risk that nobody cares. People care a lot about Service 100X. People even care a little too much for comfort. But hey, this is the price for success.

What we have is an Expand project—high risk of failure, high risk of consequential learning, high cost of delay (really high), high risk of interruption by an even higher priority disaster-in-the-making. But also high value for success.