from chaos to confidence: devops at leankit

@leankitjon

From Chaos to Confidence:LeanKit’s PD Model

Jon Terry

@leankitjon

@leankitjon

Values First & Non-negotiable

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Lean: A virtuous cycle of continuous improvement

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Kanban: See better to evolve together

1. Visualize the current workflow

2. Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP)

3. Manage for smooth flow

4. Make process policies explicit

5. Implement rapid feedback loops

6. Improve collaboratively using Kanban

to implement Lean

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Jidoka: Auto(nom)ating for Scale

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Andon: Slow down to speed up

• Trying to solve a critical issue alongside normal work, or worse ignoring it, helps nobody

• Everyone has the right and responsibility to call out what they believe to be critical issues

• False alarms are OK• A stop-the-line involves a least a whole squad as

well as any squad with experts needed for the issue• Communicate resolution as soon as practical• Don’t resume normal work until the team has done

a root cause analysis

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Org Structures for Autonomy

Guilds and Squads

“Direct reporting” org chart

Hiring

Training

Standards

Mentoring

Squad“Dotted line” delivery groups

Goal is 7 +/- 2 members

Has skills for 80% of work

Member can belong to only 1 squad

Located together (physically or virtually)

Work assigned to the squad not squad members

Guild

Guilds and Squads

Web 1 Web 2 Mobile Arch, Tools & AutoAnalytics Platform

OpsBusiness

Enablement

Product Management & UX

Product Development

Operations & Quality

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(Craft) Guilds - Hiring, Training & Standards

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Squads - Decoupled Planning & Delivery

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Squad Rooms - In Between Open and Individual

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Tribal Council

WhatWho When

Discuss Road Map

Departmental Policies

Tribal Leaders PD Execs

Council MembersProduct Managers

UX Leads

Technical Managers in their role as Delivery Leads

Mon - WedStand-up to surface

delivery issues

ThuFull meeting to resolve issues

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WhatWho When

Discuss Technical standards

AT-AT Roadmap

Develop A3’s for additional

sustainability investments

Chairmen CTO & CIO

MembersTechnical Managers

in their role as Architects

TueWorking session

ThuReport back to Tribal Council

Architecture Committee

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Product Roadmap

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Roadmap Forecasting Goal

Squad Last This Sweep Next 2 Out Later

1 Rollout & Measurement

ExecutingPull Plan

A3 & Mockups A3 Theme

2 Rollout & Measurement Theme

N Rollout & Measurement

A3 & Mockups A3

ThemeA3 & Mockups A3

ExecutingPull Plan

ExecutingPull Plan

Value created Value captured

Key metrics

Definition

Value of modeling

Usage metrics (e.g., time to perform tasks / jobs)

Economic value of Leankit for all customers and partners

Easy to test for, fewer assumptions, shorter lead timeKey assumptions comparable across projects (opportunity cost of users’ time, capture rate)

Operational metrics: # of seats, ARPU, costs, etc

Leankit profit

Translates better to actual money in the bank (as long as assumptions are correct)

Exec team prioritizes through Cost of Delay

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A3s: A conversation not a contract

A3

• The main communication artifact from the product team

• Customer and user-driven• A living document• Handwritten in pencil• Designed to… make conversations

happen

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A3: A business problem not technical spec

What is this? Why should I care?

How?Who will notice?

Why? What else?

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Cadences

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Aligning Cadence to Calendar

1 2 3 4 65

Jan 4

All Hands

Annual Kickoff

Board Jan 27

Feb 15 May 9 June 20

All Hands

Mid-Year Party

Board Sep 29

Aug 1Mar 28

All Leaders

Board Apr 22

7

Sep 12

All Leaders

Board Oct 21

8

Oct 24

Long sweep to allow for holidays

Work Distribution Goals

● Problems and operational requests are inevitable. We must allow for unplannable work

● People close to the work understand risks & quick wins better than management. We must allow time for them to do the right thing.

● We need to ensure as steady a flow as possible of planned roadmap work

● We use cadence to give ourselves the best chance of hitting these goals

Work Distribution by Cadence

Week 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 5Week 4

PullPlanning

Hackathon

or

SquadDrivenWork

A3 A3 A3A3

Pull Planning WeekMonday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday

All day

Team Time

Travel

&

Emerging Leaders Training

12:30 - 2:30

Squad Kickoff

9:00 - 11:00

CompanyAll-Hands

3:00 - 5:00

Squad Kickoff

12:30 - 1:30

Tribal Council Sweep Kickoff

9:00 - 11:00

Squad Kickoff

12:30 - 2:30

Squad Kickoff

3:00 - 5:00

Squad Kickoff

12:30 - 2:30

Squad Kickoff

9:00 - 11:00

Squad Kickoff

2:00 - 5:00

Team Time

3:00 - 5:00

Team Time& Travel

Company Fun Company Fun Company Fun

10:00 - 11:00Dem Div

9:00 - 10:00Preso Prep

@leankitjon

❏ Squad❏ Is everybody dedicated to this squad #1?❏ Does any member of this squad have work on

other boards or in other squads?

❏ Product Roadmap❏ Does everybody understand the A3 goal of this

sweep?❏ Is the A3 broken into DIV’s?❏ Do we feel comfortable that we can meet the

roadmap?❏ Any blockers or risks?

❏ Squad Driven Work❏ Any reason not to keep the normal schedule?❏ Will we be ready to transition to A3 work at the

beginning of week 2?❏ Any blockers or risks?

Squad Kickoff Template❏ Tribal Council / Architecture Committee

❏ Any new technology or changes to cross cutting technology?

❏ Demo DIV❏ What are we going to show at each meeting?

❏ What are we going to measure?❏ Deployments to Production❏ Demo DIV❏ Anything Else?

❏ Continuous Improvement❏ Any opportunities this sweep?❏ Any bucks for Speed?

❏ Meeting Cadences❏ Retros?❏ Standups?❏ When is this team coming to town this quarter?

@leankitjon

● Valuable small product ideas that are not on roadmap

● Requires squad consensus● Does not require A3 or roadmap approval● Can be:

○ Sustainability○ UX improvements○ Research for A3 submissions

● Executed by squads, but multi-squad collaboration projects are allowed

Squad Driven Work

Week 1 - Squad Driven Work*

Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Test / Deploy Deploy / Wrap-up

*Unless A3 is date driven. Defer to week 5.

9:00 - 10:00PD Execs

10:00 - 11:00Tribal Council

1:00 - 2:00Arch. Comm.

3:00 - 5:00Guild Training

Week 2 - Roadmap A3 Work


Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

9:00 - 10:00PD Execs


1:00 - 2:00Arch. Comm.

10:00 - 11:00Dem Div


10:00 - 11:00Company Trg



Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

9:00 - 10:00PD Execs


1:00 - 2:00Arch. Comm.

10:00 - 11:00Company All

Hands

3:00 - 5:00Guild Training



Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

9:00 - 10:00PD Execs


1:00 - 2:00Arch. Comm.

10:00 - 11:00Dem Div


10:00 - 11:00Company Trg



Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy

Dev / Test / Deploy


1:00 - 2:00Arch. Comm.

10:00 - 11:00Dep All Hands

9:00 - 10:00PD Execs

@leankitjon

Demoing DIVsPurposeful Metrics

From business problem to working softwareTheme: Aligned with company strategy. Not always executed contiguously

≥ quarter

A3: Value reaches users inside a sweep. ≤ 4 weeks

DIV: Deployed. Iterative. Value. ≤ 5 days

Task Task


Task Task


Task Task



Task Task


Task Task


Task Task



Task Task


Task Task


Task Task



Task Task


Task Task


Task Task

@leankitjon

How we’ll get value to users:

• Release plans (i.e., how we get it to prod)

• Rollout plans (i.e., how we enable it, editions, communication, etc)

• Measurement plans

What you’ll be demoing:

• Reiterate the Theme• Explain what the A3

means for users• Explain the DIV in terms

of A3 progress

What?

Name of A3 & DIV

Why you’re demoing it:

• Explain who will use it (i.e., target user)

• Explain why it’s important (i.e., cost of delay or primary use case)

So what? What now?

This is in prod, either enabled for all or ready to be enabled

This is in dogfood, we are planning to push to prod soon

This is still in dev, not QA certified yet, still changingValue in hand

of customer(pick one)

Deployments this Sweep - Ex

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Hackathons

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Hackathons

● 1st week of every 4th sweep● Participants can be remote● Self-organizing teams (recommended 7 max)● No need for cost of delay analysis● Appropriate things to hack on:

○ Experiments○ Low hanging fruit○ Research

● NOT for starting big projects● When the week ends so does hackathon

@leankitjon

Week 1 Hackathon VariantMonday

3/28Tuesday

3/29Wednesday

3/30Friday4/01

Thursday3/31

Hacking

10:00 - 11:00Hackathon

Kickoff

Hacking Hacking

10:00 - 11:00Hackathon

Judging

Wrap-UpHack Projects

Transition to A3 Work

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Most Likely to Succeed

A feature, improvement, or technical debt reduction that has a very real chance of becoming a part of the LeanKit product.

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Most Likely to Win a Nobel Prize

Groundbreaking research, learning, or experiment that pertains to how we build LeanKit.

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Best Personality

A surprise hit that we couldn’t predict before Hackathon.

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Results

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Results

● Eight months of hitting roadmap with speed still increasing● Higher product quality, less rework● Significantly better morale in product development and

relationship with revenue teams● Sweep cycle becoming automatic, allowing time for kaizen● More executive time for strategy instead of peacemaking

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From Chaos to ConfidencePD’s Operating Model

from chaos to confidence: devops at leankit

Leadership & Management