can lean startup advocates and grizzled veterans work together? by nicole bryan and neelan choksi

Can Lean Startup Advocates and Grizzled Veterans Work Together?

Neelan Choksi (@neelan)Nicole Bryan (@nicolebryan)

Or will the perceived cultural differences prevent you from seeing the real problems that you need to solve?

(Subtext)

Our Business is Integrations

Our Successful Pivot

Open Source Enterprise Software

$200 $120,000

Developers, Dev Managers

VP of Apps, PMO, VP of QA, EA

Wants latest and greatest

Expect quality and stability

Grizzled Veterans

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Cultural Differences

didn’t match symptoms

Pace of experimentation ground to a halt

Lot more work keeping customers happy

Support costs are increasing

Feels like we are drowning in technical debt

Velocity Makeup

User Stories

Defects

Before

User Stories

Technical Debt

De-fects

After

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Crippling (Technical) Debt:

the bane of experimentation

The Levers

Pace

Thoroughness

Quality

PaceChaos is the killer of pace

ThoroughnessYou need to know what you don’t know

QualityKnow the “quality bar” acceptable to your customers – and adjust accordingly

Our Takeaways

Key Takeaway: Chaos is the killer of pace

Pace Thoroughness Quality

Key Takeaway: Know What You Don’t Know

Pace Thoroughness Quality

Address Technical DebtEstablish a base line Proactive quality management rather than reactiveReduce customer dis-satisfaction

Integration FactoryKnow your product: 63 (repeatable) Use CasesExperiments now are planned and structured e.g., 4 use cases = experiment / MVP

Build a Foundation for Experimentation

(And don’t forget this is also to satisfy your current and future customer base)

Key Takeaway: Know your “Quality Bar” and Adjust

Pace Thoroughness Quality

2-week sprints for business analysisA little knowledge goes a long way

Reverse demosGet your customers talking and showing *to you*, not the opposite

Pseudo Experiments

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So ... Can lean startup advocates and grizzled veterans work together?

Yes ... If ....

Listen Across the Divide

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Put Foundation in Place

Understand and Use Your Levers

Pace

Thoroughness

Quality

So That You Can Find Your Balance

Neelan Choksi – neelan.choksi@tasktop.com, @neelan

Nicole Bryan – nicole.bryan@tasktop.com, @nicolebryan

We’d Love To Hear From You!

tasktop.com