Transcript
Agile SuperchargedScaling Agile as a Business Change Tool
James Yoxall – IndigoblueKevin Heery – IPC MediaAgile Business Conference
Lean Objective SettingLean Delivery = Better Products Faster
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Agile at IPC
• ‘Doing Agile’ for 5 years• Scrum and Kanban teams• Development process was Agile• Business process wasn’t Agile• Engaged with IndigoBlue in May
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Vanity Metrics
wedopublishing.com
Business model: display advertising
Performance Metrics: Page Impressions / Unique Visitors
2011 Average: 5m Page Impressions / 1m Unique Visitors
2012 Average Target: 7.5m Page Impressions / 1.5m Unique Visitors
What should they do?SEO Newsletter optimisation More frequent news updates SEM
New video channel Launch a Facebook app Get into the Apple storeBuild relationships with influential bloggers Launch a forum Make a game
Acquire wedopublishingtoo.com
But What do we do First?
Don’t Know?The Data tells us how we’re performingNot how to perform better
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Measuring Customers not Products
Pioneered by the new social games giants:
• Acquisition (Cost per Acquisition - CPA)– How do I get the right audience to turn
up for the least amount of money
• Retention– How do I persuade them to come back
of their own accord, so I don’t have to pay to get them again
• Monetisation (LifeTime Value - LTV)– How do I persuade them to buy stuff or
do other things that make me money
• If I get CPA < LTV and my audience is still growing…
• … I sell my company for $250m
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Publishing Site Customer Journey
Recruitment Referral
Awareness
Acquisition
Engagement
Monetisation
Retention
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
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Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
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Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
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Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
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Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
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Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Objective Setting
Top Rank Objective
Trigger Objective
KPIs• Google Page Load Time
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
What Should IPC Do Differently?
• Business Process• Measure customer journey and identify strategic gaps . Objectives are for
filling gaps• Run objective review and KPI setting sessions at least every 3 months
– Attendees should include PD, Editorial, Marketing, Sales rep, Product Manager and FULL development team
• Reduce objectives list to 3 max - better to act on one at a time• For each objective, decide on a max of 2 KPIs (use %s, not volume numbers)• Communicate objectives and KPIs to EVERYONE involved• Put someone in charge of each one. Editor? Marketer? Sales Exec? Product
Manager?• Review performance versus KPIs at least every 3 weeks
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
What should IPC do differently?
• 1st Loop– Getting the MVP
live
• Every other loop– Testing– Optimising– QUICKLY
Product team debate how to improve
performance
Product team debate how to improve
performance
NoYes
Agree the business objective
Agree the business objective
Establish a measure of performance
Establish a measure of performance
Measure performance
Objective achieved?
Measure performance
Objective achieved?
List ideas and prioritise
[value vs effort]
List ideas and prioritise
[value vs effort]
Start with top priority
Start with top priority
Agree minimum
viable product
Agree minimum
viable product
Build and launch
Build and launch
Grand Design vs. Incremental Development
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Grand Design Approach
Develop a Product Vision that fulfils an
Objective
Launch
Move on to next objective
Build feature A2Build feature A2
Build feature A3Build feature A3
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Build feature A1Build feature A1
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Build feature A1Build feature A1
Build feature A2Build feature A2
MVP
Build Feature A3
Build Feature A4
Incremental Approach
Develop a Product Vision that fulfils an
Objective
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Agree Assumptions and measures to
testAgree MVP
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Launch
Move on to next objective
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasureBuild feature A3Build feature A3
Pivot?
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Pivot?Build feature A3Build feature A3
Persevere
Persevere
Persevere
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Getting Value Early
Develop a Product Vision that fulfils an
Objective
Build feature A1Build feature A1
Build feature A2Build feature A2
Build feature A3Build feature A3
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Agree Assumptions and measures to
testAgree MVP
Build feature A3Build feature A3
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasure
Pivot?
Pivot?
Persevere
Persevere
MVP
Persevere
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Failing Fast
Develop a Product Vision that fulfils an
Objective
Build feature A1Build feature A1
Build feature A2Build feature A2
Build feature A3Build feature A3
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Agree Assumptions and measures to
testAgree MVP
Build feature A3Build feature A3
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Build feature A4Build feature A4
Launch
Move on to next objective
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasure
Launch andMeasure
Pivot?
Pivot?
Persevere
Persevere
MVP
Persevere
STOP
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Prior Agile Whiteboard
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New Board - Objectives, KPIs and Target
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New Board - Validating Column
and they’re already winning!
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New Board - What worked and what didn’t?
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And what did we do that we knew wouldn’t help our objective!?
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Measure VALUE as well as Effort
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5
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Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6
Unplanned / No KPI
Planned
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Optimisation Tools
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Optimisation Analytics
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Optimisation Analytics
40% increase in sign ups
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
James Yoxall
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Specific Changes at IPC
• Create a structured approach to planning and prioritising change• Highlight the volume of non-strategic work• Build measurement and validation into each story• Be explicit about assumptions and underline the need for experiments
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Wider Considerations
• This was a mature Agile team, and yet …– “Waste” in the system occurs when work done does not achieve the intend result– Or when more work is done than necessary achieve result or fail the experiment– The team was overly focused on solution and velocity– Focus on BUSINESS VALUE was “outside the room”
• Was the team not doing Agile “properly”?– Was the Product Owner not fulfilling their role?
• How can you tell whether a team is doing Agile “properly”?
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
A Reminder of the Past
• The “development factory” – a recent real-world example– Optimise development to minimise cost– Focus on rigorous entry criteria
• Impact on the wider system– Projects spend a long time preparing to start development– Deployment cycle times (for new systems) measured in years– Development capability is lagging behind business expansion– The board considers IT to be “broken”
• To Agile eyes– The difficult work is being shifted outside the “system”– There is a disconnect from business value– Development is being batched up– Optimisation is not across all the activities required to deliver value
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Key Message - Don’t “Do” Agile
• Agile is not a set of activities• Agile is a different way of thinking about how an organisation achieves its
aims, with intended benefits– More business value– Less risk– Shorter release cycles– Higher quality
• Agile is a set of concepts and a toolbox of techniques– We are constantly improving our understanding of what organisations want and
how Agile thinking enables that– We are inventing new tools all the time– Scrum is just one particular toolbox – it is a good first step on a journey
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Don’t Stop With the Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan
• The manifesto (partially) describes the way of thinking …– … not the benefits to the business– It is related to activities
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
Be Clear About the Boundaries of the System
• Optimising part of a system may negatively impact the whole system• It’s not just about IT delivery, but …
– Agile initiatives are often IT-led (can the tail wag the dog?)– The Product Owner is a very simplistic way of extending the boundaries beyond IT– Apart from “being available”, it is very unclear how the business should think
differently• A process that assumes the wrong boundary will be the wrong process• Provide specific tools to widen the system
– Understand the objectives, constraints and concerns of the wider systems (“the business”)
– “Explain” to the wider system how they need to think differently, and how that will benefit their objectives
– Provide specific tools to support effective business engagement- Decision-making- Governance
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
How the Business Needs to Think Differently
• Incremental Planning– Clarity on the meaning of “value”– How to achieve it early and often– Build in the ability to “pivot”
• Uncertainty Management– What don’t we know and how are we going to address it?– Up-front approaches
- Investigation and analysis- Assumption- Assigned ownership
– Alternatives- Experiment and feedback
– Uncertainty and risk- Reducing uncertainty too late increases risk- Reducing uncertainty too early increases risk
– The interface to the supplier is not just about Solution
© 2012 IndigoBlue Consulting Limited
In Conclusion
• Definition of a novice: "rigid adherence to taught rules or plans“– From the “Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition”
• Many teams who have learned Agile successfully are now needing support to get to the next level of adoption
• A key area of focus is widening the scope of the system to include the business• This introduces a number of challenges which require new Agile tools, e.g.
– Delegation models and authority structures– Rapid decision-making structures– Agile governance frameworks
Thank You
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