beyond the crystal ball: the agile pmo

Beyond the Crystal Ball:The Agile PMO

Right Work, Right Time, Right People

Tonight we will cover...

● Who are these people?

● PMO Challenges

● Getting back to Agile

● Our Fantastic Voyage through Process Experiments

○ ROIs and Roadmaps

○ Swagathons

○ The Social Experiment

● Q&A

Hello!

Heather Fleming, Sr. Director, PMO● Started out in front-end development, management and design in 1996● Was PMP Certified, is Myers-Briggs (MBTI®) Certified● Heading up PMOs since 2006 for The Knot and Gilt

Justin Riservato, Director, Program Mgmt● Started out in Customer Service and Product Marketing, realized that the

best part of every job was the Project Management● Fell in love with Gilt’s PMO’s philosophy and never looked back!

What is Gilt?

Gilt (www.gilt.com) is an e-commerce company focused on flash sales. We provide insider access to top designers at up to 60% off, in sales typically lasting 72 hours.

We’re also one of the top tech companies in NYC!

Check out tech.gilt.com to learn more about us!

Are Traditional PMOs Set up to Fail?

Responsibilities of Traditional PMOs● Planning & Roadmapping● Resource & Capacity Planning● PM Processes & Standards

In a recent survey by EDI International titled “The State of the Project Management Office: On the Road to the Next Generation”, more than half of the respondents report that the value of their PMO is being questioned by key stakeholders.

What’s the problem?

The company is expecting you to predict the future... Months (sometimes years) out...

In software engineering...Given a short (one sentence) description of the work...And you will be held accountable for your predictions!

So what do most people do?

● They believe “going Agile” is a silver bullet.● People use the word “Agile” in many ways.● They implement Scrum

And then what happens?

● The company still wants you to predict the future.● The engineers are rebelling against the Scrum process.● The PMO is called into question anyway

Oh noes!

Remember the Triangle of Truth

Remember the Cone of Uncertainty

Image from agilenutshell.com

And Remember the Manifesto!

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

The PMO @ Gilt

We get things done.

We tackle a lot of the operational function of running Gilt Tech.

We help Gilt Tech explore and experiment with efficient processes to select and execute strategic projects.

(Notice we didn’t say “standardize”...)

Our Fantastic Voyage

● ROI, Roadmaps and RFW Process● One Pagers and Swagathon● The Social Experiment

Everybody Loves RoadmapsProject Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

SEO v2

CMS

Email Redesign

Site Redesign

Landing Pages

WMS Upgrade

Referral Program

ROI/Roadmap Process

3 Month Roadmap

New Project Ideas

How long will it take? (ROI)

Who can do it?

Re-prioritize!Re-plan!

Get Exec Approval

CHANGE

ROI/Roadmaps Retrospective

What works well with this model?

What doesn’t work well?

ROI/Roadmaps Retrospective

What we learned...

● We were on the “less valued” side of the Manifesto○ We were spending more time planning than doing○ ...and more time on documentation○ ...and more time on processes and tools

● We change a lot!

● We want transparency and a say in the order of work

The Spirit...

Swagathon

One Pager

Project Team

(maybe?)Backlog Product

CouncilSwagathon

Process States

Swagathon Retrospective

What works well with this model?

What doesn’t work well?

Swagathon Retrospective

What we learned...

● We were still on the “less valued” side of the Manifesto○ ...we were following a plan instead of developing working software○ ...we spent too much time on processes and tools

● Creating “on the fly” teams was challenging

● We were giving people false hope with our backlog

● We could respond to change easier, butwe were still missing a bigger story...

The Social ExperimentStrategy

Initiatives

KPIs

Teams

Ingredients

Execution

The Social ExperimentStrategy: Big Areas of Focus

Initiatives: What are we doing / not doing?

KPIs: Answering WHY

Teams: Who do we need?

Ingredients: Qualities, Not Titles

Execution: Get Working!

Product VisionaryDriving product vision and strategic innovation. Strong point of view.

PR and Relationship ManagerManaging the external view of the team. Communicates well both verbally and via email. Knows how to deliver an excellent presentation.

Product IdeatorThinking creatively and driving tactical innovation. Being the voice of the customer.

Visual DesignerCreates on-brand visual designs.

UXBuild wireframes, runs usability tests, designs user interactions.

CoderWrites feature and test code. Create queries and reports.

Product MarketerAnalyzes the market and competitive landscape, determines product/feature positioning so the customer clearly understands the benefit, figures out ways to drive traffic to the product or feature.

Business thinkerDriving KPI thinking. Understanding business mechanics. Sizing opportunities.

OrganizerDriving planning of work, running productive meetings, keeping the team focused on execution.

Engineering ArchitectHigh level system design. Managing technical debt. Building for the right amount of performance and scale. Providing technical leadership and mentorship.

Quality ManagerEnsuring the quality of releases. Making sure that the right amount of automation is built (unit tests).

MotivatorCreating a sense of urgency while ensuring a sustainable pace for the team.

Cruise DirectorMaking things fun. Creating a sense of team spirit.

AnalystDrives product instrumentation. Proposes tests (e.g. a/b tests). Analyzes data. Creates and tests hypotheses and uses these to influence product direction. Can clearly communicate what data means.

Technical OperatorDrives product instrumentation. Pays attention to production operational parameters (alerts, tuning, etc).

The Social Experiment Retrospective

What works well with this model?

What doesn’t work well?

The Social Experiment Retrospective

What we learned...

● We know how our work ties into a bigger story

● We know we are working on the things that matter the most

● We want to continue to get better at Collaboration

● Valuing Individuals and Interactions is key

● Responding to Change will always be challenging

Q&A

Thank you!