Culture of Challenging Assumptions

 When you calculate the value of an idea, epic, or feature (e.g., revenue, cost of delay, etc.), many assumptions are made. As part of transforming toward an Agile culture, it is important to apply a discovery mindset that includes positively challenging assumptions so that you can better understand the value of an idea or adapt the value accordingly for the greater success of your company.

For example, a new idea is recorded that states a value of $1,000,000. The first step in challenging assumptions is using open-ended questions.  Open-ended questions allow you to ask questions in a non-confrontational way. Examples of open-ended questions include: What led you to that conclusion?; What do you think the level of uncertainty is?; What is your riskiest assumption?; and What information do you need to validate this?

The second step is to validate the answers. For example, if the revenue value of an idea is $1,000,000 and based on a conversation rate of 6% but the average conversion rate for products in the field is 4%, then the calculation of value should be adjusted lower accordingly. Alternatively, if the idea uses the same potential population of potential customers as the first product that entered the field, then it is less likely that the second product entering the field will have the same potential customer size. 

The third step is that you must challenges the assumptions of all ideas fairly and equally. By having reasoned conversations about those assumptions and ironing out the differences, you can get a consensus on the value so they can be fairly ranked. When the value is subjective, gut feel, those discussions can turn negative and the organization may end up putting their valuable employee effort onto lower value ideas.  Inversely, the more willing and the more objectively you challenge assumptions, the more likely you will put your employee effort to good use on high-value ideas and greater success for your company

Four Anti-Patterns impacting Customer Value

Value is in the eye of the beholder.  Smart people will say that the beholder is the customer. While in most companies there will be a similar saying to the “customer is king”, some have lost their way and have somehow forgotten the importance of customer and their feedback.  The result is organizational anti-patterns that impede successfully getting to customer value. There are a number of anti-patterns on why this occurs and below are four: 

• Known as Pretend Certainty anti-pattern, this is believing that you can pretend to know with certainty what the customer wants upfront.  The danger: the consequence of limiting options and being blind to customer feedback to shape product direction.  
• Known as No Room at the Innovation Inn anti-pattern, this is focusing primarily on driving efficiencies through cost cutting and high resource utilization.  The danger: the unintended consequence of a lesser focus on the customer with little room to innovate and adapt. 
• Known as Sub-Optimizing for Comfort anti-pattern, this is sub-optimizing for the comfort of having a well-established plan and set of well-defined processes.  The danger: the consequence of restricting change at the expense of adapting to customer needs.  
• Known as The Few and the Missing anti-pattern, this is engaging few to represent the whole.  The danger: the consequence of understanding customer pool, ignoring potential customers, and missing customer feedback to shape product direction. 

When you are a start up, you realize the importance of being customer value driven because if customers don’t buy the product, then your start-up goes under. Because of this and their small size, most start-ups will stay very close to the customer or potential customer.  When companies become larger, there is a greater chance these anti-patterns appear.  More process and more controls are often put into place and unfortunately this leads to restricting change.  A company may sub-optimize for their own processes and plans that distances them from their customers.  

The question is, do you see any of these anti-patterns within your organization that impact your ability to achieve customer value?  Avoid the poor “aim of the anti-pattern’.  Instead, engage with your customers and use their feedback to help you hit the customer value target!

For more information on the topic of Customer Value, consider reading the following articles:

• Dangers of Certainty in Realizing Customer Value
• How an Agile Customer Feedback Vision can lead to Customer Value

Empty Customer Chairs – Illustrating the Absence of Customer Participation

Once upon a time, there was a company that said it was customer focused.  They used Agile methods to incrementally build software. At the end of an iteration, each team within the company would conduct a demo session.  The feedback from the demonstrations would be used to adapt the product toward what was deemed as customer value.  When the demo was investigated, it was learned that there were no actual customers or end-users in the demo. The question that may then be posed is if there are no customers in the demos, then what are the teams adapting too? 

What appears to be a challenge to some companies who say they are customer-focused or Agile, is how to successfully construct a functional demo.  The short answer is that customers or at least the end-users must attend the demo.  Of course this is more easily said than done.  The long answer is to establish a the Agile Customer Feedback Vision.  This vision is a strategy for identifying the right customers to attend, applying personas that represent the various customer groups, establishing feedback sessions throughout the work, and then motivating the customers to attend the feedback sessions. 

In the meantime, how do you highlight the problem of the missing customers?  Certainly those in the company understand that gaining customer feedback is important to the success of a product.  Even when providing companies with the mechanics of a customer feedback vision, customers are still found missing from the demos.  Why is that?  Maybe it's important to illustrate the obvious, that customers are indeed missing from the demos.    

One way to illustrate the obvious to companies and their teams is by applying the Empty Customer Chairs technique.   The Empty Customer Chairs is a visual way to highlight the absence of customers at a demo of the product.  The technique is applied by having 3 chairs that represent the customer at a demonstration. If customers attend the demo, they fill the chairs.  If no customers attend the demo, then the chairs remain obviously empty.  If the demo is held virtually, then 3 virtual screens are designated to customers.  If no customers attend, then those 3 screens remain empty. 

It would be hoped that a company or team realizes the benefit of customer participation.   Until such time, this technique can help you illustrates the obvious lack of customer participation that may have the intent to motivate the filling of those seats. At the end of the day, it is all about delivering customer value and this is a technique that can help you highlight the importance of this value through the absence of the customer. 

Constellation Icebreaker - Getting to know you

How do you get a group of folks to quickly learn about each other’s common interests? Consider the Constellation icebreaker technique.  Constellation is used to identify to what degree people from a group agree or disagree with certain statements (which can be based on a belief, idea, or value). 

This icebreaker technique is an informal way to get people to share a bit about themselves at the beginning of a training session, workshop, or when a new team is forming.  It is a non-confrontation way of learning people's opinion on a topic or statement.  Within seconds of applying this technique, the participants will clearly tell you what they think of the statement. Its also a great way to connect people together since they will visually see who has their common interests and opinions. There are several types of constellation icebreaker techniques and here is how the Constellation Orbital Icebreaker game works:

The set up:  

• Identify a "center" of the room (or constellation).  This is the Sun.  The location of the Sun represents the highest degree of agreement with the statement.
• Optionally, use masking or blue paint tape to create dashed lines around the sun in 3 feet/1 meter increments away from the sun.   

The activity: 

• Ask everyone to stand on/around the Sun (aka., the center) - don't crowd too much
• Speak the statement, e.g., "I love the Red Sox" 
• Ask folks to place themselves either close to or away from the sun according to how much they agree or disagree with this statement (each person becomes the planet)
• Once everyone has placed themselves, ask some/many/all of the folks why they have placed themselves where they are

Its a great way to learn about people fairly quickly.  Have you tried the Constellation icebreaker before?  If so, what do you think?  Do you have another icebreaker that you have found of value to getting folks to learn about each other?