What it takes to be fast

Nowadays being fast is one of the most important goals of every company. Being fast at entering a new market, being fast at developing new features, being fast at innovating new products. Time To Market is the fuel for every company’s Build, Measure, Learn cycle. If you run through it faster you learn much more in a shorter time, giving you a huge advantage over competitors. This is pretty obvious, but how do you make this happen? Benedikt would like to tell you a story about the power of independence.

Transcript

1. What it takes to be fast: A tale about responsibility, accountability and independence Benedikt Stemmildt CTO TalentFormation
2. The Last Project Scaling up BLUME2000 Prepare BLUME2000 Shop Platform and development process for new cross channel business models: From project to product TIMELINE ▪ October 2020 Three teams started ▪ October 2020 to January 2021 Ramp Up Phase with trainings and workshops ▪ January 2021 Start development ▪ May 2021 Golive MVP with 0,5% traffic ▪ May 2021 to June 2022 Slow, continuous traffic ramp up ▪ October 2021 Scale one more developer per team in ▪ January 2022 Split into four teams in ▪ June 2022 Reached 100% traffic
3. How did we do this?
4. Independence on three levels. 1 Product separation 2 Organization separation 3 Technology separation
5. Level 1 // Product separation with help of DDD // Cross Channel (!) • enter shop or store • login/registration • preferences • information/faq pages • inspiration/content pages • overview on brand • reduce products • product detail page and in store displays • upselling products • shipping options • availability / stock • pricing • use basket • discounts • checkout and cash register • payment • last check • change orders • delivery status • customer care • delivery customer & -preferences productdetails & -relations, stock, price & discount orders, deliveries & finance Tolerance Data KPIs DISCOVER DECIDE FULFILL high middle low bounce rate, visits, visit length, page count, conversion to next page add-to-basket rate, fast visit length & page count conversion rate, fast visit length, low page count
6. Level 2 // Organization separation into small, independent teams • enter shop or store • login/registration • preferences • information/faq pages • inspiration/content pages • overview on brand • reduce products • product detail page and in store displays • upselling products • shipping options • availability / stock • pricing • use basket • discounts • checkout and cash register • payment • last check • change orders • delivery status • customer care • delivery customer & -preferences productdetails & -relations, stock, price & discount orders, deliveries & finance Tolerance Data KPIs DISCOVER DECIDE FULFILL high middle low bounce rate, visits, visit length, page count, conversion to next page add-to-basket rate, fast visit length & page count conversion rate, fast visit length, low page count
7. Product Owner Dev UX Web Analyst Level 2 // It’s all about cross-functional teams Stakeholder Online Marketing Shopmanagement Customer agents Purchasing
8. Level 2 // Small teams! Communication is key -> n*(n-1)/2
9. Level 2 // Deliberately use different team topologies
10. Level 3 // Technology separation using low coupling DISCOVER DECIDE FULFILL Self Contained System inspire Back End Frontend landing & content pages Database Queue (Kafka) Self Contained System find Back End Frontend product lists & search Database Queue (Kafka) Self Contained System products Back End Frontend pdp Database Queue (Kafka) Self Contained System availabilities Back End Frontend availability Database Queue (Kafka) Self Contained System baskets Back End Frontend baskets Database Queue (Kafka) Self Contained System order Back End Frontend checkout Database Queue (Kafka) Frontend Proxy (nginx) Server-Side-Includes customer / visitor
11. Reasons for success Prepare through extensive ramp up phase Force Small Teams, include Stakeholders Deliberately control scaling Mob programming only POCs in one team; rollout to other teams Trunkbased Zero Downtime Deployments Quality over Quantity
12. What didn't go well? Underestimated necessity for a mature product organization Missing methods to develop product organization Agile Working Method has prerequisites in the rest of the organization that first had to be established 1 2 3 - Inappropriate culture & lack of leadership skills made it very tough - Support from Scrum Masters / Agile Coaches would have been helpful - There is no mob-product-management
13. The role of leadership.
14. The Acceleration Correlation 1 2 3 4
15. Everybody is a leader. The elevator is going up and down You are not a Boss, you are a Co-Creator! - Discuss vision with owners & supervisory board - Discuss strategy with other leaders - Help teams on an operational level Be active on all three levels - Guardian of independence - Coach teams to self-organize - Sparring partner for architecture discussions Change Agent for the organization Servant Leader for the teams + + + +
16. The Boss MANAGEMENT- UNDERSTANDING “Assertiveness & determination are among the most important qualities in my job.” EMPLOYEE- EXPECTATION “My employees like manageable tasks that can be solved quickly. It doesn't bother anyone if something repeats itself." "I always have to stay on top of things and know what to do next." "Most of the time I have to make decisions on my own so we can keep up the pace." "My employees look up to me - so they are happy about my praise or small bonus payments when they have done something well." “Ideally, my employees have a clear idea of exactly what to do and what the result should look like.” BOSS
17. The Co-Creator MANAGEMENT- UNDERSTANDING “I mainly act as an enabler here. My curiosity and enthusiasm for innovation have brought me to where I am today.” EMPLOYEE- EXPECTATION “Each employee here brings a special knowledge or talent and is driven to solve problems.” “My job is to enable employees to fully carry out their tasks and to support them in achieving their goals." “We all bring a very high level of technical expertise to the table. I have to be able to combine different perspectives." "Even adversers can and should freely express their opinion here, often this leads to better solutions in the end." "The employees here would like to contribute their skills and are looking for a highly competent manager with whom they can exchange ideas." CO-CREATOR
18. From Management… COMMUNITY STABILITY COMPLEXITY AUTONOMY Blue Culture Rules and structures ensure reliability Hierarchy, stability, order, sense of duty & structure, continuity, task fulfillment Metaphor: The Manager Red Culture Authority and fighting spirit for power increase Strength, fighting spirit, courage, power, decisive action, impulsiveness Metaphor: The Boss Orange Culture Performance and competition orientation ensure profit Recognition, individuality, tactical thinking, recognizing opportunities, pragmatic action, effectiveness and use of opportunities Metaphor: The Entrepreneur Order- Culture Authority- Culture Success- Culture
19. Yellow Culture Learning, agile development for innovation & networking Self-Organization, Learning & Curiosity, Breaking Rules, Discovery, Freedom of thought, flexibility, creativity, specialization, detailed knowledge Metaphor: The Co-Creator …to Leadership. COMMUNITY STABILITY COMPLEXITY AUTONOMY Turquoise Culture Finding meaning and sustainable further development of complex systems Systemic worldview, global, collective, sustainability, complexity, holacracy Metaphor: The Society Shaper Green Culture Diversity and inclusivity for consensus and harmony Fairness, commitment, tolerance, plurality, trust, subjectivity, harmony, democracy, flat hierarchy Metaphor: The Coach Care- Culture Learning- Culture Meaning- Culture
20. Links ▪ https://benedikt.stemmildt.com/talks/index.html ▪ https://www.informatik-aktuell.de/entwicklung/methoden/responsible-architecture.html ▪ https://www.youtube.com/c/ContinuousDelivery ▪ https://modernagile.org ▪ https://scs-architecture.org ▪ https://www.datamesh-architecture.com ▪ https://micro-frontends.org ▪ https://isa-principles.org
21. Books ▪ Accelerate: The Science Behind Devops: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations ▪ Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow ▪ Modern Software Engineering: Doing What Works to Build Better Software Faster ▪ Remote Mob Programming ▪ Leadership Is Language ▪ The Lean Startup ▪ Dynamic Reteaming ▪ Software Architecture for Developers ▪ Micro Frontends in Action
22. THANK YOU.