Demand shaping for a two-country launch
You are BRM for a specialist retailer with £300m revenue. It plans to launch in two new countries in nine months and has asked IT for 'a copy of the current order management system with local tax and language rules'. You know the current system is mid-way through a funded £2.4m upgrade, that a copy will fork the codebase and double run costs, and that the vendor's roadmap already includes multi-currency and multi-tax support in the next release. The business sponsor has a fixed launch date tied to a lease and a marketing spend, and a budget that assumes the copy. He regards IT as an order-taker and has already told the programme board that the copy is 'agreed'. You have one week before the board.
1. How do you intervene without simply blocking the launch?
Read the worked answer
Intervene before the board, not at it.
- Meet the sponsor privately and start with the launch date and the lease, not the codebase.
- Put three options on one page: the copy (cost, time, three-year run cost, fork risk), the roadmap release (timing risk against the date), and an interim localisation layer that meets the launch and migrates to the release later.
- Quantify the fork: duplicate run costs, two upgrade paths, and the vendor support implications. A number is harder to dismiss than an architectural objection.
- Ask what must be true for the date to hold, and work backwards. If the date is immovable, the interim option is the honest conversation.
- Correct the record with the programme board before the meeting: the copy was not agreed, it was requested. Saying this in the room makes the sponsor defensive; saying it beforehand makes it a fact.
2. What does demand shaping look like here, and how do you record it?
Read the worked answer
Demand shaping is not refusing demand; it is changing its form, volume or timing before it becomes a commitment.
- Shape the form: from a system copy to a localisation layer plus roadmap release.
- Shape the timing: launch on the interim option; migrate when the release lands.
- Shape the volume: question whether both countries need the full order model on day one.
Record it as demand with options, cost, risk and a decision, not as an email rejection. The record should show that the need was understood and that the sponsor chose from real alternatives. That protects the relationship when the option fails, and it gives the portfolio a truthful view of demand rather than a sanitised one. A demand record that contains only the approved option is a filing cabinet, not a relationship tool.
3. The board overrules you and approves the system copy. What do you do next?
Read the worked answer
Accept the decision and change what you do next.
- Record the risk and the conditions in the decision log, without editorialising: the fork cost, the upgrade path, the vendor implications, and the date on which the decision should be revisited.
- Set triggers: the roadmap release date slipping, run costs exceeding a threshold, or the second country launch.
- Negotiate the mitigations you can still get: a design that limits the fork, a funded migration path, and a review at a named milestone.
- Do not withdraw. A BRM who becomes detached after losing a decision confirms the sponsor's view that IT only engages when it agrees.
The relationship test is not whether you win; it is whether the sponsor comes back with the next demand before committing, rather than after.