8 lessons learned from becoming agile ESTONIA Marko Taipale

Visited 13 companies Coached 2 agile transitions and 10+ teams Co-founded 1 Lean startup Trained over 300 people

Failed enough to tell stories Succeeded enough to show results

1. Why do you want to be agile ? 2. How to reach business agility ? 3. Organization as a people system

1. Why do you want to be agile ? (Being = respect the values and principles)

80% had no goal for being agile no method to reach the goal … no way to measure if they were getting any better

No Goal – No chance to Score

Lesson #1 Set a goal for being agile, otherwise you achieve nothing (It’s ok to figure it out...)

“What does method X say about Y?”

“What does method X say about Y?” Collaborate!

Lesson #2 Commit to agile values and principles; your practices will follow Craft your own process

Pilot, Scale, Optimize

Pilot, Scale, Optimize

Pilot, Scale, Optimize OR 1)Visualize the value stream 2)Fix the way you manage product development 3)Continuous Improvement

Pilot, Scale, Optimize OR 1)Visualize the value stream 2)Fix the way you manage product development 3)Continuous Improvement Multiple ways so what’s the point?

Pilots are not about proving if agile works Forward motion is often thought as progress

Lesson #3 Pilot is about learning …not “working software” … not about getting results Continuous Improvement

Make the cycle as short as possible

A way of learning 5 whys There are no technical problems only human problems

Lesson #1 You need to have a SMART goal Lesson #2 Commit to agile values and principles; your practices will follow Lesson #3 Progress is about learning

2. How to reach business agility ?

”Agile teams need to value adaptability over predictability ” - Someone in Twitter

Lesson #4 Business agility is about having adaptability and predictability - My experience

” Where do I get the backlog?” what to build

“No plan survives first contact with the customers” - Steven Blank

Customer Discovery Customer Validation Customer Creation Scale Company Customer Development

Customer Discovery Customer Validation Customer Creation Scale Company Agile Product Development Agile Product Development Data, feedback, Insights Hypotheses, experiments, insights Customer Development

Customer Discovery Customer Validation Customer Creation Scale Company Agile Product Development Agile Product Development Data, feedback, Insights Hypotheses, experiments, insights Customer Development Problem Team Solution Team

“Should I do whatever my customers want me to do?”

Lesson #5 Create product vision and validate it with customer development Vision = a boundary for her wishes

Is agile about delivering features as fast as possible?

Who cares about velocity? We can work on highest priority story – who cares? Nr 1 waste = Unused features Building a feature maybe the wrong answer

It is not about how much but rather how little you can release M inimum V iable P roduct

Lesson #6 Find your Minimum Viable Product It should make you feel embarrassed

“It's the things that are not there that we are most proud of"

Lesson #4 Business agility is about having adaptability and predictability Lesson #5 Create product vision and validate it with customer development Lesson #6 Find your Minimum Viable Product

3. Organization as a people system

”We have Scrum but we are still slow!”

Development Design Customer approval Internal approval Idea ResourcingDeployment

Development 2m Design 1m Customer approval 2h Internal approval 2h Idea Resourcing 1d Deployment 3w

Development 2m 15 Design ready 6m 1w Design 1m Customer approval 2h 2d Internal approval 2h Idea 6m Resourcing 1d 8 Selected ideas Deployment 3w 12 Production ready 6m

Development 2m 15 Design ready 6m 1w Design 1m Customer approval 2h 2d Internal approval 2h Idea 6m Resourcing 1d 8 Selected ideas Deployment 3w 12 Production ready 6m SCRUM!

Development 2m 15 Design ready 6m 1w Design 1m Customer approval 2h 2d Internal approval 2h Idea 6m Resourcing 1d 8 Selected ideas Deployment 3w 12 Production ready 6m SCRUM!

Optimize the whole Lesson #7 Beware sub-optimization Visualize the value stream Identify bottleneck Limit WIP on all levels Incentives are bad!

Adoption is about letting problems to surface Manage the system, remove chance for failure, make it flow

Smell: The fear of being vulnerable Leader: Go First

Smell: The fear of being vulnerable Leader: Go First Smell: The desire to preserve artificial harmony Leader: Mine for Conflict

Smell: The fear of being vulnerable Leader: Go First Smell: The desire to preserve artificial harmony Leader: Mine for Conflict Smell: The lack of clarity or buy-in Leader: Force Clarity and Closure

Smell: The fear of being vulnerable Leader: Go First Smell: The desire to preserve artificial harmony Leader: Mine for Conflict Smell: The lack of clarity or buy-in Leader: Force Clarity and Closure Smell: The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort Leader: Confront Difficult Issues

Smell: The fear of being vulnerable Leader: Go First Smell: The desire to preserve artificial harmony Leader: Mine for Conflict Smell: The lack of clarity or buy-in Leader: Force Clarity and Closure Smell: The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort Leader: Confront Difficult Issues Smell: The pursuit of individual goals and status Leader: Focus on Collective Outcomes

Lesson #8 Build great teams

I help companies to improve by showing what I have done how I have done it and what I have learned about it. I am a CTO of a lean startup Marko huitale.blogspot.com

1.Why do you want to be agile ? L1: Set a goal for being agile or you achieve nothing L2: Commit to agile values and principles; your practices will follow L3: Piloting is learning. Learning is progress. 2. How to reach business agility ? L4: Business agility is about having adaptability and predictability L5: Create product vision and validate it with customer development L6: Find your Minimum Viable Product 3. Organization as a people system L7: Optimize the whole L8: Build great teams

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