Naomi: "Disrupted"

What strategy did we use to keep our book realistic? The Enneagram. Heard of it?

We wanted our book to be true to life so we based every character on one of the 9 Enneagram personality types. Then we chose real people from our pasts and asked ourselves, "What would they do/say?"

Then we layered multiple people and similar situations together to intentionally protect the innocent. So while everything in the book did happen, "any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental."

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An excerpt from "Shift: from Product to People", Chapter 2, "Launch Missiles!":

“Naomi, are you alright?” It took a few seconds before Evah’s words regis tered in Naomi’s mind. “Naomi? Should I call somebody?”

“What?” said Naomi, finally. She noticed that she was still holding the phone in her hand, even though she obviously wasn’t talking with anyone any more.

“Ok. Good,” said Evah. “You’re back. Are you alright?”

“Sure,” Naomi replied, putting the phone back into its cradle, “Why?”

Evah looked concerned, so Naomi quickly followed, “What’s that look for?”

“I’ve actually been standing here for a couple minutes already,” Evah said with care in her voice. “I’m guessing you’ve seen this article, then? I was afraid something like this would happen.”

Naomi was battling the urge to go get another latte. A “Two-Latte Morning” was never a good morning, and this was definitely not going to be a good morning, or day, or sprint, or quarter — or life, probably. “Let’s go to the lobby,” she told Evah.

“So you have seen it,” Evah confirmed. “I can’t believe they would do this to us! I mean, we just talked with them last month about joining our network, and then they go and steal our idea! How did they get it built so fast!?”

“Yeah, I just got off the phone with Legal,” Naomi responded. “They said that they already have plans to go after Intuition Bank for breaking the non-disclosure agreements, but they also said that any legal action would take a long time and may not be successful.”

Naomi had been talking with Intuition Bank for months now, trying to bring them on board as an early adopter for their personal banking app, ‘Breeze’. “They seemed so interested, but it was all a ruse,” she said to Evah. “Those traitors were just stealing valuable information for

their competing product. How dare they steal my product!!! They even stole the name! ‘Cynch’? Really? All they did was probably just open a thesaurus to the page for ‘breeze’ and grab the first word that they could spell!!”

This set Evah off on her own rant. She was one of those friends that, no matter what the topic, would immediately rally to your side and join the protest. Evah’s rants always gave Naomi a burst of much-needed hope, but not this time. Naomi wasn’t really listening. At this moment, Evah was a wall of background noise. It was a terrible thing to think, Naomi knew, but still true. Evah always repeated herself enough that catching up with the conversation wouldn’t be a problem. And, as a bonus, with Evah talking, no one else walking by was stopping in with their own version of “I told you so.” She could see in their faces that they wanted to.

“Well, I’m not going to let Intuition get away with this,” Naomi said, interrupting Evah’s train of thought. “I am going to make them pay!”

Evah switched gears without missing a step. “Should we pay? Maybe we should just buy Intuition?” Evah asked.

“No,” Naomi replied. “We already explored that but hit two obstacles. Intuition doesn’t need money and is protected by wealthy investors, and they already made it publicly clear that they didn’t want to be bought by an ‘old and stodgy’ firm like her company. Our only option would be a hostile takeover.”

“Ohh! I like it!” said Evah, encouragingly, as she punched the button for the elevator.

“We’re beyond that now,” Naomi replied as they got on. “Breeze is already the premiere app for peer-to-peer transactions over ten thousand dollars. We were first to market, and we can hold that position! And we have the best product! Intuition Bank can take their new Cynch app and go...” DING!!! The elevator doors opened into the lobby.

“Good morning, Naomi! Hi Evah!” said Linda, the new Program Manager for the delivery teams, standing in front of them with a cup of coffee in each hand.

Linda’s nervously-smiling face was always genuinely friendly, and that put a smile on Naomi’s face. She definitely needed allies right now. But she also needed to stay focused. “Good is not the word I’d use today,” muttered Naomi as she briskly exited the elevator and headed directly

for the coffee line.

“So she’s not taking it well?” Linda asked Evah before calling after Naomi. “Naomi, I got you this grande half-caf latte with three pumps of pumpkin. ‘Pumps of pumpkin.’ I always chuckle when I say that,” she grinned.

“Thank you, Linda,” answered Naomi without stopping, “but I think this calls for a double espresso shot.”

“Oof, I hear ya!” puffed Linda in agreement as she fell in step with Naomi and Evah.

“Can I have the extra coffee?” asked Evah.

“Sure!” smiled Linda and handed her the cup.

Three of the programmers were standing in line as Naomi strode up. They respectfully stepped back and offered to let her go ahead. Naomi continued strategizing, “With the new security features we can now fully onboard new users even if they’re not our existing customers. This will allow us to go viral. Imagine all of our thousands of existing users now able to add customers for us. We’ll dominate the market, and Intuition Bank’s copycat Cynch app will fade off into obscurity.”

“The usual?” asked the barista.

“No. I’m going with a venti double-shot with white mocha,” countered Naomi.

“Ok, that’s one large latte with two shots of espresso and four pumps of white mocha syrup,” recorded the barista.

“Wait.” Naomi couldn’t make up her mind. “How can I lead a team if I can’t even make a decision about coffee,” she thought. “Go with your gut,” she told herself.

“No, I’ll stick with that,” she decided out loud.

The barista followed up, “Ok. Anything else?”

“Nope, that’s it,” said Naomi, followed by a long, audible exhale.

“Good choice,” she heard from a male voice to her right. She knew that voice, and she shuddered internally, her eyes rolling back in her head slightly. The barista gracefully made her exit to start the drink as Naomi turned to face Don. He continued, “Did you hear about Intuition

Bank? God, that sucks!”

“Yes, Don,” replied Naomi. “I did. What happened? I thought you said they were ‘locked and loaded’, that they were ‘definitely in the game’. Well, it definitely seems like they’re in the game, but they’re locked and loaded and pointing the gun at us!” she retorted with frustration.

“Woah, that’s a pretty violent game you’ve got going there,” chortled Don, having a little too much fun at Naomi’s expense for her taste.

A muffled scream escaped Naomi’s lips. “Well,” Naomi asserted, “you were in charge of the negotiations with Intuition Bank.” No attempts at humor were going to work on her this morning.

“This is how the sales game is played, Naomi,” interjected Don. “You know this.”

Naomi rolled her eyes and stewed quietly. Even more than the failure of losing Intuition as a customer, Naomi was also just really tired of all of Don’s sports analogies.

Don continued, “Intuition was using us for research. They’re jerks. They’re the ones you should be angry with. You were there in those meetings. They were soooo interested. They thought we were ‘really onto something.’ They would ‘love to get into the game.’ But they were just planning to start their own team. No! I say screw them! They can eat our dust.”

Naomi calmed herself. “No need to be mad at Don,” she thought. “You’re going to need all the allies that you can get.”

“Besides,” Don added, “we’re going to smoke them now that we can add new users entirely through the app! Everybody I’ve been talking to has lit up when I’ve told them that,” he said, smiling broadly.

Naomi was startled. “Oh, no. Who have you been telling about the onboarding features? We haven’t released them yet! Did you tell Intuition?”

Don started to back-peddle, “Hey, it’s on the Roadmap, and all of my customers are talking about how none of their friends can create an account from within the app. Of course I’m going to tell people that that pain point is going away real soon... But... I didn’t talk about it with Intuition.”

“Naomi!” called the other barista, “Order for Naomi!”

Evah inserted herself, “How about we take this party back upstairs?” Naomi started to look around. “Oh, god,” she thought. “Everybody is staring at me.” The programmers were whispering, probably about her. The security guards were giving her the side-eye. Even the latte machine was steaming in concert. She gathered herself, “Come on, Don. Let’s go upstairs and strategize. We’ve got this. Let’s figure out how to blow Intuition out of the water!” Naomi led the vanguard back to the elevator, four warriors with their four lattes.

“That’s right!” agreed Evah.

“Yeah!” added Linda. “This is so exciting...like a war! It’s like Earth versus Mars! Breeze team, assemble!”

“What are you talking about, Linda?” asked Evah.

“That book I was telling you about,” replied Linda. “Remember? ‘The Expanse’ by… it’s two authors but they combined their names… Corey… James! James S.A. Corey. They made it into a TV show. It’s set in the future, after we’ve colonized Mars. The planets are at war...”

Naomi also had no idea what Linda was talking about, but the conversation filled up the elevator which gave her time to think as they ascended back to the ninth floor. It would not be easy, but it was doable. This was just going to require changes. And big moves. And an idea was already forming. She’d have to kill Roy’s project, and Roy was going to hate her for it, but Roy already hated her. But if she could get Tim on board, then with the backing of a VP she could probably make it happen. Tim had always respected her decisions. He was the one that put her in charge of the project in the first place. Naomi had made a lot of money for Tim in her previous job, and she was pretty sure that was why he got his Executive VP job.

In the background, Linda was still going, “You really should watch it. I think your son would love it! It’s very smart...and educational. The authors really try to make sure that all the details are completely accurate. They, like, talk to NASA scientists and physicists and all. Read it, watch it, whatever. Just check it out. In this last chapter that ‘proto-molecule’ I was talking about escapes and starts wreaking havoc...”