Scaling Lean: Principles over Process

SCALING LEAN:
PRINCIPLES OVER PROCESS
JEFF GOTHELF / @JBOOGIE / JEFF@GOTHELF.CO

GOTHELF.CO / @JBOOGIE
TECH
PRODUCT
DESIGN
AGILE
LEAN
DESIGN THINKING

STARTUPS
DON’T HAVE THIS PROBLEM

IN THE ENTERPRISE HOWEVER,
THINGS ARE DIFFERENT

AND YET, EVERY ENTERPRISE,
WANTS TO BE “LIKE A STARTUP”

WHEN STRETCHED TO BIGGER ORGS
LEAN AND AGILE BREAK

WHY DOES LEAN SEEM TO
BREAK AT SCALE?Established corporations are too concerned about tarnishing their brand with an MVP 
— David Baldie (@DavidBaldie)
Process. Everything has a process and 85 approvals and a mysterious “they” blocking anything that’s not the old way. 
— Emily Tate (@thedailyem)
"Good enough" doesn't get respected as viable option to SHIP IT! 
— Jeremy Caverly (@JeremyCee)
Silo'ed managers unwilling to release team members 
— Dan Weingrod (@dweingrod)
Valuing business need over user need (not realizing they are the same thing) 
— Simeon Poulin (@simeon_P)
"To approve that we need to see a detailed plan and cost benefit analysis, and you must commit to specific deadlines and targets." 
— John Waterworth (@jwaterworth)
"We already know what we need to do. Why do we need to waste time 'learning'?" 
— John Waterworth (@jwaterworth)

HOW CAN WE MOVE BIG ORGS
PAST THESE HURDLES?

SEVERAL WAYS TO THINK ABOUT
SCALING
PROJECT
How do we
incorporate more
learning into each
initiative?
PROGRAM
How do we coordinate
multiple discovery/delivery
efforts focused on the same
goal?
PORTFOLIO
How do we coordinate
multiple programs, enforce
governance and meet
shareholder expectations?

SCALING CHALLENGES AT EACH LEVEL
PROJECT
•Optimizing for throughput
(velocity)
•Parallel path discovery &
delivery
•No autonomy to make
decisions
•Incremental, not iterative
•Perceived risk to brand/
current customers
PROGRAM PORTFOLIO
•Cross-team coordination
•Knowledge management
•Legacy systems
•Offshoring
•Distributed teams
•Discipline & business unit
silos
•IT as a service provider
•Business value > customer
value
•Annual planning
•Incentive structure
•Governance
•Conway’s Law but in reverse

THERE ARE NO SHORTAGE OF
RECIPES

I can see myself
in the picture. So
I like it!

THESE ARE ONLY FRAMEWORKS

SCALING PRINCIPLES,
NOT PROCESSES
“Process brings seductively strong near-term outcomes.”
- Netflix culture presentation (2009)

PRINCIPLE #1
CUSTOMER VALUE = BUSINESS VALUE

TACTIC:
MANAGE TO OKR’S
OBJECTIVE
•Qualitative
•Inspirational
•Time bound
•Actionable by the team independently  
(particularly relevant in the enterprise)
KEY RESULTS
•Quantifiable
•How will we know we’ve met our objective?
•Difficult, not impossible
•Cascade down
•Rhythmic
@CWODTKE
EXAMPLE OF OBJECTIVE: BE THE DOMINANT PLATFORM FOR CAR DEALER INVENTORY MANAGEMENT BY Q4 2016
EXAMPLE OF KEY RESULT: 50% OF ALL INDEPENDENT DEALERS ARE OUR USERS
EXAMPLE OF KEY RESULT: 6 OF THE TOP 10 CARMAKERS MANDATE OUR PLATFORM FOR THEIR DEALERSHIPS
EXAMPLE OF KEY RESULT: 40% OF AUTO AUCTION HOUSES USING OUR INVENTORY API

TACTIC:
EVIDENCE-BASED QUARTERLY PLANNING
SHIP
SENSERESPOND Q1: OKR’S
STAKEHOLDERS
EVERY QUARTER
$/€/£$/€/£
NEW OKR

TACTIC:
HORIZON PLANNING
Source: McKinsey, Intuit, et al
THREE TIME HORIZONS TO MEASURE PROGRESS
• Customer-related questions to answer: Is there a need? Can we find a solution that meets that need?
HORIZON 3: SHORT TERM
• Sustainability-related questions to answer: Is the market large enough/sustainable? Can we support growth?
HORIZON 2: MID TERM
• Growth-related questions to answer: How do we scale? How do we continuously improve? How do we stay competitive?
HORIZON 1: LONG TERM

PRINCIPLE #2
VALUE LEARNING OVER DELIVERY

TACTIC:
BUILD MOMENTUM WITH PILOT TEAMS

TACTIC:
SANDBOXES

TACTIC:
ENCOURAGE CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS
Source: @evolvable, @tyro

PRINCIPLE #3
RADICAL TRANSPARENCY

TACTIC:
TRANSPARENCY THROUGH RITUALS

TACTIC:
ACCESS TO CUSTOMERS
The second hardest thing about
Minimum Viable Products is that while
you decide what’s Minimum, the
customer determines if it is Viable.
- @davidjbland

TACTIC:
ACCESS TO CUSTOMERS

TACTIC:
ACCESS TO DATA

PRINCIPLE #4
HUMILITY IN ALL THINGS

TACTIC:
PRODUCT DISCOVERY

TACTIC:
“ORBITAL MODEL” FOR SUPPORT OUTSIDE OF
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
CORE TEAM
LEGAL
BRAND
MARKETING
FINANCE

TACTIC:
MODERN STAFFING MODEL

TACTIC:
MODERNIZE TECH STACK
DevOps is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the
collaboration and communication of both software developers
and other information-technology (IT) professionals while
automating the process of software delivery and
infrastructure changes.
- Wikipedia

TACTIC:
MODERNIZE TECH STACK
Source: @billwscott (slideshare)

THIS IS A TOP-DOWN EFFORT
“Successful leaders embrace the reality
that their models may be wrong or
incomplete. Only when we admit what we
don’t know can we ever hope to learn it.”
- Ed Catmull, CEO, Pixar

SEEK OUT THE SHIT UMBRELLA

LEAN PRINCIPLES THAT WORK AT
ANY SCALE
PRINCIPLE #1: CUSTOMER VALUE = BUSINESS VALUE
PRINCIPLE #2: VALUE LEARNING OVER DELIVERY
PRINCIPLE #3: RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
PRINCIPLE #4: HUMILITY IN ALL THINGS

THANK YOU!
JEFF GOTHELF / @JBOOGIE / JEFF@GOTHELF.CO

Scaling Lean: Principles over Process

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