The Language of Outcomes
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The document discusses the importance of focusing on outcomes rather than outputs in agile project management, highlighting the transition from traditional metrics like the iron triangle to more meaningful indicators of success. It includes workshops for participants to create prompts related to their teams' outcomes and emphasizes understanding customer needs and refining desired outcomes through iterative learning. Key takeaways stress the significance of clarity in objectives and the value of continuous experimentation to drive meaningful change.
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Do you sometimes feel like you are…
“just sitting in the factory, cranking out features
[code, tests…] and sending them down the line”
John Cutler
8](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/thelanguageofoutcomesv4-201113191143/85/The-Language-of-Outcomes-8-320.jpg)
The Language of Outcomes
- 1. 1 CREATE A NEW PROMPT In breakout rooms, create a new prompt that describes an outcome relevant to you and your team. Get feedback on your new prompt from your roommates. 7 minutes 1
- 2. 2 The Language of Outcomes Dragan Jojic Agile South Coast meetup 10th November 2020
- 3. 3 • Independent coach, consultant and trainer • Founding Partner of BeLiminal, a partnership of experts in Lean, Agile and Systems Coaching • 30+ years of experience in different industries • Increasingly focused on organisational agility, leadership and culture • Agnostic and pragmatic – trying to be useful, not to be right 3 @drjojic https://www.linkedin.com/in/draganjojic/ www.beliminal.com Who am I?
- 4. 4 We are fluent in outputs 4
- 5. 5Adapted from Mike Cottmeyer, https://www.leadingagile.com/2010/01/replacing-the-iron-triangle-of-project-management/ Scope Schedule (Time)Budget (Cost) Traditional Iron Triangle of Project Management Scope Budget (Cost)Schedule (Time) The Agile Triangle 5
- 6. 6 Scrum: • Product Backlog • Potentially shippable product increment • Velocity Agile Manifesto: • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Deliver working software frequently… • Working software is the primary measure of progress Kanban: • Work In Progress (WIP) • Cycle time / lead time • Throughput 6
- 7. 7 “More stuff, more quickly” COO of one of my former financial services clients “Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential” 7
- 8. 8 Do you sometimes feel like you are… “just sitting in the factory, cranking out features [code, tests…] and sending them down the line” John Cutler 8
- 9. 9 Signs that you are working in a ‘Feature Factory’ Adapted from John Cutler, https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2 1. You don’t know what your key business objectives and metrics are 2. You obsess with prioritisation while doing little or no validation 3. You treat all work apart from delivering new features as second class 4. Your delivery roadmap shows a list of features and no desired outcomes 5. Your scope and deadlines get fixed too far ahead 6. You use output metrics (e.g. velocity, throughput) as indicators of success 7. You get no feedback on the impact of the features that you have delivered 9
- 11. 1111 Activity (how?) Output (what?) Outcome (so what?)
- 12. 12 Activity (how?) 12 Output (what?) Outcome (so what?) enables and/or supports …if it is: • usable • used • useful
- 13. 13 So which of these statements is right? Outputs over Outcomes? or Outcomes over Outputs?
- 14. 14 OUTPUTS OR OUTCOMES? In breakout rooms, have one person argue the case for “outputs over outcomes”, then another for “outcomes over outputs”, with others observing and capturing main arguments for sharing with the whole group 7 minutes 14
- 15. 15 Outcomes over Outputs 15 Outputs over Outcomes “Start with the end in mind” Stephen Covey “The biggest waste of time is to do well something that we need not do at all” Gretchen Rubin “It's in the doing of the work that we discover the work we must do” Woody Zuill “You don’t drive out uncertainty by talking, you drive out uncertainty by doing” Daniel Vacanti What have you come up with?
- 16. 16 So where should we start from? 16
- 17. 17 “If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else” Yogi Berra “If you don't know where you're going, you won’t know when you don’t get there” Yours truly
- 18. 18 What would you like to have happen? Who are you serving? What needs would you like have met? 18
- 19. 19 How could you make those outcomes happen? 19Inspired by Jason Little and Mike Burrows DUE TO… Insight, experience or hunch WE ASSUME THAT... Activity and/or Output WILL RESULT IN... Desired Outcome • Specific, meaningful and desirable WE’LL KNOW WE’RE SUCCESSFUL WHEN... Lagging indicators of success WE’LL KNOW WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK WHEN... Leading indicators of success
- 20. 20 What are you going to try? 20 (what?)(so what?) (now what?)
- 21. 21 What actually happened? What can you learn? 21
- 22. 22 Value creation cycle Inspired by Jason Little, Lean Change Management, Happy Melly Express, 2014 22
- 23. 23 Learning and improvement cycle 23
- 24. 24 Revisit and refine Desired Outcomes 24
- 26. 26 The experiment ‘story’ 26 DUE TO… Insight, experience or hunch WE ASSUME THAT... Activity and/or Output WILL RESULT IN... Desired Outcome • Specific, meaningful and desirable WE’LL KNOW WE’RE SUCCESSFUL WHEN... Lagging indicators of success • Quantitative and few rather than many • Clearly observable / can be validated WE’LL KNOW WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK WHEN... Leading indicators of success • Quantitative and few rather than many • Clearly observable / can be validated
- 27. 27 Theory of Change 27 Delivery capability (Input) Skills, knowledge, experience plus any other resources available within the team, value stream or the organisation Longer-term Outcome (Impact) Positive, meaningful and lasting change to the individuals, organisations or communities that you would like to have happen Shorter-term Outcomes Behaviour changes that, if achieved, may result in the longer-term outcome Outputs Deliverables that you believe will enable and support desired outcomes Activities The activities required to deliver planned outputs
- 28. 28 Example from the charity sector 28 Delivery capability (Input) Skills, knowledge, experience plus any other resources available within the team, value stream or the organisation Longer-term Outcome (Impact) Positive, meaningful and lasting change to the individuals, organisations or communities that you would like to have happen Shorter-term Outcomes Behaviour changes that, if achieved, may result in the longer-term outcome Outputs Deliverables that you believe will enable and support desired outcomes Activities The activities required to deliver planned outputs Sustainable reduction in the number of children growing up in poverty Narrowed early learning gap between children growing up in poverty and their peers and Positive engagement of parents on low incomes with their young child’s learning at home, to narrow the early learning gap Maximised employment opportunities for parents on low incomes Improved social security for families on low incomes (welfare/benefits)
- 29. 29 The Hierarchy of Outcomes 29 12-months outcome(s) Quarterly OKRs Current state Focus Experiments Continuous inspection & adaptation Purpose & Vision 3-year strategic goal / long-term outcome
- 30. 30 Template for the quarterly synchronisation 30 Teams Committed (current quarter) Planned (next quarter) Aspirational (future) Awareness team Outcome (Objective) • Indicators (Key Results) • Outputs Outcome • Indicators • Outputs Outcomes Always on team Outcome (Objective) • Indicators (Key Results) • Outputs Outcome • Indicators • Outputs Outcomes Moments team Outcome (Objective) • Indicators (Key Results) • Outputs Outcome • Indicators • Outputs Outcomes Loyalty team Longer-term Outcome:
- 31. 31 …and so to conclude… 31
- 32. 32 Make sure you always know “what you are doing, who you are doing it for and why” Mike Burrows “Customers don’t care about your solution. They care about their problems.” Dave McClure 32
- 33. 33 Mike Burrows, Agendashift and My handy, referenceable Definition of Done, https://blog.agendashift.com/2018/05/03/my-handy-referenceable-definition-of-done/ 1. Start with needs 2. Agree on outcomes … 33 When are we done?
- 34. 34 1. Old language (of outputs) is holding us back 2. Think big (outcomes), start small (outputs), learn fast • Make our assumptions explicit • Use experiments to test assumptions the smaller the experiment => the faster the learning • Run as many experiments in parallel the more experiments => the richer the learning 3. Keep revisiting and refining desired outcomes Key takeaways 34
- 35. 35 WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? In breakout rooms, have a conversation about what you got out of today’s talks 5 minutes 35
- 37. 37 Useful resources Mike Burrows, My handy, referenceable Definition of Done, https://blog.agendashift.com/2018/05/03/my-handy-referenceable-definition-of-done/ Mike Burrows, Agendashift, New Generation Publishing, 2018 The Agile Manifesto http://agilemanifesto.org Mike Cottmeyer, Replacing the Iron Triangle of Project Management, https://www.leadingagile.com/2010/01/replacing-the-iron-triangle-of-project-management/ The Scrum Guide http://www.scrumguides.org/ and https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum Jeff Sutherland, SCRUM, The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, Random House Business Books, 2015 John Cutler, 12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory, https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2 Jason Little, Lean Change Management, Happy Melly Express, 2014 Gojko Adzic, “Impact Mapping”, Provoking Thoughts Limited, 2012 37