Kanban Podcast with David Anderson

David Anderson, author of the recent book, Kanban appeared on the Business901 podcast and added 50 minutes of Kanban discussion. David covered a lot of ground in this discussion and answered a lot of questions for me that his book raised. David is a thought leader in managing highly effective software teams. He is President of David J. Anderson & Associates, based in Seattle, Washington, a management consulting firm dedicated to improving leadership in the IT and software development sectors.

David has been part of the agile and lean methodology movement since 1997 when he participated in the team that developed Feature Driven Development at United Overseas Bank in Singapore. He has 26 years experience in the software development starting in the computer games business in the early 1980’s. As a pioneer in the agile software movement David has managed teams at Sprint, Motorola and Corbis delivering superior productivity and quality. At Microsoft, in 2005, he developed the MSF for CMMI Process Improvement methodology - the first agile method to provide a comprehensive mapping to the Capability and Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI).

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His first book, Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results, published in 2003 by Prentice Hall, introduced many ideas from Lean and Theory of Constraints in to software engineering.

David can be found at AgileManagement.net

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Creating Opportunities with Lean Six Sigma

Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) will manage global print operations at Ingersoll Rand, saving the diversified industrial firm millions by better managing company-wide print spend.

Using a Lean Six Sigma-based approach, Xerox will design a print environment with the appropriate number of output devices, like printers, fax machines, copiers and scanners, to help employees work more efficiently. Ingersoll Rand employees will have help adapting to more efficient technology and work processes through Xerox’s change management training and support programs.

Result: The nine-year Enterprise Print Services (EPS) contract brings multiple output devices, print budgets and vendor support systems under Xerox management.

Taking Managed Print Services to the Bank: Xerox to Manage Print Operations for Huntington

Using Lean Six Sigma-based methodology, Huntington and Xerox evaluated bank employees’ daily work habits and designed a print environment that helps them work more efficiently. Xerox’s pre-emptive servicing of equipment will help employees stay productive throughout the day.

Result: The five-year Enterprise Print Services (EPS) contract will bring multiple print budgets and output devices, like printers, copiers and fax machines under Xerox management.

Xerox Lean Document Production Service Puts Print Providers in Control; Reduces Production Costs by 20-40 Percent

What is Xerox doing? They are extending their services to win major contracts through the use of Lean Six Sigma. They have taken what most consider “inside practices” and extended it to their customer. I think many times we forget to maximize all of our opportunities. After reading these press releases, I thought what am I doing in my own business that might have value for others? Actually, my first thought went to an old product development practice that is still pinned up on my wall, SCAMPER:

What can you Substitute?
What can you Combine?
What can you Adapt?
What can you Modify or Magnify?
Can you Put to other uses?
What can you Eliminate or reduce?
What can you Reverse/Rearrange?

I always added one more…Leave it sit for a day. Sleeping on it has value! Using a concept like SCAMPER can really open your eyes to a few different practices.

Consider things that you do well internally and how they may provide additional value to your customer. I think we forget sometimes how embedded the culture of our company is. It starts at our front door and does not stop at shipping or as the product leaves the building. You will find that culture is identified in your product and as a result extended into your customer’s place of business. Your internally practices may not be as internal as you may think. Getting your engineers and operational people into your customers place of business or in Lean terms going to Gemba could provide some very interesting conversations and as a result opportunities.

Xerox has made a major commitment to using Lean Six Sigma tools and methodology - both to drive improvements in their own business and to deliver measurable results for customers. What internal practices do you have in place that may apply to your customer? The funny thing is that you won’t find which internal practices will work unless you go external. Go visit a customer today!

For more information on Xerox, visit http://www.xerox.com or http://www.xerox.com/news.

My Xerox Collection:
Agile Product Development at Xerox
Design for Lean Six Sigma, The Xerox Way
The Kaizen Event, A Critical Component of Xerox’s Customer Experience
Learn more about the Xerox Design for Lean Six Sigma
E-book on Lean Six Sigma Advocacy at Xerox
Lean Six Sigma Advocacy at Xerox

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Does your customer know why you do it?

Does your customer know why you do it?

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

In 2009, Simon Sinek released the book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action -a synopsis of the theory he has begun using to teach others how to become effective leaders and inspire change.

Do you know why we do what we do?

Even if you do -

        Do you communicate it to others?

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Successful Marketing should be a Game!

What keeps your attention? As a small business owner do you find yourself struggling to stay on top of your marketing, always something else to do? I would recommend to establish an effective marketing program that you create a game out of it. Creating a visual process with your Marketing Kanban can effectively do that and make your marketing interesting and challenging.

I read the recent book Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests and they recommended 5 ways to Game your business:

1. What consumer behavior are you trying to drive? Don’t just think about broad or bottom line objectives (“more engagement”, “greater brand exposure”) when considering ways in which you’d like to effect the behavior of your consumer base, but instead, focus in on easy-to-achieve activities that will have an overall impact on your bottom line.

2. Assign points to those behaviors. Think about how much value each of the behaviors has to your business and assign points to each action accordingly. Points should be weighed relatively, so if opening a new account is ten times more valuable than clicking on an advertiser’s link, make sure the point system reflects that reality.

3. Create a leaderboard to display points. Just like the Employee of the Month plaques at restaurants, create a socially-networked leaderboard that allows users to feel like they are accomplishing something relative to their friends and peers—A little encouragement goes a long way.

4. Develop challenges and message them. Just like Frequent Flyer promotions, creating simple challenges can have a profound effect on user behavior once they are connected to your community. Keep your challenges fresh and topical by knowing your players.

5. Make “fun” your goal! Whether your business is finance or funerary, making fun a principal objective will substantially increase consumer engagement and generate remarkable new revenue opportunities.

It is not as tough as you may think. Foursquare, Farmville, Chase, US Army and the old standby Frequent flyer programs are prime examples of Game Marketing. These are all strategies used for your customer. However, using a Marketing Kanban board within your organization can help make your own marketing a game. Think about a visual board showing some basic marketing metrics. If you started showing people how many times a subject was Re-tweeted or a Press Released viewed or published, would the quality of writing improve? What do you think?

Are you focusing on your customer conversation?

Over the past decade and more, the Internet has played an ever increasing part of everyone’s marketing. The recent rapid increase is due in large part due to the popularity of Social Media, even though the Internet has been around for close to three decades. With the advent of smaller devices, texting and twittering, bite size information is even becoming the norm versus the rarity. Just think, small bite size chunks of relevant information delivered to a massive but permission based audience is not only normal communication but the future of marketing.

There are generally two different types of marketing, inbound and outbound. The first is the traditional type, inbound. Traditional marketing for years has followed three principles, Advertising, Public Relation and Referrals. You juggle this trio trying to fill you funnel and then you follow-up, follow-up and follow-up. There is a lot of structure, planning, design and scheduling. Everything had to be delivered at the utmost quality, on budget and with deadlines. You plan what you expect to happen, and then regardless of the results, you forge ahead because you have invested so much time, effort and money that you have little choice.

I wonder if Marketing, Ad firms are trying to make this transition but are struggling with the results? For example, many resisted the entry into Social Media and now they are participating but are they trying to use their old principles in adapting to it? The managers may lack the experience of participation in the new media. As an example, many were trained and are very good at networking, developing PR relationships and creating ads. Though, still important they are just some of the many attributes needed.

How many of these managers could or would even recommend using the same content 30 different ways in 30 days? That may be a bit of exaggeration but the new marketer understands that he must reach his prospects and customers in many, many ways and cannot afford new content for all. In fact, in most cases the marketer has to be already participating in the community he is trying to reach.

The fundamental shift to understand is that budgets are no longer the driver. It is also important to note that because the web is predominately free from a budget perspective, it is not a free ride. Relevant Content determines your success and that is measured by how well you engage your prospects within your scope of influence. Relevant Content is not FREE.

Many companies feel they are participating in Social Media simply because they have a Face Book Fan Page or a few followers on LinkedIn or that they Tweet their specials. The traditional marketing messages seldom work in Social Media. It may actually become an impediment. Social Media is not a static venue. It is a place for conversation.

Value Stream Marketing also follows three principles; Agility, Speed and Relevance. In this process very similar to what has happened in agile software development, we are learning as we proceed. We embrace Change. We embrace Transparency. We embrace Communication.

Value Stream Marketing is a whole new way of thinking; a whole new philosophy. To become truly proficient, you must go through a paradigm shift. I mean really, are you developing strategies to focus on the right customer conversation? If you’re not, download my eBook and test the waters. Don’t keep looking at your marketing with an old set of Tools!

Marketing Kanban 102

So what is the next step: To Do, Doing, Done may not have been an earth shattering experience? The next step is a huge one, and I mean huge. You need to take your drawing and place a number under the Doing Column. Are you shaking yet?

This is how we will manage the Work in Process or the WIP. . If you limit yourself to what you are doing you will be more effective. In Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution he states and quantifies the 4 Disciplines:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important
2. Create a Compelling Scorecard
3. Transfer Lofty Goals into Specific Actions
4. Hold each other accountable – All the time

Now with the Kanban board we have done this. By putting a limit on the work in process we will determine what really needs to be done. We have created a scorecard with having a simple Kanban board. We will transfer our goals into action as we travel from left to right on the board. The board keeps us accountable and if this is a board for more than one individual, the tasks that are not being completed will encourage teamwork.

Using more of a Scrum approach we may ask the same daily questions that are asked by a Scrum Team.

1. What have you done since the last meeting?
2. What will you do between now and the next meeting?
3. What got in your way of doing work?

But we may see work piling up in the Doing column without being completing. We may be finding out that it we are always reacting to one is in the “To Do” stage versus completing the doing. I know this sound a little childish but on a grander scale it is very much what happens. Just think of a salesperson that never asks for the order. He may be everyone’s best friend but is not getting the percentage of closures that he should. In a Kanban board it becomes readily apparent. The real secret to the board though is that we need to complete the task that is in the “doing” column before we pull from the To Do.

The other feature of using the board is cycle time. In a perfect world, when a task enters the To Do Column it immediately transfer to “Doing.”  We complete the task and that would be our cycle time. If there are other tasks in the doing column and a task has to sit in the “To Do” column that time would be added to your cycle time. In Scrum this description is similar to a sprint. In Kanban we even may have different cycle times for different types of customers. This would allow us to create Swim Lanes horizontally across the chart.

Visualization is the key to effective Kanban. You may use different color post it notes to signify different marketing task such as PR, Social Media, Advertising and so forth. You may use different colors in your swim Lanes to recognize different marketing segments. You may even add additional columns to represent your marketing flow. That is actually Marketing Kanban 201.

We are establishing a Work in Process limit to create a proper flow in your marketing. The proper cadence per say. This is a term you will hear me say over and over again. Cadence is a key in today’s marketing which I will demonstrate in a later blog post. The WIP limit is at first, probably a guess. However, establishing one is very important. It is a key to a PULL System. Without, when would you know when to pull?

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