Avanza transformed its development organization from siloed teams to a customer-focused structure with autonomous agile teams. The transformation was prompted by increasing lead times, cross-dependencies between teams, and declining team motivation. Avanza created 16 teams with end-to-end responsibilities aligned to customer journeys and value streams. This resulted in decreased time to market from 5.9 to 1.2 teams on average, increased strategic flexibility, and empowered employees who felt ownership of budgets and delivery.

1. Avanza Case
Study
mia.kolmodin@dandypeople.com
Agile Transformation with
Customer Focus
- from 4 silos to a customer
focused feature team organization

2. FinTech/Bank - Avanza
Breaking Silos – Self Selection - 11 Autonomous Agile Team with Missions

3. “Avanza's development organization has grown from 7 to 16 teams during the last 4
years. Great fun, of course, but it also required some prerequisites.
In the fall of 2016, our lead times increased significantly, we had many cross-
dependencies between the teams; and, we began to see early signs that our team's
motivation was suffering. We were not sure why this was because we had been working
in an agile way for over 10 years. We needed to take the next step.
During the past year we have learned a great deal. Based on that, we have created a new
team structure that follows our customer's journey and value streams. This new structure
includes 16 autonomous teams with end-to-end responsibilities, with clear missions; and,
that are linked to our vision. The teams also have responsibility for all channels and have
the skills required to deliver on their missions.”
Background

4. FinTech/Bank - Avanza
Result in 1,5 years
The Avanza product organization is about 200 people (IT/Product/Marketing/Operations)
● Decreased Time to Market, from 5,9 teams involved in a delivery to 1,2 in average
● Increased Strategic Flexibility, Team Missions connected to Customer Journey and
Feature Teams enable strategic and tactical adjustments along the way
● Happy & Empowered Employees - Teams feeling like a startup. Owns the budget,
learning about customer needs, delivering on all touchpoints and optimizing towards the business
strategy.
● Happier Stakeholders - Involved with the teams work & understand the structure of the org
RESULT
mia.kolmodin@dandypeople.com

5. Video Link for the Avanza case
presentation on the Agile Team
Transformation
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=AfxAm8BZcsI

6. Customer Focus and an
Agile Mindset
Slides 5 thru 20
Avanza Agile
Transformation
Beginning on slide 23 we share
how we helped Avanza find their new customer
focused organization

7. What are the tells that you are
suffering from organizational and
governance complexity?

8. We keep missing
the target. It’s
difficult to deliver
customer and
business value.

9. It’s more important
to follow the plan
instead of acting on
new learning's.

10. There are plans and
projects that are
leading us in
different directions.

11. Every one is
occupied in
meetings.
Who’s doing the
real work?

12. Innovation and
improvements has
no place in our day
to day activities.

13. We are too slow, new
players change the market
and deliver solutions that our
customers like better.

14. Employees
experience
long-lasting
stress.

15. Why is it
like this?

16. Too many people are
involved to deliver
customer value.

17. We have no focus.
Time gets lost in
context switching.

18. No team or group
have end 2 end
responsibility so
that they can
deliver customer
value.
Department Y
Competence Y
Department X
Competence X
Department Z
Competence Z

19. We have offices
where team
members can’t sit
together with the
people they need to
work with.

20. Only 5%
of the employees
understand the business
strategy.
Source: Harvard Business School
The people creating
the strategies and
the people
implementing them
are too far away from
each other.

21. No one has the over
all map of where we
are going - and how
it is going.

22. The organization is
not optimized for
speed and flexibility
- but for control.
It´s a 100 years old!

23. What can
we do to fix this?

24. Begin with Leadership
and Vision

25. Leadership for Agility
• Leading with vision & create leaders
• Empowers employees & teams
• Creates a “safe to fail environment”
• Actively support change initiatives
• Optimizing the whole system & removing impediments
• Creating clear roles & expectations
• Prioritizes sustainable change
• Enables that insights leads to action

26. Begin with a clear Vision, Mission and Purpose
(”Start with Why”)

27. Create the common
Vision, together!
Read about one of the transformation workshops we did here >

28. Avanzas vision was that it should feel more like a
start-up to be in a team.
Result
“It’s like working in a start-up.
We know where we are going and
decide in our team what to work
on”

29. … we should be a Shark,
not a Snail!

30. Create a cross-functional
Transformation Group

31. Business Model-Debt
Customer Experience-Debt
Product-Debt
Technology-Debt
Process-Debt
… we should innovate together.

32. Aligning the organization
with the
Customer Journey

33. Focus on Customer Value,
not systems

34. ... climb the
customer
focus
Stairs!
1. UX-hostility
Users should adopt to the system. “We know what the users need”, “We are the experts”.
2. Development based UX
There is an interest for UX, but you focus on delivering what has already been ordered.
3. UX Guerilla Style
Sporadic UX-activities in the teams. Difficult to make strategic decisions based on learnings.
4. UX part of the budget
UX work is more organized, but with a low level of coordination.
5. Organized UX work
UX is a competence in all teams. UX/CX-lead coaching and supporting.
6. Systematic CX-processes
CX work is formalized and highly prioritized.
7. Integrated CX
Lean Teams with Missions and Service Design plays a key role.
The system supports self service also in design, UX/CX.
8. Customer Experience (CX) permeates everything
The organization is run with customer experience focus.

35. Old Business I
T
Old Business New Business
- often called
something “X”
One Business
A business that can
accelerate
and learn fast.
One Business –
One Organization

36. Autonomy for alignment
Company BetsAlignment
Team InitiativesAutonomy
with a Mission
100%
Autonomy Support other Missions
Lights On Maintenance

37. Create Teams
with a Mission

38. Creating Teams with a Mission!

39. The Teams with a Mission
are linked to the vision
and responsible for
delivering the strategies

40. Agile Lean Teams
on a Mission
• Cross functional co-located Teams
• T-shaped People
• Team Mission & Opportunity Map
• Learns about the user and the solution
• Discovery & Delivery in the team
• Visualizes and Prototypes
• Optimizes product, learning & process

41. Lean Team and T-Shaped
Members

42. Aligning the Teams with the Customer Journey

43. Teams Responsible for Delivering the Vision
Customer
Experience
Business
Value
Scalability
Regulatory
Frameworks
Technical
Quality

44. Team & Organizational Flow

45. First Step: 4 Teams
Second Step: 9 Teams

46. First Steps – Four New Teams

47. Next Step – Nine New Teams

48. New Leadership Structure
and Organizational Flows

49. New Leadership Structure

50. Follow-ups, for example:
Team Health Check

51. Focus on Alignment via the customer

52. Discovery and Development Flow

53. Service Teams to support Scaling
Mission is self service for all teams.
Example of Mission for a Design Ops team
All teams should always have access to
the latest actionable insights and design
frameworks.
Example of activities for a Design Ops Team
• Build User Experience-framework
• Visualizes data and insights from all teams
• Coach and train teams and leaders
• Input and support for Strategic Company Bets

54. The Results!

55. Happier Teams
Avanza Result

56. Almost a 6-fold reduction in the need for
multiple teams to Deliver (5.9 to 1.2)
Avanza Result

57. Happier stakeholders
Avanza Result

58. Faster Time to Market
Avanza Result

59. Happy & empowered employees
Avanza Result
“It’s like working in a start-up.
We know where we are going and
decide in our team what to work on”

60. Some tips from Avanza…

61. Some tips for your Journey

62. Free Downloads
dandypeople.com/blog
+ 70.000 downloads

64. mia.kolmodin@dandypeople.com
Thank you!
@miakolmodin