The Lean Startup© methodology has taken the business world by storm, and is revolutionizing product development through the application of a Build-Measure-Learn cycle, and the systematic application of techniques such as Customer Discovery, Customer Development, and Pirate Metrics. With agile teams in place, how can organizations now drive lean product innovation on their agile teams? How can we bootstrap product development with product roadmaps and business requirements that are truly aligned with end-user needs? Learn how to drive Lean Innovation on your agile teams by: _ Setting up clear, short-term experiments using the popular Lean Canvas tool; _ Structuring direct customer interaction through systematic customer interviews; _ Release planning informed by both qualitative & quantitative feedback through the design of actionable metrics; _ Generating user stories and acceptance criteria directly evolved from the above data; _ Creating a _dual-track_ of no- and low-cost UX prototyping in conjunction with agile delivery to reduce the cost of iteration while validating ideas and features; and _ Designing collaborative workspaces that enable tight collaboration and higher productivity through visual management, creative lighting, lounge space and other proven techniques. The Lean Startup© is a registered trademark of Eric Ries.

1. Driving Lean Innovation on Agile Teams
Presented by Sanjiv Augustine
Sanjiv.Augustine@LitheSpeed.com
@saugustine, @lithespeed

2. About Me
Sanjiv Augustine
•
•
•
•
President of LitheSpeed, LLC
Experience: 25 years industry, 13 years of
Agile, 10 years of Lean
Specialties: Agile, Lean, Innovation
Practitioner, entrepreneur, consultant,
trainer, author, speaker and community
organizer

3. Keys to Lean Innovation on Agile Teams
1.
Small, agile teams with the right people are
crucial to innovation
2.
When combined with Agile, Lean Startup &
Design Thinking are especially beneficial for
consumer-facing companies
3.
Scaling requires leadership to create
incubation environments where ideas can
collide, combine and evolve
4.
A disciplined Lean + Agile process that
facilitates Customer Development along with
Agile Delivery can drive world-class
innovation

4. Agenda
1. Sensei Story
2. Agile Blues, Lean
Startup
3. Lean + Agile Innovation
• Customer Discovery +
Validation
• Dual Track Development
• Notes for the Enterprise
“Life’s too short to
build something
nobody wants.”
- Ash Maurya, Lean
Entrpreneur, Author of
Running Lean

5. Our Sensei Story
http://www.senseitool.com

6. First, an Idea!
A tool to facilitate Continuous Improvement via the Scrum Retrospective
Sensei is an Agile retrospective tool by LitheSpeed.

7. Quickly built a prototype
7

8. And, we took it on the road
8

9. Everyone said this was the best thing since…

10. And so…
Lost a
Team, Got a
New Team
We built, built, built
And built some more

11. Build and they will come?
Customer
Discovery
Feature
Development

12. Now What?
• Solution crafted, few
customers
• No ideas on how best to
proceed
• Keep building?
• But… We’re almost out
of runway!

13. Agile Blues,
Lean Startup

14. Limitations of Agile
• Backlog items are not validated
per true end-user needs
• Critical reliance on the Product
Owner
• The Product Owner is not
infallible
• IT bias…fall back on what we
know: build, build, build

15. A Serendipitous Epiphany through Lean Startup
•
•
•
•
Steve Blank coined “customer
development” in the book “Four Steps
to the Epiphany”
Steve funded Eric Ries’s startup
company IMVU in 2004
In 2010, Alex Osterwalder wrote
“Business Model Generation”
In 2011, Eric wrote “The Lean Startup”

16. The Lean Startup Cycle:
Build-Measure-Learn
• Know your customer
• Start small
• Fail fast, learn fast
• Test relentlessly
• Seek customer validation at
all levels

17. Lean + Agile Innovation
•
•
•
Customer Discovery + Validation
Dual Track Development
Notes for the Enterprise

18. Lean + Agile Innovation Process
Find the right product
market fit…
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Valida3on
Pivot
Then execute and iterate
on it incrementally.
LEAN
FEATURE
VALIDATION
AND
ELABORATION
Product
Backlog
AGILE
FEATURE
DELIVERY
AND
RELEASE
Dual Track Development
Lean validation and design in parallel
with Agile delivery

19. Customer Discovery + Validation

20. Most Initial Business Models are Wrong
• PDA encryption software led to…
• The Game NeverEnding (a web-based
MMORPG) led to…

21. Test the Big Risks Cheaply…
Zappos hypothesized that people will
buy shoes online.
How did they
test this
assumption?
21
21

22. Two Central Lean Startup Concepts
The Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A “Minimum Viable Product” might be:
•
Learning: Onsite observation, fake
menus, ads
•
Pitching: Preorders, comparisons,
joint design
•
Experiencing: Concierge, prototypes
Later releases
focus on scaling
Early releases focus
on quickly & cheaply
testing ideas
The Pivot
Based on what you learn, you might:
•
Target another customer group
•
Target a different need
•
Expand or contract feature focus
•
Change platforms or architecture
•
Change channels

23. Lean Canvas to draft Business Model, drive
experiments
Thanks to Ash Maurya, LeanCanvas.com

24. Example Lean Canvas for Sensei
Sensei is an Agile retrospective tool by LitheSpeed. See www.senseitool.com

25. Overcoming the fear of being “salesy”

26. Watching users in action

27. Quantitative A/B & Multivariate Testing
Split (A/B) testing randomly presents users with competing
versions of specific application pages and features.
•
•
See what works best by running parallel experiments
Choose the winning option after appropriate time
Header
Sign up
form
Demo
movie
Story
58% of visitors
signed up
A
B
Header
Story
Demo
movie
Sign up
form
35% of visitors
signed up

28. A/B Testing
Adding the term “distributed teams” to the Value
Proposition resulted in a 60% increase in
registrations
28

29. Engaging the customer | Live Chat
29

30. The Pivot, Lessons Learned
•
•
•
•
•
•
Focus on distributed teams
Simplified workflow
Power versus casual users
Face-to-face customer feedback
Will you buy it? Customer validation is
crucial to product market fit
Agile delivery with a trusted team is a
must!
30

31. Lean + Agile Innovation Process
Find the right
product market fit…
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Valida3on
Pivot
Then execute and iterate
on it incrementally.
LEAN
FEATURE
VALIDATION
AND
ELABORATION
Product
Backlog
AGILE
FEATURE
DELIVERY
AND
RELEASE
Dual Track Development
Lean Validation and Design in
parallel with Agile delivery

32. Dual-Track Development

33. We Learn Fast and Iterate
Iterating allows you to move
from vague idea to validation,
realization and ongoing
enhancement.
1
2
3
4
5

34. Parallel Collaborative Design & the Design Studio
Describe
Key
Goals &
Context
Select
Designs
to
Iterate
Steal
Ideas &
Try
Again
2-3
cycles
Sketch
Designs
Independent
ly
Share
Designs
Design Studio Approach
Benefits:
• Rapid idea generation &
iteration
• Avoid missed opportunities
• Buy-in across team(s)

35. Sensei – Product Backlog

36. Sensei – Dual Track Development
STREAM OF VALIDATED FEATURES
LEAN
FEATURE
VALIDATION
AND
ELABORATION
AGILE
FEATURE
DELIVERY
AND
RELEASE
INVALIDATED
36

37. “Pirates” can be quite instructive…
“PIRATE” METRICS

38. Lean + Agile Innovation Process
Find the right
product market fit…
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Valida3on
Pivot
Then execute and iterate
on it incrementally.
LEAN
FEATURE
VALIDATION
AND
ELABORATION
Product
Backlog
AGILE
FEATURE
DELIVERY
AND
RELEASE
Dual Track Development
Lean Validation and Design in
parallel with Agile delivery

39. Notes for the Enterprise

40. How do we scale Lean Innovation to the Enterprise?
What are the “spaces” that drive creativity
and innovation?
1.
Slow hunches take time to incubate and
evolve
2.
Good ideas come from the collision between
smaller hunches
3.
Increases in connectivity correspond to
increases in innovation
4.
We need to create systems and spaces that
allow ideas to collide, combine and evolve
“Chance
favors the
connected
mind.”
- Steven Johnson,
Author of Where
Good Ideas Come
From

41. Lean for the Enterprise @ Capital One*
1. Hire only the best digital talent and
then massively empower them
2. Designed new workplace
environments to spark innovation
3. Retooled consumer insights
generation
4. Don’t create business cases first –
Build and test prototypes to create
the business case
5. Build concierge-based solutions
before we build the technology
6. Measure success as customer
engagement rather than unit
production
*Gagan Kanjlia, Senior Vice President, Capital One Bank

42. Keys to Lean Innovation on Agile Teams
1.
Small, agile teams with the right people are
crucial to innovation
2.
When combined with Agile, Lean Startup &
Design Thinking are especially beneficial for
consumer-facing companies
3.
Scaling requires leadership to create
incubation environments where ideas can
collide, combine and evolve
4.
A disciplined Lean + Agile process that
facilitates Customer Development along with
Agile Delivery can drive world-class
innovation

43. Contact Us for Further Information
Sanjiv Augustine
President
Sanjiv.Augustine@LitheSpeed.com
Twitter: @saugustine, @lithespeed
Arlen Bankston
Executive Vice President
Arlen.Bankston@LitheSpeed.com
On the Web:
http://www.lithespeed.com
http://www.senseitool.com
"I only wish I had read this book when I started my
career in software product management, or even
better yet, when I was given my first project to
manage. In addition to providing an excellent
handbook for managing with agile software
development methodologies, Managing Agile
Projects offers a guide to more effective project
management in many business settings."
John P. Barnes, former Vice President of Product
Management at Emergis, Inc.