Agile development in an agency environment is hard.
At Code ComputerLove we have moved away from the traditional agency model to a new, more effective way of working based on value and continual learning.
From changing how project managers work and think about value to re-educating clients about more regular releases and smaller batches, we will share the lessons we have learnt along the way, the challenges we’ve faced and where are still looking to improve.
2. Who are we?
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
3. Who are we?
James Jeffries
Senior developer
@jjeffries1
Daniel Furze
Senior front end developer
@furzeface
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
7. The traditional agency model
Projects not products
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
8. Projects not products
Deliver fast at the expense of quality
The traditional agency model
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
9. Projects not products
Deliver fast at the expense of quality
Build what the customer says to build
The traditional agency model
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
10. How are we changing?
THE LEAN STUDIO // @JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
26. 26
CodeUp MCR
Software Craftsmanship
North West Testers Gathering
Northern Change Facilitators
User groups/meetups
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
47. • Give people the time and space to learn and improve
• Give them the space to experiment safely
• Aim for an open culture where feedback and change is welcomed
Start with culture
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
48. • Collect data and use it to make decisions
• Look for opportunities to improve
• Be proactive and innovate
Use data
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
49. • Not on how much you get done or what you’ll get paid for doing
• This applies to client work and continuous improvement
• What’s the smallest thing we can do to get the most value?
Focus on value
THE LEAN STUDIO // @ JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
50. The Lean Studio:
Running a modern agency
James Jeffries @jjeffries1
Daniel Furze @furzeface
Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/furzeface/the-lean-studio
THE LEAN STUDIO // @JJEFFRIES1 // @FURZEFACE // @COMPUTERLOVERS
Hinweis der Redaktion
James 8 months
Dan 6 months
Part of initiative to bring in senior level team
- to help facilitate a lot of the changes we’ll be talking about
Established in 1999 in Manchester
always been a forward thinking agency – reinventing itself many times
Now in an ongoing transformation to take a more lean, agile approach to our work and with our clients
We’ve worked with clients big and small, national and international on a variety of projects and products.
Now helping these clients transition to a leaner approach, to deliver more value, quickly.
Who works in agencies?
I’ve worked in agencies before , I’ve worked client side in an agile software development house, but never an Agile agency.
Projects not Products – having a fixed scope of a project restricts development team to a deadline
Delivering to a fixed deadline causes compromises on quality.
Not necessarily building what’s right for the consumer – only what our client thinks is right.
No data behind these decisions.
Often building for the sake of building.
@todo try and change the layout of this slide
Long term partnerships with clients
Work on products not projects – ongoing continual improvement and innovation
Sustainable long term relationships - help clients evolve their capability
Provide ongoing value
Help clients make data driven decisions to provide real, trackable value
Experiments to prove value before we commit to building
Dashboards to raise awareness of ongoing value
Show data in terms of clients KPIs and aims
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
Developers, designers, UX, product owners
- Fixed teams aligned with client value - VALUE over Volume
Clients hire us for set periods of time
Moving away from timesheets - just work on whatever is most important
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
-People are in discipline groups by the type of work they do
Disciplines - Eg. developers or designers
building our online presence with new engineering blog
Understand client’s goals to recommend better solutions
Allows us to spot opportunities for improvement
More regular feedback
Increasing communication
- Regular calls
- Visit each other’s offices
- We run workshops to help them understand why we work the way we do
- Work more closely together
- Helps to build empathy in both directions
- Easier to understand why people react the way they do if you know them
We work the same way on internal products as we do on our clients
Code website is a Lean, iterative process
- Busyroom app we’re producing is the same process
- Busyroom app we’re producing is the same process
Helps us find pain points and things that a client might find difficult to understand
Moving on to some of the challenges we’ve faced so far, and are facing currently.
Roles are changing
cross discipline
upskilling each other within account teams
the challenges are
lost people who aren’t in the mindset
people having to learn to work in different ways
eg Project managers – people not from engineering background
The challenge is keeping people like this
hiring people who “get it”
More collaboration required
Moving away from command and control to more collaborative working
Mindset
Stopping people focussing on money and thinking about what is valuable to the client instead
Change mindsets
Stop thinking in terms of buying features and projects
Start thinking more about evolving products to add value
Stop big releases
Collaboration
Understand their goals to recommend better solutions
Allows us to spot opportunities for improvement
Working with us to find solutions not giving us solutions
Previously we would often get requests like “Move this button to here”
Clients prioritise backlog with total transparency on team progress and velocity
They are involved in daily rituals
Building Trust
Consistently delivering
Proving that A/B tests and experiments work
Increasing communication
Work more closely together
Helps to build empathy in both directions
@todo try and change the layout of this slide
Momentum to attract people/clients who already “get it”
Build more of our own products
Already have busy room and tablito on the app store
Think about how we price/bill for what we do
Not buying “a website” anymore
spread it out over a time period
To summarise
Start with internal culture
Attract the right sort of people
Continuously improve