What did they *Really* Want? Bottom Line Impacts of Customer Collaboration
Have you ever heard a customer say “That’s what I asked for, but not what I wanted / needed.”? Do you wish your teams, your stakeholders or your clients tangibly grasped the impact of collaboration and direct engagement? Would you like to be able to demonstrate those benefits with evidence?
This hands on workshop will focus on the impact of Collaboration over Contracts to business outcomes. Through 3 sprints of producing simple products, participants will get a feel for the difference between what customers say they want, and what they truly wanted. They’ll see what it really can mean to Welcome Changing Requirements. And we’ll explore how easily and often we might encounter tendencies that distract us from Collaboration. We’ll wrap up with data collected through prior workshops that can be used to demonstrate the bottom line improvements that can come when we focus on collaboration and communication with customers.
This workshop is targeted at early stage product owners, product managers and delivery teams. Coaches, Managers and Executives may benefit from the data demonstrating the positive impacts to business outcomes, especially when encountering stakeholders and customers skeptical of or resistant to interacting directly or regularly with delivery teams.
Want to deliver what customers truly want? Come experience and see first hand the impact on business outcomes of a focus on Collaboration over Contracts.
Outline/Structure of the Talk
OUTLINE
Introduction 8 Minutes
- Connect participants to Topic, Each other & Presenter
- Scenario: Joined a Startup, Table is a Team
- Product - reproduce party invites;
Batch and Queue 20 Minutes
- explain round: individual work, batch each step (vs producing single cards)
- Show 'Requirements'; Make a Sample on the fly, encourage participants to time it for estimation - note customer wants them "just like this"
- show "shipment" area (box on floor)
- Individuals estimate how many they could produce and ship in a 3 min timebox - Tally estimates by table and for whole group on flipchart
- any Questions about production
- start exercise
- half way through timebox take a "Customer Call" and halt work - the customer wants different color paper! - can we do it? compare to how many are available for shipment
- continue timebox; at end, pull away shipment box (enforces timebox)
- Pull some "shipped" product - compare to Sample - show where the product was not faithful to the sample
- Discussion: what did this illustrate? How do these tendencies show up in your work? What's their impact? How nimble were we with changing requirements?
Flow 15 minutes
- explain round: this time produce cards one at a time - still work individually
- show requirements (no change); and shipment location (no change)
- Individuals Estimate their output for a 3 min timebox; tally by table and for the whole group on flipchart
- any questions about production? (allow participants to make "test harnesses" of copies of the sample
- start exercise
- half way through timebox take another "Customer Call" and halt work - the customer wants still a different color of paper - can we do it? compare to how many are available for shipment - could we do the rest and still maintain our estimates?
- continue timebox, at end again enforce the expiry by pulling away the shipment box
- note deltas - far faster 1st article, less WIP (visibly less WIP!)
- pull some "shipped" product - compare to sample - were there still "bugs" even with the new knowledge?
- Discussion: How would working this way impact our businesses? How nimble were we with changing requirements?
Swarming 20 minutes (NEW MATERIAL BEYOND ATTACHED SLIDES)
- explain round: this time, produce cards as a team; encourage a team member to act as a product owner
- show different requirements in written form; make and show NEW and DIFFERENT sample; show shipment location (no change)
- TEAMS / TABLE produces estimate for 3 min timebox (allow extra time in this round for the activity) - tally for whole group on flipchart
- any questions about production?
- start exercise
- half way through - halt again - customer wants a still a different color paper - what's the impact?
- continue timebox and again enforce expiry by pulling away the shipment box
- note deltas from prior rounds
- pull some shipped product - compare to sample
- Discussion: what were the differences?
Conclusion approx 10 minutes
- share summary data collected from prior workshops and trainings (in attached slides)
- steer participants to record one takeaway, and one idea for how they'll apply the learning on individual post its
- discuss with a peer, ask for impactful ideas
- have participants post takeaways and ideas for applying learning on flip charts (for group recording)
- Thanks and close
Learning Outcome
- discover behavioral tendencies that might diminish customer collaboration
- demonstrate and quantify the effects on business outcomes of improving collaboration
- discuss the impact of Early and Continuous Delivery on not only satisfying requirements, but also increasing collaboration and communication with customers
Target Audience
This workshop is targeted at early stage product owners, product managers and delivery teams. Coaches, Managers and Executives may benefit from the data demonstrating the positive impacts to business outcomes, especially when encountering stakeholders and
