"Cold start" fast flow - using external suppliers to bootstrap a nimble, flow-centric organization

The challenge: how can we “cold start” an organization with limited digital delivery capability with a hiring freeze and turn it into a beacon of excellence in digital services?

Many traditional organizations have been slow to see the importance of building a sustained capability around digital delivery and are now scrambling to catch up to challenger startups and scale-ups that are slowly but steadily eating their market share. It’s particularly challenging when the organization has a hiring freeze in place to keep costs down, because this limits the speed with which new capabilities can be acquired and strengthened.

However, by using principles and practices from both Team Topologies and Adapt Together™️, it’s advantageous to “cold start” a digital delivery capability in such organizations by using external suppliers that use commercial agreements, delivery practices, and partner relationships that amplify fast flow and cross-organizational learning and alignment.

In this talk, Matthew Skelton - co-author of ‘Team Topologies’ and originator of Adapt Together™️ - shares how a blend of external suppliers and in-house staff can provide a advantage over purely home-grown talent as the organization builds its “digital muscles”; by taking advantage of the natural boundaries between suppliers, a flow-centric architecture can emerge more quickly.

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From a keynote talk at alphalist CTO Summit 2024, Hamburg

Transcript

1. "Cold start" fast flow - using external suppliers to bootstrap a nimble, flow-centric organization Matthew Skelton Co-author of ‘Team Topologies’ Originator of Adapt Together™ by Conflux matthewskelton.com K301 alphalist CTO Summit 2024, Hamburg | 20 Sept 2024
2. Matthew Skelton holistic innovation Originator of Adapt Together™ by Conflux Co-author of Team Topologies matthewskelton.com 2
3. Challenge: How to “cold start” an organization with limited digital delivery capability with a hiring freeze?❄ 3
5. More generally: how to accelerate the move to fast flow by using “flow-aware” external suppliers 5
6. Typical story: the organization has under-invested in its technical capabilities and now needs quicker, more nimble delivery … 6
7. Options 7
8. Option 1: hire smart people 8
9. Option 2: train existing staff 9
10. Option 3: hire outsourcers 10
11. Option 4: use “flow-aware” suppliers and partners 11
12. Option 4: use “flow-aware” suppliers and partners 12
13. Background 13
14. Team Topologies Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, September 2019 Over 160k copies sold: EN, DE, JP, CN, KR Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book 14
15. “Architecture for fast flow resembles an ecosystem of loosely-coupled independently-viable services with clear boundaries and stewardship aligned to the flow of business value.” 16 Matthew Skelton
16. 17 Multiple, independent flows, fractally Flow of value
17. You Build It, You Run It (“YBI,YRI”) 18
18. No handovers 19
19. Self-service platforms 20
20. Small teams (~9) 21
21. Ongoing stewardship of services 22
22. Limit the extraneous cognitive load on teams 23
23. 24 “With the explicit platform strategy [based on Team Topologies], we simplified upfront planning … for the whole organization. Defined interaction models between teams streamlined execution with just enough collaboration.” – Maksim Koutun, Director of Engineering @ Flo Health teamtopologies.com/flo
24. 25 It’s o pli te !
25. 26 high-impact team-of-teams organizations teamtopologies.com
26. Key success factors for cold-start fast flow 27
27. “flow-aware” suppliers embody Team Topologies principles 28
28. Commercial contract boundaries align to flow (“flow-aware procurement”) 29
29. 31 Flow of value https://teamtopologies.com/uswitch
30. 32 Flow of value Fictitious but very ‘real’ example
31. YBI,YRI for several years 33
32. 34 Flow of value Supplier S Internal I
33. 35 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S Internal I
34. No “build vs run” boundary for commercial contracts 37
35. 38 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S Internal I
36. Platform incentives for accelerating innovation in Stream-aligned teams 40
37. 41 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S Internal I
38. Platform product management: UX, onboarding, roadmap, personas, etc. 43
39. 44 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S Internal I
40. 45 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S I S Internal I
41. Capacity funding, not projects 47
42. 48 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S I S Internal I
43. 49 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S S S S Internal I I I
44. 50 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S S S S Internal I I I I I I I I I
45. External “flow-aware” suppliers can help to cold-start and accelerate a fast flow initiative … if procurement boundaries are also “flow-aware”. 53
46. But… 54
47. If we have clear boundaries for flow, with limited interactions, how do we create alignment? How do we learn from each other at pace? 55
48. 56 Multiple, independent flows, fractally Flow of value
49. 57 Multiple, independent flows, fractally Flow of value Active knowledge diffusion
50. 58 Active diffusion of knowledge across team boundaries
51. 59 Alignment and engagement “High performers favor strategies that create community structures at both low and high levels in the organization...”
52. 60 internal conferences guilds Communities of Practice lunch & learn public blogs
53. 61 internaltechconf.com Internal Tech Conferences Victoria Morgan-Smith and Matthew Skelton
54. 62 “This initiative around internal conferences has been the single most effective thing to align business and technology that I have seen in this organization” – Murray Hennessey, CEO, (UK retail co)
55. 67 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S S S S Internal I I I I I Active Knowledge Diffusion
56. Active knowledge diffusion across organizational boundaries 68
57. 69 It’s o pli te !
58. 70 “The way that the Conflux crew used their active knowledge diffusion approach to seek out and champion good practices was a real revelation to us at TELUS and helped to shift thinking around how we innovate and share successes.” — Steven Tannock, Director, Architecture (Platform Technology & Tools) at TELUS Digital (telecoms, Canada)
59. 71 adapttogether.info Create alignment, trust, and engagement across your organization whilst delivering at pace with fast flow.
60. Fast flow operating models need active knowledge diffusion across boundaries for alignment, trust, and engagement. 72
62. Challenge: How to “cold start” an organization with limited digital delivery capability with a hiring freeze?❄ 74
63. More generally: how to accelerate the move to fast flow by using “flow-aware” external suppliers 75
64. “flow-aware” suppliers embody Team Topologies principles 76
65. Commercial contract boundaries align to flow (“flow-aware procurement”) 77
66. Active knowledge diffusion across organizational boundaries produces alignment and staff engagement 78
69. External “flow-aware” suppliers can help to cold-start and accelerate a fast flow initiative … if procurement boundaries are also “flow-aware”. 81
70. Fast flow operating models need active knowledge diffusion across boundaries for alignment, trust, and engagement. 82
71. 86 The Adapt Together™ approach from Conflux creates alignment, trust, and engagement across your organization whilst delivering at pace with fast flow. adapttogether.info Team Topologies is the leading approach to organizing business and technology teams for fast flow, providing a practical, step-by‑step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction. teamtopologies.com
72. let’s work together 88 matthewskelton.com