Zach Nies, Rally Software Presentation at Lean Startup SXSW

Increasing our national

efficiency

Modern management is still based on

efficiency

Really?

Measure your effectiveness

Increase your success

A startup lives in extreme

uncertainty

30 Years

ProbablePlausible

OrderedUnordered

ProbablePlausible

OrderedUnordered

ProbablePlausible

OrderedUnordered

PlanAnalyze

CoevolutionLearn

The only valid model of a complex system is the system itself.

“

Murray Gell-Mann

http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaacmao/380257543

How we work

Agile Cadence

Daily – standup & plan the day

Weekly – review full business

Biweekly – demo from engineering

Monthly – pivot, persevere, amplify

Quarterly – review & align strategy

Yearly – set strategy

Track

The flow of work

Hunch Hypothesis Experiment Measure & Test

ValidatedLearning

Track

The flow of knowledge

Case Study

Customer Development

Is there an emerging, high-growth market for Agile Portfolio Management?

“Get out of the building!”

Steve Blank

and get into the complex system

100 validation interviews10 earlyvangelists40 preview customers34 builds

Hunch Hypothesis Experiment Measure & Test

ValidatedLearning

Track

The flow of knowledge

Hunch:Agile Portfolio Management will help us win more deals

Experiment:“Sell” an MVP preview

Experiment:“Sell” an MVP preview

Vanity Metric

Month

Experiment:“Sell” an MVP preview

Deals Directly Influenced

Month

“requiring configuration changes is not an acceptable way for releases to hit our enterprise working environment.”

Hunch:Agile Portfolio Management will help us win more deals

Validated Learning:The MVP directly helped us win more deals

Pivot

Persevere

Amplify

Hunch:Adding more developers will help us productize this MVP

Experiment:Hire developers as fast as possible

Experiment:Hire developers as fast as possible

Vanity Metric

Experiment:Hire developers as fast as possible

Feature Throughput

Hunch:Adding more developers will help us productize this MVP

Validated Learning:Adding developers dramatically increased feature throughput

Pivot

Persevere

Amplify

Hunch:Optimizing the UI will improve adoption

Experiment:Implement usability enhancements

Experiment:Implement usability enhancements

Vanity Metric

Experiment:Implement usability enhancements

User Adoption by Cohorts

Hunch:Optimizing the UI will improve adoption

Validated Learning:Adoption didn’t improve

Pivot

Persevere

Amplify

Hunch:Adding features will improve product adoption

Experiment:Implement earlyvangelist feature requests

Experiment:Implement earlyvangelist feature requests

Vanity Metric

Experiment:Implement earlyvangelist feature requests

Feature Usage

Hunch:Adding features will improve product adoption

Validated Learning:Found the compelling features

Pivot

Persevere

Amplify

We haveproduct-market fit

Almost ContinuousDeployment

Hunch:Releasing more often will improve quality

Experiment:Release every day

Experiment:Release every day

Vanity Metric

Experiment:Release every day

Cases from Defects

Hunch:Releasing more often will improve quality

Validated Learning:Smaller release batches improved quality

Pivot

Persevere

Amplify

Case Study

Modern management is still based on

efficiency

Agile +Lean Startup

=Effectiveness

Out learn and out execute your competitors