Agile For Everybody

Matt LeMay | @mattlemay | matt@suddencompass.com

O’Reilly Online
About me:

• Partner at Sudden Compass

(Spotify, Clorox, P&G)
• Product management trainer and
consultant
• Creator of onepageonehour.com
• Former Head of Consumer Product
at bitly, Senior Product Manager at
Songza (Acquired by Google)
• Recovered professional musician
 What about you?

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 Agile For Everybody

I. A Brief History of the Agile Movement

II. Agile Means that We Start with Our Customers

III. Agile Means that We Collaborate Early and Often

IV. Agile Means that We Plan for Uncertainty

V. Committing to a First Step

VI. Q&A
I. A Brief History of the Agile Movement
“What is Agile?”
Is it a methodology?
Is it a mindset?
Is it… whatever this is?
 Agile is a
movement.
Movement: “a group of people
working together to advance their
shared political, social, or artistic
ideas.”
Movements emerge from
parallel innovation
 Parallel Innovations Pre-“Agile”

• Iterative cycles of work

1995:
• Emphasis on cross-
Scrum
functional collaboration

• Emphasis on adaptability
Mid-90s: and “stretch-to-fit” process
Crystal

• Short, iterative cycles of

1999: work
XP • Emphasis on collaboration
between developers
 Agile

Movements:
2001:
Agile

Methodologies:

1995:
Scrum
Mid-90s:
Crystal 1999:
XP
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
 North Star of Agile
Principles and Values
(“Why”)

Agile Practices Real-world Outcomes

(“How”) (“What”)
 Guiding Principles of Agile for Everybody

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

1. Agile means that

Individuals andwe start with over
interactions ourprocesses
customers
and tools

2. AgileWorking
means that we collaborate
software over comprehensive early and often
documentation
3. AgileCustomer
means that we plan foroveruncertainty
collaboration contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
We’ll spend the rest of today’s
session going through our three
Guiding Principles of Agile for
Everybody, and exploring the
practices we can use to bring
those principles to our specific
organizations.
 BUT WAIT!!

What about Lean? Is that a part of Agile?

Separate from Agile? Are “Lean” and “Lean
Startup” the same thing?

ooh ooh and what about Design Thinking! That’s

a different thing right? Which one is best? Can we
use them all together?
“After working with both Agile and Design
Thinking, we got to the point of saying that
the outcomes of these two approaches are
highly aligned. The differences tend to be
in some of the terminology—oftentimes
different terms for some of the same
concepts.”

- Bill Higgins, Distinguished Engineer, IBM

Since Agile is a made-up thing, we
shouldn’t focus too much on doing it “the
right way” — there is no one “right way”!

If we believe in the underlying principles,

the key is to make Agile useful to our
particular teams and organizations.
II. Agile Means That We Start with Our
Customers
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
“But I don’t make software! How can Agile work for me?”
Our challenge is to get something valuable into the
hands of our users, as quickly as possible.
Agile is not about “doing the same thing we’ve
always done, faster” — or even about getting
more work done in less time.

It’s about seeing speed from the customer’s

point of view.
How often are you interacting directly with
customers?
 Agile Means that We
Start with Our Customers

Real-world Outcomes
(“What”)
Working in
“Sprints”
 Linear / “Waterfall” Rhythm

Spec

Design

Build

Release
 Agile Rhythm

Release

Release

Release

Release
 Agile Rhythm

Release

Release

Release

Release
If you only had two weeks to
deliver something valuable to
your customers, what would you
do?
Using the provided worksheet, fill in what real-world
outcomes you believe that working in “sprints” could
help achieve for your team.
Break!
III. Agile Means That We Collaborate
Early and Often
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
“Collaboration is fine, so long as we’re actually
getting stuff done.”
How does your team use its time together?
- Mayur Gupta, CMO of Freshly and former VP of Marketing and Growth at Spotify
Case Study: Coca-Cola’s Agile
Marketing Transformation

“
 Agile Means that We
Collaborate Early and Often

Real-world Outcomes
(“What”)
Daily Standup
Meeting
- IBM CMO Michelle Peluso
Using the provided worksheet, fill in what real-world
outcomes you believe that a daily stand-up meeting
could help achieve for your team.
IV. Agile Means That We Plan for
Uncertainty
 2001: The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more
At its best, Agile allows us to make responding to
change part of the plan we follow.
- Kahryn Kuhn, Agile Practitioner and Consultant
Where in your current processes are the opportunities to
meaningfully adjust course?
 2018 “State of Agile” Report*

Only 4% of respondents say Agile practices

are making their organizations more
adaptable to market conditions (!!!!!!)

What do we make of this??

* http://stateofagile.versionone.com/
 This means that each of our teams needs to take
ownership over the way that we work, and over
changing the way that we work if it does not ring true
with our Agile principles or help us achieve our
desired real-world outcomes.
 Agile Means that We Plan
for Uncertainty

Real-world Outcomes
(“What”)
The
Retrospective
 The retrospective is an opportunity for a team to
collaboratively discuss how they work together (not
the work itself!) at the end of a sprint or project.

You can run one for any kind of project, such as a

periodic email newsletter or a marketing campaign or
a product launch.
- Emma Obanye, Founder, Mindful Team
Using the provided worksheet, fill in what real-world
outcomes you believe that a retrospective could help
achieve for your team.
V. Committing to a First Step
Using the provided worksheet, commit to a first step
you are going to take to bring the Agile principles and
practices we’ve discussed to your team.
VI. Q&A
 Thank You.

Matt LeMay | @mattlemay | matt@suddencompass.com

O’Reilly Online