1) Explain the following terms

a) Agile Thinking
Agile Thinking is the way of thinking which enables the ability to respond to change or solve
problems quickly and easily. Having agile thinking enable a person to take everything as
lessons, adjust actions according to the feedback, and proceed toward desired outcomes,
resulting in continuous improvement

b) Digital Thinking
Digital thinking encompasses set of skills required to transform real-life challenges to
problems. Computer-based knowledge and skills are then used to provide solutions to these
problems.

2) Explain the characteristics to make up the agile mindset.

There are several characteristics to make up the agile mindset such as positive attitude, thirst for
knowledge, goal of team success, pragmatism, willingness to fail. As issues are identified, people
need to be dealt with a positive attitude in a timely manner. In most cases something that may
look negative can be turned into an opportunity for improvement. Agile is about learning and
adapting. Your goal should be to gain as much information possible in order to deliver a quality
product. You should not make assumptions that what you are doing is best for the client.
Furthermore, agile is about the success of the team, not individual success or heroic behaviour.
It is more important for the team to succeed than for the individual to have completed her tasks.
Next， pragmatism is defined as an approach to things that focuses on the practical or logical
response. Instead of making excuses, team members need to provide options. Don’t say it can’t
be done; explain what can be done. You can’t force change on people. Instead, show them how
the future might be and help them participate in creating it. The team needs to be willing to help
each other to succeed on the higher priority items. Lastly is the willingness to fail. Some people
say that the best way to learn is to fail at something. People should learn from their experience
and do not make the same choice leading to failure. People should also understand that things
did not work in the situation they are facing but it may work in others.

3) Research an agile organization where digital thinking is applied. (Google)

a) How does the organization position itself differently to stand out from its competition?
Google has developed an infrastructure that guarantees a fast and efficient search engine, as
well as branching out its efforts in other directions beyond search. For example, the speed of
an average Google search. Any random search takes between 0.06 to 0.12 seconds. Google’s
competitive edge is traced to the fact that they’ve built their own infrastructure of servers,
storage systems, bandwidth, and hardware that supports the fastest search on the web.

Not only does Google provide a fast search, but the company also employs tools and
services such as the Google toolbar, Google Maps, Google Earth and Google News. The
toolbar presents a way for users to conduct a search without leaving their homepage. It also
simplifies navigation by recounting the most searched-for web pages by each user. Services
such as Google Maps and Google News provide another type of support on top of the
general search engine.
b) How has the organization diversified the product range to ensure they keep growing?
Besides the powerful search engine, Google has also developed many online work tools. For
example, Gmail is a free e-mail service developed by Google. Gmail is the first email that can
save emails in a single-threaded session, which is similar to web forums. Currently, Gmail
provides each free user with 15GB mailbox capacity. Another part of the Google work
package, Google Docs, is different from Microsoft Word in that it allows users to create, edit,
or collaboratively edit files in an online environment.

c) What methods are used to provide relevant information to users and gearing the product
towards making a sale?
Most of the Google’s products are available around the world via the Internet. For example,
Google apps can be downloaded anywhere where there is Internet connectivity. The
company uses its websites, apps, and platforms as distribution mechanisms to reach target
users.

d) How does the organization maintain and grow its online community?
Due to the results from Project Oxygen, Google suggests that every team should have one
nice manager. The are several characteristics to be a nice manager.
First of all, he/she must has the ability to empower the team and does not micromanage
them otherwise the team is not going to work efficiently and they will think the manager is
busybody.
Secondly, manager should be able to communicate well with other teammates and concern
about them because a team without communication is unable to do anything well as they
are just doing their own stuffs.
Thirdly, manager must have key technical skills to help solving problems and give effective
suggestions for team.
Lastly, leader has to be productive and results-oriented.

e) What part does community play in their business growth?

Google's community is one of the feature of Google. Google's community is well-known in
welfare, they have gym, bowling alley, swimming pool and many others leisure facilities. All
these facilities make employees feel like working at a comfortable place, just like home. Due
to this feature, employees are enthusiastic at getting their work done and being innovative
to come out with many new ideas. Thus, Google's business grows rapidly.