The document discusses aligning technical and business teams through transparency and communication. It describes how a lack of transparency between teams led to unhappy customers and delayed product delivery. Various techniques were implemented to improve transparency, such as weekly demos of work, forums for discussion, and making the product roadmap and team work visible. This helped address issues and improve alignment between teams for more efficient work and better customer outcomes.

1. From Divided to United –
Aligning Technical & Business Teams
@dominicad
ddegrandis.com
@dominicad
Dominica DeGrandis
Director, Learning
& Development
www.leankit.com

2. @dominicad
Going from us/them to we….
started with
a necessary
argument

3. Alignment: a position of agreement/alliance
@dominicad

4. Customers pleased?
Work transparent?
Communication effective?
@dominicad

5. system limits + delayed delivery =
@dominicad
high demand on
application impacts
architecture
and
features not delivered
as expected,
results in sad panda

6. @dominicad
Customers determine business goals
What are the
priorities based
on customer
demand? feature
#1
feature
#2
feature
#3

7. @dominicad
large customer affirms good experience
“you were a
huge part of
moving >
90% of our
projects from
waterfall to
agile.”

8. not everyone was happy
@dominicad
more please
• ux enhancements
• new features
• better integrations
• faster loading

9. @dominicad
internal customers pressured

10. @dominicad
marketing coordination cost is high
Will product feature
be released in
the timeframe
Marketing team
expects?

11. @dominicad
the need for change was self-evident
Unhappy
business teams
begin to have
more influence
on roadmap
decisions

12. @dominicad
Ops team sacrifices go unnoticed
Business exec
investigates
new
technology
promising zero
impact on tech
teams, but
guess what
happens?

13. @dominicad
Let’s talk about IT like it’s part of the business
Apologies only
go so far.
need actions
to improve
the mindset

14. Customers pleased?
Work transparent?
Communication effective?

15. @dominicad
transparency as a necessary factor

16. product development roadmap
done
work-­‐in-­‐progress
theme
next
up

17. From theme to working software
A3
the most valuable thing that fits within a 5
week timeframe
DIV: Deployed, Iterative, Value
(≤ 5 days)
Task
DIV
Task Task
Task
A3
DIV
Task
DIV
Task Task
Task

18. product development roadmap
done
work-­‐in-­‐progress
theme
next
up
A3

19. A pull system optimizes for
workflow efficiency
Goal - finish old projects
before starting new
projects.
@dominicad

20. Sequence of DIVs add up to delivered A3A3’s in live/done = value delivered
in
produc6on
live/done

21. FSGD as a company wide thinking tool

22. All team boards roll up to the roadmap
Each team has a team board
where work is broken down into smaller chunks.
roadmap team board

23. @dominicad
Ops Team board Current DIVs

24. MKT MKTFIN
UXMKT
MKT MKT
SLS DEVUXUX
SLS CSS
QAUX
DEVOPS SLS
SLS
1
2
3
4
6
5
DEV
DEV
OPS
How the A3 is populated
Cost of Delay?
Impact to users?What benefits who?
What does feature do?
Sustainability impact? fine print /misc?

26. Customers pleased?
Work transparent?
Communication effective?

27. @dominicad
Demo DIV – teams get 5 min to demo their DIV*
What? So what? What now?
*DIV – Deployable Iterative Value

28. @dominicad
Demo DIV feedback from Biz teams
* DIV - deployed iterative value
“I just want to learn about the things I can sell.”
“I don’t want to listen to the technical stuff.”

29. @dominicad
Forum for discussing A3’s
A3 reviews
A3 Wall
• all invited
• context provided
• user perspective
• why’s addressed
• goals explained
• concerns heard
• opinions aired
• feedback
welcome

30. @dominicad http://leancoffee.org
Forum for retrospectives

31. @dominicad
Forum for raising & solving problems

32. @dominicad
What makes a great team?
Google two year study results:
Who is on a team matters less than
how team members interact.
The willingness to talk about errors is
by far the most important factor for a team
Amy Edmonson TED talk:
h:ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8

33. Alignment requires absolute clarity
@dominicad
Customers pleased?
Work transparent?
Communication effective?

34. @dominicad
For the innovators
Generate ideas to
increase transparency

35. @dominicad
For the doers
Investigate and study customer recommendation levels
Net Promoter Score = % promoters - detractors

36. @dominicad
For the influencers
Acknowledge
perceptions
- then shift
incentives
toward
transparency,
safe measures,
& listening.
Wired article - The science of why no one agrees on the color of this dress

37. @dominicad www.ddegrandis.com Dominica DeGrandis www.leankit.com

38. Questions
@dominicad
www.ddegrandis.com
Dominica
DeGrandis
www.leankit.com