Ray Velez of Razorfish discussed how marketers can get products and services to market faster through "agile methods" at the Razorfish Client Summit in Boston. October 12-14, 2010.
13. Big Idea Rule 4: Fail early and often It’s better to launch a dozen memes -- and kill the weak -- than bet the farm on a single campaign. To… Multiple Narrative Components From… Singular Consistent Message
17. This would have been the old way of doing it… Concept Detailed Design GO LIVE Build
18. This is how we are doing it Concept DetailedDesign DetailedDesign DetailedDesign DetailedDesign Build Build Build Build GO LIVE GO LIVE GO LIVE Sprint Review
19. Razorfish Adoption Index Product Owner Involvement: The level of commitment, time, and effort by the Product Owner grows significantly as a project climbs up the scale. This effort supports critical processes such as backlog grooming. Adherence to the Methodology: As the team moves up the index, strict adherence to the rules of Scrum become essential. The more that the backlog defines the scope of the engagement, the more important effectively managing the backlog becomes.
20. Breakout Groups Four Breakout Groups – Count off 1-4 or Geographically John Ewen - 1 Dutch Steutel - 2 Andrew Williams - 3 Ray Velez - 4 Going agile
22. Questions QUESTIONNAIRE1. [CHANGE] Which of the following best describes your organization’s approach to managing change?A. Priority for every initiative is set at the onset of a project and cannot be changed without a formal change control process.B. Priorities are assessed by the main stakeholder throughout a project lifecycle and new expectations are communicated to the team as needed; formal change control processes are used to apply the change.C. Priorities are reviewed during formal communication sessions set up throughout a project and the main stakeholder will make re-prioritization decisions based on feedback from the team; formal change control processes are used to apply the change.D. Priorities are reviewed during formal communication sessions set up throughout a project and the main stakeholder will make re-prioritization decisions based on feedback from the team; change control is not necessary as the process expects priorities to change.2. [COLLABORATION] Which of the following best describes the way your organization collaborates between skillsets?A. We require that disciplines (e.g. creative, user experience, account planning, technology) work independently so that work can be reviewed before being handed off to the next team.B. We encourage collaboration by some disciplines, but generally limit the participation of teams who will not be required until further into the process.C. We integrate representatives from all specialties throughout the process, but not the entire team.D. We believe that the full collaboration of disciplines generates synergies that wouldn’t be realized by working in isolation.3. [FEEDBACK] Which of the following best describes your organization’s attitude towards user feedback?A. Feedback from users is important, but only after a big release or big idea is fully realized.B. We regularly review direct user feedback and analytics data, but prioritization is only moderately impacted by these findings.C. We regularly review direct user feedback and analytics data and these findings are the primary influencer of prioritization.D. Feedback from users is important at every stage of the process to directly impact the direction of the product, service or campaign. The organization considers themselves Product Managers when prioritizing campaign ideas and business features. Going agile 4. [APPROVALS] Which of the following best describes your organization’s approach to reviews and approvals?A. Outcomes must be documented and detailed in stages with approvals required before proceeding.B. Executives and main project sponsors brief the project team on the desired outcome and project scope. Project sponsors regularly review project progress and project plan.C. Team commits to strategic objectives and provides recommendations on how the objectives are best achieved. Throughout design and development, project sponsors and team refine the outcome as they gain new insights.D. Team commits to strategic objectives and provides recommendations on how the objectives are best achieved. Team regularly seeks to adjust the project outcome based on user feedback.5. [RESOURCING] Which of the following best describes your organization’s approach to resourcing teams?A. When staffing a project, the outcome of the assignment and all deliverables must be clearly defined up front.B. When staffing a project, the specific roles of the resources are defined but the specific deliverables they will work on are only loosely defined.C. When staffing a project, the specific roles of the resources are defined but the specific deliverables they will work on are not.D. When staffing a project, all resources are considered part of a single team committed to working on the highest priority work regardless of their role.
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24. Thanks from your Agile Team Ray Velez – ray.velez@razorfish.com John Ewen – john.ewen@razorfish.com Andrew Williams – andrew.williams@razorfish.com Dutch Steutel – dutch.steutel@razorfish.com