How can we better ….

1.  Collaborate with customers? 2.  Collect requirements? 3.  Design our solutions? 4.  Prioritise features? 5.  Evolve design? 6.  Build innovation in? 7.  Satisfy our customers?

Universe of Innovation

Adapteted  from  Greg  Satell  HBR  -­‐    h5p://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/02/before_you_innovate_ask_the_ri.html    

Bitcoin    NeHlix  

Amazon    Google    Apple  

Apple      

IBM    Labs  

Remember, we’re talking Innovation not Invention ! Invention is more about thinking up cool stuff. Innovation is successfully applying inventions in practice to become something valuable.

Adapted  from  h5p://iwww.innovaOonexcellence.com  

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more

people or groups work together in an intersection of common goals — for example, an

intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing

knowledge, learning and building consensus

Kapow !

h5p://www.innovaOongames.com  

Let  the  Games  begin  !  

Innovation Games® are serious games that solve a wide range of product management and development problems across the development lifecycle. They are played: •  with customers & internal stakeholders •  online or in-person •  within or across organizational units •  in single or multi-game formats  

Manage    strategic    roadmaps  

Iden1fy    New  Products  

Determine  Product  Interac1ons  

Train    Sales  Teams  

Priori1ze  Features  

Improve  Marke1ng    Messages  

Priori1ze  Project    PorAolio  

Iden1fy  Product  Enhancements  

Priori1ze  User  Ideas   Priori1ze  Strategic  Projects  

Not  Work  (Leisure)  

Pleasure  

Work  

Play  

Not-­‐Play  

External  Goals  Internal  Goals  

Not-­‐Pleasure  

Adapted  from  h5p://it.coe.uga.edu/~lrieber/resources/blanchardmodel.gif  

Innovation requires a process,

others to collaborate with,

and tools…

From Idea (or problem)…

… to Action (Done)

20  

Prune the Product Tree

Goal: Understand the evolution of your offering.

•  Draw  a  tree  to  represent  growth  of  your  offering  

•  Add  current  ideas  from  your  roadmap  as  leaves  and  apples.  

•  5  to  8  invited  stakeholders  shape  the  “growth”  of  your  offering.  

•  Captures  very  rich  informaOon  about  percepOons  of  the  future,  Oming  of  new  concepts,  balance,  and  relaOonships  among  ideas  

 

Speed Boat

Goal: Identify Pain Points and Issues

•  Draw  a  speed  boat  or  a  yacht  and  explain  that  it  needs  to  go  as  fast  as  possible,  but  shallow  and  deep  anchors  hold  it  back.  

•  IdenOfy  the  problem  and  phrase  it  as  a  quesOon.  

•  5  to  8  stakeholders  add  anchors  that  keep  the  boat  back.  

•  A^erwards  they  talk  about  the  problems,  issues  and  risks,  and  also  start  exploring  what  it  would  take  to  remove  anchors.  

 

Spider Web

•  Individually  or  teams  of  5  to  8  people.  •  Place  something  in  the  center  –  you  or  a  

stakeholder  or  customer  of  your  so^ware.  •  IdenOfy  stakeholders  that  are  directly  connected  to  

the  center.  •  Draw  stronger  or  thinner  lines  to  show  the  strength  

of  the  relaOonship.  •  Connect  them  together  –  move  out  to  the  edge  of  

the  web.  •  Provides  insights  about  stakeholders,  users  and  

customer  networks.  

Goal: Explore Relationships

h5p://www.flickr.com/photos/innovgames/8000409711/in/photostream/  

Product Box

•  Individually  or  teams  of  2-­‐5  people    •  Look  at  a  breakfast  serial  box  or  so^ware  box  •  IdenOfy  the  “product”  to  develop  •  Provide  lots  of  colorful  staOonary  •  Let  creaOvity  reign  •  Teams  or  individuals  present  their  product  boxes  

and  talks  about  the  “features”  •  Collect  the  boxes  to  develop  a  backlog  of  great    

features.  

Goal: Design Product Features

Hot Tub

•  Teams  of  5  to  8  people.  •  Observers  and  parOcipants.  •  IdenOfy  weird  and  outrageous  features  as  part  of  

your  so^ware  i.e.  “USB  knife  sharpener”.  •  Present  the  ideas  to  the  parOcipants.  •  Let  them  discuss  the  feature.  •  Observe  their  reacOons  and  where  the  discussion  is  

leading.  

Goal: Outrageously Innovative

Buy a Feature

•  A  list  of  12-­‐20  items  (features  or  projects)  are  described  in  terms  of  benefits  and  cost  

•  5  to  8  invited  stakeholders  given    limited  “budget”,  must  reach    consensus  on  projects  to  “buy”  

•  Captures  very  rich  informaOon  about  customer  moOvaOons,  trade-­‐offs,  objecOons,  actual  collecOve  needs  

In-­‐person  •  Provides  rich  opportunity  for  “new”  ideas  Online  •  Captures  data  for  sophisOcated  analysis  of  

preferences  

Goal: Prioritize Features

Start your day Remember the future

•  Teams  of  5  to  8  people.  •  Use  a  future  point  with    Ome,  weeks,  months  scale.  •  Present  a  real  life  scenario  experience  somewhere  

in  the  future  i.e.  using  your  soluOon  on  a  daily,  weekly,  monthly  basis.  

•  ParOcipants  idenOfy  experiences  that  unfolds  on  the  Omeline.  

•  Items  can  be  linked  together  to  show  relaOonships.  •  MulOple  tracks  can  be  added  by  mulOple  teams  and  

connected  together.  

Goal: Develop use case roadmaps

My Worst Nightmare

•  Pens  and  paper  •  IdenOfy  an  exisOng  or  future  soluOon  or  parOcular  

feature  •  Ask  people  to  draw  their  worst  nightmares.  •  People  present  their  drawings  to  the  group    •  Observe  and  discuss  any  posiOve  and  negaOve  

a5ributes  from  a  worst  nightmare  event.  •  Discuss  what  sweet  dreams  look  like  a^erwards.  •  Lets  people  vent  some  of  their  frustraOon.    

Goal: Identify what can go wrong

Lets  Play  !  

Speedboat:  What  is  holding  us  back  from  becoming  an  Agile  organisaOon  with  high  performance  that  delight  their  customers  ?      “Iden5fy  shallow  and  deep  anchors,  Iceberg  that  may  sink  the  ship  if  we  don’t  steer  around  them,  and  the  favorable  winds  that  we  need  to  push  us  forward”  

•  Stakeholders  want  an  exact  outcome  for  fixed  cost  •  Distributed  Teams  •  The  importance  placed  on  old  culture  •  Entrenched  management  style  •  Lack  of  skills  and  experience  •  No  senior  leadership  buy-­‐in  •  No  commitment  to  agile  change  •  Management  micro  managing  delivery  teams  •  People  don’t  want  to  change  •  Mistaken  belief  that  we  are  already  an  Agile  organisa5on  •  Fear  of  failure  masked  by  too  much  up-­‐front  thinking  and  design  •  Closed  Minds  •  Unwilling  execu5ves  resistant  to  change  •  Tradi5onal  thinking  mindset  •  Teams  not  on  same  mindset  •  Lack  of  collabora5on  •  Conflict  with  other  teams  that  work  waterfall  non-­‐agile  •  Cannot  Influence  or  invoke  collabora5on  in  a  matrix  structure  •  Lead  tech  doesn’t  believe  in  it  •  Cosy  deal  with  big  consul5ng  organisa5on  •  We  have  always  done  it  this  way  

•  Major  Agile  Team  or  Project  Failure  •  Arrogance  that  “of  course  we’re  doing  Agile  right”  •  Lack  of  Senior  Management  Involvement  •  Agile  Team  Building  Ac5vi5es  •  Collabora5on  •  Unclear  Scope  •  “One  Size  fits  All“  Approach  •  People  losing  their  power  •  Digression  to  Old  Behaviours  •  Lack  of  educa5on  of  Agile  prac5ces  •  Conflic5ng  priori5es  across  business  units  •  Distributed  Team  not  co-­‐located  •  Size  of  customer  engagement  •  Lack  of  customer  buy-­‐in  to  Agile  •  Too  busy  to  “re-­‐think”/improve  prac5ces  •  Management  processes  entrenched  and  resistant  to  change  •  Varied  levels  of  understanding  Agile  “managing  percep5ons”  •  Blame  culture  •  Scale  of  Projects  

•  Empowering  development  teams  •  Whole  of  business  engagement  •  Higher  collabora5on  in  and  between  teams  •  Con5nuous  improvement  and  feedback  •  Enthusias5c  management  •  Include  everyone  needed  early  on  in  itera5on  

anton.rossouw@tabar.com.au