how to sell kanban to your boss
TRANSCRIPT
How to Sell Kanban to Your Boss.
Hi, I’m Brendan!
I have the best job in the world!
Making a business case for Kanban can be tough.
Finance is not math, it is a language.
In my first job as a CTO, I didn’t know the language.
This isn’t uncommon and it causes a lot of problems in
business.
To understand how your boss thinks, you must first understand how
the CEO thinks!
Stating the Problem.
Clarity
We’re not on the same page!
Value
We’re not working on the right things!
Unhide
The team is a black box!
Focus
Simple things take too long to get done!
Ready
We don’t get what we ask for!
Trust
We don’t keep our commitments!
Done
They say they’re finished when they aren’t!
Iteration
We don’t finish what we start!
Your boss is “managing up” to someone who sees
the problems but can’t offer any
solutions.
The corporate world doesn’t value vulnerability — so your boss may receive
obtuse mandates like, “Just fix it!”
This kind of environment can make it difficult to sell Kanban practices
like “limiting work” and “pull.”
We’ve created a video you can share with your boss
that translates Kanban to business value!
Making the Ask‣ Call a sit-down meeting with your boss.
‣ Tell him or her that you understand they are under a lot of
pressure to improve team performance.
‣ Share that you’d like to make a bigger contribution to the
team by helping in this area.
‣ Ask if you can setup a time to watch a short video together
on increasing revenue by making minor process changes
to get their sign-off.
https://vimeo.com/leankit
Bigger Profits with Kanban.
Your team wants permission to “do Kanban.”
I’m here to help you make a business case!
Hi, I’m Brendan!I’m a CTO turned trainer.
I received same question in 2012.
My job has gotten a lot easier with Kanban.
Kanban is a capstone that fits atop your current
way of working.
It unhides work, reduces waste, and helps
your team improve their flow.
Evolution over transformation.
Kanban is a low risk, inexpensive experiment.
Kanban aligns your team with organizational financial
outcomes.Without them knowing it.
3 Habits
focus
—Greg McKeown
“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It stayed singular for the next five
hundred years.”
Limit Work in ProgressAchieve more by juggling less.
Real Life Example
A team is working on two projects at a time.
They deliver both projects every two months, 10 projects annually.
Revenue
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
What would happen to gross revenue if the team worked
on only one project at a time?
Revenue
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Every project would generate revenue one month earlier
and one month longer.
An 11th project would be delivered!
Gross revenue increase of +12%.
waste reduction
You cannot reduce waste if you are not actively
measuring it!
Work can be assigned to everyone and owned
by no one.
“Most cars are only in use by their owners for 5% to 10%
of the day.”
— Elon Musk
Just like cars, work is idle most of the time.
A single communication hack at the team level changed
everything!
“I’m finished and I’m waiting for this work to be taken
from me.”
Project timelines shrunk from 4 weeks to 3.
Waste reduction delivered a 12th project.
Gross revenue increase of +16%.
Flow
Swarming optimizes flow.
Team established policies to speed-up delivery.
Card is owned by an absent team member.
Card is blocked, stale, or at risk.
WIP Limit is not respected.
Queue is bottlenecked.
The Impact of Kanban‣ Realize cashflow earlier.
‣ Increase gross revenue by 16%.
‣ Created capability to deliver two new revenue channels.
‣ Improved quality and customer satisfaction.
‣ Established predictable expectations with business.
Kanban is a low-risk experiment with a
massive reward!
