The Lean Studio: Running a modern agency
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Agile development in an agency environment is hard. At Code ComputerLove we have moved away from the traditional agency model to a new, more effective way of working based on value and continual learning. From changing how project managers work and think about value to re-educating clients about more regular releases and smaller batches, we will share the lessons we have learnt along the way, the challenges we’ve faced and where are still looking to improve.
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The Lean Studio: Running a modern agency
- 1. The Lean Studio: Running a modern agency James Jeffries @jjeffries1 Daniel Furze @furzeface
- 2. Who are we? THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 3. Who are we? James Jeffries Senior developer @jjeffries1 Daniel Furze Senior front end developer @furzeface THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 4. A digital experience studio in the heart of Manchester
- 5. THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 6. The traditional agency model THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 7. The traditional agency model Projects not products THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 8. Projects not products Deliver fast at the expense of quality The traditional agency model THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 9. Projects not products Deliver fast at the expense of quality Build what the customer says to build The traditional agency model THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 10. How are we changing? THE LEAN STUDIO // @JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 11. 11 Long term partnerships THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 12. 12 Focus on value, not deadline/budget THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 13. 13 Fixed, cross functional teams THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 14. 14 Team operating costs THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 15. 15 Data & metrics THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 16. 16 Estimates THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 17. 17 Planning THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 18. 18 Architecture THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 19. 19 Continuous Delivery THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 20. 20 Discipline groups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 21. 21 Continuous improvement THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 22. 22 User groups / meetups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 23. 23 CodeUp MCR User groups/meetups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 24. 24 CodeUp MCR Software Craftsmanship User groups/meetups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 25. 25 CodeUp MCR Software Craftsmanship North West Testers Gathering User groups/meetups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 26. 26 CodeUp MCR Software Craftsmanship North West Testers Gathering Northern Change Facilitators User groups/meetups THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 27. 27 lean.codecomputerlove.c om THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 28. 28 Collaboration THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 29. 29 Building trust THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 30. 30 Eating our own dogfood THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 31. 31 codecomputerlove.com THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 32. 32 busyroomapp.com THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 33. Challenges - us THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 34. Challenges - us Roles are changing THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 35. Roles are changing More collaboration required Challenges - us THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 36. Roles are changing More collaboration required Mindset Challenges - us THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 37. Challenges - clients THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 38. Challenges - clients Mindsets THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 39. Challenges - clients Mindsets Collaboration THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 40. Challenges - clients Mindsets Collaboration Building Trust THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 41. What’s next for Code? THE LEAN STUDIO // @JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 42. What’s next? Keep momentum THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 43. What’s next? Keep momentum Design thinking THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 44. What’s next? Keep momentum Design thinking Build more products THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 45. What’s next? Keep momentum Design thinking Build more products Refine our pricing and billing THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 46. Takeaways THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 47. • Give people the time and space to learn and improve • Give them the space to experiment safely • Aim for an open culture where feedback and change is welcomed Start with culture THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 48. • Collect data and use it to make decisions • Look for opportunities to improve • Be proactive and innovate Use data THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 49. • Not on how much you get done or what you’ll get paid for doing • This applies to client work and continuous improvement • What’s the smallest thing we can do to get the most value? Focus on value THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
- 50. The Lean Studio: Running a modern agency James Jeffries @jjeffries1 Daniel Furze @furzeface Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/furzeface/the-lean-studio THE LEAN STUDIO // @JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
Editor's Notes
- James 8 months Dan 6 months Part of initiative to bring in senior level team - to help facilitate a lot of the changes we’ll be talking about
- Established in 1999 in Manchester always been a forward thinking agency – reinventing itself many times Now in an ongoing transformation to take a more lean, agile approach to our work and with our clients
- We’ve worked with clients big and small, national and international on a variety of projects and products. Now helping these clients transition to a leaner approach, to deliver more value, quickly.
- Who works in agencies? I’ve worked in agencies before , I’ve worked client side in an agile software development house, but never an Agile agency.
- Projects not Products – having a fixed scope of a project restricts development team to a deadline
- Delivering to a fixed deadline causes compromises on quality.
- Not necessarily building what’s right for the consumer – only what our client thinks is right. No data behind these decisions. Often building for the sake of building.
- @todo try and change the layout of this slide
- Long term partnerships with clients Work on products not projects – ongoing continual improvement and innovation Sustainable long term relationships - help clients evolve their capability Provide ongoing value
- Help clients make data driven decisions to provide real, trackable value Experiments to prove value before we commit to building Dashboards to raise awareness of ongoing value Show data in terms of clients KPIs and aims
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- Developers, designers, UX, product owners - Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume Clients hire us for set periods of time Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- -People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
- building our online presence with new engineering blog
- Understand client’s goals to recommend better solutions Allows us to spot opportunities for improvement More regular feedback
- Increasing communication - Regular calls - Visit each other’s offices - We run workshops to help them understand why we work the way we do - Work more closely together - Helps to build empathy in both directions - Easier to understand why people react the way they do if you know them
- We work the same way on internal products as we do on our clients
- Code website is a Lean, iterative process - Busyroom app we’re producing is the same process
- - Busyroom app we’re producing is the same process Helps us find pain points and things that a client might find difficult to understand
- Moving on to some of the challenges we’ve faced so far, and are facing currently.
- Roles are changing cross discipline upskilling each other within account teams the challenges are lost people who aren’t in the mindset people having to learn to work in different ways eg Project managers – people not from engineering background The challenge is keeping people like this hiring people who “get it”
- More collaboration required Moving away from command and control to more collaborative working
- Mindset Stopping people focussing on money and thinking about what is valuable to the client instead
- Change mindsets Stop thinking in terms of buying features and projects Start thinking more about evolving products to add value Stop big releases
- Collaboration Understand their goals to recommend better solutions Allows us to spot opportunities for improvement Working with us to find solutions not giving us solutions Previously we would often get requests like “Move this button to here” Clients prioritise backlog with total transparency on team progress and velocity They are involved in daily rituals
- Building Trust Consistently delivering Proving that A/B tests and experiments work Increasing communication Work more closely together Helps to build empathy in both directions
- @todo try and change the layout of this slide
- Momentum to attract people/clients who already “get it”
- Build more of our own products Already have busy room and tablito on the app store
- Think about how we price/bill for what we do Not buying “a website” anymore spread it out over a time period
- To summarise
- Start with internal culture Attract the right sort of people Continuously improve
- Hard to argue with the facts