Horto Chapter talks Exploring the 1-3-9 from Enterprise Design Thinking - The Keys

EDT GBS Hortolândia
Chapter Talks
Renner Modafares Pereira
May 19
Exploring the 1-3-9 from
Enterprise Design Thinking by IBM
Part 3: The Keys

EDT GBS Hortolândia Chapter Talks May 19
It’s time to talk about the keys
The Principles
(who guide us)
The Loop
(who drive us)
The Keys
(who align us)
A focus on user
outcomes
Diverse
Empowered Teams
Restless
reinvention
Hills
Playbacks
Sponsor Users
Observe Reflect Make

Understanding the keys
• In practice, complex problems often call for complex
teams—and complex teams can be a challenge to manage.
Project management frameworks can help manage
complexity.
• We might divide teams into “squads” or “workstreams,” or
we might divide time into “sprints” or “phases.” We might
even standardize around a common process for teams to
follow.
• No matter how we organize a team, delivering great user
outcomes requires us to stay focused and aligned on what
matters to users.

Understanding the keys
• The Keys are our three most important techniques for
diverse teams to reflect together as we move from idea
to outcome.
• They help us get aligned, stay aligned, and stay in touch
with real-world needs—even when we’re deep in the
work.

The 3 Keys
Hills
Align teams on meaningful user outcomes to achieve
Playbacks
Stay aligned by regularly exchanging feedback
Sponsor Users
Invite users into the work to stay true to real world needs

Hills align us as teams
• Hills are statements of intent written as meaningful user
outcomes.
• They tell you where to go, not how to get there, empowering
teams to explore breakthrough ideas without losing sight of the
goal.
• Hills communicate our intent for a project with clarity and
flexibility. They frame problems as intended user outcomes, not
predetermined implementations, empowering teams to
discover breakthrough solutions.
• They help us keep the eye on the prize, even in spite of the
many challenges that stand in our way.

Anatomy of a Hill
• To write a Hill, start with the user you want to serve. Next,
specify the outcome you want to enable them to achieve, and
the differentiator that will make your solution worth their while.
We refer to these elements as the Who, the What, and the Wow.
• A good Hill is implementation-agnostic. It should specify what
users are trying to accomplish, not a tool they’ll use to do it. If
you read your Hill back and it feels like it already describes a
specific implementation, take a step back and try again.

Anatomy of a Hill
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal [...]
of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.
John F. Kennedy, 1961
It should take no more than 30 minutes for a developer to build and
run an app using IBM and 3rd party APIs.
IBM Bluemix, 2014
Who
Who are your users? Make
it clear who you aim to
serve—and who you don’t.
What
What’s the need they’re
trying to meet? Turn user
needs into project goals.
Wow
How will you differentiate
from competitors? How
will you measure success?

Managing with Hills
Don’t worry about writing
perfect Hills on Day One.
Hills should evolve based on your understanding of the
problem.
As you iterate, hold Hills Playbacks early and often.
Your Hills can change right up to Playback Zero — that’s
when you need to really commit.

Managing with Hills
Three Hills, one Foundation
You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Hills should reflect an investment
in the most valuable outcomes for your users, and the most important
differentiators for your organization. That’s why it’s recommended that a project
takes no more than three Hills at any time. This helps you maintain a focus on a
manageable set of goals.
Commit resources
Allocate resources to your Hills and Foundation based on their relative value to your
users and your organization. Form Diverse Empowered Teams around each Hill and
equip each one with the expertise and authority needed to deliver their outcome
independently. Strive to recruit at least one Sponsor User per Hill.
Break them down
Sometimes a Hill is necessarily complex and might benefit from another level of
decomposition to further divide the work. If you choose to write Sub-Hills, make
sure each one is still a proper Hill that, if independently released, still delivers
meaningful value to users.

Playbacks align us across time
• In practice, not everyone has time to be in the loop on every
project. How do you keep teams and stakeholders aligned
across time?
• Playbacks bring stakeholders into the Loop in a safe space to
tell stories and exchange feedback.
• They reveal misalignment and measure progress against the big
picture problem you’re solving.

Anatomy of a Playback
1) Invite stakeholders
Consider the work you intend to share, and the stakeholders it might affect. If
you’re a software team, maybe your legal counsel needs to know you’re using a
new open-source library. Maybe your sales teams need to know what’s next on the
roadmap.
2) Tell your story
Features and requirements are forgotten. Stories endure. They show context
(characters, relationships, and plots), reveal a holistic picture of what makes up a
user’s experience and help audience understand the stakes in a way that goes
beyond project line items.
3) Listen for feedback and misalignment
Whether they’re an intern or a senior vice president, good feedback can come from
anyone.. Capture what you hear without judgement. Playbacks reveal alignment or
misalignment. If a Playback goes well, you’re one step closer to moving forward. If
disagreements arise, don’t panic, it’s time to take another loop around the problem
and try again.

Managing with Playbacks
• Playbacks come in all shapes in sizes. You can hold them one-
on-one or with a larger group. You can showcase low-fidelity
sketches or polished demos. Hold them anytime you need
feedback from stakeholders, but consider scheduling them at
regular milestones.
• You can hold a Playback anytime you need feedback. However,
it’s helpful to schedule Milestone Playbacks at critical moments
in the project when your team and stakeholders need to come
together and agree on how to move forward. Though each team
will have their unique milestone moments, here’s an example of
how a typical software product team might set up their
milestones.

Sponsor Users align us with their reality
• Despite our best efforts, empathy has its limits. If you’re
designing the cockpit of an airliner but you aren’t a pilot, you
simply won’t know how it feels to land a plane. Without that
first-hand experience, it’s easy to lose touch with our users’
reality and allow bias and personal preference to creep into our
work.
• Sponsor Users are real-world users that regularly contribute
their domain expertise to your team.
• They help you stay in touch with real users’ real-world needs
throughout the project.

Anatomy of a Sponsor User
1) Are they representative of your target user?
A good Sponsor User reflects the actual user you intend to serve. As enthusiastic as
your client, customer, or economic buyers may be to help you, they are often not
the user who will ultimately derive personal value from your offering.
2) Are they personally invested in the outcome?
A good Sponsor User cares as much about your project’s outcome as you do. Look
for candidates who have a particularly demanding use case—a Sponsor User that
relies heavily on your offering to be successful will have a vested interest in your
project’s success.
3) Are they available to collaborate?
A good Sponsor User is open and willing to share their expertise and experience
with your team. While being a Sponsor User isn’t a full-time job, it is a commitment.
Set expectations, but be respectful of their time and be flexible around their
schedule. What’s important is that their insights and ideas are heard.

Working with Sponsor Users
Sponsor Users and Hills
Make sure to write Hills and have a sense of your target users before
attempting to recruit Sponsor Users. As you refine your Hills and clarify
your target users, you can begin to recruit Sponsor Users whose use
case best fits a particular Hill. We recommend having at least one
Sponsor User per Hill.
Observe through their eyes
Let Sponsor Users show you their world. Help them see with fresh eyes
and enable them to share their insights with you. Share your insights
back. You may discover a side of their story that you wouldn’t
otherwise see.

Working with Sponsor Users
Reflect together
Listen carefully to your Sponsor Users’ input. Include them in your
Playbacks and have them help refine your Hills. Like any other team
member, they won’t always get what they want. But if they tell you that
you’re not solving their problem or that you’re adding complexity to
their lives, you’re probably going in the wrong direction.
Make collaboratively
As you make, let your Sponsor Users be your guide. Consult them
frequently. Better yet, encourage them to contribute their own ideas by
giving them the tools to express themselves and make alongside you.

References / Useful links
•The Framework - Design thinking re-
envisioned for the modern enterprise
•Enterprise Design Thinking Course
•Design Thinking Toolkit

Chapter sessions about the Keys
•Chapter Stage: Empathy
Map, As-Is and Hills
•Chapter Stage: Playback
and Storytelling

Horto Chapter talks Exploring the 1-3-9 from Enterprise Design Thinking - The Keys

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