written, illustrated
and performed by
Claudio Perrone
agilesensei.com
@agilesensei
Evolve & Disrupt
Popcorn flow & JTBD in action

This…

… Is jim

He wants to get
things done

Grow

Be part of a high-performance team

He dreams of
changing the world

BUT
IT’S Just
A dream

His company keeps going through many
reorganizations, only to stay the same
Organization chart
Blame flow
Rule makers
Controllers
Enforcers
VictimsOrganization chart
God
Losers

They are all victims
of A system they
cannot defeat

in 2001, I
discovered the
true nature of
the problem

We had focused on
speed & efficiency
through specialization…

... But what if the actual
world looked like this?

Agile Enabled unprecedented collaboration among
people…
…and leveraged
intrinsic
motivators
such as
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose

But ORGANIZATIONs CAN’t BE AGILE IF ONLY
THE DEVELOPMENT TEAMS ARE DOING AGILE
SMs
Typical “Agile” Enterprise

... besides, agile is about rapid evolution,
Not mindless conformance to “agile ceremonies”

LEAN
(BEYOND VALUE
STREAMS)
1
@agilesensei

And we are reducing that timeline by
removing the non-value-added
wastes.
-­‐-­‐-­‐
Taiichi
Ohno,
Founder
of
TPS
“All we are doing is looking at the
timeline from the moment the
customer gives us an order to the
point we can collect the cash.

“but that’s only part of the story…”

In lean, managers are servant leaders.
Value Stream (from concept to cash)

WITH GUIDANCE AND METHOD, MANAGERS
grow to become problem solverS, critical
thinkers and mentorS
www.a3thinker.com

“ -- Claudio Perrone
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
As a consequence…

My (validated) Hypothesis: By bringing
learning streams to the surface, companies
Evolve and reward the real heroes
Value Stream (from concept to cash)
Learning
Stream(s)
(from
question
to
knowledge
base)

Arguably, an A3 report “surfaces” a learning stream
around a problem…

But can we accelerate our rate of learning?

CONTINUOUS
EVOLUTION
(with Popcorn Flow)
2
@agilesensei

Do you remember…
…what was it like before
continuous integration
reached mainstream?

Hello?

Today, most of us think about
change as A big scary thing

… But what if We could evolve the way we work as
fast as some of the most adaptive microorganisms
on earth?

“ 1st Popcorn Flow Principle
If change is hard,
make it continuous.
Here is a “mad” thought…

A while ago, I worked with a team who
had not deployed in months

With the motto “Hard on systems, soft
on people”, We worked together and
evolved using the kanban method

The Kanban board triggered insights and
captured our flow of work -- our value
stream…
… But that’s
only the
outcome of
our thinking

the real “secret” was how we defined and
negotiated a rapid stream of traceable
change experiments…

Problems &
observations
Options Possible
experiments
Committed
Next Review Ongoing
... A powerful learning stream that I call
“popcorn Flow”...
Popcorn Flow

So, we captured our learning journey on a
parallel “Popcorn board”

It starts with Problems & Observations
(E.g. “the quality of our code sucks”)

I want to instill Kaizen urgency…

“Everybody is entitled to their own
opinion, but…
A shared opinion is a fact.
…and I’m happy to Make progress even with
imperfect information. As a consequence…
-- Popcorn Flow Principle

...I use shared observations to create/elicit
options (“rule of three”).

Promising options lead to a backlog of
possible experiments.

experiments that we Commit to pursue have
an action, reason, expectation and Review
date.

At Each retrospective, we ask exactly these
questions:

Some people fear “failure”…
Gap = Frustration
Reality
Expectation

…but we only really “fail” when we limit
our opportunities to learn
Gap = Frustration
Reality
Expectation
Learning

“ -- Popcorn Flow Principle
Any change is good change.
Inertia is our enemy, so in
popcorn flow…

It’s Not “fail fast, fail often”...
… It’s “Learn fast, learn often”.

Right from the beginning, I knew this was
different.

... Because the team COULD easily handle 5-10
change experiments each week, rapidly enabling it
to DELIVER multiple times a day

Experiment: "Fix as you go": If found small bugs (less than 20mins), just
branch and fix them. Do a pull request and mark the id on the card.
Reason: too much bureaucracy for small bugs.
Expectation:
- developer happy to fix things as needed without lengthy triages.
- steadily improving quality.
- low bureaucracy, but still able to track it if things go wrong.
- at least 3 bugs fixed like this by due date.
Experiment: Pair on JIT analysisReason: We are moving towards JIT analysis to reduce sprint
planning and moving to continuous flow.Expectation:
- DoD created
- Team agrees that analysis goes smoothly- No significant bottlenecks created
Experiment: Do an Analytics meet-up to show how analytics work in <new
kanban tool>
Reason: <product owner> needs some form of predictability.
Expectation:
- Po/Team are aware of what’s possible now with the current level of
analytics
- We have better understanding of if, how, when we can improve
forecasting with minimum amount of estimation.

…and then it spread.
Popcorn boards started to appear in other
parts of the organization.

Imagine a continuous flow of experiments to
dramatically accelerate the rate of change in
every corner of your organization...
... How far would you go?

Today, popcorn flow is entering more
organizations...

It is helping families...
... And (soon) even schools.

Projects under active development include
a lightweight “Action Deck” to facilitate
face-to-face conversations...

... A book

h:p://discuss.popcornflow.com
NEW!
Join
us!
… A brand-new
discussion forum

... And even a “secret” online platform.

But how can we increase the likelihood that anything
we create is of real customer value?

BREAKTHROUGH
INNOVATION
(with Jobs To Be Done)
3
@agilesensei

“How do you create customer value?”
Through the
development
of people
Attend to
folks’ needs
Listen to the
“Voice of the
Customer”
Get out of
the building
Just
do it
Growth
hack it

Operational excellence is not enough
Customer
12 min
16.5 min
73%
5.5 min 0.5 min 1.0 min 5.0 min
2.0 min 0.5 min 2.0 min
Value Adding Time (VAT)
Non VAT
Proc. Lead Time::
Total Cycle Time:
Proc. Efficiency:

No matter how hard we try,
We are still wide open to disruption
faster
cheaper
better quality
(incrementally)
innovative
Customer
“Different”
Competition

the Traditional approaches are not that
effective

we have one fundamental assumption
Customers don’t know
what they want!

What causes people to buy?

They “hire” a product or service
to get the job done.
Prof
Clayton
Christensen
People encounter situations that
drive the need to accomplish a job.
The job – not the customer – is
the fundamental unit of analysis.

Pull of the new solution
4 forces affect purchasing decisions
Push of the situation
Drive FORWARD
New
way
Habit of the present
Anxiety of the new choice
Hold back
Business
as usual
Based on the work
Of the re-wired group
(jobstobedone.org)
#JTBD

Forces evolve over time
Based on the work
Of the re-wired group
(jobstobedone.org)
#JTBD
First Thought
Passive
Looking
Active
Looking
Deciding
Consuming
Satisfaction
“Finished” or
Experienced
Event #1
Event #2
Buying
Or

Bob
Moesta
The
Re-­‐Wired
Group
We only talk to people who have
bought because embedded in
their choice set is the value code
of what they are willing to
switch from and to.

How do we capture it?
First
Thought
Active
Looking Deciding
Buying
Consuming
Event #1 Event #2 “Finished” or
Experienced
Satisfaction
Passive
Looking
Climax
(and Hook)
Moment of
struggle
Time
bombInciting
incident
Resolution Documentary:
“The Switch”

Anthony
Ulwick
Strategyn
Before you can determine what
solutions they’ll want, figure out:
• What jobs customers want to get
done
• What metrics they use to define
the successful execution of a job
Can we go even further?

Anatomy of a story
As a mobile user,
I want a longer antenna
so that I can have
a better reception
I want to minimise
the likelihood that
the conversation drops
Context, situation,
job, or job step
Outcome, need,
or measure of
improvement
Warning:
early assumptions
V.S.
When I’m calling a friend
User story
Job story/outcome

Job Stories Selected Options Product Backlog
(User stories)2
Once you have job stories (problem
space), you can easily get to user
stories (solution space)

Are you competing like any other
product on a pharmacy shelf?

Disrupt or die

Final Thoughts

Claudio
Perrone
claudio@agilesensei.com
www.agilesensei.com
@agilesensei
These
slides!
h:p://agilesensei.com/shared/agileee15.pdf
h:p://discuss.popcornflow.com
Next is now