An overarching focus on our customer is the key to success in all Lean and Agile organizations.
Our plans, processes, products and organizational structures are created and continuously improved with our customers in central focus.
✅ Focus on delivering the right thing. Practice empathy to deeply understand what customers really need, not just what they say they want.
✅ Align your organization around custom journeys and value streams. Eliminate organizational silos and handoffs to create end-to-end flow.
✅ Set up a Portfolio Kanban. Set up a Portfolio Kanban as a Visual Management System that makes all work in the portfolio visible, and tracks MMPs from end to end.
✅ Measure business outcomes using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
Here’s a cheat sheet to focus on your customers’ needs:
🔹 Eliminate waste with value stream mapping. Anything for which customers will not pay or that does not contribute directly to the creation of business value is waste.
🔹Rank your portfolio. Rank your portfolio using Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) or other similar technique in a collaborative and open fashion. Make ranking and selection open, objective and visible.
🔹Manage Work in Progress (WIP). Manage WIP with strict limits to enhance throughput and flow. Stop starting new work, and start finishing in-flight work.
🔹Manage the On-ramp. Validate all new work against OKRs, and only approve work that is highly likely to deliver customer value.
🔹Reprioritize regularly. As with any investment portfolio, periodically review the results of your portfolio investments against strategic goals and aggressively reprioritize the portfolio in response.
Contact our team for help bringing these concepts to your organization.
