In this webinar, "The Pragmatic Manager" Johanna Rothman will teach you why and how creating short feedback loops at all levels drives product innovation!

1. SHORT FEEDBACK
LOOPS: THE KEY TO
BUILDING INNOVATIVE
PRODUCTS
WITH WITH JOHANNA ROTHMAN -
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, ROTHMAN
CONSULTING GROUP
OCTOBER 19, 2022 AT 11:00 AM
PDT, 2:00 PM EDT, 7:00 PM BST
Product Management Today
Empowering you to Empower Them
Rayvonne Carter
Webinar Coordinator,
Product Management Today

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4. WITH WITH JOHANNA ROTHMAN -
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, ROTHMAN
CONSULTING GROUP
SHORT FEEDBACK
LOOPS: THE KEY TO
BUILDING
INNOVATIVE
PRODUCTS

5. Short Feedback Loops:
The Key to Building Innovative
Products
Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
www.jrothman.com

6. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
“We need innovation!
And we need to plan everything we’ll do
for the next year!”
6

7. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Product development means we are
all in the innovation business
7

8. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Innovation Outside In and Inside Out
• Organizational strategy: problems we
solve for which customers
• Project and product portfolio: choices
about which products to develop
when
• Every team’s product development
8

9. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
How can we innovate when things
take “so long?”
9

10. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
We need innovation in our product
development thinking
10

11. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Move from 12- to 8-Week Plan
11
8 weeks from Idea to Demo
What Do You Think Occurred?

12. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
What Really Happened
12

13. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
“But We Use 2-week Sprints”
13

14. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
What Happened in Those 2 Weeks
14

15. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Questions for the Chat
• Please answer these questions in the chat:
1. How often do people collaborate on work, so two or more people work on the
same piece of work? (Reduce WIP)
2. How often do you
fi
nish a feature? (approximately, because this is an indicator of
throughput)
3. How often do you feel pressure to start more work?
15

16. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Little’s Law Explains Duration
• The more work you have in progress,
the longer it takes to
fi
nish it.
• That increases the average lead time
(cycle time)
• This holds true at all levels of the
organization
16
Average Lead Time =
Average Work in Progress
Average Throughput

17. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Dynamics of Little’s Law
• The longer the team takes to deliver something, the
more pressure to create larger and more extensive
product plans (⬆WIP, ⬇throughput, ⬆cycle time)
• The more product plans, the more pressure the
team feels to increase throughput.They often start
more work (⬆WIP)
• Increased WIP delays all work they
fi
nish in any
given time (⬇ throughput, ⬆ cycle time)
• The lower throughput, the longer everything takes
(⬆cycle time)
• Everything takes longer. (⬆cycle time)
17
Average Lead Time =
Average Work in Progress
Average Throughput

18. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Everyone feels pressure
Pressure reduces learning
Since innovation requires learning, we
get delivery, but not innovation
18

19. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Innovation Requires Fast Feedback
• Short experiments
• A customer/user/someone can see
• Offer feedback to a person, team, and
more
19

20. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Product Building Feedback Loops
• Start faster with a shorter backlog
• Get to done faster with:
• Smaller stories
• Collaboration
• Release often to get feedback
20

21. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Roadmap Feedback Loops
• Initial product strategy is an
experiment!
• Can change the backlog as often as:
• Team completes a feature & demos
• Customer offers feedback
• Rolling wave planning, not big honking
roadmaps
21

22. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Strategy Innovation with Shorter Feedback Loops
22

23. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Back-of-the-Napkin Feature Cycle Time Calculation
• You can measure cycle time with a
value stream map
• Or, ask:
• How many stories,
fi
xes, or anything
else does the team typically
fi
nish in
one, two, three, or four weeks?
• Is your cycle time where you want it
to be?
23

24. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Back-of-the-Napkin Roadmap Cycle Time Calculation
• How much do you already have
planned?
• When can you decide to deviate from
that plan? (roadmap cycle time)
• Options for better roadmap cycle
time:
• Plan less in advance
• Commit to “how little” and pull
from below
24

25. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Product Roadmaps Are Not Like Car Roadmaps
• How much rolling wave backlog
planning does your org do now?
• Too many product people use
roadmaps that look like Gantt charts.
Instead, choose one small MVP and
then pull more work
• (See the series that starts here:
https://www.jrothman.com/mpd/
2022/06/why-car-roadmaps-are-not-
the-same-as-product-roadmaps-
part-1/)
25

26. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Use Cycle Time for Durations, Never Story Points
• Story points do not predict duration:
• Ideal time
• No understanding of essential and
accidental complication
• Does not account for delays
• Cycle time does predict duration,
especially when you measure over
time
26

27. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
How DoesYour Team Work?
• Collaborate as in mobbing? (
fl
ow
ef
fi
ciency, fastest way to work)
• Cooperate as in work together?
• Totally separately? (resource ef
fi
ciency,
slowest way to work)
27
Flow e
ffi
ciency

28. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Collaborative Team (Swarm)
28

29. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Cooperate:We Separate Code Review
29

30. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
CanYour Team Deploy?
30

31. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Value Stream Map When Team Works as Individuals
31

32. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
How does your team work now?
(
fl
ow ef
fi
ciency or resource ef
fi
ciency?)
Will that help you create more innovative
products?
32

33. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
The more team-based collaboration,
the faster throughput and the more
fun*
33
* In general

34. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Shorten All Feedback Loops for Innovation
34

35. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Fast Feedback for Innovation
• Start one thing.
• Finish it.
• Do that again until you satisfy the
customer.
• Shorten all the feedback loops
35
Average Lead Time =
Average Work in Progress
Average Throughput

36. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
What Product People Can Do
• Ask team members to collaborate to reduce the team’s WIP.
• Help the team pay attention to WIP. Ask:“What will help us get this story to
done today?”
• Instead of long roadmaps and large backlogs, ask:“How little can we do and still
get a valuable result that will tell us what to do next?”
• Monitor your leaders’ decision cycle time. Manage your WIP to support reduced
organizational WIP
36

37. © 2022 Johanna Rothman
@johannarothman
Let’s Stay in Touch
• Pragmatic Manager:
• www.jrothman.com/
pragmaticmanager
• Please link with me on LinkedIn
• Based on this post: https://
www.jrothman.com/mpd/2020/12/
multiple-short-feedback-loops-support-
innovation/
• More information at https://
www.jrothman.com
37

38. Management Consultant, Rothman
Consulting Group
Johanna Rothman
/in/johannarothman/
Q&A
Rayvonne Carter
Webinar Coordinator,
Product Management Today
/in/rayvonnecarter/
@ProdMgmtToday
productmanagement
today.com
jrothman.com/blog/mpd/