Archive for May, 2010
Creating Change thru Kanban
Posted by: | CommentsI just finished reading Kanban
What I enjoyed about the book more than anything else was the delivery of the material. It was not overly analytical nor was it written in story form (so that I could get it). It seems to have just the proper mixture of short case studies and instruction. However, what was apparent was that the author is very comfortable in his subject matter. I am always amazed by people that are truly grounded in their knowledge of a subject. Their ease in raising questions and casual reference to others to stimulate thought is the true mark of an expert. I create the analogy to sports. Many superstars are superior athletes but the true great ones have the ability to make the entire team better. I think they call them champions. David comes across as someone that is truly striving for continuous improvement and I believe that he is a champion of Kanban.
One of my takeaways from the book is the outline David uses for Bootstrapping the Kanban.
- Agree on set of goals for introducing Kanban
- Map the value stream
- Defining the entry point
- Define the exit point
- Define the work item types
- Analyze the demand for each work item type
- Meet with the upstream and downstream stakeholders
- Create a board/card wall to track the value stream
- Optionally, create an electronic system to track and report
- Agree with the team to have a standup meeting daily
- Agree to a regular operations review meeting
- Educate the team on the new board, WIP limits, and the poll systems.
As David says in his book: “This guide cover has been developed based on real experience and validated by several early adopters of Kanban, both those who followed the steps and were successful and those who recognized that their partial failure could have been prevented had this guide been available at the time.” David goes on to say, “This guide is provided in part to draw attention to the difference between Kanban and earlier Agile development methods. Kanban requires a collaborative engagement with the wider value chain and the middle(senior) management from the start. The unilateral grassroots adoption of Kanban without first building the consensus of managers external to the immediate team will have only limited success and delivered limited benefits to the business.”
As I mentioned in an earlier Tweet today, even though I read the last page last night, this book has been queued up to be read again.
P.S. The Kanban
Related Information:
Marketing Kanban
Business901 Kanban Search
Can you Manage a Program, a Global Program?
Posted by: | CommentsIn this Business901 Podcast I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Wagner, co-author of Global Program Management
Paula’s book is an in depth study of today’s Global Program Management arena. Very few organizations make only local decisions. It seems in today’s world no matter what size the company is that we all are somewhat global. Is your program or even project manager ready for this kind of challenge? How does a classic program and project management change as a result of this global influence? Paula did a great job of answering these questions as they applied to both small and large organizations. With the increase pressure on project managers the book provides insights on handling resources at a macro-level. During the interview, Paula appeared to be a pro (I am sure she is) at defining goals and objectives realistically no matter the multitude of environments that needed to be aligned.
Program management is growing as a discipline. So, we spent time talking about some of the decisions that had to be made as a program manager and the type of individual that makes a successful program manager. I think the book could be quite useful for someone that is considering this career path not only globally but on a local level.
Paula Wagner’s Website: http://pwdita.com/
Related Posts:
Iterative Process Gaining Steam – Proof it works
Lean Kanban lessons from a Software Developer
Turning your Marketing Cycle into a Kanban
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the first steps that I recommend in developing your Marketing Kanban is to create a Value Stream Map of your Sales or Marketing Cycle. Many people struggle with this concept and in a workshop I asked them to create their best known channel without really discussing their marketing tactics at all. I ask them just to define how many clients they need in this Value Stream to be successful. For illustration purposes I use a common internet model that is recognizable to most of us. A typical Value Stream may look something like this:
- Google Ad
- Website
- Auto-responder
- 30-day trial
- Purchase
- Upsell
- Buzz it up
Of course there are numerous ways someone may reach your website such as Referrals, Search, Social Media, PR, etc. You could include them all, but if you do not measure them individually it will be difficult to improve them as time goes on.
I am going to take just a section of the above Value stream and define an Entry and Exit point to the Kanban(see Bootstrapping the Kanban). The Entry point will be Google Ad and the exit point will be the Purchase point. This will simplify my explanation.
When we discussed the Marketing Kanban before, we discussed creating Work in Process (WIP) limits. The above diagram will demonstrate a very important beginning point for the use of a Marketing Kanban and how we go about determining the basic structure. Start developing your WIP limits by asking these questions:
- How many prospects do you engage with?
- How many become prospects?
- How many are qualified prospects?
- How many use the Free Trial?
- How many become clients?
- How many repeat?
- How many are referred?
I have already confused myself, have I confused you? This is where the Kanban becomes so effective.
This simple structure is easily adjusted and can be used for just about any channel you wish to develop. How do you determine these numbers? Well first, if you don’t already know any of these numbers or just starting out, look at what will be your constraint or control point. Where are you limited?
Maybe, you can only handle 30 clients? Start with something that you know or fill in the blanks with your best guestimate. If you can only complete three of the five examples, complete the others by considering the conversion rates that you have between each. Don’t overly worry about accuracy, especially if you have not measured these before. You can even create a best and worst scenario to the Value Stream.
Are you limited by the dollars you spend on Google ads? Take a known number and plug into your Kanban and just multiply it across. Can you see what happens? Is a client worth $500? Are you Google ads effective enough? Do you need to increase conversion rates thru your free trial?
This particular Marketing Kanban is just a starting point. You may not even use your clients as the basis, you may prefer total sales for the month. However, when you visually display it in a Kanban it does create a very easy observation point, especially for small business.
The next step is to consider the other entry points to your website, for example and/or completely different distribution paths. More than likely these other channels (paths) will have different cycle times and budgets. Do not try to fit one Kanban or Value Stream to everyone.
Related Posts:
Bootstrapping the Kanban
Value Stream Marketing eBook Released
Marketing Kanban 102, Work in Process
