Going Lean: Cross BorderMichael Hagler

Partner, Clevertech &

Kirk SerjeantsonCIO, Dicom Transportation LP

What is Clevertech?

Who is Dicom?

Shipping: It’s Crazy Complicated•  Getting a parcel from A to B isn’t easy

A B

Why is Shipping Complex• In essence, it’s easy. • Shipping is exorbitantly complicated due to:

Regulatory Authorities

EXCEPTIONS

Why is Shipping Complex? (Part 2)• THIS INDUSTRY RUNS ON OLD SOFTWARE

ASP.NET

• AND EVEN OLDER HARDWARE

Dicom – A Growing Company • Private Equity Backed in 2014• Rapidly acquiring partners•Poised to enter the US Market•Clients cross border

•Complex•Tech won’t handle it•Regulations are scary

Cross Border• Why is this so hard?

•Culturally•Technologically•Legally

We Built the SWAT Team• Individually Selected Team

Members from Dicom who <3 innovation• Global Team: • Canada, USA, Portugal, South Africa,

UK, Ireland• GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Lean Challenges• Communication• Find common ground• Building background- FAST• Warehouse Visits

Learning Curve• How do we learn, and learn fast?

•Study similar systems•Ship quick, fail fast•Aggressive customer feedback

•Hate mail!•The “it’s just an interface” moment!

•Educate stakeholders, then users!

Quick Sprints• SUPER quick sprints• On-Site summit with product team•Making end users product owners

•An impassioned user is the best user!

The Chinese Restaurant Summit• Quick Validated Feedback • Major customer focus groups•Allowing clients to become innovation partners•New versions bi-weekly

•Never stop shipping•Never stop learning•Never stop failing

Adjusting Requirements• Express and Freight requirements• Fleshing out the shell of the

application to include complexities.• Lot’s of face-palm moments…..

Hate Mail•When change occurs, people

react violently. •Look for pearls of wisdom in

each piece of product ‘hate mail’ and validate it FAST.

Creating Magic• Product Features:

•Want vs. Need • How do you make people smile?

•(Particularly the haters!)

SMS = Marginal Utility

Lesson Learned • Distributed teams=Global perspective•Invite customers to be honest

•Appreciate the hate mail!

Lesson Learned• Sometimes, the best innovators are the people you

least expect. •Don’t ignore any perspective, but validate every perspective

Success• We shipped cross border!•Deployed at major Canadian industrial clients•Clients driving us mobile and onto AppleTV

Recap & Milestone• Changing the way the logistics industry views product

development, and empowering shippers across Canada.•Cut deployment time down from 8 hours to five

minutes.•Deployable on hardware that costs $75 USD vs $500

USD.