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This was the presentation @stueccles gave at the #firestarters event at Google UK. The event was about Agile Planning and Stuart talked about the origin of post-war production line processes, innovation for agencies, the lean agency and how to iterate successfully.
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#firestarters@stueccles
Holler Gram
We make new stuff out of the internet
Selling Stuff
Making Stuff Useful
The Internet ate my business
Fragmented media:more difficult/expensive simply to buy attention
On-demandReal time
Opt-inA-la-carte world
Everything’s changed...
(Everything keeps on changing)(It doesn’t show any signs of slowing down)
Digital possibilities seen through the lens of traditional advertising...
All too often miss the real opportunities
thanks @garethk
Opportunities like...
Fiat eco:Drive
Garmin Connect
“Ideas that do”Stop communicating products & start making communication products
Gareth Kay, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Are we able to innovate for our clients?
Noah Brier
Invention
Innovation
Diffusion
Creation of a new idea or process
Arranging the economics requirements for implementing an invention
Adoption and imitationA+C-D-
The Agency Innovation Scorecard
[images: twitter, youtube, flickr, napster, facebook, google, myspace, ebay, amazon, paypal, skype, slide,
spotify, apple, drop box]
These guys are really good at it
In the latest turn of its wheel, strategy becomes about how to make existing institutions
as innovative as start-ups
Walter Kiechel III, The Lords of Strategy
Act like a start-upMxM
• Rapid prototyping to test hypotheses • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)• Nail it then scale it
• Customer obsession (development) • Iterative, metrics-driven & Agile
• Learn fast, don’t fail fast
Startups are not a smaller version of a large company
Steve Blank
StartupLarge
Company
The startup exists to search for a scalable business model
StartupLarge
Company
The large company exists to execute a business model at scale
Thats great but we have *clients*
There is no one-to-one mapping
(But there is lots to learn)
‘The Lean Agency’Lean Agencies exist to search for new solutions to their
clients problems
The characteristics
of a Lean Agency
Iterative
Integrated
Evidence/ Metrics Driven
Minimal Waste
so about iteration..
Lets mass produce this SOB!!
Client BriefResearch
Strategic DevelopmentCreative Brief
Creative DevelopmentProduction
Media!
Traditional forms of planning and creative are
like betting on a hole-in-one
The holes in one are awesome
Kingsmill Bread Confessions
But most are not
RequirementsFunctional Specification
WireframesVisual Design
CodeTest
Launch
Agile worked for us in development but could
it work in creative, design and strategy?
Skype Education ProjectA new service to help more teachers use Skype in the classroom
Skype came to us with a comms brief
| Skype Education Project
Theyʼd noticed that teachers all over the world were using Skype in extraordinary ways. They wanted us to collect these stories and use them to promote the service & inspire other teachers.
We responded with some ideas
| Skype Education Project
And we proposed using an iterative, customer-development focused approach.This was an Agile software development project driven by a continuous feedback loop of qualitative and quantitative data.
Our initial assumptions were that it was all about a lesson planning tool with examples, ideas and tips on integrating Skype into learning
Stage 1 2 3 4
Touchpoint
User Needs
How would you like to find an expert to take part in a
‘Skype visit’? Some type of marketplace?
How would you like to contact them and what would
you need to discuss?
How would you like to involve an expert in planning or structuring the lesson?
How would you like to share the experience with the
community?
Notes
Use case #1: Invite an expert into the classroom
Daniela Callegari
Primary school teacher in ItalyNo experience with Skype in the classroom yetDesperate to connect and find other classes
George Mayo
Middle school language arts teacher in Maryland, USAPioneer in technology and educationEnthusiastic about helping the project
Dan Sutch
FutureLab :: innovation in educationIn-depth knowledge of education & technologyOpen to ongoing involvement in project
Lisa Reid
6th, 7th & 8th grade science teacher in Ohio, USANo experience with Skype in the classroom yetKeen to start using Skype (has used EduSkypers)
Tracy Peterson
Technology teacher in Iowa, USAHas introduced her classes to initial Skype sessionsKeen to collaborate and extend usage of Skype
“Getting out of the building”
We discovered immediately that their biggest obstacle was actually finding other teachers who also used Skype
They also told us that teachers don’t have time to read lots of lesson plans - video clips would be much more helpful
We identified 3 key components for an Alpha release candidate
| Skype Education Project
Ongoing market research provided further evidence that ʻFinding and sharingʼ was core. We pieced together the simplest thing (MVP) that would allow us to carry out lighter testing of our hypotheses at a greater scale on the Internet. We developed the first release in 2 iterations (4 weeks).
Insights gleaned from teachers’ websites
‘How to’ guides
Belong
Connect
Teach
Sign up
Help
Status
Looking for
Willing to mentor
Expert wanting to
help
Suggestions
Skype educator directory
Profile
Location
Name
Age group
Tags / topics
Search
Filter
Video
Questions & answers
Conversation
Planning
Tools Resources
Curriculum
‘How to’ guides
Case studies
API driven Tools
Scheduling
Time zones
Profile search from anywhere
Skype educator ecologyMapping service propositions
Ask a questionLink with
other teachers
The Skype lesson
Feedback
ITFinding experts
School policy issues
Sharing
Parents
Experiences of existing community
Invite pioneers
D. Video/Comment
A. Question & Answer
B. Micro-Profile
C. Search/Filter
We sketched up 4 pages of a directory service which we tested with 7 teachers over Skype
- 55 teachers- 7 countries- 20+ subjects
Expert30%
Intermediate40%
Level of Skype teaching proficiency
Novice29%
Online surveys
“What teachers want”
Find other teachers & share ideas
Find a partner class
Help other teachers
How to use Skype
Overcome obstacles to Skyping
Practice Skype
28%
25%
23%
11.5%
9%
3%
“Teachers who think concept would be ‘very valuable’”
60% -
55% -
50% -
45% -
Search/Filter Video Q&A
We were working within a time and cost-boxed plan
| Skype Education Project
We used various Agile techniques as a way of managing delivery whilst retaining the flexibility to respond to continuous feedback from testing.We created a charter that defined key metrics for success and a shared vision with Skypeʼs project stakeholders.
Creating an MVP - high level beta stories
I want to add a Skype Educator badge to my blog
I want to login to the site
I want to create a profile
I want to view another educators profile
I want to see all the educators in a directory
I want to filter the educator directory
I want to add a resource manually
I want to like a resource
I want to view a resource on it’s own page.
I want to view the resources that another
educator has added / liked.
I want to share a resource I found easily
I would like an admin section for the Skype
educator site.
As an admin, I want to be able to ban people who
misbehave
As an admin, I want to be able to invite a teacher
with a unique url
I want to be able to moderate content, so that bad stuff can be removed
As a member of the site, I want to invite other
teachers to join.
2
2
3
3
3
3
8
8
2
5
2
1
5
1
5
5
I want a directory overview
3
Tools
People Resources AdminOverview
A user journey through the service
Good ideaI want to view the
resources that another educator has added / liked.
2
My profile
New ideas
People like me
Ideas I might like
Mr Mayo
A N Other profile
People like me
Ideas I like
The more people who mark an idea as good the higher the ranking of the idea
I can mark an idea as good on the Skype teacher directory
Ideas I think are good are saved into my profile so I can find them again easily and other teachers like me can find them
I want to like a resource
2
Moving into production: refined wireframes
With the first release, we start getting analytics
| Skype Education Project
The evidence we now start getting from both Skypeʼs analytics package Omniture and Google analytics provide a new stream of feedback and evidence.The data points to 3 important site enhancements currently being implemented, having also been qualitatively validated with teachers in f2f interviews.
Beta hard metrics
‣ 1860 teachers signed up to the site
‣ 60% of users from the USA
‣ 2/3 of visits are new visitors to the site‣ 17% return 2-3 times‣ 18% frequent return visits
‣ High level of contact activity - 1,000 contact requests
‣ 200 resources shared
‣ 105 favourites
‣ 45 comments
Beta soft metrics
‣ Teachers like Skype in the classroom but it could meet their needs better
‣ Teachers want to use the site to connect with other teachers but find it difficult to find suitable matches with the current system
‣ Teachers want more search tools and a wider range of topics to describe themselves by
‣ Teachers want greater granularity on location - probably in part because of the high number of teachers in the USA
‣ Teachers find the resources section a useful source of inspiration and information. This is often what they look at first.
Analytics summary: qualitative and quantitative working together
What the analytics told us
| Skype Education Project
• More than 1 in 2 users are connecting with another
• We saw only c200 resources shared. We researched this further with teachers
• Teachers have started to ʻhack itʼ to create projects
• 60% of the traffic is from the US
• Return visits seemed low, but we realised that we were losing the tracking when they connected via the Skype app
Phase 2 objectives
➡Make connecting with another teacher easier and richer‣ Teachers have more tools to find each other by‣ Teachers can describe themselves in more detail‣ Teachers can use alternative connection methods ‣ Teachers can find good contacts again
➡Show teachers the best and most relevant resources‣ Teachers see more relevant resources in their profile‣ Popular resources are more visible
➡Centre the site around projects rather than profiles‣ Allow teachers to create and publish projects‣ Surface relevant projects to teachers
➡Increase teacher sign ups and number of visits
Phase 2 success metrics
‣ # new sign ups‣ 1/2 teachers return to the site more than once‣ Increase the number of teachers from outside the USA‣ 500 connections per month - either email or Skype‣ # of favourited resources increases‣ # of bookmarked teachers‣ # number of teachers who update their profile with additional information‣ # number of teachers who embed the badge on their website
New objectives and revised success metrics for phase 2
Data and evidence-based design decisions for the new phase
lessons learned about iterating..
Rinse and....
It’s not iterative if you only do it once....
Incremental
Iterative
Speed
If it takes too long any iterative process is indistinguishable
from waterfall
Software is so fast to change it lends well to
iteration (more some things are even faster)
Externalised + Rough
Sketch Prototypes
Jim Glymph, Gehry Technologies
If you freeze an idea too quickly, you fall in love with it
If you freeze an idea too quickly, you fall in love with it... ...refine it too quickly
& you become attached to it
The crudeness of early models in particular is very deliberate
#bdwny
Feedback
Get out of the building!
Learning
• The whole team learns
• What we learn is communicated to clients
• What we learn is documented
• Metrics are important
ACQUISITION ACTIVATION
RETENTION
REFERRAL REVENUE
Pirate metrics... AARRR
Dave McClure
Actionable metrics not vanity metrics
Please no! not more fucking *testing*
A better idea/design may exist but requires an
intuitive leap
Iterative optimisationmay only reach the peak of
a smaller idea
Local Maximaprops to @bokardo
Intuition Iteration
Our goal is always to discover which aspects of
this vision are grounded in reality, & to adapt those
aspects that are not
We always have a vision that is clearly articulated,
big enough to matter, & shared by the whole team
Eric Ries, Start-up Lessons Learned
This is all one grand ongoing experiment
(But we can iterate our way to success)
