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Embracing Imperfection: When Good Enough is the Perfect Solution
Steven J. WeiskircherChief Information Officer@sweiskircher
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Embracing Imperfection
When Good Enough is the Perfect Solution
Key Takeaways
• What is Agile Thinking?
• Who does this apply to?
• How do you recognize ‘good enough’?
• What do you need to get started?
• Potential pitfalls
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ThinkGeek began in 1999 with a group of friends who saw a hole in the marketplace: products that
could speak to, and celebrate, the geek community.
And after 17 years, we are still obsessed with creating and sharing unique experiences that excite our fans' imaginations and fuel their geeky passions.
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Retail Environment Today• Pace of change is rapidly accelerating
• Data proliferation
• Evolving customer expectations
• Market disrupters
• M&A
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Post Acquisition Activity
• Integrated our financial organizations
• Opened 10 physical stores; more to come
• Launched a combined Gift Card program
• Implemented triggered personalized email
• Developed pre‐order capability
• Integrated product recommendations
• Created first native IOS application, Android on its way
• Developed WMS
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Traditional Project Approach ‐ Initiation
• Attempt to define everything up front• Because we don’t know everything we
add things ‘just in case’
• Attach a cost estimate to it• Then forget it was an estimate
• Create a plan• Based on incomplete data & • Laced with assumptions
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http://jaymeholmes.com/jad.html
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Traditional Project Approach
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Traditional Project Approach ‐ Execution
• Requirements churn
• Plagued by indecisiveness
• Lack of clarity leads to wasted effort
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So do we divorce the plan?
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No! We hold it tighter.
Impacts and Organizational Response
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Requirements (throw more in just in case)
Bloated/changing reqs– pad estimates
Padded Estimates –strip
funding/arbitrary deadline
Arbitrary deadline not based in reality – cut maintainability/testing
Deliver late, not all requirements
Circle of Distrust
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Plans are static
• They are the culmination of our best understanding at the time
• They are laced with our assumptions and (at times) our biases
• They are not designed with change in mind
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‘The best laid plan rarely survives first contact with the enemy.’‐
Helmuth Von Moltke19th Century Prussian General
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The Rise of Agile
• Agile software development• Scrum, XP
• Kaizen
• Lean Manufacturing
• Lean UX
• Design Sprint
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Common Tenants of Agile Processes
• Value individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Prioritize working product over comprehensive documentation
• Focus on collaboration over contract negotiation
• Adapt to change vs following a plan
• Eliminate waste wherever it appears
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Agile Thinking• Understand the problem you are trying to solve
• Equip the team
• Minimize churn
• Time box everything
• Understand your constraints & be pragmatic
• Communicate early and often
• Learn how to say ‘no’
• Remain flexible
• Be decisive
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Understanding the Problem:Minimum Viable Product
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MVP ‐ Wikipedia
• In product development, theminimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development.
• Gathering insights from an MVP is often less expensive than developing a product with more features, which increase costs and risk if the product fails, for example, due to incorrect assumptions.
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Where to Start
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Define your MVP• Focus on solving a
customer problem
• Minimize the number of individuals involved in the decision process
• Use tools like ‘buy a feature’ to build consensus
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Buy a Feature• Create a list of potential features
• Put a price on each
• Give each stakeholder a pile of chips
• Have them place their bets on the features they
value
• Look for consensus through the betting process
• Draw a cut line where you have ‘solved’ the
problem
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Benefits of Feature Planning
• Focuses attention on the most important features
• Conveys a sense of relative cost for capabilities
• Nothing is free
• Builds consensus within the stakeholders
• Forms a prioritized backlog for subsequent iterations
• Minimizes ‘ear mark’ negotiations
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Build your credibility incrementally
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Address NormalizationThe Problem:• Incorrect/incomplete address data caused multiple issues
• Customer service calls for late/missing deliveries• Address correction charges from the carriers
The Constraints:• Only UX resources available• No clear business sponsor
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Address NormalizationSolution: • JavaScript based Address Correction
Service
Why it was ‘perfect’:• Rapid integration = Quick results• No process changes
Results:• Reduced correction charges• Improved conversion rate
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Pre‐Orders
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The Problem:• Vertical integration has increased inventory risk
• Late product delivery put sales at risk
The Constraints:• Billing infrastructure and Order Management System
• Many interested parties but no clear ‘owner’
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Pre‐Orders – SolutionSolution: • Found nimble 3rd party that
specializes in pre‐order management
• ‘Light’ integration on product page
Why it was ‘perfect’:• Two week integration
• Over $1M in incremental revenue in first year
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Marketplace Selling
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The problem:• Need for new revenue channels to enable growth
The constraints:• 45 days to develop and launch solution
• System constraints in pricing management
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Marketplace Selling
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Solution:• Partial integration with marketplace aggregator and eBay
Why it was ‘perfect’:• Time to market• Minimal investment enabled us to learn quickly
Results:• Cancelled program after 10 months
The Design Sprint
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Design Sprint• 5 day process developed by
Google Ventures
• Short‐cuts normal cycle time to quickly move from idea to learning
• Reach consensus on approach
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Build
LaunchLearn
Idea
**http://www.gv.com/sprint/
Design Sprint Activities• Surface key business opportunities
• Defining success criteria
• Exploring user journeys & analytics
• Analyze
• Interview key team members
• Creating concept mind maps, storyboards &
prototypes
• Critique & voting on key ideas
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Design Sprint Process flow
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Test o Test the prototype on
actual userso Watch as users try out the
prototype to quickly see if the design makes sense.
Unpack Sketch Decide Prototype Test
Decide o Decide which solutions
are the best to move forward with
o Voting / etc.
Sketch o Sketch / Design
ideas on how to solve the problems.
o Paper sketches to encourage many ideas
Prototype o Build a working
prototype of the whichever solution(s)
o Use whatever tools possible.
o InVision + paper sketches + anything
Unpack o Identify the problem
you’re trying to solve.
o Mind-mapso Define success
metrics.o Research solutions
for similar issues. Other current iOS shopping apps.
o ID your killer feature
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Output of the Design Sprint ‐ MVP
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Feature Group Feature Detail Brief Description Required for MVP
Notification Back in Stock allow customers to receive a 'back in stock' notification for a specific product
Need
Order Status Order confirmation Need
Shipping Order shipped Need
Exclusive new products New products added to the site/category nice to have
Shipping cutoffs limited to key holidays nice to have
Base Navigation Search search for product by name, id, attribute Need
Filter filter search results by attribute, filter browse path by attribute; e.g. filter apparel by size/gender
Need
Browse navigate through the product catalog using a traditional taxonomy
Need
Product list view These are category/sub category listing pages. Need
Ranking, sort order Adjust product listing display based on sort options Need
Account Management
Account creation Can create an account, sign‐up for email and/or geekpoints
Need
Login Need
Facebook login nice to have
Facebook registration nice to have
Login / Checkout touch ID Need
Enter / save addresses Customer address book. Need ability to retrieve addresses from and add to the address book
Need
Address correction and normalization
We use Capture+ today to normalize input. Need this on the mobile UI as well
Need
Account integration Tied to the same account as the desktop site need
Cart Carts should be moveable between the desktop, mobile web, and mobile app experiences provided the customer is a logged in user.
Need
Checkout Geek points need ability to sign up for Geekpoints as well as redeem Need
Paypal want to use the native IOS integration Need
Payment method ‐ credit card
Need
Apple Pay nice to have
order confirmation Need
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IOS Project Timeline
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JulyAugust - September
October
Design & Agile Development
Publish
Discovery
Kickoff Support
• Design ‐ Bi‐weekly design reviews
• Development ‐ Two week development sprints (Mobify)
• Project Management ‐ Weekly status call
App Results
• Delivered in 4 months
• Approaching $1M
incremental annual sales
• Currently expanding to
Android
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How do you get started?
• Focus on solving a customer problem
• Define your MVP – this is what success looks like
• ‘Good Enough’ is organization and situation specific
• Learn how to say no
• Be bold!
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Questions?
Steve Weiskircher
@sweiskircher
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