The document discusses collaboration as a critical factor for success in organizational decision-making and innovation. It emphasizes the importance of using structured collaboration frameworks, such as a planning wall, to prioritize projects and improve stakeholder engagement. A case study involving Conteneo and the Kettering Foundation illustrates the effective use of these frameworks to align priorities and drive future actions.

1. #AccelerateQTC
Laura Richardson
VP Sales at Conteneo
May 3rd, 2017
#AccelerateQTC
Use Collaboration to Solve Your Biggest Challenges

2. VP Sales at Conteneo, Certified Collaboration Instructor
Partnerships Director at Every Voice Engaged Foundation
@lcaldie | laura.richardson@conteneo.co
Laura Richardson

3. Conteneo is a globally recognized provider of enterprise software and
professional services that help enterprises optimize decision making in the areas
of product and service innovation, organizational strategy, product development,
agile and market research.

4. Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501(c)3, is devoted to increasing civic
engagement through Participatory Budgeting and Deliberative Decision
Making

5. #AccelerateQTC
• How Poor Collaboration Affects Organizations
• How to Use Collaboration Frameworks: Planning Wall
• Case Study: Conteneo and Kettering Foundation
Agenda

6. There Are Critical Business Goals That Strongly Influence
Success or Failure
Innovation Process
Improvement
Prioritization &
Resource
Allocation
Understanding
Customer
Needs
Strategic
Planning

7. Companies and Communities Tasked With Facing These Problems
Innovation Process
Improvement
Prioritization &
Resource
Allocation
Understanding
Customer
Needs
Strategic
Planning

8. 1. We don’t involve stakeholders
2. We don’t create options
3. We don’t assess actions
4. We don’t consider drawbacks
5. We don’t collaborate
Failure to Execute Is Traced to Problems Around Collaboration
50% of strategic
business
decisions
#fail

9. Communication vs. Collaboration
Communication:
The act of conveying intended
meanings from one entity or
group to another through the use
of mutually understood signs and
semiotic rules.
Think broadcast – 1 to many
Collaboration:
The process of two or more
people or organizations working
together to realize or achieve
something successfully
Subject to cognitive limitations
such as “more than ~8, no
collaborate”

10. • Meetings
• Video
conferencing
• Surveys
• Wikis, SharePoint,
Dropbox, Google
Docs
Communication
Success
• Tools for
knowledge
workers
• Support
collaboration
• Solve a problem
• Fit into a process
• Create data for
analysis
Collaboration
Frameworks are tools
for collaboration
Many tools for
communication
Companies Mistake Communication For Collaboration

11. What is a Framework?
Design
Thinking
Empathy
Map
Customer
Journey
Map
Value
Proposition
Canvas
A framework is a tool that enables knowledge workers to perform their jobs.
Frameworks:
– Solve a problem.
– Fit into a process.
– Scale for both in-person and online use.

12. Framework Time Horizons & Frequency
• We use frameworks at different “levels” of abstraction and different time
horizons.
Daily
Sprint
Strategy
Portfolio
Product
Release
Leader Years
Months/Quarters
Weeks
One-time
Continuous
Strategic
Operational
Tactical
Project
Manager
Developer

13. The Benefits of Frameworks
Frameworks… Here’s How…
Improve decision-making Frameworks provide a clear structure to problem
solving.
Enable efficient collaboration Frameworks create shared mental models.
Solve increasingly complex
problems
No one framework can meet all needs – for
example, Scrum doesn’t provide a framework for
strategic planning (e.g., no roadmap).
Leverage wisdom and
experience
High-impact frameworks are retained and low-
impact frameworks are discarded.

14. Frameworks Apply to the Whole Process
Discover Shape Prioritize Act
• Find out what your
customers are
looking for and what
they need
• Identify existing
problems
• Uncover new or
unmet needs
• Create a vision of
the customer’s
future with the new
product
• Mold ideas into new
services and
products
• Develop whole
solutions
• Put concepts into
context
• Choose high ROI
projects or features
• Understand your
constraints
• Decide what’s in and
what’s out
• Create a plan of
action for near and
long term success
• Define
dependencies and
linkages
• Identify project risks
and plan for them
• Work out
accelerators and
inhibitors

15. Planning Wall
Planning Wall

16. Planning Wall Overview
• A planning wall organizes a set
of items such as features,
projects, or user stories in two
dimensions.
• The Y-axis captures “business
value”, with higher valued items
placed at the top.
• The X-axis captures level of
effort. Teams collaborate on the
placement of items.
Business
Value
Effort /
Cost

17. Finding “Value-Add” Projects
Major
Projects
Potential
or Fill-In
Major
Projects
Quick
Wins

18. Preparing Questions
will be prioritizing
in order to
Who?
What?
Why?
We will ask
representatives from
our Customer
Advisory Council to
prioritize features in
order to improve our
roadmap.
We will ask senior leaders
in sales and product
development to prioritize
our marketing portfolio to
see which marketing
programs we might be able
to eliminate to save costs.
We will ask architects to
prioritize our infrastructure
improvements to see which
changes will help us
remove the most technical
debt.
save costs

19. Detailed Planning
how many people?
where will the data come from?
Who?
What?
How?
We expect 18 to 24
people. Product
Management will
give us the features.
We will use
Conteneo Weave.
We expect 12 senior
leaders organized into 2
online forums. Jane will
facilitate both forums.
We’ve changed our plan. We will
create two sets of forums. The first
set will be for architects. The
second set will include all
developers. Our Scrum Masters will
facilitate a forum for each one of
their teams.
online or in-person? Facilitators?

20. Tailoring the “Value” Axis
Qualitative / Low Precision
• Low, Medium, High
• S, M, L, XL
Quantitative / Higher Precision
• $50K - $100K
$250K – $500K
$500K - $1M
$1M+
• $100K, $250K, 500K
• 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21
Number of dimensions?
3, 4, 5 are common
Equal spacing?
Unequal spacing can help
shape the conversation.
Low
Med
High

21. Tailoring the “Effort” Axis
Qualitative / Low Precision
• Low, Medium, High
• S, M, L, XL
Quantitative / Higher Precision
• $50K - $100K
$250K – $500K
$500K - $1M
$1M+
• $100K, $250K, 500K
• 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21
Number of dimensions?
3, 4, 5 are common
Equal spacing?
Unequal spacing can help
shape the conversation.
Low Med High

22. Tailoring the “Do This” Area

23. Interaction Design for Collaboration
Group Parallel
Building in Turns
Turn Taking
1
2
3
Gather – Scatter - Gather
Agree Then Act

24. Case Study: Conteneo + Kettering
• We wanted to prioritize features for a future release of Common Ground
for Action, our platform for civic engagement.
• We included The Kettering Foundation (our partner) and Kettering-trained
facilitators.
• We planned one online forum using the Weave Platform with the key
stakeholders.

25. Example from Conteneo
• 40 backlog items were added one at a time to the Planning Wall.
• The Conteneo business team & Kettering would control its Y-axis
• Dan O’Leary, our CTO, would control its X-axis
Feature
User story

Bug Fix
Enhancement
User Story

Results!

26. Tailoring Value and Effort
Small Medium Large
Do 1st Do 2nd
Do 3rd Do 4th
Very Low
Low
Medium
High
Very High
Priority controlled by
Kettering Team
Difficulty controlled
By Conteneo Engineering
Results

27. Do 1st
1. Start state: very high priority,
do second
2. Amy moved to medium priority,
do first
1.
3.
3. Dan moved to size: small
4. Mike moved to high priority, do
first
4
.
Planning Wall Results

28. Planning Wall Results
We downloaded the list and created the final set of PBIs. We have a
clear agreement on the items for the next release and a set of items
that will drive subsequent releases.
Feature
User story

Bug Fix
Enhancement
User Story

Next Release
Future Releases
Big Wins!
Alignment
& Buy-in

29. To use Planning Wall online or in-person:
https://info.conteneo.co/planningwall
Contact me:
Laura.Richardson@Conteneo.co
415-265-2200
@lcaldie
Try Planning Wall!