Over the last 18 months, Enterprise Digital at Nationwide Insurance experimented with an end to end agile approach to better integrate IT delivery and business activities in the commercial and mobile spaces. Customers are demanding products quicker, and we as a company must find ways to compress the timeline required to deliver the features customers seek to remain competitive. At the end of the second phase of this transition, which comprised just one team, we found a 64% decrease in lead time from discovery to analysis and a 20% decrease in lead time from analysis to implementation. This end to end model stressed co-location of business and IT and working together as one cross-functional team to continuously plan, integrate, and deliver value to our customers. We made the value stream work visible from idea to implementation and organized it in product-centric value streams with the goal of standardizing customer experiences regardless of whether the customer is interacting with our company via web or mobile. This standardization allowed for maximum reusability of requirements, code, and automation, and decreased variances with and the frequency of estimating. In the end to end model, poly-skilling was stressed across both roles and technologies so that all team members had the flexibility to pick up and work on any card at any point in the flow. This, coupled with the team’s use of the tools necessary to implement dev ops capabilities, allowed us to be more responsive to the customer. Kristen Biddulph Scrum Master, CSM, CSPO, CAL1 - Nationwide Insurance Kristen has led software delivery teams over the last 4 years across Nationwide’s Digital assets for Sales, Identity Management, Servicing, and Mobile. Her current focus is on providing solutions to aid high performance teams in their product-centric journeys.  Tasktop Connect 2018 connect.tasktop.com www.tasktop.com

1. Making Work Product-Centric
A Journey at Nationwide Insurance
Kristen Biddulph | Scrum Master, CSM, CSPO, CAL1

2. Speaker
Scrum Master, CSM, CSPO, CAL1 @ Nationwide Insurance
Kristen has led software delivery teams over the last 4 years across Nationwide’s
Digital assets for Sales, Identity Management, Servicing, and Mobile. Her current
focus is on providing solutions to aid high performance teams in their product-centric
journeys.
Kristen Biddulph

3. Contents
Problem Statement & Defining Success
Customers are demanding products quicker, and we as a company must find ways to compress the timeline required to deliver
the features customers seek to remain competitive. As a result, we knew we needed to make some changes.
Nationwide’s Phased Approach and Preparation
Nationwide took a 3-phased approach to first integrate short-term planning into the IT team space while introducing the
Minimally Marketable Product Concept, then by introducing the organization of work around a product and cross-training team
members, and lastly, by expanding phase 2 out to multiple lines.
Streamlining the Process from A-Z
Previous processes served a purpose at a time; however, teams and the assets they support were evolving beyond these
processes. As a result, a lot of overhead was removed and the cross-functional team became an autonomous unit enabled to
deliver. This section introduces the ways the teams chose to streamline the processes.
Challenges during the Transition
Nationwide encountered a number of challenges during the transition. Some we have worked our way through, others we are
still figuring out. The most important thing when trying something new is being willing to learn and quickly adapt.

4. Problem Statement
Near Term Plan Rapid
Alignment
Iterative Solution Scoping
Develop, Test, Implement
Plan Team Project Team
Line
Business and IT had similar pains:
• Long, linear process with a unidirectional information flow
• Planning is inflexible and tied to a rigid annual funding cycle
• Siloed interactions, many handoffs, lack of integration
• Unclear product ownership
• Large batches of work with inaccurate estimates
• “One size fits all” mentality towards application development
• Infrequent and slow communication between teams
• Large, infrequent deliveries
• Disjointed single channel projects that provided varying customer
experiences
Re-Planning, Re-Estimating, Stage Gates
ahead
Customers are demanding products quicker, and we as a company must find ways to compress the
timeline required to deliver the features customers seek to remain competitive.

5. Scaling agile
requires us to alter
our operating
models and
organizational
structures for the
delivery of work
Changes to the Operating Model
Before Goal State
Project Centric Product Centric
Siloed Execution Integrated Cross Functional Teams
Hierarchical Decision Making Empowered Autonomous Teams
Rigid Roles & Responsibilities Cross-trained Teams
Multi-year Planning Sensing & Responding to the market
Annual Project Centric Funding Adaptable Value Based Funding
Mega Releases Small & Frequent Releases (MMP/MVP)
“Goldplated” Story Cards Vertical Slicing

6. Defining “Success” for the Model
Achieve Increased Delivery Velocity of business capabilities by….
• Transition from a Project based delivery model to a Product / Value
Stream model
• Integrate Plan and Build activities
• Use Agile + Lean practices across the full lifecycle (Plan through Build)
• Implement Continuous Flow of Delivery
• Break work down into Smaller Batches
• Eliminate Handoffs & Duplication of work
• Improve Collaboration & Communication by working as ‘One Team’
• Conduct Quarterly Planning with dependent teams
Our products and services are loved by
our customers, with subjective ratings
consistently placing us in the top tier of
our markets
Our portfolio of work is focused, fast
and dynamic, allowing for frequent and
reliable deliveries while maintaining
flexibility to changing needs
There is a feedback loop from teams
and back, keeping teams tightly
coupled to real business needs while
providing leadership with knowledge on
product performance to inform
strategic
decisions
Going forward, we need to provide customer experiences in an Omnichannel environment
delivering a consistent, seamless, and high quality experience that allows a customer to
start a journey through one channel and continue through another while achieving
increased delivery velocity.
Commander’s Intent: the definition of what success looks like in an uncertain, dynamic, resource-
constrained environment

7. Experiment, Innovate, and Empower (3 Phases)
 Apply product centric
scope alignment with
integrated cross functional
team to additional
Nationwide Lines
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
 Created integrated cross
functional teams by combining
Plan and Build resources across
business areas
 Introduced MMP concepts and
Continuous Flow (Discovery thru
Refinement)
 Leveraged 2 teams for experiment
 Achieved ~64% cycle time
improvement from Discovery to
DDIT Start
 Applied product centric concepts
to organize scope by value-
stream with an integrated cross
functional team
 Leveraged 1 team to open first
value-stream
 Achieved poly-skilling and scale
 Multiple DDIT improvements
tested and adopted
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
We are here
Minimum Marketable Product
Integrated Cross Functional
Structure
(Discovery – Refinement – Delivery)
Minimum Marketable Product
Integrated Cross Functional
Structure
(Discovery – Refinement – Delivery)
Product/Value-Stream Centric
Scope Alignment
Minimum Marketable Product
Integrated Cross Functional
Structure
(Discovery – Refinement – Delivery)
Interactions between
Nationwide Lines
Product/Value-Stream Centric
Scope Alignment

8. Team Uplift
Business Acumen Technology Leadership
Customer
Segmentation
To Provide
Focus
Broader Tech Stacks and DevOps
Capabilities
Everybody Is a Leader
Uplift was provided in 3 key areas across the whole cross-functional team

9. Provide the following information:
• What capability is the customer
wanting?
• What is the initial proposed
solution?
• What benefits realization does
offering this capability provide
the company?
The whole cross-functional team,
led by the Product Owner,
collaboratively elicits requirements
together:
Defining “Success” for the
team and getting started
Capability
Feature
User Story

10. What is an MMP?
• The Minimal Marketable Product (MMP)
is based on the idea that less is more.
The MMP describes the product with the
smallest possible feature set that
addresses the user needs, creates the
desired user experience, and can hence be
marketed and sold successfully. The MMP
is a tool to reduce time-to-market… It can
be launched more quickly than a fat,
feature-rich one.
• A great example of an MMP is Apple’s
original iPhone launched in 2007. Apple
has subsequently built a feature rich
product and continues to do so
incrementally.
• The key to creating a successful MMP is
to “develop the product for the few, not
the many” and to focus on those features
that make a real difference to our
members.

11. Estimating just once?
How many jelly beans do you see?
And now?
And now?
How accurate can you be?
• Using relative sizing, we have found success in having less
than 10% variance from our final actuals
• This has improved predictability and reduced fiscal
variance
Capability
Feature Feature Feature
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
User Story
MMP1
MMP2 MMP3

12. Vertical Slicing and not going for gold…
Enabling Continuous Delivery one card at a time… Going with what you know today…
User Interface
Service Layer
Persistence Layer
Card 1
Card 2
Card 3
Persisted Requirements
Requirement
Scenarios 1-8
Story
Scenarios 1-4
Story
Scenarios 5-6
Story
Scenarios 7-8
Capability
Card 1
As a…
I want…
So that…
Card 2
As a…
I want…
So that…
Card 3
As a…
I want…
So that…
XXX

13. Making Work Visible1
and the Continuous Plan
• Clear priorities updated regularly
• Dependencies mapped out on story map
• WIP limits set
• Clear timeboxed goals without IPMs
• Continuous Improvement in every iteration
• Pull system enabled accelerated velocity
End to end value
stream visibility
from product
concept to
implementation
1 From DeGrandis, Dominica, (2017) Making Work Visible Portland, OR: IT Revolution Press.

14. Asset Readiness and Best Practices to enable Continuous Delivery
Acceptance Test Driven Development
• Emphasis on collaboration between the team members and product owner to
have a common understanding of what to implement
• Must satisfy the test to say that development is complete
Improvement Katas
Build
Acceptance
Criteria
Automate
against
Acceptance
Criteria
Develop until
Automation
is Green
Refactor to
optimize
code
Problem Statement
The current asset does not
have a mature CI/CD and
we are unable to release
when ready.
First Steps
Break out work to integrate
into iterations
4 weeks from now
• Docker containers
• Enable New Relic
• Integrate Security
Testing
• Nitro Conversion
Definition of Awesome
A robust CI/CD with a zero
downtime release when
ready capability so that
pushes to production are
non-events.

15. Continuous Delivery Tooling

16. Challenges on the Journey
Teams encountered the below problems
during their transitions:
• Cross-training across roles and
technologies
• Identifying value streams
• Team availability for Discovery phase
• Dual laptops (Mobile vs. Web needs)
• Test strategies and frameworks
• External work incoming to the department
• Interaction model changes
• InnerSourcing
• Adaptive funding

18. Appendix
1
8

19. Product/Value-Stream Centric Delivery Process
Nationwide Lines
Product
Backlog
APIs & Micro Services Architecture
Cloud (aPaaS)
Discover Refine Deliver Measure
Reuse Analysis
Story Mapping
MMP Definition
Backlog Grooming
Develop
& Test
Prototype
Show &
Tell
Story
Refine
ment
Scrum (Build)
Strategy/LT Planning
Opportunity/Problem
Flexible Funding
Customer Journey
Strategy & Long Term
Planning
Business KPIs & Metrics
Sense & Respond
Continuous Flow
Release when Ready
User Feedback,
KPIs & Metrics

20. EDE’s Model Is On The Right Track
Success Factors of Agile at Scale
2
01 From CEB Applications Research Team, (2017) The 9 Success Factors of Agile at Scale https://www.gartner.com/doc/3817672?ref=mrktg-srch
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