Author: Jessica Fergus

I am passionate about problem solving and process improvement. I started this project as a community space for others with the same hunger for learning and optimization.

Team Huddle

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

At first glance, a team huddle seems pretty straightforward – it’s just another term for a meeting, another buzzword in an increasingly complex world. And while that’s honestly true, that doesn’t mean the huddle is anything like your meeting. A great team huddle can change the game by providing needed focus, prioritization, and a quick touch-base to build trust and connection. This play is meant to be used in conjunction with all other plays! Successful huddles require practice and experience. But when done effectively, the huddle is a powerful tool for any team.

PEOPLE

1-10 people can run this play.

TIME

15 Minutes. This is meant to be quick and straight forward. 

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can run this play. 

 

PREP WORK

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat.  

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all.
  • Organized and prepared to run play.

Team Players: This is someone who actively contributes to the team in order to complete tasks, meet goals or manage projects. Team players aim to improve the product or process at hand. Every organization relies on good teams. Skills needed:

  • Communicate effectively.
  • Is the 3R’s: Responsible, Reliable and Ready
  • Optimistic and future-focused.
  • Shows genuine commitment.
  • Supports and respects others.
  • Embraces collaboration.
  • Actively listens.
  • Problem solver.
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

THE HUDDLE

Only in football does the team meet every 40 seconds to plot their next attack. They gather to check the game plan. In a few, brief seconds, players look each other in the eye and their leader, the quarterback, takes signals from the sideline and provides instructions so they can execute the plan together. This is the huddle.

As a Playbook Ninja it is your time to think back on the play you just ran and plan for the next time you run this strategy on what actions or plan of attack you will take to win.

TEAMWORK

When you’re in a huddle you’re a part of the team. First and foremost, the huddle provides direct, personal, eye-to-eye contact. It is a simple, yet powerful way to unite a group of people.

At a growing company, huddles are an effective way for people to get to know each other better. The team will come to feel that they have support from their colleagues and a place to take their concerns.

ACTION

The only reason for a huddle is to take action. Huddles are useless if not acted upon. At the end of a huddle, action items are identified and delegated. Each person on the team should leave knowing his or her role and how to follow through with it.

COMMITMENT

The huddle can be used as a place to affirm and celebrate team members. Give a shout-out to any teammate for a recent accomplishment or highlight key players for their team play.

HELP

Huddles help team members to work together rather than separately. People talk about issues that they have been struggling with and compare notes about possible solutions. They commit to making improvements and holding each other accountable for taking action.

Much like calling an audible in a football game, team members can make adjustments in a huddle. I’ve seen it many times in my own team—someone came in with a fresh perspective that changed the original game plan. But because we came together in the huddle, everyone walked away with a clear understanding of the new plan.

 

 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

 

04

NEXT STEPS

You did it, celebrate with the group! You can use this same technique to team huddle at any point in the play. It is a great way to get a deep understanding of the team and any issues they may have in executing the play.

 

Follow-up with anyone who raised their hand or did not have a clear thumbs up or down vote.

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Value Streams

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

A value stream represents the complete workflow or set of actions from the demand (trigger) to delivery (return of investment) of a product or service at the right time. A value stream always begins and ends with a customer. The concept of a value stream is especially important to agile methodologies, which often seek to maximize a focus on customer or business value. This play will help you create an end-to-end collection of value-adding activities that create an overall result for a customer, stakeholder, or end-user.

PEOPLE

2-10 depending on the size of the team. If it becomes larger than 10 people consider breaking out into smaller groups.

TIME

30-90 Minutes. This will be dependent on the experience of the team.

NINJA LEVEL

Practitioner to Master. Anyone can learn how to master value streams but it may take practice to run this play efficiently. 

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

 Product Manager: A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the business strategy behind a product, specify its functional requirements, and generally manages the launch of features. Skills needed:

  • Ability to balance business and user needs
  • Attention to detail
  • Curiosity to explore new ideas
  • Ability to deliver factual data in-time
  • Empathy for customers
  • Ability to build strong relationships with other teams
  • Understanding of necessary data structures
  • Informed about the technical implications of the platforms being used
  • Ability to tailor communications to different stakeholders

 Product/System/Business Unit Owners: These are decision makers. They can make the call on what changes will happen or authorize a strategy. Skills needed:

  • Change agent. Supportive and enthusiastic about improvements.
  • Supportive of the team and SMEs!
  • Committed and engaged in the product.

 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): A SME (pronounced S-Mee) is critical for this play. They will help drive the team to a shared understanding of what is needed to win. Skills needed:

  • Specific domain knowledge, narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow.
  • Communication and team collaboration. They must be able to share with others the knowledge they have on a particular subject. 
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

UNDERSTANDING VALUE STREAMS

The way you setup the Agile organization is key. Agile transformation starts with the identification of the values streams.

Let’s talk about what are value streams and what they are not. A Value Stream is simply the sequence of all of the activities that an organization takes to deliver on a customer need — and all of the people, systems, and resources required to do those activities. 

Value streams differ from traditional project models in several ways:

  • They are comprised of long-lived, cross-functional teams and teams of teams instead of temporary groups organized around a specific project.
  • Because the teams operate on an on-going basis, they are able practice continuous improvement. Temporary teams, on the other hand, are always starting from scratch, with little opportunity to improve performance and efficiency.
  • As the name suggests, value streams connect work back to the ultimate value that it delivers to the customer and/or business. With traditional projects, the real value is often obscured by project-centric metrics like being on-time and on-budget.

Here is an example from Scaled Agile, Inc:

There might be a tendency to state that this is just a workflow. However, the value stream focuses on creating long term value, without decision points like a typical flow diagram. A value stream aims to remove activities that do not create value. A value stream is not a customer journey map or equal to business processes, rather it encloses (parts of) business processes as starting point for discovering and understanding value streams.

IDENTIFING VALUE STREAMS

Defining the precise value that your organization delivers is the first step in any value stream initiative. The exact composition of value streams will look different at different organizations, typically falling into two categories: operational value streams and development value streams. Both result in the creation of value for a customer (internal and/or external) and can come in the form of products, services, or a combination of the two.

This chart is a great summary of the differences between an Operational Value Stream and a Development Value Stream from the Planview Blog:

Step 1: Identify the operational streams.

  • Start with grouping your products. Grouping your products is a simple process based on process steps or like services.  You need to create a matrix that cross references the process steps with each product line.  Those products that use the same processes belong in the same value stream.  Even if these products may have different end users, or go to completely different customers, it’s the process steps that define the value stream, not the end users.

For a financial institution, it might look like this:

Step 2: Identify the IT systems (software and hardware) that support the operational value stream.

  • What systems and tools are used to move through the activities in the process or service? Identify core systems and supporting systems needed. The goal is to gain a deep understanding of how it all works.

For our financial institution example, the systems would be added like this:  

Step 3: Identify the people who work on these IT systems.

  • These are your end users, the ones behind the keyboards. If you are at a large organization it may be helpful to identify owners and stakeholder groups, rather than large number of individuals.  

Continuing our example for a financial institution:  

Step 4: Identify the development streams. 

  • This is the value stream that is used by the development team to build or enhance the software used to support the operational value streams and identify the end customers (the end users in step 3). 

For examples:

Step 5: Add the people needed to deliver the development value streams.

  • The team is all the people needed to deliver the system, it often includes product/system owners, IT operations, development, QA, legal, marketing, finance, support, compliance, security, and others. 

It may look like this:

 

 

USING VALUE STREAMS

Value streams offer a construct for businesses to organize and operate around what really matters: the value they deliver to customers. While the process may initially seem complex, it often results in much greater clarity into the relationships between the work that gets done and the value that it provides. That insight, in turn, opens the door to the many benefits of Agile, from efficiency to productivity and beyond.

Now that you have a good understanding of your business, here are ways to get the most benefit from value streams.

  1. Review your key value streams and start a discussion about whether there is an opportunity for improvement.
    • Ask the team brainstorming questions. Is there pieces of this process that are wasteful? What things need improved to get more end value? What things could be automated? How do we improve output in this value stream? What can be done to improve efficiencies? Asking these types of questions about the data of the value stream will eventually lead to specific improvement ideas. 
  2. Convert improvement ideas to user stories. Writing down improvements in a user story format makes improvements easy to compare both by estimated value and effort.
  3. Group user stories together under an epic. An epic is a container for a significant solution development initiative that captures the more substantial investments that occur within a portfolio. In other frameworks some may also refer to these as projects or themes, where they differ is that unlike a project, this is not a temporary endeavor as this maps back to the value stream that is continually being improved.
  4. Rinse and repeat. After an improvement has been implemented, we need to measure its outcome and update our Value Stream Map. This gives you another opportunity to look at your Value Stream and look for new improvements. Continuous Improvement is nothing more than repeating this process until the effort of most improvements outweighs their value.

 

Having mapped a value stream and creating a few user stories does not equal value stream optimization. The key is to repeat the process steps described in this play to achieve continuous improvement that is based on data. Focus on measurable outcomes to really improve your Value Stream and become a high performing team.

Recommended Reading

 

 

 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

 

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and prioritize the backlog – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful first go at value streams and give some time for them to keep practicing!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will regroup and give feedback on the value streams. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

User Stories

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

Work is often expressed in terms of requirements and often in Agile these are captured in User Stories. When it comes to building great products, you need to put your users first. That’s where user stories come in. This play will help you create better user stories. You’ll learn how to write them like a designer, test them like an entrepreneur, and use them to drive better discussions like an agile coach.

PEOPLE

2-10 depending on the size of the team. If it becomes larger than 10 people consider breaking out into smaller groups.

TIME

30-90 Minutes. This will be dependent on the experience of the team.

NINJA LEVEL

Practitioner to Master. Anyone can learn how to master user stories but it may take practice to run this play efficiently. 

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

 Product Manager: A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the business strategy behind a product, specify its functional requirements, and generally manages the launch of features. Skills needed:

  • Ability to balance business and user needs
  • Attention to detail
  • Curiosity to explore new ideas
  • Ability to deliver factual data in-time
  • Empathy for customers
  • Ability to build strong relationships with other teams
  • Understanding of necessary data structures
  • Informed about the technical implications of the platforms being used
  • Ability to tailor communications to different stakeholders

 Product/System/Business Unit Owners: These are decision makers. They can make the call on what changes will happen or authorize a strategy. Skills needed:

  • Change agent. Supportive and enthusiastic about improvements.
  • Supportive of the team and SMEs!
  • Committed and engaged in the product.

 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): A SME (pronounced S-Mee) is critical for this play. They will help drive the team to a shared understanding of what is needed to win. Skills needed:

  • Specific domain knowledge, narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow.
  • Communication and team collaboration. They must be able to share with others the knowledge they have on a particular subject. 
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

THE BACKSTORY TO USER STORIES

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” – Robert McKee

The art of user stories is about expressing the requirements from the perspective of the end user. It is associated with Agile, but isn’t an actual artifact of agile methodology, rather an adopted format that is easily understood by development teams, who often are using Scrum and other Agile frameworks.

So why do we love it so much? Because anyone can write a great user story! Most often by product owners or product managers, but because it is in plain language, free of technical jargon or detail, anyone can write a user story for consideration. They only need a good understanding of the user-persona problem that they are hoping to solve.

Vintage user stories typically went like this: 

They were written on an index card (remember those?) that could then be tacked to a whiteboard to be prioritized. The development team would review them and assign an estimate on level of effort to complete, then they would get shuffled around until they had a well groomed board.

Today we have come a long way from the days of index cards and rolling whiteboards of work charts. Most teams use electronic tools to create user stories and digital boards to organize for the team.

THE ART OF WRITING GREAT USER STORIES

You could still use the classic user story format and create good stories. But if you want to create great user stories you will need to go beyond the basics. This may take some practice but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to produce great stories with no problem at all.

  1. Understand the user. Who is the recipient of this deliverable? What are their needs and why do they want this? If you can’t easily answer these questions you may need to spend time to define user personas with the team. You need to discover and study the real users of your product — capture their profiles, points of view, expectations, and the associated ‘pain points.’ Create a direct communication channel with your users to really understand your the real users of the product. Establish a set of key users — ideally in the form of personas — before you start compiling user stories. 
  2. Think as a user. Easier said than done. If you are a product manager it may be difficult to see it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know all there is to know about the product. Ask your Grandma to be a user, or a young person who hasn’t used your product – the feedback you will get will allow you to really see it from the user’s point of view. The product owner and the entire team need to think from a user’s point of view and understand the underlying needs and the expected value.
  3. Thing big! A good practice is to think big and let ‘crazy’ user stories enter the backlog. Don’t limit yourself with constraints of time, cost or feasibility. To often this turns into solutioning and will box in the development team on delivering value. The administrative overhead of maintaining an extended product backlog is small; the value deriving from it — in terms of product clarity, vision, and opportunities — is massive.
  4. Use epics. If you aren’t familiar with epics, get familiar. They are a great tool for containing a larger story that will be broken down into smaller stories. This is a great big picture tool. Epics are like large tote containers that can contain smaller bins of great ideas. In more traditional terms these might be milestones or themes, but they should still serve a common goal.
  5. Prioritize ideas. During grooming just move low value ideas to the bottom of the backlog rather than deleting. If it is of no value and high cost, be very careful to add it to the backlog at all, as this will just create noise that can distract the team from identifying high value ideas. Need help? Use our Prioritizing Work play to identify high value, low cost ideas. 
  6. Setup for success, not just acceptance. As a product manager, you need more than a confirmation that ‘it works as it should’ or ‘according to the specs.’
    You need metrics that are also linked to direct user feedback, capturing how happy and engaged your real users are. Success is about mid/long-term impact and value created for real users of your product. 

Phew! Okay so now you are ready to really create some great user stories. You thoroughly understand your user, their needs and what is success. Try this format:

“As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [realize a reward]”

Get the team together and create some great user stories! But you aren’t done yet – ah man!

You still need specs

Having a prioritized set of well-defined user stories is great, but it’s only the beginning. The team needs to analyze the stories — from a technical point of view — and create the necessary technical artifacts.

Ideally, stories are mapped to specific documentation that provides all the technical details needed from a software engineering perspective. They provide the entry points for detailed technical specification documents and other detailed artifacts.

USER STORIES AND THE TEAM

User stories are your anchor for working together on what you’re going to build and how you’ll know if it’s working. Team members come together to confirm a shared understanding of the user story. Use INVEST (a pneumonic device created by Agile consultant Bill Wake) as a checklist to determine if a user story is ready.

  • I – Independent. User stories shouldn’t overlap and should be able to be implemented separately.
  • N – Negotiable. User stories should be flexible and have space for negotiation.
  • V – Valuable. User stories should add value for the user.
  • E – Estimable. User stories should provide enough information so that people can estimate how much time it will take to implement.
  • S – Small. User stories should be small in scope and able to be implemented in one sprint.
  • T – Testable. User stories should be testable. If you can’t write a test for it, then the user story probably isn’t clear enough.

Where do user stories live?
User stories live wherever you want them to live. What’s most important is that your user stories are visible and accessible to everyone, whether that’s JIRA, Google Drive, or Post-its/index cards on a wall. You can’t experience the full collaborative experience that user stories facilitate if no one can find them.

Making your user stories and epics searchable and easily categorized through the use of meta tags and the like will make it even easier for people on various teams to take advantage of this collaborative tool. And if you’re going to go the analog route, consider having an electronic back-up. This will help you track the evolution of your user stories and will be a useful reference even after the product is released.

In conclusion, user stories give you a bird’s eye view of all the various pieces required to build a product. This makes it easier for you and your team to come up with effective solutions for user problems, resulting in a smooth user experience.

Recommended Resource

 

 

Want more info on how to write great user stories? Check out this article on alexandercowan.com

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and prioritize the backlog – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful first go at user story writing and give some time for them to keep practicing!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will regroup and give feedback on the system set up. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Digital Transformation

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

Digital transformation is more than a buzz word or moving from paper to screens, it is a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people and processes to fundamentally change business performance. This play will focus on four types of digital transformation; business process, business model, domain, and cultural/organizational. Use this play to begin your digital transformation journey.

PEOPLE

1+ depending on if you work through this play on your own or with a team.

TIME

30-60 minutes per activity. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can learn about digital transformation and master this play!

 

PREP WORK

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: If you decide to run this play as a team and meet together this will be you, but this play can be done all on your own. Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

 Team Players: This is someone who actively contributes to the team in order to complete tasks, meet goals or achieve outcomes and results. Even if you are doing this play on your own, every organization relies on good teams and that means good team players. Skills needed:

  • Communicate effectively.
  • Is the 3R’s: Responsible, Reliable and Ready
  • Optimistic and future-focused.
  • Shows genuine commitment.
  • Supports and respects others.
  • Embraces collaboration.
  • Actively listens.
  • Problem solver.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

PROCESS TRANSFORMATION

Process transformation involves radically changing the elements of your processes to meet new business goals. Using this process transformation methodology, you can modernize your processes, incorporate new technology, save costs, and better integrate your core systems. Here is how:

  1. Identify the goals of the transformation. These must be measurable. Don’t change for the sake of change and a checkbox for your resume. What are the reasons for this? Increase revenue? Improve efficiency? Customer experience score? Competitive advantage? Market reach? Pick at least two or three goals and establish a measure of how you will know that you have crossed the finish line.
  2. Establish baseline metrics. This is a natural follow of step one and should be easy to do if you have a good measurement in place for the goal. The critical piece is that you need to publish this in a central repository where the entire team can access it frequently.
  3. Map out the best scenario. This is where you innovate and reimagine processes. Ask the question, if cost and time were unlimited, what would this process look like? If you need inspiration run our Ideation play and then Prioritizing Work play to determine which ideas deliver the best bang for the buck.
  4. Implement in a testing environment. This is often a skipped step but could be costly if something doesn’t go as planned or has unintentional consequences. Let’s say you have a new process that increases your acquisition funnel by 20% in 30 days and you skip this step. What happens if you don’t have enough customer service reps to handle the influx of calls, so customers get angry and leave scathing reviews for your business all over social media? There is no undoing that set-back even though your new process met the original goal. Test, test and then test again – it’s like measuring twice and cutting once. 
  5. Set live and monitor. Okay so you have tested everything you can and are ready to go-live and pop open the champagne. Except this is the beginning of the journey, not the end. Celebrate this transformation but start to monitor for unintended changes, goal progression and performance metrics. Publish regularly in a central repository and share insights (both good and bad) with the team. Then start working on the next process to transform! 

Recommended Reading

BUSINESS MODEL TRANSFORMATION

We can‘t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them – Albert Einstein

Digital transformation is an enabler for new business models. It opens new ways for developing products, finding clients, creating and delivering value and making profits. 

People often associate transformation with the adoption of new technology, and while technology is one of the important enablers of transformation, it doesn’t transform a company or an industry on its own.

Put simply, too many companies are still relying on business models that were never designed to compete in the digital economy, because they were created in a very different era to the one we now live in.

You need to rethink your business model or create a business model for the digital economy. Answer the following with a digital focus:

  • Key partners: List the partners that you can’t do digital business without (not suppliers).
  • Key activities: What do you do every day to run your digital business model?
  • Key resources: The people, knowledge, means, and money you need to run your digital business.
  • Value proposition: What are your digital products and services? What is the job you get done for your customer?
  • Customer relationships: How does this show up and how do you maintain the relationship in a digital economy?
  • Channels: How do you digitally communicate with your customer? How do you digitally deliver the value proposition?
  • Customer segments: List the top three digital segments. Look for the segments that provide the most revenue.
  • Cost structure: List your top costs by looking at digital activities and resources.
  • Revenue streams: List your top three digital revenue streams. If you do things for free, list them as well.

You can map these to a business model canvas to gain a shared language for describing, visualizing, assessing and changing business models. This business model canvas has been adapted from Strategyzer.com

DOMAIN TRANSFORMATION

An area of enormous opportunity is the area of domain transformation. New technologies are redefining products and services, blurring industry boundaries and creating entirely new sets of non-traditional competitors.

The easiest example of this is Amazon, who was dominating the domain of online retail and then seemingly out of nowhere launched AWS (Amazon Web Services). While this was a surprise to some, what made Amazon’s entry into this domain possible was a combination of the strong digital capabilities it had built in storage, computing databases to support its core retail business coupled with an installed base of thousands of relationships with young, growing companies that increasingly needed computing services to grow.

There is a clear danger in trying to cross into a domain that is outside of your core competency but to not at least take a look may be leaving money on the table. How to build a sustainable digital competitive advantage? Start with your “est.” Best. Fastest. Smartest. Cheapest. Most innovative. Most horizontally integrated. What is something that better delivers more value to customers, or comparable value for a better price? This is a great brainstorming exercise to ask yourself initially what you are or want to be best at. Keep in mind, maybe it’s not the “est” over all – maybe it’s the “est” for a specific segment of your audience or need state of your customer or even just a geographic region.

Once you have a list of your strengths, think of ways that you can use those in a digital economy that you aren’t currently doing. Is there a new segment of the market that you haven’t explored? Is there some service that you are good at but not offering for sale? Is there something your customers keep asking for but you haven’t looked into doing it yet? 

Take a chance on a good idea! You may just find a new domain of opportunity.

CULTURAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

Some might say of all the transformations this is the most difficult. Why? People are key to this and it takes time. It won’t likely happen overnight and for some it may not happen at all. That’s okay. Just get the wheels turning.

Anytime I approach change, I try and find the ‘what’s in it for me’ proposition. You can get more people on board when they have a shared understanding of why we are doing something and what benefits it will provide them. Yes, humans tend to think of ourselves first, so work with that. Once people feel safe and okay with the plan, they can get behind it. 

Here is seven easy steps for managing a cultural change:

  1. Understand current culture and it’s challenges
  2. Involve leadership
  3. Create a strategy plan that matches business goals
  4. Engage employees
  5. Pay extra attention to organizational fit
  6. Track progress
  7. Be patient – change takes time

Cultural/organizational change is a long-term requirement of success, but best in class companies regard the building of these capabilities as a product of, rather than a prerequisite for, business transformation initiatives. 

As technology change increases, industries will continue to be forced to change. Corporations that regard and pursue digital transformation in a multi-dimensional way will find greater success than those that don’t. 

Cultural/organizational transformation in any company is a complex process. However, it can have a tremendous impact on your organization and its future. The effort is worth it—and it will be reflected in your employee satisfaction and productivity numbers for many years to come.

Recommended Reading

 

 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Continue to work on the skills and activities that help you succeed in a digital transformation. Celebrate the wins and recognize yourself and/or the team for learning with you on how to improve.

 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Product Backlog

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

A product backlog is a prioritized list of work for the development team that is derived from the roadmap and its requirements. The most important items are shown at the top of the product backlog so the team knows what to deliver first. This play will help you deliver a product backlog that works!

PEOPLE

2-10 depending on the size of the team. If it becomes larger than 10 people consider breaking out into smaller groups.

TIME

30-60 Minutes. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can develop a great product backlog!

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite, the decision makers and those funding the product. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator/Scrum Master: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

Product Manager: A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the business strategy behind a product, specify its functional requirements, and generally manages the launch of features. Skills needed:

  • Ability to balance business and user needs
  • Attention to detail
  • Curiosity to explore new ideas
  • Ability to deliver factual data in-time
  • Empathy for customers
  • Ability to build strong relationships with other teams
  • Understanding of necessary data structures
  • Informed about the technical implications of the platforms being used
  • Ability to tailor communications to different stakeholders

 Product/System/Business Unit Owners: These are decision makers. They can make the call on what changes will happen or authorize a strategy. Skills needed:

  • Change agent. Supportive and enthusiastic about improvements.
  • Supportive of the team and SMEs!
  • Committed and engaged in the product.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): A SME (pronounced S-Mee) is critical for this play. They will help drive the team to a shared understanding of what is needed to win. Skills needed:

  • Specific domain knowledge, narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow.
  • Communication and team collaboration. They must be able to share with others the knowledge they have on a particular subject. 
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

CREATING THE BACKLOG

To get started creating a product backlog, you will need a Product Roadmap. This is a strategic plan that offers a longer-term outlook for your product.

While your roadmap might include long-term goals for several releases, the product backlog should focus on listing work for the next release in greater detail. Future releases should be placed lower down and expressed in less detail. Then, take the information from the roadmap and translate that into tasks and work items.

 

 

TASKS AND WORK ITEMS

All work for a product is captured in the Product Backlog, regardless whether the work is performed as a ‘project’ or not. Work is often expressed in terms of requirements and often in Agile these are captured in User Stories. Run our Defining Requirements play to generate a list of stories for your backlog, if you haven’t already.

Agile and Scrum does not require that work items are in a user story format, all you need is a good list of items at the top of your backlog that can be worked on immediately, or in Scrum terms, is ‘sprintable’ (this isn’t an actual word but more of a concept).

What does it mean for a story (work item) to be sprintable? It means the dev team perceives that they can complete the story without needing further input from outside of their team. More specifically, for any questions team members may have about a story, the team has either 1) received an answer or 2) been given the autonomy to answer it on their own.  

Easy enough, right? Yes, and the easiest way to find out is to ask the dev team. This can be done in a backlog grooming meeting and should occur regularly to ensure everyone agrees and is on the same page before the sprint begins.

BACKLOG GROOMING

You are looking to accomplish a few things through grooming sessions. First and foremost, you want to make sure tickets at the top of the backlog are fully fleshed out and ready to be put into the next sprint. 

A story (work item) is ready when:

  1. It is completely groomed
  2. Acceptance criteria is written
  3. There are no open questions/impediments attached to it
  4. It has been placed in the backlog
  5. There are tasks assigned to it.

Week by week, tickets will become more defined, which may lead to additional tickets or supporting work. You also want to prioritize the remaining tickets, so the highest priority items get the most attention.

I also recommend using a timer for backlog refinement, especially at the beginning. Generally, one backlog item should be “refinable” within 10 minutes. Try it and see. If the item cannot be refined in 10 minutes, it usually means that either the item is too big and needs to be split, or, that you don’t have the right people in the room who are knowledgeable about the item.

If it starts to go in circles or people get the glazed over look, leverage the ELMO technique during backlog refinement. ELMO is an acronym for “Enough Let’s Move On” and it helps remind people to avoid boiling the ocean or rehashing the same thing over and over.

 

Recommended Reading

When asking people in product management about one thing they find difficult in their work, a typical answer is: “saying no”. Saying no effectively is not as easy as it seems and can’t be done in the same way all the time. In fact, saying no sometimes seems like an impossible thing to do. Saying no often as a product owner or product manager means you’re saying yes to the right things. 

 

Want more information on how to facilitate great product backlog grooming sessions? See this article by Anthony Mersino.

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and plan the next sprint – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful and productive meeting!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will take the next set of work items into consideration. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Jira Set Up

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

Jira (pronounced JEE-rə) is a proprietary issue tracking product developed by Atlassian and can be used for just about anything! It can be a project management tool, software development tool, Agile tool, bug tracking, operational task management, team collaboration hub, strategy alignment, progress reporting, risk management, support center or just getting stuff done tool. This play will walk you through how I have set up Jira for getting work delivered!

PEOPLE

1 Global Administrator for Jira and 2-6 end users for requirements and input on system configuration.

TIME

30-90 Minutes. This will be dependent on the experience of the administrator and level of  definition of requirements.

NINJA LEVEL

Practitioner to Master. Anyone can learn how to administer Jira but it may take practice to run this play efficiently. 

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

Jira Administrator: Configures and administers Jira Software, Jira Core and/or Jira Service Desk, and related products such as apps. Manages global settings including users and groups, roles, global permissions, and schemes. Creates projects, sets up project permissions, and assigns Jira project administrators. Skills needed for this play:

  • Ability to create a project space
  • Ability to create a issue type
  • Ability to define issue hierarchy 
  • Ability to create custom fields and workflows
  • Ability to create and manage boards

System End User(s): A person that a software program or hardware device is designed for. The term is based on the idea that the “end goal” of a software or hardware product is to be useful to the consumer. End users are also in a separate group from the installers or administrators of the product. To simplify, the end user is the person who uses the software or hardware after it has been fully developed, marketed, and installed. Skills needed for this play:

  • Articulate requirements and needs
  • Learn system functionality and features
  • Test configuration and provide feedback
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

CREATING THE PROJECT SPACE

In Jira you will need to create a project space. When you think of how you would like to architect the system, think of a “project” space as the very largest top-level container. This could be a product, system, department, campaign, segment or a project. I think of it like I would organize a garage, you buy the really large tote boxes first, and this is your label.

Now it’s time to create the project space in Jira:

  1. Log in to Jira with Administrator account (if you do not have permission, contact your Jira administrator for more information)
  2. Click Administration () > Projects.
  3. Select “Create Project” button
    • You will now be presented with a few options to choose from. Each option comes with some handy built in tools (boards). This really depends on how you plan on using the space. Check out our play on Agile, Waterfall or Hybrid on different ways to run a project or product. I use hybrid (“Structured Agile”) for most of my projects, so I selected the Scrum Software Development template
  4. Give your space a name. This will be how the project space shows up in the menu, so name it something that will tell users about what to expect in the space. This is not a time for code names unless everyone knows what it means.
  5. Assign a key for the space. This will be the prefix for the ticket number, again pick something that makes it easily recognizable to the end user in a report or search result. Jira will pick one for you, but you can change it to whatever you want within limits.
  6. Last pick a project lead. This person will get notifications on the space so pick someone who is highly engaged and supports the team and success of this space.
  7. Then click Submit – that’s it! You’re done with creating a project space. If you chose one of the templates, Jira will do all the rest for you.
CUSTOMIZE THE PROJECT SPACE AND CREATE A HIERARCHY 

Now that we have our project space defined, it’s time to set up how other boxes will be organized within our tote. Some templates have a built in hierarchy, but to align to a strategy you will likely need a few more levels. This is how I have configured Jira for my organization:

To create this hierarchy you will need to create a few new levels, which are called Issues (in the diagram above labeled as Initiatives, Features and Stories) in Jira. To create new issue type:

  1. As Jira Administrator, select  > Issues.
  2. Click Issue types > Add issue type.
  3. Enter a name and description for your new issue type. First one you will need is “Initiative” (usually does not ship with most templates).
    • This will be how the issue shows up in the menu, so name it something that will tell users about what to expect in the space. This is not a time for code names unless everyone knows what it means.
  4. Choose between a standard or sub-task issue type. Sub-tasks can be used for smaller pieces of work that are associated with a standard issue.
    • All of these are top-level issue types, so choose “Standard Issue” for this hierarchy.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Repeat for next levels.
    • If using Agile or Scrum, the template ships with Epics (used for Features in above diagram), Stories and sub-tasks, so no further issues are needed.

Now that you have all these issue types created, you need to customize and associate to the project space. This is where it gets a bit tricky, but stick with it – and you will have a smooth operating system in no time at all. As a Jira administrator, you can associate an issue type scheme with multiple projects to better manage issue types in one go.

  1. Select  > Issues.
  2. In the Issue types section, click Issue type schemes.
  3. Click Associate for the scheme you want to associate with a project.
  4. Find the projects you want to associate with the scheme and click Associate.
    • If you did not select a project template with a scheme, you will need to create that first before completing the above steps

With Project Admin rights or Jira Admin, you can check your configuration by selecting the Project Settings icon within your project and viewing the set up. Here is how I have configured our space:

WORKFLOW AND STATUSES

The final piece that you will need to set up is the workflow. A Jira workflow is a set of statuses and transitions that an issue moves through during its lifecycle and typically represents processes within your organization. If you used a template configuration then you will already have a base workflow to start with that you can customize as needed for your end users. Workflows can be associated with particular projects and, optionally, specific issue types, by using a workflow scheme.

My recommendation is to KEEP IT SIMPLE at first. Everyone knows what To Do, In Progress and Done mean. Unless you have a group of power users who have used Jira before or are in a heavily regulated industry, complicated workflows just confuse new users. You want the system to be something anyone’s Grandparent could use and get value from on day one!

Here is how SIMPLE I have configured our space to start with for all issue types:

Here’s another example of a simple default workflow:

If you work in a regulated industry (like I do) then be sure as you mature your workflows that you capture any approvals, documentation or validation and try to automate it where possible. Make it easy to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing. Use the power of Jira and Marketplace add-ons to provide oversight of the work being delivered. Think about the generation of evidence output as you architect the solution.

Statuses and transitions

A status represents the state of an issue at a specific point in your workflow. An issue can be in only one status at a given point in time. 

A transition is a link between two statuses that enables an issue to move from one status to another. In order for an issue to move between two statuses, a transition must exist. 

A transition is a one-way link, so if an issue needs to move back and forth between two statuses, two transitions need to be created. The available workflow transitions for an issue are listed on the View issue screen.

Editing a project’s workflow

Whenever you create a new Jira project, your project automatically uses the default workflow scheme. The scheme associates all available issue types in the project with the Jira system workflow. Since neither the Jira system workflow nor the default workflow scheme are editable, Jira creates an editable copy of the system workflow and workflow scheme for your project.

  1. Choose Administration () > Projects, and select the relevant project.
  2. On the Administration page for the project, click Workflows.
  3. Click the ‘edit’ icon at the top-right of the box, and Jira automatically does the following:
    • Creates a draft copy of the system workflow named ‘Y our Project Name Workflow (Draft)’.
    • Creates a new workflow scheme for the workflow named ‘Your Project Name Workflow Scheme’.
    • Associates any existing issues in your project with the new workflow.
  4. You can now edit your draft workflow. Click on a status or transition to see editing options in the panel that appears.
  5. When you are finished, click Publish. The dialog allows you to publish your draft and, optionally, save your original workflow as an inactive backup.

Recommended Resource

This is just the beginning. There is so much more you can do with Jira. I recommend learning as much as possible about the vast functions and features through the Atlassian University

TRY IT OUT

Give it a test drive and see what it can do. I would recommend a few test tickets first to learn with before adding your entire portfolio to the system. Get a few end users to pilot the system and provide feedback on what works and what needs adjustments. This will ensure that you have a system that delivers true value for the organization.

 

 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and create a bunch of workflows, custom fields or screens – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful first go and give some time for them to try it out!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will regroup and give feedback on the system set up. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Product Roadmap

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

A product roadmap guides the direction of a product over time. It’s both a high-level summary and a strategic document that communicates what teams are building and why, with a clear strategic plan for execution. As the digital economy shifts and grows, the business and competitive landscape can change quickly product development teams need product roadmaps to:

  • Align key stakeholders with competing needs
  • Make objective prioritization decisions
  • Develop a product against an overarching business strategy.

 This play will help you deliver a product roadmap that works!

PEOPLE

2-10 depending on the size of the team. If it becomes larger than 10 people consider breaking out into smaller groups.

TIME

30-60 Minutes. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can develop great ideas!

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite, the decision makers and those funding the product. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

Product Manager: A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the business strategy behind a product, specify its functional requirements, and generally manages the launch of features. Skills needed:

  • Ability to balance business and user needs
  • Attention to detail
  • Curiosity to explore new ideas
  • Ability to deliver factual data in-time
  • Empathy for customers
  • Ability to build strong relationships with other teams
  • Understanding of necessary data structures
  • Informed about the technical implications of the platforms being used
  • Ability to tailor communications to different stakeholders

 Product/System/Business Unit Owners: These are decision makers. They can make the call on what changes will happen or authorize a strategy. Skills needed:

  • Change agent. Supportive and enthusiastic about improvements.
  • Supportive of the team and SMEs!
  • Committed and engaged in the product.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): A SME (pronounced S-Mee) is critical for this play. They will help drive the team to a shared understanding of what is needed to win. Skills needed:

  • Specific domain knowledge, narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow.
  • Communication and team collaboration. They must be able to share with others the knowledge they have on a particular subject. 
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

BUILD THE ROADMAP

You might do these activities on your own or with the team. If working with the team, work in a collaborative space and document outcomes!

Steps for building a product roadmap:

  1. Define the strategy. A product strategy is how you make the case for your product. Strategy is more of the ‘why’ we do something than the ‘what’. Most companies fall into the trap of thinking about Product Strategy as a plan to build certain features and capabilities. This isn’t a strategy, this is a plan. The problem is that when we treat a product strategy like a plan, it will almost always fail.
      
    Setting a product strategy is not easy and nearly impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all guide. However, we can help get you and your team started on creating an effective product strategy with these few tips:

    • Identify your target audience
    • Understand the problem
    • Define your product vision
    • Define the current state and future/target state
    • Define success metrics
    • Map to a Project Strategy Canvas (template here). Below is an example for Uber created by Melissa Perri:
  2. Review and manage ideas. If you haven’t already, run the Ideation play to generate ideas. You should have a good list of things you want to do that will deliver value for the product and align to a vision statement. 
  3. Organize into releases/timelines. Time to run the Prioritizing Work play if you haven’t already. You should have a great idea of which ideas will deliver the highest value at the lowest cost. Group those into themes and a timeline of delivery. 
TAILOR THE ROADMAP

Before spending time creating the perfect roadmap, think about the various audiences and uses. You may need a summary roadmap for Executives, a feature one for Sales and a detailed sprint level roadmap for Development. You can help persuade stakeholders by customizing and presenting a roadmap tailored to their particular interests. 

Here’s are some common internal stakeholders and the information they typically want in a product roadmap:  
 

  • Company executives and upper management: All of the elements outlined in your product strategy, plus any data regarding market size.
  • Marketing: Product features, how your product will compare to similar products on the market, and your product’s potential for generating sales.  
  • Sales: Release dates and specifics about the benefits and advantages the product provides to customers. Remember: instead of promising hard release dates, display general timelines.
  • Engineers and developers: Requirements, deadlines, sprints, and specific tasks. 

You do not necessarily have to create multiple versions of your roadmap for each group of stakeholders. Instead, you can use a flexible online tool to highlight the information that is most relevant to a particular party.

Recommended Resource

My favorite tool for Roadmaps is Atlassian’s Roadmap tool:

This tool allows custom views for Executives and Development teams. It can be organized by sprints, themes or numerous other categories. It is a real time view of your product progress and future state.

SHARE THE ROADMAP

Sharing your roadmap has several benefits. Aside from encouraging team engagement and gaining upper management support, your roadmap communicates all the progress you’ve made and sets expectations for next stages. Whether you choose to share your roadmap using spreadsheets, PowerPoint, or with a cloud-based software program, sharing your roadmap is an important step to ensure accountability among your team, and keep everyone up to date. 

How to Present Your Roadmap in 4 Steps

  1. Know your audience. To executives, the roadmap validates your product’s usefulness to a market that aligns with the organization’s strategic direction, and also proves that it enhances the company’s position. To your development team, your roadmap demonstrates progress and fosters inspiration. And to other internal departments—sales and marketing—your product roadmap sets expectations about product benefits, its comparisons to other similar products, and the potential for conversions. 
  2. Focus on the narrative. An effective product roadmap will  do more than ‘tell:’ it will also present a simple, realistic visual representation of your vision and how it is tied to company’s goals. Additionally, your roadmap should be easy to understand and persuasive. 
  3. Stay high level. Don’t get to caught up in the details, stick to the main purpose and strategy. Win over your audience and get them onboard with your vision. Often meeting participants will want to dive into the details and start solutioning. Remind them this is to get a shared understanding of the overall roadmap and there will be future meetings for solutions and detailed strategy. Be sure to keep your word and schedule follow-up meetings!
  4. Add some metrics to the message. Be sure to answer, “How will we know if this works?”. It should be easy for your audience to understand what the goal line is and when you have crossed it. Good goals are SMART:
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Relevant
    • Time-sensitive

 

Recommended Reading

 

Want more information on creating a product strategy? See this article by Nick Babich.

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and discuss the how the product roadmap creates a nice product backlog – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful and productive meeting!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will take the next steps in prioritizing the work. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Ideation

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to development, to actualization. This play will help you move through all stages and deliver an idea that works!

PEOPLE

2-10 depending on the size of the team. If it becomes larger than 10 people consider breaking out into smaller groups.

TIME

30-60 Minutes. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can develop great ideas!

 

PREP WORK

PEOPLE

This is key to successful meetings. Make sure all key stakeholders are on the invite, the decision makers and those funding the product. You need their buy-in from the start!

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: Likely this is you! But you don’t have to do it alone, ask a friend (think of it like a football team that has a coach for different parts of the team). Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

Product Manager: A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the business strategy behind a product, specify its functional requirements, and generally manages the launch of features. Skills needed:

  • Ability to balance business and user needs
  • Attention to detail
  • Curiosity to explore new ideas
  • Ability to deliver factual data in-time
  • Empathy for customers
  • Ability to build strong relationships with other teams
  • Understanding of necessary data structures
  • Informed about the technical implications of the platforms being used
  • Ability to tailor communications to different stakeholders

 Product/System/Business Unit Owners: These are decision makers. They can make the call on what changes will happen or authorize a strategy. Skills needed:

  • Change agent. Supportive and enthusiastic about improvements.
  • Supportive of the team and SMEs!
  • Committed and engaged in the product.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): A SME (pronounced S-Mee) is critical for this play. They will help drive the team to a shared understanding of what is needed to win. Skills needed:

  • Specific domain knowledge, narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow.
  • Communication and team collaboration. They must be able to share with others the knowledge they have on a particular subject. 

Stakeholders: Key members of the team who can help drive direction of the final product. This can be internal or external players. They might have a specialized skill set but they are interested in being part of the winning team. For the initial meeting this does not need to include the entire team, but be sure that each group has representation. Skills needed:

  • Vested interest in the outcome
  • Commitment to seeing it through completion (no fair weather fans)
  • Engaged and believes the team can win!
Get the field ready!

Schedule the meeting in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule the meeting. You want people to be excited about it but not so last minute that they have no time to prepare.

Include an agenda. Set expectations – this will help keep your meeting on track. Include schedule and any prep work needed. Also let them know if it is okay to invite others or not. Remember that if you have to many people in the meeting, it will be difficult to facilitate brainstorming sessions without breaking out into smaller groups.

Prep the room. Arrive early and get ready. If it is in a physical room, get whiteboards ready, enough chairs for everyone, water and snacks are always a hit! If virtually, a central location for notes, brainstorms and follow-up items. Test connectivity in the meeting room and make sure there is enough seats for all participants.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

INNOVATION

The first step in innovation is to come up with a vision statement of what you would like to achieve.  A vision statement gives direction and determines purpose. Lots will confuse this with a mission statement, but for product development it is important to separate ‘what and when’ (vision statement) from ‘why’ (mission statement). A vision statement is the anchor point of any strategic plan.

There are a few common rules that pretty much every good Vision Statement will follow:

  • They should be short – two sentences at an absolute maximum. It’s fine to expand on your vision statement with more detail, but you need a version that is punchy and easily memorable.
  • They need to be specific to your product and business and describe a unique outcome that only you can provide. Generic vision statements that could apply to any product or project won’t do. This will need to be something the team can work on specific to your product.
  • Do not use words that are open to interpretation. For example, saying you will ‘reduce customer service calls’ or ‘improve customer experience’ doesn’t actually mean anything unless you specify what it actually looks like.
  • Keep it simple enough for people both inside and outside your organization to understand. No technical jargon, no metaphors, and no business buzz-words if at all possible!

Okay so how to write a vision statement, right? Gather the team around a table and get ready to brainstorm.

  • Pass each team member large sticky notes, preferably in different colors. If you are meeting virtually, limit each idea to one or two sentences.
  • Write the main focus on the whiteboard in the center and circle it.
    • You may also narrow ideas by subject matter, for example, this may be vision statements around only one area of the product. If you are building a website, you may want to brainstorm around the sign-up process rather than the entire website.
  • Set the timer for 15 minutes and ask each person to come up with 2-5 submissions answering the following question, “What do we want to do (as it relates to the whiteboard focus), and when do we want to do it by?”.
    • To help get the creative thinking going, you may want to provide a template for direction. Such as, For [our target customer], who [customer’s need], the [product] should [product feature or function] that [unique benefits and selling points] by [achievable timeframe]. 
  • Ask team to place stickies on whiteboard around objective, grouping similar concepts together.
  • Move around room asking each person to give a brief (5 minutes or less) overview of stickies on board. 
  • Take a team vote on the vision statement that best represents the objective and time line for the product. You may need to revise or combine multiple ideas to get to the best statement.

The vision statement should give the team a jumping point for diving deeper into product features and functionality that will answer questions around target group, needs, product and value.

DEVELOPMENT

Value streams represent the solutions that provide a continuous flow of value to a customer. This can be done for processes, development and also product ideation. To identify the value streams for your product:

  • Clear the whiteboard and write your Vision Statement or concept at the top of the whiteboard.
  • Ask the team, “how will this benefit the organization?” Pass sticky notes to team and ask for top 3 from each person
    • Keep answers high level, for example, Reduce costs, Increase revenue, Improve customer experience, Expand sales markets, Higher conversion, Competitive advantage, etc.
  • Ask team to place stickies on whiteboard under mission statement, grouping similar concepts together.
  • Take three most common ideas, or vote on top three if multiple ideas tied
  • Create value streams of the top three ideas

Your board might look something like this:

ACTUALIZATION

Now the fun begins! You have your vision statement and value streams. This is where you will get the ideas on what to do going. Here’s how:

  • Everyone gets a standard size sticky note pad
    • Goal is 1-3 ideas per person
    • Idea must result in value creation
  • Set timer! 5-10 minutes to come up with ideas
  • After timer, each person adds their sticky note in the appropriate value stream, group similar ideas together

Your board will look similar to this:

Last …The Pitch

  • Each person must pitch their ideas in front of the team
  • 1-3 minutes TOTAL (all ideas)
    • Uninterrupted time – no questions or input from the team
    • Basic concept, how it creates value, and what it might cost to do – for EACH idea
  • After completion – thank the team
    • Team round of applause

Now you have a list of ideas for your product development that deliver value and align to the vision statement!

 

Need help prioritizing ideas? See our Prioritizing Work play in Step 3.

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Phew! The hard part is done! You might be tempted to go further and discuss the plan on how to implement all these ideas – but don’t! Instead congratulate the team on a very successful and productive ideation meeting!

 

Schedule the next meeting where the team will take the next steps in prioritizing the work. Set a regularly reoccurring meeting cadence so that the team stays engaged and is front of mind.  

Publish your notes in a central repository that the team has access to immediately. Even better if it is someplace that the team can add comments or collaborate on. Keep the creative chat going! 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

Remote Work Set Up

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

Remote work, future of work, telework, teleworking, working from home, mobile work, remote job, work from anywhere, and flexible workplace, are all ways to describe a work situation in which employees do not regularly commute or travel to a central place of work, such as an office, warehouse, or store and is becoming a standard work arrangement. This play is to help you be the best you can be in a remote work situation with some easy to implement suggestions. 

PEOPLE

1+ depending on if you work through this play on your own or with a team.

TIME

30-60 minutes per activity. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can improve a remote work set up and master this play!

 

PREP WORK

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: If you decide to run this play as a team and meet together this will be you, but this play can be done all on your own. Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

 Team Players: This is someone who actively contributes to the team in order to complete tasks, meet goals or achieve outcomes and results. Even if you are doing this play on your own, every organization relies on good teams and that means good team players. Skills needed:

  • Communicate effectively.
  • Is the 3R’s: Responsible, Reliable and Ready
  • Optimistic and future-focused.
  • Shows genuine commitment.
  • Supports and respects others.
  • Embraces collaboration.
  • Actively listens.
  • Problem solver.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

MENTALLY

A remote work mindset is integral to building a remote working environment. If you are new to this, it can be difficult to change the way that you work overnight. Here are a few points to help you get into some focused work time at home:

  • Maintain a routine. This is the hardest to do when working at home and life is rarely a predictable routine. However, it is important to do. Set your phone alarm for a time to wake-up before you start your day, just as if you were commuting into the office. Take a shower and do the same things if you were going to the office, including dressing for success (at least on the top half).  
  • Work to your productivity levels. Self-management is key! You will need to set measurable metrics for yourself (% of focused work time, # of completed tasks per hour, $ of sales leads, etc.). This will of course vary per role but think as if you were the business owner, and this was your employee … what would you expect of them? You may find that the times when you are most productive can fluctuate. Adjust your workloads and tasks to accommodate this so that your most challenging tasks can be tackled within these optimum productivity spikes.
  • Take regular breaks. It can be a walk around the block, 15 minutes of power yoga, a coffee refresh or just a breath of fresh air – but walk away from work for a few minutes a couple of times a day. It is also important to take a regular lunch or dinner (depending on your work schedule). This gives your mind a chance to reset, recharge and get ready for the next stretch of work.
  • Remove distractions. So hard to do and yet one of the most valuable activities to get in the correct mindset. It might be hard to turn off kids, spouses or visitors but you can set your status to “Do Not Disturb” (DnD) for power periods where you need to concentrate. This can be a physical sign hung on the door or a virtual status. Be sure to let others know that you will respond to their requests at the end of your DnD period (yes, even with kids) so that they have clear expectations of when you will be available.
  • Answer emails in batches. I learned this trick from the 4-Hour Workweek and while I don’t recommend all that is in this book, this one technique is pure gold! When we try and multi-task we end up doing a whole lot of things really haphazardly. By dedicating a block of time to answer emails you get more done in less time! Try it out and see for yourself.
  • Schedule yourself. You likely have a calendar for work that you can access anywhere – so use it! It isn’t only for work meetings, but can be used to block time for a power hour work period, a break/recharge, reminders of goals or collaboration tool. When working remote this tool is vital to your success and staying organized. 
  • Find your playlist. This one I cannot emphasize enough! Music can spark creativity, innovation and productivity spikes. This is one of the greatest benefits of remote work – getting to jam out on your favorite playlist. If you are trying to brainstorm, pick music that doesn’t have lyrics. For concentration periods select music with regular rhythm and beats. Upbeat music for productivity spikes and soothing music for stressful activities. If you are working in a more chaotic type environment, opt for noise canceling headphones. 
  • Be kind to yourself. When working from home, just like you would in the office, your day may not always be as productive as you would like. This is especially true if remote working is new to you, it takes a while to adjust and find the right set up and routine that works for you. Be kind to yourself and focus on what works and what doesn’t and adjust your set up accordingly.

Recommended Reading

You might notice that these are all things that you can do in the office as well. Ah-ha! Trickery, but not really. Good practices can be done anywhere. A lot of people transitioning from working in an office every day to suddenly only working through digital means will find this a challenging time. Keep in mind that it’s a process that will develop over time as you get into your own personal cadence. Finally, try to be kind to yourself and celebrate the progress you are making to transition to a more digital way of working.

PHYSICALLY

This activity is all about setting up your workspace. This is not a one-size fits all exercise. You will need to tailor it for your space and organization. You can spend a truck load of money on this or with some time and online shopping find places to save and splurge on only those things truly worth it. This is my home office set-up:

Home Office Recommendations

(These are my purchases from my home office set-up)

Here are the things that I think are must-haves for a remote office space:

  • Defined work space. Ideally this is a separate room with the ability to close it off from the rest of the house, but if you don’t have that option, then work with what you have. Try to avoid multi-purpose space like a dining room table that is an office by day and the family dinner table at night. You will feel like you are always living out of a suitcase. If you have the luxury of a separate room, remove all the dual purpose furniture out if it will be regularly used by the household. 
  • Corner office or a view. You can make it where ever makes you most happy. Finally you are not limited by office availability, seniority or position on what type of desk you sit in – so take advantage of it! When deciding on where to set-up your desk think about what you will be staring at all day, or what is behind you that others will see when you are on camera. We spend so much time at work, make your office a place you enjoy going to everyday. 
  • Keep it interesting. Now that we are working remote we often are video chatting. So when decorating your new spot, see the space from your co-worker’s view. Place objects behind you that represent your interests, hobbies and passions. If you play the guitar, hang it up behind you. Not only is it cool design but will give you an great conversational point to kick-off a meeting.
  • Take care of yourself physically. Make sure your desk/table/surface is at the right height so that you avoid carpal tunnel. Your chair should be an ergonomic friendly one – this might not be your couch or bed, but your back will thank you later. 
     
TECHNOLOGY

The following are the tools that I can’t live without while remote working. There are so many competitor products that I am sure will also work, but these are my first choice picks.

Tools for team communication

No matter where you work, communication is key. Since remote work means you won’t pass your coworkers in the hallway and you can’t drop by someone’s desk for a quick chat, you need to find another way to stay in touch day-to-day.

Why not just email? Well, email can get clunky, especially if you’re having a conversation with more than one person. Just a few back-and-forths and mistaken reply-alls and the whole thread has become a mess. An app designed specifically for ongoing conversations with multiple people is absolutely necessary if you’re working from home.

Slack

Slack calls itself a “collaboration hub”, but it’s basically a chat platform for teams and individuals. It’s one of the most popular team communication tools nowadays, and it also has video calling, file sharing, and integrations with other remote working tools like Google Calendar and Jira. But, at its core, it’s a simple way to talk in groups or one-on-one in real time.

Tools for meetings and presentations

Why you need a great tool for this:
When you think about remote work, you probably think video calls, virtual meetings, and remote presentations. And you’re right! These are a big part of working online, especially with teams and customers. So, having a reliable and robust tool for video calls is a sure way to make teleworking simpler and your “face time” as effective as possible.

Zoom

Zoom is a remote work tool for teleconferencing that’s powerful but quick to get started with. I’m a fan of Zoom because, besides standard features for video meetings and presentations, it offers real-time chat, video recording, screen sharing, calendar integrations, and even virtual background and “touch-ups”.

Tools for project management

Staying on top of your own to-dos is challenging enough! Managing your team’s tasks and coordinating responsibilities remotely can be even more complicated. But it is totally doable. Remote work tools for productivity will keep you and your team on track no matter where you’re working from. And there are all kinds of options for different industries, working styles, and team sizes.

Jira

Jira is a project management platform designed for agile development in particular. But, all teams can use Jira as a way of planning, tracking, and reviewing work on a daily, weekly, and project basis.

Jira is also owned by Atlassian which also offers the Trello app for Kanban-based productivity if you’re looking for a lighter task management tool to manage your own work or projects in smaller teams.

Tools for time management

Some people might think that working remotely means not having to watch the clock, but the opposite is true. Time management is actually even more important when you’re away from a traditional office setting. Whether you need a project timer to track hours for client projects or a tool to track your status updates, time management tools will keep you productive and on task both on your own and as a team.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is a great time management tool for keeping your own schedule straight and coordinating with teams and customers for meetings, work sessions, vacation coverage, etc.

Tools for file sharing

A way to find and share information you need is a crucial remote collaboration tool. And you also need to be able to do that safely and simply whether you’re working from home or from an office.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an online service for storing and sharing digital files. It’s a useful tool in any case but especially if you’re also using other Google products like Docs, Gmail, etc. Google Drive can also be used to save and work with files from other systems like Microsoft and Apple.

Google Drive for teams

 

Want more? Check out these remote plays from Atlassian. 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Continue to work on the skills and activities that help you succeed in a new world of how we work. Celebrate the wins and recognize yourself and/or the team for learning with you on how to improve.

 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja

 

New Way of Working

Posted on by Jessica Fergus

PLAY Introduction

This play is inspired by a recent post on LinkedIn from Atlassian. The new way of working must focus on personal relationships, authenticity & accountability, collaboration and responding to change. But how? This play will break-down each of these four areas into action so that you can be successful in 2021 and beyond.

PEOPLE

1+ depending on if you work through this play on your own or with a team.

TIME

30-60 minutes per activity. No one wants to be in a meeting longer than needed. Try to keep it short and sweet.

NINJA LEVEL

Novice to Master. Anyone can improve work life skills and master this play!

 

PREP WORK

PLACE

Virtually or in-person it is critical that everyone has face-time with each other. So make sure that if attending virtually that everyone can connect in video chat. You will also need to share ideas, so a whiteboard is important and a space that fosters creativity and innovation. 

 

THE PLAY

All of our plays are five steps or less! However, you may need to run multiple plays to get the most out of this one. Don’t worry – you can do it! Learn the play, rehearse it regularly, apply it in the field and debrief on the outcomes. If it worked well, use it again; if it didn’t, find out why. Are there new factors in the system you need to consider, or do you just need to keep practicing? If you need help or have questions on this play, contact us!

01

SET THE STAGE

Who are the players?

Every winning team knows which players to have on the field and what talent you need on the ready. To successfully deploy this play you will need the following roster:

Meeting Facilitator: If you decide to run this play as a team and meet together this will be you, but this play can be done all on your own. Skills needed:

  • Keep the team focused on the goal!
  • Foster a positive and creative space for all
  • Organized and prepared to run play

 Team Players: This is someone who actively contributes to the team in order to complete tasks, meet goals or achieve outcomes and results. Even if you are doing this play on your own, every organization relies on good teams and that means good team players. Skills needed:

  • Communicate effectively.
  • Is the 3R’s: Responsible, Reliable and Ready
  • Optimistic and future-focused.
  • Shows genuine commitment.
  • Supports and respects others.
  • Embraces collaboration.
  • Actively listens.
  • Problem solver.

02

CORE ACTIVITIES

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. —Theodore Roosevelt

Focus shift from process to personal relationships. This is one of those easier to say than to do activities, but with a little practice and patience anyone can do it! Building personal relationships at work is easy, as you already have lots in common. Start there and work towards a servant attitude, because who doesn’t like a person who is willing to jump in and help one another? Here are some daily habits to start practicing:

  • Ensure that the relationship you have with yourself is a positive one.
  • Accept and celebrate the fact that we are all different.
  • Actively listen to hear what other people have to say.
  • Give people time and “be present” when you are with them.
  • Develop and work on your communication skills.
  • Learn to give and take constructive feedback.
  • Open your heart and find the courage to trust.
  • Learn to be more understanding and empathetic.
  • Treat people as you would like to be treated yourself.

Recommended Reading

AUTHENTICITY & ACCOUNTABILITY

Focus shift from polish & promise to authenticity & accountability. Being “real” in the workplace sounds more like a motto than a reality. This goes against what most of us were taught as children where it is more important to “fit in” with the other kids than to be our authentic selves. Here is the kicker, that believe it or not, authenticity is one of the cornerstones of success. Being authentic means being honest and genuine, which in turn builds trust and accountability.

So how do we keep it real while still being professional and respected? Authenticity is about how you conduct yourself, how you treat others, and the way you work and fit in to your corporate culture. It’s not about being nicey-nice or insincere; it’s about being real. Authenticity entails an emotional equation of:

 
Confidence + Self-awareness + Transparency + Consistency = Authenticity
Much like other personal and professional skills, authenticity can be developed. Here are five ways:
  1. Be honest. This does not equal being rude or disrespectful. The key is to express yourself using kind, constructive and inclusive language. So, what’s the key? Being compassionate is key. Letting the person know that you have their best interests at heart when sharing honest feedback. Using a caring tone, letting them know that you care about them as a person even if some of their behaviors are not what they should be.
  2. Engage other people. In order to be authentic, you have to care about more than just yourself, so it is important to engage other people. Really listen to what they tell you. Resist the temptation to talk about yourself. Start with a curious mindset and seek to understand the other person instead of being understood. This shift in perspective will change how others see you. 
  3. Treat everyone with respect. Be gracious, polite, and respectful to everyone, from the janitor to the vice president, from the secretaries to the baristas, from your co-workers to the garage attendants. Not only is the golden rule good for business but it is also good for life. Everyone wants to be respected and you will get more respect by giving it generously. 
  4. Test yourself. Becoming more aware of your self, how you operate in the world, how you behave, and how you impact people is the key to using your authentic self in business. There are several great self assessments available that you can start with and then expand to find the tools that work best for your organization.
  5. Look at others. Studying traits of successful but authentic business people is also a good way to understand what being real looks like. There are lots of examples of great authenticity and when being authentic was cover for being rude, abrasive or disrespectful. Be on the good side of authenticity. 

Recommended Resource

Being authentic means you are honest and real. It means you are trusted and counted on. It can mean all the difference in your success at work and in business.

COLLABORATION

Focus shift from competition to collaboration. Some good competition is well … good. But in today’s world it is more than winning, it is being a team player that is key. In the team roster we have listed some of the critical skills/traits of a team player, but want to take your game to the next level? Practice, practice and more practice! In today’s work world that means getting very comfortable with collaboration software.

Collaboration apps have changed the way people work, and it’s about time. A collaboration app is any piece of software that helps people get work done together. These apps save us from having to email colleagues, knock on doors, and leave voicemails every time we wrap up some element of work and pass it along to other team members. They alert people to activity on work that pertains to them. They ensure that the right people have access to the assets they need. They are essentially productivity apps that emphasize and enable teamwork.

Most collaboration apps have a free trial period and lots of online tutorials. Google, “How to use __________ to collaborate” and you will find a vast library of resources. Start with a good list of recommends and remember it takes practice to become the best!

Best collaboration apps and tools in 2021

One important point about all collaboration and communication tools is that they must have a company culture behind them. Throwing a new tool at a bunch of people and telling them to use it instead of email doesn’t work. To start using a collaboration tool successfully, all the key players on the team need to buy into it. It has to become part of the culture.

Recommended Resource

RESPONDING TO CHANGE

Focus shift from following a plan to responding to change. Change is inevitable. Sometimes it can be positive – business growth or a pay raise. At other times it can be painful – losing your job or a personal loss.

Often the hardest changes to understand and adjust to are the ones that are unexpected and out of our control – a recession, a global pandemic, or a major disaster, for example. Changes of this magnitude can be difficult to come to terms with and rarely do you have a plan for something this big. However, you’ll often find that your experience of them can be made better or worse depending on your reaction and your attitude.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ), popularized by best-selling author Daniel Goleman  has been validated with multiple research studies to be a key differentiator in how someone reacts to change. 

People With High EQ

  • Make better decisions and solve problems
  • Keep cool under pressure
  • Resolve conflicts
  • Have greater empathy
  • Listen, reflect, and respond to constructive criticism

While emotional skills may come naturally to some people, there are things that anyone can do to help improve their ability to understand and reason with emotions. If you are interested in improving your emotional intelligence skills to benefit your workplace performance, take steps to improve your skills in the five categories of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation.

Recommended Reading

 

Want more ways to build positive working relationships? Try these ideas from Executive Coach, Joel Garfinkle. 

03

 TEAM HUDDLE

Time to run the Team Huddle play. Ask the team the following questions and then take a vote. Keep follow-up questions to a minimum and capture any issues raised as an offline follow-up (and be sure to follow-up).

Understand the play?

The play was understood and I asked any questions in time!

I’m not sure I understand and I have some questions …

I did not understand the play or my part in it.

 

Did you get in the game?

Yes, I made my moves and was in the right place at the right time!

I’m not sure I understand what I was supposed to do …

I kept the bench warm and watched from the sidelines.

 

Ready for what’s next?

Yes, I know the game plan and ready to win!

I’m not sure what’s next or if I am involved …

No clue what’s next and would rather sit it out.

04

NEXT STEPS

Continue to work on the skills and activities that help you succeed in a new world of how we work. Celebrate the wins and recognize yourself and/or the team for learning with you on how to improve.

 

05

IT’S A WRAP

You did it! Now just a few follow-up items:

  • Reflect on the play. Ask yourself how it went? What could have gone better, what could have gone worse? In sports this is watching the game again to see any plays that could have been better. Update your playbook. Build feedback loops that help you see what’s working; what’s not; and how to continue to develop the playbook by learning, adapting and iterating constantly as situations change and new challenges arise.
  • Contribute to the community of Playbook.Ninja. Sign-up for an account and receive updates on when new plays are added and help others by commenting on the plays with what worked or your experience.

Thank you for being a Playbook.Ninja