1.
written, illustrated
and performed by
Claudio Perrone
agilesensei.com
@agilesensei
Continuous evolution
Through ultra-rapid
experimentation

2.
This…

3.
… Is jim

4.
He wants to get
things done

5.
Grow

6.
Be part of a high-performance team

7.
Jim would like to
change the world

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But the world
does not want
to be changed

9.
His company went through many
reorganizations, only to stay the same
Organization chart
Blame flow
Rule makers
Controllers
Enforcers
VictimsOrganization chart
God
Losers

10.
So, Today,
this is Jim.

11.
most of us
think about
change as
big, slow
and scary

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But what if we could make it
infinitely small…
… and learn to evolve
almost as fast as a virus?

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“ -- 1st PopcornFlow Principle
(aka “the virus” principle)
If change is hard,
make it continuous.
Here is a “mad” thought…

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trying to rewire the human brain is
difficult, however.

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A better option is to ACT ON THE system
– i.e. the environment in which decisions are made.
…But how?

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ARCHITECTING
CHANGE
(with PopcornFlow)
@agilesensei

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

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

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The Kanban board captured our value stream…
… But that’s
only the
outcome of
our thinking

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“ -- Claudio Perrone
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
You see...

21.
Problems &
observations
Options Possible
experiments
OngoingReviewNext
Committed
the real “secret” was our rapid stream of
traceable change experiments…

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the real “secret” was our rapid stream of
traceable change experiments…
Problems &
observations
Options Possible
experiments
OngoingReviewNext
Committed
PopcornFlow Claudio Perrone
PopcornFlow.com
h#p://agilesensei.com/resources
... A powerful learning stream that I call
“popcorn Flow”...

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

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It starts with Problems & Observations
The quality
of our code
sucks.

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inertia is our enemy…

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“Everybody is entitled to their own
opinion, but…
A shared opinion is a fact.
… so, I’m happy to Make progress even with
imperfect information. As a consequence…
-- 2nd PopcornFlow Principle
(aka “the kaizen urgency” principle)The quality
of our code
sucks.

27.
The quality
of our code
sucks.
...I use shared observations to create/elicit
options (“rule of three”).
Test-driven
development
Code review
Pair
Programming

28.
Test-driven
development
Code review
Pair
Programming
Promising options lead to a backlog of
possible experiments.
Action: Research
good books on
TDD
Action: Let’s
pair program
for 3 days

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Action: Let’s pair program
Reason: Code quality sucks
Expectations:
- Perception is that code
is better
- We’ll like it & want to
keep doing it
Duration: 3 days
Review Date: dd/mm/yy
experiments that we Commit to pursue have an
action, reason, expectation and Review date.

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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.

31.
At Each retrospective, we ask exactly these
questions:
Action: Let’s pair program
Reason: Code quality sucks
Expectations:
- Perception is that
code is better
- We’ll like it & want to
keep doing it
Duration: 3 days
Review Date: dd/mm/yy

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

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

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“ -- 3rd Popcorn Flow Principle
(aka “the skateboarder” principle)
It’s not “fail fast, fail often”…
It’s “learn fast, learn often”.
YOU SEE…

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Can you REALLY
pretend that
you’ll never fall?

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Right from the beginning, I knew this was
different.

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... Because the team COULD easily handle
5-10 change experiments each week...

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... rapidly enabling it to DELIVER
multiple times a day

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

40.
Imagine a continuous flow of experiments to
dramatically accelerate the rate of change in
every corner of your organization...
... How far would you go?

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Today, popcorn flow is entering more
organizations

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It was designed to quickly introduce,
sustain & accelerate change…

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… But then, I wondered: what jobs are
other people ‘hiring’ PopcornFlow for?

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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.
After all…

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Some teams ‘hire’ Popcornflow to better
reflect and continuously improve the way
they work.

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others use it to reach product/market
fit (e.g., “improve conversion rate from
5% to 10%”)

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corporate boardrooms use it for
strategic decision-making (real options)

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PopcornFlow is touching lives even outside
the business world…

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e.g. Families,

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... Schools, autism support groups.

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PopcornFlow is even part of A proposal to
foster innovation in the public sector

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popcorn Flow is also getting
traction at personal level

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“Every single week,
I’m 5 experiments older.
Can I evolve even faster?
Can you?
Continuous evolution
Is a way of life.
-- Claudio Perrone

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Projects under active development include
a lightweight “Action Deck” to facilitate
face-to-face conversations...
(... Which I
used to help
some friends
finding a job)

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...stickers, to setup a popcornflow board
like a pro in minutes...
h#p://popcornflow.com/s;ckers
JUST
RELEASED!

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h#p://discuss.popcornflow.com
… A discussion forum

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(psst... a “secret” online platform...)

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... And a book.
h#p://popcornflow.com/book
JOIN
THE
EARLY
NOTIFICATION
LIST!

59.
Final Thoughts

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“
-- Claudio Perrone
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
But then...
It’s not what you learn, but rather
what you do with what you learn
that matters.

61.
Claudio
Perrone
claudio@agilesensei.com
www.agilesensei.com
@agilesensei
Join
the
book
no;fica;on
list!
h#p://popcornflow.com/book
Next is now