Max Mednik

It was long overdue, but I finally finished reading The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, an HBS professor. So many people kept citing this work around me, and I now understand why. The book is a bit slow and dry in its writing style, but the key points are incredibly deep, thought-provoking, and not as often discussed in start-up pop culture.

My biggest takeaway is that when companies are doing the "right" things, like being good managers, following business school teachings, executing, listening to customers, etc., these practices that help them scale successfully are exactly the WRONG things to be doing when confronted with disruptive innovation. That's the core of the dilemma. As a start-up gets traction and grows into a big company, it makes it much less likely that it will be able to keep doing disruptive innovation. This is a really interesting concept, and one that's bittersweet.

My notes are below. You can also download a great book guide that was included in the book at the bottom of this post (sorry for the quality, I took the photos on my phone).

I really enjoyed the book, even though it took me a while to get through it (this was a physical copy I was reading for 10-20 pages at a time).

Part 1: Why great companies can fail

Ch. 1: How can great firms fail

• Disruptive innovations technically straightforward 
  
• Studied disk drive industry
  
• Known tech in unique architecture
  
• Advanced tech development for sustaining innovation
  
• Customers of incumbents demand sustaining innovation
  
• Firms that led disruptive innov always entrants who developed for new mkt and not for current customers
  

Ch. 2: Value networks and the impetus to innovate

• Different value networks (industries, target users) have different needs and cost structures, assigning value to different components of products
  
• Incumbents listen to lead customers and don't pursue disruptive innovation because isn't appropriate for value network
  
• Entrants seek fit via trial and error with some value network that wants their disruptive product
  
• Then later entrants grow and expand into territory of incumbent and by then it's too late for incumbent to respond
  
• Customers mislead in advice around disruptive innovation
  
• Technology s-curve framework: tech supplants old tech when second derivative negative (past inflection point)
  
• S-curve only for sustaining innovation (disruptive along new curve)
  
• Initially disruptive tech is worse in most product attributes than majority value network care about; only better in an attribute that small value network cares about which is uncertain and must be discovered
  
• Over time, if trajectories of what 2 techs deliver to different value networks over time cross, then disruptive tech can overshadow and meet needs of both value networks, threatening incumbent firms
  
• Flash disk drives vs DRAM

Ch. 3: Disruptive innovation in mechanical earthmoving industry

• When disruptive innovation comes out, majority of market doesn't want it
  
• Search for market that could use it and appreciates its value
  
• Then as product improves along axes the majority care about, can expand into there
  
• Hydraulic excavator vs. cable system

Ch. 4: What goes up can't go down

• Moving upmarket to higher price points easier for customers than moving downmarket into lower price, smaller market opportunities (as is required for disruptive innovation)
  
• Managers also prefer higher margin, proven market projects
  

Part 2: Managing disruptive innovation

• Good (not bad) management to blame for missing disruptive innovations
  

Ch. 5: Give responsibility for disruptive technologies to organizations whose customers need them

• Customers allocate an org's resources, not mgmt (resource dependence theory)
  
• Result is need to create an independent org and embed it among emerging customers that do need disruptive tech
  
• Same org can't keep supporting mainstream customer and pursuing disruptive innov

Ch. 6: Match the size of the organization to the size of the market

• Leadership in sustaining technologies not essential (can be follower company)
  
• But is essential in disruptive
  
• Big companies searching for big markets to sustain growth rates; disruptive tech for small markets not interesting
  
• Acquire a small company and launch products through it 

Ch. 7: Discovering new and emerging markets

• Market apps for disruptive tech unknowable
  
• Discovery and learning, not execution
  
• Market research and listening to customers impossible
  
• Expert forecasts always wrong
  
• Failed ideas versus failed businesses: most successful ventures abandon original biz strategies after learning 
  
• Managers often can't deviate from plan
  
• Plans to learn vs plans to execute
  
• Discovery-driven planning
  
• Smaller batches
  
• Agnostic marketing: no one (us or customer) knows size of market until you try
  
• Get out of the building and test (same stuff as custdev and lean startup teachings!)

Ch. 8: How to appraise your organization's capabilities and disabilities

• Only companies that succeeded in disruptive tech are those who create independent orgs whose size matches size of opportunity
  
• Organizational capabilities determine where it can succeed
  
• 3 factors: resources, processes, values
  
• An org's processes and values also define what it can't do
  
• Values are decision rules
  
• For companies to maintain growth rate as they grow, have to ignore small markets (Wall Street cares about earnings growth percentages)
  
• Bittersweet reward of success: lose the capability to enter small markets
  
• Problem with mergers and acquisitions
  
• If acquiring for resources, integrate acquiree
  
• If acquiring processes or values, let acquiree stand alone
  
• Acquiring to create capabilities is good
  
• Resources can change easily but processes and values much more rigid and limit developing new capabilities internally
  
• Create spin-out venture with new processes when big org values and growth rules prevent it from doing disruptive work
  

Ch. 9: Performance provided, market demand, and product life cycle

• Performance oversupply satiates customer demand and customers no longer willing to pay price premium so start considering other aspects; basis of competition changes, allowing new entrants
  
• Product becomes commodity with only price competition once exceeds all market demands/needs and no more features/differentiation is needed
  
• Performance oversupply drives transition from one phase to next of product life cycle
  
• Based on product and vendor availability over time, customers choose products first based on functionality, then reliability, then convenience, then price
  
• Performance oversupply causes phase transitions between these
  
• Chasm model is user-centric but shows same transitions
  
• Aspects of disruptive tech that make it unsuitable for mainstream mkt make it perfect for emerging mkt
  
• Disruptive tech usually simpler, cheaper, more reliable, and convenient
  
• Sustaining tech assumes existing market needs valid and has a technological problem of improving product to meet them
  
• Disruptive tech seeks to find market that fits and has a marketing problem of finding the market that will accept the tech
  
• Strategies: move up market towards higher end customers along life cycle, stay with customers as they move along life cycle, market to change customer demand for new product functionality
  

Ch. 10: Managing disruptive tech change case study

• Electric vehicle example
  
• Is tech disruptive?
  
• Look at market behavior, not interviews. Plot market performance demanded over time. If exceeds new tech capacity, then might be disruptive
  
• Look at performance improvement of new tech over time. If growing faster than market performance demanded, then can be disruptive on day (will intersect market need curve)
  
• Where is the market for the new tech?
  
• Ignore mainstream
  
• Find a market that values the disadvantages of the disruptive tech compared to mainstream
  
• No one can learn from market research where the right market is for an emerging market
  
• Only way to learn is through expeditions of trial and error, prototyping, selling real products to real ppl paying real money
  
• Business plan must be one for learning, not executing strategy
  
• Product: simple, reliable, convenient. Designed for quick and cheap iteration. Low price point. 
  
• Product plan cannot rely on achieving breakthrough tech innovations. Disruptive tech usually combines existing stuff in new way. 
  
• Distro strategy: usually new value network and channel needed because existing has clear formula that doesn't fit
  
• Create independent org or spin-off so not competing against current needs and resources
  
• Bigger org's best for sustainable innovation
  

Ch. 11: The dilemmas of innovation summary

• 1: Pace of market need doesn't always match tech progress
  
• Cannot just be guided by current customers
  
• Use tech trajectory maps
  
• 2: mgrs are honed for profitability, and it will be very difficult to keep allocating resources to disruptive tech
  
• 3: disruptive tech is a mktg challenge, not a tech challenge
  
• Find a mkt that values characteristics of disruptive tech in current form
  
• 4: org's capabilities much more specialized than we believe because tuned to one value network
  
• Not fit for disruptive tech
  
• 5: disruptive tech very risky so need to focus on quick learning and tolerating failure
  
• 6: must use diff strategy in leading disruptive than sustaining innov
  
• 7: biggest companies make their own barrier to entering and investing in disruptive tech at the most important times that entrepreneurs can take advantage of

Day 2 of the trip was really informative, as we got to tackle a lot of the difficult issues facing the city in safety (crime) and economic development. We also discussed some of the large improvements in education through charter schools and the big journey still ahead to get NOLA education where it needs to be. We also got to start the day by visiting another really successful tech company and learning straight from the CEO, which was awesome. (I also got to try alligator soup, which I was not particularly fond of.)

Before I dive into my notes on each event, I wanted to say that I've been really impressed with the amazing group of people I've met. Everyone is cool, interesting, positive, and super talented. The group is very diverse, including people with roots in Louisiana and some there for the first time, like me. Among the awesome people I've met are a full time traveler and author, film producer,  fashion designer, interior designer, 2 doctors, video engineer, sustainable product designer, and several tech entrepreneurs. It's awesome to see a mix of people interested in digital media, arts, biosciences, and sustainability, and everyone's really dedicated to finding ways to help NOLA out.

My notes on the day's events are below.

TurboSquid

• Matt Wisdom
  
• Started in 1999
  
• 80 people now, 15 engineers
• Most in NOLA but some in China
  
• 3D model marketplace
• Seeded and begged suppliers to put in models
  
• Recruiting through personal referrals
  
• Not many language issues with international marketplace and offshore staff. 300 million non-native English speakers in world (more non-native than native)
  
• Only 5% of traffic from AdWords
  
• Most is organic search traffic
• Use Yammer internally
• Partnered with AutoCAD to help promote TurboSquid
  
• Most customers use 3D Studio Max and Blender
  
• Some issues with cross formats
  
• Working on VoteIt app also
• Fun: ordered a MakerBot for the office

Today was jammmm packed. I got an amazing sense for the vibrant tech culture and amazing recovery of New Orleans across its arts, digital media, and biosciences sectors. What a day!

We started the day at a beautiful museum, which went from 9 to 40,000 pieces in 100 years. We ate breakfast at a HUUUGE
30 seat board room table, and the museum was filled with "Art in Bloom" exhibits combining art and flowers (not so great for my allergies).

Having cameras around us the whole day was a bit strange (I felt like it was reality TV), but for the good of the documentary and spreading the word, we are all good sports.

Below are some of my photos and notes on the day.


Random/general thoughts/impressions/learnings

• Lots of people drive from state to state all the time (not like LA)
  
• It's my first time here, and I'm getting a nice sense of what the south feels like (and enjoying it).
  
• Everyone talking about culture and magic
• Huge tech growth
  
• "Silicon Prairie" name of tech in Midwest (Iowa)
  
• Fleur de lis everywhere jewelry and streets
• Lots of y'all
• Trees with beads hanging on them
  
• Old streetcars
• Gas-burning house lamps

Panel at New Orleans Museum of Art

• 3 C's and L
  
• Cost: $13/sf rents
  
• Cash: huge state incentives
  
• Payroll
• R&D
• Digital media: 35% rebate
  
• Angel investor tax credit: 35% back over 5 years up to $5m
• Culture
• Leadership
• Great political leadership team
• NOLA is doing deficit spending in time when rest of country pulling back so want to be at top when economy turns around
• Added more tech jobs than any other region in absolute numbers
  
• Leading country by 30% of startups per capita since Katrina
  
• Brain gain champion: more people with college degree coming than any other region
  
• Challenge: image and brand
  
• Perception gap
  
• Workforce challenge
  
• Turnkey office space challenge
  
• 4 main issues
  
• Crime
• Corruption
• Flood
• Education
• Latter 3 been doing well
• Education: huge reform
• Corruption: not as bad as NY now
• Flood improvements put in
• But still major problem with crime
• Computer science is a challenge
• Working with local colleges and got government grants to put in tech
• Digital media doesn't employ a lot of low skilled workers but bio does
  

Whenever I'm about to do something new, I try to minimize expectations. That allows me to keep an open mind and be pleasantly surprised.

I am thrilled to be going to New Orleans on Wednesday as part of the NOLABound program, and I know it will be a trip of a lifetime. Even so, I'm trying not to get carried away with "expectations" and simply remain open to new experiences and ways of thinking.

One of my professors recently taught that Happiness = Reality - Expectations, so hopefully my method will bring some happiness too.

But if I said that I hadn't been thinking about my trip for weeks now, I'd be a liar. Anyone who's spent some time around me must have heard me saying "Nawlins," "crawfish," "alligator," and "gumbo" an inappropriate number of times. I'm really curious to hear the accent (if any) for myself and maybe pick up a phrase or two of local slang. I want to know which New Orleans stereotypes are true and which are overhyped. It's true that as a francophile I'm looking forward to checking out the French Quarter, the French food, and the French music. Bien oui! And it's true that as a newbie jazz fan, I'm looking forward to some real musical education and hearing what music the locals are into.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing how I can personally help the New Orleans entrepreneurial scene grow and thrive, using perhaps some lessons I've picked up from my time in Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach to help Silicon Bayou (still not sure how I feel about all those names). I know what trends have been hot in California, and I'm curious to see what the scene and people are like in New Orleans.

Specifically, I'm curious about what the lean start-up trend has meant for New Orleans start-ups and how the general entrepreneurial process compares. I'm curious about what industries/spaces/problems are hot, which start-up resources are plentiful, and which are missing. I'm also very interested in how New Orleans views the (tech) world, and if it suffers a little of the same Silicon Valley envy that Los Angeles unfortunately suffers from (constantly comparing itself to its northern cousin). I think each city should emphasize its strengths and unique taste of entrepreneurship, and I hope to discover what that is in New Orleans (and what Los Angeles stands learn from New Orleans!).

Most of all, I'm looking forward to bonding with my NOLABound tripmates and exchanging ideas and experiences. We're all so different and come from such diverse walks of life, and yet I can already tell from our conversations over the past week (on Twitter) that we all share something common to entrepreneurs: a positive attitude and a desire to learn, explore, and help others. I can't wait for Wednesday!

Reid Hoffman has been an incredibly successful Web 2.0 investor and the founder of LinkedIn, and so I was interested in reading his book when it came out. The Start-Up of You is actually not about entrepreneurship but about managing your own career using the principles of entrepreneurship. I think that was an interesting perspective, and the book contained many valuable lessons.

As an entrepreneur though, I was more interested in hearing about his advice for entrepreneurs, not traditional job seekers, and the book didn't have much advice along those lines. What it did have, though, were little anecdotes and details about how Reid uses his network to vet entrepreneurs (when he wears his VC/investor hat) as well as his own career path to becoming the founder of LinkedIn, and those details I found very interesting.

Reid also recently gave a TED talk on these concepts; hopefully it will be posted soon.

The book at times seemed cheesy with concepts like "I to the We" and "Invest in yourself." I also thought the book was too LinkedIn-centric and felt that many of its lessons passively persuaded the reader to use LinkedIn more. I was able to not pay much attention to these things and focused more on the stories and details in the book that I found interesting.

My full notes are below.

Ch. 1: All humans are entrepreneurs

• No more traditional career paths
  
• All humans driven to create
  
• Professional loyalty to horizontal network, not vertical employer
  
• 2 forces: globalization and technology
  
• Every individual is a small business
  
• Detroit innovation and growth of car industry
  
• Then lost entrepreneurial drive, got too comfortable
  
• Risk averse bureaucracies
  
• Great companies failing too
  
• Duration in S&P500 down from 30 to 10 years
  
• Silicon valley model of entrepreneurship
  
• Netflix
  
• Didn't initially get traction due to slow shipments and pay per DVD; improved distribution and did subscriptions and got traction
  
• Stays nimble, no planning
  
• Permanent beta, continuous personal growth 
  
• It's always day one
  
• Finished is an f word
  

Ch. 2: Develop a competitive advantage

• Better
  
• Faster
  
• Cheaper
  
• Find your local niche
  
• 3 puzzle pieces
  
• Assets. Aspirations/values. Market realities. 
  
• Assets are what you have now, soft and hard
  
• Aspirations are core values and goals

Ch. 3: Plan to adapt

• Hard to plan and know self
  
• Flickr adapted and pivoted
  
• Sheryl Sandberg had lots of career pivots
  
• Ride the big waves
  
• Adaptive planning
  
• ABZ planning
  
• Opposite of What Color Is Your Parachute? approach
  
• Plan A is the plan you're doing now
  
• Plan B is what pivot to based on alternatives
  
• Plan Z is fall back position of stable reliable plan
  
• Certainty of Z allows risk in A and B
  
• Prioritize learning over profitability
  
• Focus on soft over hard assets
  
• Learn by doing, test hypotheses by trial and error
  
• Offer to help out in other departments or companies for free
  
• Establish identity separate from employer
  
• PayPal pivoted from mobile payments to payment txr service
  
• Product market fit more important than UX
  
• He went to Prod Mgmt role from UX at Apple
  
• Transitioned by offering to do work for free
  
• PayPal pivot due to eBay use case
  
• He worked at PayPal
  
• Shift not only from failure but from seeing other opportunity
  
• Be ready for industry inflection points

Ch. 4: It takes a network

• Empathize and help others first
  
• Better negotiators spend longer searching for shared interests
  
• Weak ties valuable if offer new info or opportunities
  
• Max number of relationships 150
  
• Business intros need to be within 3 degrees
  
• Research a person and tailor request to use phrases like "I noticed," "you mentioned," "I'm curious" (from OKCupid research)
  
• Blend of cohesion and creativity (strong and weak ties)
  
• Microloans to groups because groups have peer pressure to pay back
  
• Give inexpensive thoughtful gift like article, intro, market insights that are hard to get
  
• Trying to reconnect with old classmates
  
• One hour lunch better than 10 emails
  
• Precommit yourself and allocate money for travel to meet and stay in touch with people
  
• Interesting People Fund
  
• $5000/yr
  
• Status differences need to be respected in work
  

Ch. 5: Pursue breakout opportunities

• Be curious
  
• Open yourself to chance encounters and serendipity
  
• Scientists meeting in coffee houses about ideas
  
• Rotary clubs
  
• SF homebrew club
  
• Meetup
  
• Corporate alumni groups
  
• PayPal mafia (full member listing in book)
  
• Hustle

Ch. 6: Take intelligent risks

• Part-time, intern work great
  
• Fast learner better than experienced
  
• Recession timing lower risk
  
• Frequent risk taking and freelancing teaches hustling, ability to absorb shocks gracefully
  
• Say yes more

Ch. 7: Who you know is what you know

• People help filter books, opportunities, intel for you
  
• Search literacy
  
• Network literacy
  
• Ask targeted questions to individuals
  
• Or poll a wide swathe of network with general question
  
• Sort people you know into 3 categories
  
• Domain experts
  
• People who know you well
  
• Really smart people
  
• Start with domain experts then people you know then other smart
  
• What's the most interesting thing you've learned over the past few months

Conclusion

• Website has advanced strategies and good summary
  
• Good list of reference books in conclusion

Noah Kagan is the founder of AppSumo and has worked on marketing for 4-Hour Workweek, Facebook, and Mint. You can watch the video above, and the main things I learned are below. He's a funny, straightforward, and brutally honest speaker, and it was cool to hear about many of the specific tactics he used to get AppSumo off the ground in a lean fashion. He even included a couple deep life lessons in here as a bonus.

• Started AppSumo ("Groupon for software") with just a landing page
  
• Only had registration system at first
  
• Paid an outsourced developer in Middle East $50 for PayPal payment system
  
• Needed a deal, so sent an email to head of imgur (main site for images for Reddit)
• "The most valuable resource is your time."
  
• Just use email to solve your problems.
  
• Learn how to do things with just email lists.
• Took out guy from Reddit for breakfast and got free exposure on their site
• Do something nice and unique for someone.
  
• Sent running shoes, running magazine to someone who runs
• When someone sees something you give them everyday, they remember you and will listen to you.
• Send cookies to people
  
• Initially had ugly designs, just trying to validate as quickly as possible
  
• He emailed every single person manually their discount code by hand.
  
• After the business was validated, they started building the back end and then getting deals.
  
• "There's no way to optimize shit; it's still shit."
  
• Before you get 1000 unique's per day, you can't AB test.
  
• Focused on emails initially to get users
  
• "There's only 1 metric and 1 goal of your business."
  
• At Facebook, the only metric that mattered was growth.
• Only 1 metric at AppSumo is "# of emails"
• They have a daily goal and a monthly goal.
  
• This month's goal: 550,000
  
• Each day have a target of # of emails they need to hit
  
• Used Google Website Optimizer
• Hired an engineer whose sole job was AB testing
• Their view: profit and revenue today is short sighted
  
• Just focused on growing emails for later
  
• If they asked for email up front before showing deal, people were more likely to buy deal than if didn't ask for email up front.
  
• 5% difference in conversion at top of funnel makes huge change.
  
• Spent $6K for 4 iterations just on landing page
  
• Were bringing 3000 to site
  
• Biggest spammer in America: Facebook (recently changed policy)
• No one talks about them as big spammer
• People complained about Facebook but it increased retention and engagement.
  
• Now that Facebook's big, they turned off emails.
• "You'll get some backlash from 1% but will grow the 99%."
• When you travel, you remember just the abnormal stuff; no one remembers the normal stuff that happens everyday.
• Created AppSumo Golden Ticket ($100 credit for no reason whatsoever)
  
• Golden Ticket just emailed by a customer service girl daily
  
• If you're average, customers will never remember.
  
• Think Zappos customer service.
  
• Unsubscribe email sends sad photo that's just something different, memorable.
  
• At Facebook and AppSumo, they put Easter eggs everywhere, fun stuff people will remember.
• They have 3 developers.
  
• If they don't need to build something, they don't.
  
• Instead of building a 404 page, they used a Google Doc.
  
• Do minimal work and if result worth it, do it nicely later.
  
• Did first educational video to actually teach how to use the tools they were selling.
• Did it ghetto with minimal editing
• "Your business should look like shit in the beginning."
  
• Now have full time content and video people
  

James is the VP of Engineering at IMBU, the very first Lean Startup founded by Eric Ries. IMVU experimented heavily on its way to tens of millions in annual revenue. In his talk, James describes how to build a culture and team of experimentation in your startup. You can watch the video and see the slides above.

Below are my notes on James Birchler's talk on experimentation at IMVU. I enjoyed his talk, particularly the segments that dealt with the specifics of IMVU's processes.

The Scientific Method is based on experimentation.

Core:

1. culture
   
2. technique
   
3. examples
   

Story of Copernicus

• heliocentrism
  
• experimental observation
  
• was met with violence; Church threatened him
  

Giordano Bruno (burned at stake)

Galileo

• scientific method
  
• put on house arrest
  

It was hard for these guys because the folks in charge didn't like hearing "bad news."

IMVU

• experiments
  
• share results freely, no matter who's pet project
  
• rapid iteration and learning
  

1. ask question
2. do research
3. form hypothesis
4. test (science?)
5. analyze data
6. conclusion
7. report results

And cycle back to beginning

Lean startup: build, measure, learn loop

1. talk to customers for use cases
   
2. form a hypothesis to test
   
3. write code, test on dev machine
   
4. test in production as QA/admin
   
5. roll out to a % of customers
   
6. analyze results, conclusion
   
7. share learning
   

Culture of experimentation:
Started out as simple as this:
if (setup_experiment(...) == "control") {
// do it the old way
} else {
// do it the new way
}

Then later built robust experiment management system

• Columns: experiment name, to which users (QA and admin only, 100%, 50%, etc.), status/close date
  

Also built tool to calculate statistical significance

• sample count: control and treatment
  
• mean: control and treatment
  
• variance: control and treatment
  
• p-value
  
• significance
  
• chance of occurring randomly
  
• table of user data with rows highlighted to show which validated or invalidated experiment
  

Embrace failure with exec team and whole company.

Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn.

Highest paid person's opinion (HiPPO) is not assumed to be correct.

Reference to paper "Practical guide to controlled experiments on the web."

Easy to screw up process at every stage

• use cases
  
• test hypotheses
  
• rinse, repeat
  

Don't ask customers what they want.

Instead, ask customers what they are trying to do.

Focus on use cases and not what they say they want.

What not to do: build what customers say they want.

Do this:

• start with use cases
  
• test hypotheses to learn best ways to fulfill them
  

It takes a lot of courage to balance experience, instinct, imagination, and experiment results.

"If you design a toaster oven and need to include directions for making toast, you have failed at designing a toaster oven." -Laura Klein

Don't just run a bunch of experiments without a strong point of view of what trying to learn.

Experiment design

• start with use cases
  
• have a specific hypothesis
  
• ask the right questions
  
• ask the right people
  
• ask enough people
  
• randomized control trial
  

experiment interpretation

• use the right p test
  
• don't rely only on p test
  
• don't confuse correlation with causation
• find psych or stats PhD's to help

Experiments are a great way to test hypotheses, not form them.

Product development

Build:

• 2-3 week sprints
  
• stop and adjust process each sprint
  
• agile and XP methods
  

Agile & XP methods:

• change, flexibility, iteration, continuous improvemnt
  
• Agile and XP support each other
• physical scrum board with post-its
• self-organizing teams, short sprints, daily stand-ups (15 min), no emails (just talk)
• clear roles and responsibilities: product owner, tech lead, visual designer, UED, QA
• stay flexible, don't be dogmatic
  

Measure:

• projects/stories completed
  
• time spent on tasks
  
• story points delivered
  
• unplanned vs. planned work completed
  
• how productive and happy do we feel
  

Learn:

• project postmortens
  
• sprint retrospectives
  
• 5 why's root cause analysis
  
• support open communication
  

Open communication:

• engineering project managers (just to assure engineering communicates ok)
  
• matrix management (managers manage people across teams to get slice across company)
  
• scrum of scrums (weekly uber-scrum mtg)
  
• team swaps (individuals switch teams liberally)
  
• open floor plan
  

Postmortems and retrospectives:

• meeting roles
  
• metrics
  
• action items
  
• all levels of organization must be in it
  

Meeting success:

• appoint a skilled facilitator
  
• foster communication and engagement (talk about elephant in room)
  
• table: days, project, story points
  
• whiteboard columns: misc., keep, stop (action item), start (action item)
  

5 Why's: fix root cause

Make the size of the fix commensurate with the size of the problem.

Handling interrupts

• Share interrupts among teams
  
• Create "interrupts" team; establish home team and rotate others through it
  
• Whenever someone commits code that fails battery of tests, interrupts team needs to fix the tests or the code.
  

Time tracking (used to do it more but now do it less):

• Focus on features and value to customers, not time
  
• Short planning meetings
  
• Caution: reduced ability to predict progress
  

Scrum 2.0: continuous planning

• based on successful process experiment
  
• just-in-time planning: kanban
  
• are we working on the right stuff?
  

User testing:

• pay $50 for 30 min of someone's time
  
• ask them to play your game, watch their reaction
  
• stop them after 15 min. and say they can go
  
• if they want to keep playing, then you're doing well
  

Keep your team together: embed designers, QA, data analyst, engineering and product in same location

Have a fixer: remove blocks, remain objective, team happiness = team productivity

Technical project reviews:

• organized by team tech lead: tech review of code, improve quality, reduce tech debt
  
• in-depth reviews of code
  
• all engineers welcome
  
• note follow-up action items
  
• prioritize actions and do them
  

Experiment they ran: small teams in a bare garage + no rules = big win

• break out of routine
  
• minimize process overhead
  
• focus on value to customers
  

Self-selecting teams: let people self-select to the teams they want to work on

Shake things up

• Switch to continuous planning
  
• Story points vs. Ideal Days