innovate like a startup

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How to Innovate Like a Startup Applying Agile and Lean Startup to power your innovation strategy Sam McAfee - Author, “Startup Patternsstartuppatterns.com @sammcafee

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How to InnovateLike a Startup

Applying Agile and Lean Startup to power your innovation strategy

Sam McAfee - Author, “Startup Patterns” startuppatterns.com

@sammcafee

About Me• 17 years in tech startup industry.

• Founded a consulting firm, ran it for a decade.

• Early adopter of both Agile + Lean Startup.

• Coaching enterprise product and tech teams.

• Worked on 6 startups. Doing my 7th now.

• Writing a book on it: startuppatterns.com.

Agenda

• About Me √

• Lean + Agile, Historically

• Innovation at Scale

Agile + Lean, historically…• W. Edwards Deming (1900 - 1983)

• Worked under Shewhart at Bell Labs 1930s

• Developed statistical method for quality control.

• Also developed PDCA cycle, an iterative process.

• 1950s Deming + Taichii Ohno (Toyota), brought PDCA to Japan.

• Japanese methods inspired by Deming. Lots of collaboration.

• Union of Scientists and Engineers still give the “Deming Prize”.

Agile + Lean, historically…

• As post-war boom led to mass production, statistical control abandoned in USA.

• By 1980s, US boom was over. Companies worried.

• US companies began importing ideas from Toyota, etc.

• John Krafcik coined it “Lean” production in an article in 1988. The term stuck.

Agile + Lean, historically…

• Jeff Sutherland reads an article in HBR on Japanese teamwork in product development. Scrum was an analogy in the article.

• Sutherland picks “Scrum” to describe his approaches to software development.

• Kent Beck was developing “Extreme Programming” with similar team principles.

Agile + Lean, historically…

• Steve Blank developed Customer Development in 1990s to better align product development and customer.

• In 2000s, Eric Reis, his student, recognizes similarity to Agile and Lean. Coins it “Lean Startup”.

Agile + Lean, historically…

Meanwhile, at the Pentagon…

“Waterfall” is Born• Software systems engineering started post-WWII.

• US Department of Defense historically purchased most software. Companies followed, but DoD pushed innovation and set standards.

• 1950 to 1980 systems engineering mostly chaotic.

• Late 1970s, early 1980s, attempts to rein in chaos lead to “sequenced process” of software development.

• Later known as “Waterfall”.

Example: Waterfall Sequences

• Each phase (design, build, test) is discrete.

• Each dependent on previous phase.

• Time-line (and budgets) set in advance.

What could go wrong?

• Mistakes cascade downstream.

• Schedule and cost overruns bleed over.

• Requirements do change. So do markets.

• Basically, it’s slow, error-prone, and expensive.

Enter Agile…

Enter Agile

• Allow requirements to change. That’s good!

• Close the gap between engineer and user.

• Build smallest pieces first, and release them.

• Use technical practices to keep code quality high and easy to change.

Agile’s Impact

• Agile software delivery is orders of magnitude more stable and reliable across the industry.

• Users are getting more of the features they want more quickly.

• Engineers have learned how to rapidly iterate based on user feedback.

But…

• Somehow, projects are still failing in the market.

• Even if a product is built perfectly, who cares if customers don’t buy it?

• Something was still missing…

Enter Lean Startup

• Steve Blank published "4 Steps to the Epiphany" in 2003.

• Eric Reis started blogging “Startup Lessons Learned” around 2009.

• It’s been about ten years!

Lean Startup Basics

• Solve real problems that real customers have.

• Reduce bigger risks into smaller risks.

• Iterate quickly based on market feedback.

• Be data-informed, and challenge your deeply-held assumptions continuously.

Practicing Lean Startup

• Turn assumptions into hypotheses to be tested.

• Emphasize learning > building things.

• MVP: Minimal Viable Product.

• The Build -> Measure -> Learn loop.

• Metrics -> Only the ones that matter.

Agenda

• About Me √

• Lean + Agile, Historically √

• Innovation at Scale

Innovation at Scale

• Technology is disrupting every industry.

• Change happens faster every year.

• Startups are pushing big incumbents aside, taking their marketshare.

• Consumers are demanding better design, faster response times, more integration.

The Right Structure

• Startups iterate faster, not just because they are smaller…

• Cross-functional!

• Co-located!

• Dedicated!

The Right Tools

• Startups use open source, existing tools.

• Slack and other tools speed communication.

• Cloud services are fast and easy to build.

• Dev-Ops enables rapid, continuous deployment.

• Metrics dashboards keep the team on track.

The Right Culture

• Everyone involved is values-aligned.

• The vision and strategy are crystal clear.

• Safe-to-fail experiments are encouraged.

Innovation at Scale

• Executive-led change initiatives (e.g. digital transformations, agile adoption, etc.)

• Accelerators to partner with startups.

• Incubators to experiment with new ideas.

Agenda

• About Me √

• Historical Perspective √

• Lean Startup in Different Contexts √

Thank You!