H A C K I N G A G I L E F O R D I G I T A L A G E N C I E S

Dave Prior

Global Scrum Gathering Minneapolis 2018

I N T R O D U C T I O N

KEY CONCEPTS FOR THIS SESSION

• What is Agile

• Why Agile presents challenges for Digital Agencies

• Success Patterns (Hacking your approach)

• The Digital PM Agility Canvas

• Accountability Partnerships

( R E ) D E F I N I N G A G I L E F O R D I G I TA L A G E N C I E S

W H E N Y O U R C O W O R K E R S TA L K

A B O U T A G I L E …

W H AT D O T H E Y A C T U A L LY M E A N ?

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WHY DO YOU WANT AGILE TO DO FOR YOU?

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THINGS THAT ARE NOT ACTUALLY THINGS

• A G I L E S C R U M

• S O F T W A R E A G I L E

• S C R U M M E R F A L L / W AT E R S C R U M / W H AT E V E R J A C K E D . U P. S I D E W AY S . H Y B R I DE Y. N A M E .Y O U .W A N T.T O . U S E .TO . E X P L A I N . S L O P P Y. A G I L E

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IF YOUR COMPANY CAN’T DEFINE WHAT “AGILE” MEANS

AND DOES NOT KNOW WHY IT WANTS IT

OR WHAT YOU THINK IT WILL DO FOR YOU…

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HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO CONVINCE A CLIENT THEY NEED IT?

Agility - The ability to consistently deliver value for the customer by inspecting and adapting in short learning cycles, continuously refining your approach so that the desired outcome is based on learning along the way.

And treating people like human beings in the process.

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A SIMPLE DEFINITION

WHY AGILE PRESENTS CHALLENGES FOR DIGITAL AGENCIES

YOUR AGILE PROBABLY WORKS LIKE THIS

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… IN THE REAL WORLD…

… THIS WILL NEVER WORK HERE

… THEY WON’T LET US DO AGILE RIGHT

…OUR ORGANIZATION IS DIFFERENT

…OUR ORGANIZATION IS SPECIAL

…YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND

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YOUR HAVE ALL THE REASONS…

HELLS YES!!!

YOU ARE SPECIAL!

YOU ARE DIFFERENT!

AND YOU ARE AWESOME!

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AND NONE OF THOSE ARE VALID EXCUSES

THERE ARE AGENCIES MAKING

IT WORK IN THE REAL WORLD.

BUT IF YOU’RE AGILE SUCKS RIGHT NOW…

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IT ’S OK

THERE IS NO SHAME IS BEING DRUNK BIG BIRD

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BUT WHY IS IT SO BAD?

GUESS HOW MANY <EXPLETIVE>’S YOUR CLIENT GIVES ABOUT BEING AGILE?

0 FS

YOUR CLIENTS DO NOT CARE ABOUT AGILE

THEY CARE ABOUT THE STUFF YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GIVE THEM

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YOU CAN’T REALLY DO AGILE UNLESS YOUR CLIENT WILL

DO IT WITH YOU

You are trying to implement Agile in one part of the org, but the rest is business as usual

You do not have stable teams

Your team does not know how to plan well

Your SOWs work against you

You fund by project and bill in hours

IMPEDIMENTS

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SUCCESS PAT TERNS (HACKING YOUR APPROACH)

This talk is not really about hacking Agile to make it work in your Agency

It’s about hacking your Agency to make it work with Agile

THE HACKING PART (A CONFESSION)

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THIS DOESN’T WORK IF YOU ONLY TRY TO DO AGILE IN DEVELOPMENT

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RUNNING AGILE TEAMS WITH A TRADITIONAL

APPROACH TO SALES HURTS IN EVERY

DIRECTION

IF YOU WANT IT TO WORK…

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TRANSFORM YOUR WHOLE ORGANIZATION

TRAIN EVERYONE (INCLUDING SALES)

IF YOU ARE USING AGILE IN THE WORK YOU DO WITH YOUR CLIENTS

YOU ARE IN THE AGILE TRANSFORMATION BUSINESS

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If you are a Digital Agency implementing Agile, you are leading Agile Transformation in a number of places…

• Your Team

• Your Company

• Your Client

AGILE TRANSFORMATION

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BE SUPER HONEST

BUILD A STRONGER

PARTNERSHIP BY HELPING YOUR

CLIENT TRANSFORM THEIR

WORKFLOW

“IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO CONVINCE YOUR

CLIENT

YOU ARE NOT CONVINCED YOURSELF”

HERE’S THE RUB…

THE CLIENT IS NOT GOING TO PAY YOU FOR

TRANSFORMATION

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“…there is bigger risk in us taking on costs in other ways if we don’t bring them (the client) up to our level of understanding and perspective on how the work can be managed”

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3 THINGS YOU NEED

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Stable Teams

Well formed backlog

Ability to make and meet commitments (predictability)

CHANGE YOUR SOW

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SOWs that lock down the scope and present team members as hourly workers who deliver specific things no matter how many changes the client asks for is not helping anyone.

STOP FUNDING BY PROJECT

START FUNDING BY TEAM

• It may not work (and that’s ok)

• It is still probably the best place to start because of what it will teach you about how you work

• Be disciplined in your approach, watch what happens - then inspect and adapt

• You may end up deciding Kanban is a better fit in the end (and that’s also ok)

THE THING ABOUT SCRUM…

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IT ’S NOT ABOUT DOING IT “RIGHT”

IT ’S ABOUT USING AGILE PRACTICES TO IMPROVE

YOUR ABILIT Y TO DELIVER VALUE FOR YOUR CLIENT

HOW YOU DO THAT IS TOTALLY UP TO

YOU

D I G I T A L P M A G I L I T Y C A N V A S

HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT WHY YOU WANT AGILE?

WHAT YOU ARE WILLING TO RISK TO GET AGILIT Y?

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!49GOALS What is it we are trying to fix?

Why? Why do we need to use Agile to do this?

What is the benefit WE get out of using agile?

Momentum What strengths do we possess organizationally that will help us with this?

What agile practices are we already using that are working well?

What about our organization’s mindset and approach will enable us as we move down this path

Blockers What is keeping (or will keep) this from happening in our organization?

What impediments do we face in terms of culture, habits, governance and value system?

Expectations What do we think this change will actually do for us? (These can be both positive and negative.)

One way to think of it might be • What evidence will we have to

demonstrate we’ve completed our work here?

• What changes will be in play? What will we have learned?

This is not a wish list, but a list of things that explain why we are going down this path…

What are we willing to risk/sacrifice? What habits/beliefs/practices are we willing to experiment with in order to achieve our goal?

Note: This does not mean we are giving this belief/practice up, it just means that it is something we are open to the possibility of it working differently.

Example: • We are willing to risk our belief

that we can only remain profitable with functionally silo’d teams whose members are loaned out to work on multiple project teams at one time.

• We are willing to test our believe that management is responsible for ensuring all team members are 100% allocated for all 40 hours of a 40 hour work week.

What are we not wiling to risk? What are the things we are not open to trying to change (or experiment with) at this time?

Note: It does not mean they will always be off the table. It is just that at this time, the desire (or reason) for keeping these intact is stronger than the desire to see if they can/should be modified.

Example: • We are not willing to assign a

design resource (human) full time to each team.

• We are not willing to create SOWS that do not include specific deliverables.

• We do not feel our clients are ready to become fully integrated as a team member and participate in retrospectives with our teams.

ACTIONS What single action will we take in the next day to reach the goals we have listed above?

What single action will we take in the next week to reach the goals we have listed above?

What single action will we take in the next month to reach the goals we have listed above?

PMXPO 2018 - Agility Canvas for Digital AgenciesVersion 1.2 - Created by Dave Prior.

What is it you are trying to fix?

GOALS

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Why do you need to use Agile to fix this?

What benefit will you get out of using Agile?

WHY

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What strengths do you already have that will help you with this?

What Agile practices are you already using that work?

What about your mindset will help move down this path?

MOMENTUM

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What is keeping you from being Agile?

What about your culture, habits, governance and value system are blocking you?

BLOCKERS

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What will be different when you “GET THE AGILE”?

EXPECTATIONS

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What habits/beliefs/practices are you willing to experiment with to achieve your goal?

Note: You don’t have to totally abandon something to try and see if there are better options

WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO RISK / SACRIFICE?

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What are you not willing/able to try changing at this time?

Note: This doesn’t mean you are locked into them forever - just for now

WHAT ARE WE NOT WILLING TO RISK / SACRIFICE?

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What action will you take to achieve your goal?

• Tomorrow

• Next Week

• Next Month

3 ACTIONS

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ACCOUNTABILIT Y PARTNERSHIPS

Q&A

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Dave PriorEmail: dave.prior@leadingagile.comBlog: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/Twitter: @mrsungoCell +1 405/248-7480