We chose the name Rock Crusher for integrating our patterns of successful backlog management because rock crushing in the mining industry offers a really good mental model for imagining active value management. In mining, value management is quickly processing vast amounts of mineral-bearing rocks to find perhaps a few kilograms, even just a few grams of valuable ore. Big ideas must be crushed and refined into smaller chunks that downstream processing can pull without overflowing or clogging. Excessive overburden must be discarded. During the rock crushing process, additional milling may be needed to find the ore, so heavy steel balls are added to the crushing process.
The name Rock Crusher emerged from a conversation in a New Jersey bar about 12 years ago. During that conversation, I was explaining backlog management to a client on the back of a beer mat. They had significant experience in mining and exclaimed, “Oh, now I get it! It’s just like rock crushing! You should draw it like this,” and he proceeded to sketch what we today are calling the Rock Crusher on that beer mat.
