This is the (long overdue) translation of my opening keynote at the Italian Agile Day. I just presented it for IASA Ireland (International Association Software Architects).
The a3thinker.com iphone/ipad app I mentioned (on Lean problem solving, 5 Whys, etc) went on sale on the Apple store on Mar 18. The A3 Thinker's Action Deck (physical cards) is going to be on sale shortly...and it is just awesome ;-)
5. Despite all the best intentions, however,
Bringing projects to “success” always
required heroic efforts
6. … And the risk of failing to meet
customer expectations was high
“
Software and cathedrals are much
the same – first we build them,
then we pray.
--- Samuel T. Redwine, Jr.
15. The revolution was represented by the
“inspect & adapt” approach to development
16. Our culture was based on “empowerment”
rather than “command & control”
17. We crafted opinionated software
“The best software
has a vision.
The best software
takes sides.
…
Decide what
your vision is and run with it.”
-- 37 signals
39. er…Alternatively, you can buy a bunch of
cool cloud-based enterprise 2.0 solutions
and/or send your people to a “certified
scrum gladiator”tm course.
40. Teams gained the support of Entreprise
transition communities, communities of
practice and improvement workgroups
Improvement
backlog
Enterprise
Transition
Community (ETC)
Process Definition
Workgroup
..
Continuous Integration
Workgroup
..
Architecture
CoP
..
Scrum
CoP
…
Automated testing
CoP
…
etc
41. Customers
Lean destroyed the myth that splitting work
Kaizen
Current State Value-Stream Map
in big batches improves the economies xx to yy (high season)
Period calculated: from of
Acme Reinsurance
Push arrow
F: 200/month
scale.
Date: xxx
inbox
Author: Claudio Perrone
Average: 10/day
Pull arrow
Proc. Lead Time: 71.75h
Non VAT
3d
Value Adding Time (VAT)
0.25h
2d
2.5d
5h
2h
1h
1h
Calculate
premium
2h
Submit
quote
Proc. Efficiency 12.9%
Train on
Kanban
pulling
Reinsurance placement
Request for
reinsurance
Register
20jobs
Clean &
analyze
data
FIFO
Reduce
batch
sizes
10jobs
$ value
Calculate
risk
2jobs
due date
Clarify
classes of
service
C/T too
long
Setup
Kanban
board
5jobs
Improve
system
validation
Total Cycle Time: 9.25h
42. … And provided many “tools” to obliterate
Customers
the competition
Future State Value-Stream Map
Period calculated: from xx to yy (high season)
Acme Reinsurance
Date: xxx
F: 200/month
Pull arrow
Author: Claudio Perrone
Average: 10/day
Proc. Lead Time: 46.25h
Non VAT
2d
Value Adding Time (VAT)
0.25h
1d
1.5d
4h
2h
1h
2h
1h
Calculate
premium
Submit
quote
Proc. Efficiency 17.8%
Train on
Kanban
pulling
Reinsurance placement
Request for
reinsurance
Register
MAX
5 jobs
Reduce
batch
sizes
Clean &
analyze
data
MAX
4 jobs
Calculate
risk
MAX
2jobs
Clarify
classes of
service
C/T too
long
Setup
Kanban
board
MAX
2jobs
Improve
system
validation
Total Cycle Time: 8.25h
43. I Integrated the kanban method to enable an
evolutionary approach to change
44. KANBAN enabled the introduction of agility in
otherwise unsuitable contexts
Development
Ordered
Backlog
3
6
Rq.
Fixed
DOD
DOR
Expedite
1
PreTesting
CD
Ready
Smoke Test
PreTested
Done
DOD
Integration
Done
Integration Team
(Complex configuration)
DOD
54. And I would add…
“
Let’s design systems as if tomorrow
we were more stupid than today.
--- Claudio Perrone
55. “At Toyota, improving and managing are one
and the same”
Traditional thinking:
Normal daily management
+
improvement
Toyota’s thinking:
Normal daily management
=
Process improvement
56. “you manage things, you lead people”
“
There are three kinds of leaders.
Those who tell you what to do.
Those who allow you to do what you
want.
And lean leaders who come down to
the work and help you figure it out.
--- John Shook, Chairman & CEO, Lean Enterprise Institute
57. During my work with “a3 thinking”, a Toyota
management process to systematically solve
problems, improve and mentor…
58. I discovered that a3 thinking = Lean thinking, a
vivid expression of the scientific method!
59. “The Lean revolution gave a purpose and method
to management”
“
I want you to use your own heads.
And I want you actively to train
your people on how to think for
themselves.
--- Eiji Toyoda
60. “Hence, I offer you my own definition”
“
Lean is a business strategy
to make money*
THROUGH
the development of people
(*) replace with “create customer value” or “achieve
results”, if you prefer
61. Using Lean and agile, I brought operational
excellence to many clients, from large
enterprises to fast-growing companies around
Europe
66. ... A world that recognized the extraordinary
challenges I once faced
“
A startup is a human institution
designed to create new products
and services under conditions of
extreme uncertainty.
--- Eric Ries
67. It gave me a path to create a sustainable
business around products that customers want
data,
feedback,
insights
Customer development
PROBLEM/
SOLUTION
FIT
Customer
discovery
PRODUCT/
MARKET
FIT
Customer
validation
stop
stop
SCALE
Customer
creation
stop
Company
building
Lean & Agile
development
Pivot
hypothesis,
experiments,
insights
Problem: Unknown
solution:
Unknown
68. ... A path characterized by frequent scientific
experiments…
Learn
Build
(establish an
hypothesis)
(Build an experiment
to test that hypothesis)
Measure
(Determine a quantitative or qualitative method to evaluate that hypothesis.)
69. … To accelerate the rate of learning…
Learn
idea
(whether to pivot
or persevere)
Build
(Turn ideas into product)
(often a series of
MVPs)
data
Product
Measure
(How customers respond)
70. … And measure real progress towards success
Acquisition
Activation
retention
revenue
referral
How do users find you?
Do users have a great first experience?
Do users come back?
How do you make money?
Do user tell others?
( see Dave McClure
“Pirate” metrics)
Cohort analysis
71. “
It is not the employer who pays the
wages. Employers only handle the
money. It is the customer who pays
the wages
--- Henry Ford
73. I document my business model(s) explicitly
Top 3
Problems
Existing
alternatives
Solution
Key metrics
Cost structure
www.leancanvas.com
Unique
Value
Proposition
Unfair
Advantage
Channels
Revenue streams
Customer
Segments
Early
adopters
74. my vision is built on opinions untested
assumptions
75. … which I systematically validate with
experiments…
77. …and gather data to verify whether my
actions affect customer behavior
IN PROGRESS
BACKLOGS
Observations/
INSIGHTS
Hypotheses
SELECTED
DESIGN/BUILD
EXPERIMENTS
PARTIAL
ROLLOUT
DONE
VALIDATE
QUALITATIVELY
VALIDATED
LEARNING
FULL
ROLLOUT
VERIFY
QUANTITATIVELY
DONE
DONE
78. specifically...
I execute tasks
To develop features
That are part of experiments
That I run to validate hypotheses
That I formulate thanks to
observations about the world that
surrounds us.
79. I Use A3 thinking to systematically
focus on the “one metric that matters”
in the current stage of my business
Target
Increase conversion rate
from 8% to 10%
by Mar 31st 2013
80. I validate my solutions, OFTEN with low fidelity MVPs
81. … and Activate enthusiastic earlyvangelists with a
glimpse of a future that will come
82. … until, of course, my next pivot
www.a3thinker.com