In this Sunday rewind, we’re revisiting the mtpcon London+EMEA keynote from 2021, where Jonathan Smart, a Business Agility Coach and Author, shared key insights on adopting an agile approach to improve value delivery, safety, and happiness while fostering an outcome-focused product culture. Here are his eight essential lessons:
Lesson 1: Focus on the Outcomes
Agile transformation is mostly about culture (80%) and less about process and tools (20%). It’s important to concentrate on outcomes during this transition. Jonathan outlined five balanced outcomes:
– Build quality into work rather than inspecting it later (Better).
– Measure and monitor your unique business value (Value).
– Minimize time to learning with each iteration (Sooner).
– Practice continuous compliance and prioritize effective planning (Safer).
– Enhance ways of working to benefit everyone, including customers and the climate (Happier).
Lesson 2: Achieve Big Through Small Steps
To scale agility, start by scaling down the work, requiring psychological safety. Agile businesses eliminate extensive initial requirements, opting instead to experiment and learn through iterations. This process, which encourages “intelligent failure,” leads to quicker successes.
Lesson 3: Invite Participation, Don’t Force It
Introducing Agile will involve an Innovation Curve of adopters ranging from early enthusiasts to latecomers. Jonathan emphasizes inviting people to participate rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all approach.
Lesson 4: Lead by Example
Leaders should model the behavior they want to see, showing courage and vulnerability while fostering a supportive environment. Creating psychological safety is crucial, as is adopting a mindset open to learning from and adapting to change.
Lesson 5: Build the Right Things
Agile means delivering value early and often while reducing output and increasing learning opportunities. It’s not about becoming a “feature factory”; it’s about minimizing time to learning and ensuring you’re building the right things.
Lesson 6: Minimum Viable Compliance
Agile businesses often struggle with either too little or too much compliance, leading to instability or cumbersome processes. Align multidisciplinary safety teams with the value flow, improve processes for better tracking, and encourage a culture of collaboration to find the right balance.
Lesson 7: Break Down Information Silos
Information is powerful, and silos can hinder progress. Jonathan advises dismantling these silos to create a learning organization.
Lesson 8: Continuous Improvement
The last lesson is about resilience and acknowledging that improvements are ongoing. Going slower initially can prevent long-term slowdowns and help manage technical, process, and cultural debt effectively.
Jonathan’s talk provides valuable insights into fostering an agile, adaptive, and outcome-focused business culture.