THE INNOVATOR’S MINDSET HOW TO THRIVE IN A WORLD OF CONTINUOUS CHANGE JEAN-MARC DE JONGHE LA PRESSE 🧠 MONTREAL – MAY 2024 ElevateDev’24

@madmac 2 • Medias — 1995 • La Presse — 2003 • VP Digital Product & Strategy — 2010 • Led La Presse’s digital transformation, creation of La Presse+, digital workflow and our New Mobile App Jean-Marc De Jonghe VP Digital Product & Strategy Inspire 🧠 mindsetinnovateur.com

@madmac 3 The best technology Is not enough

@madmac 4 Technology People 💃🕺 A successful organization 20% 80%

@madmac 5 💃🕺 Not about the way you code It’s about the mindset you have A successful organization

IMPERMANENCE the state or fact of lasting for only a limited period of time

The market Our great products, systems, expertise, and business model Impermanence

@madmac 8 FROM DISRUPTION TO DISRUPTION Us (Still running) The market Disruptions

9 Today • High-level look at our transformation and results • 5 learnings to inspire your journey

@madmac 10 HIGH-LEVEL LOOK AT OUR TRANSFORMATION AND RESULTS

@madmac 11

12 La Presse — 1955-2003 La Presse — Today A radical transformation

4,6 ★★★★★ 77k review No 6 - news and magazines 350k/day 760k/month 275k/day 500k/month 4,6 ★★★★★ +100k review No 1 - news and magazines RESULTS

14 Daily Audience 2002 2012 2022 0 200 000 400 000 600 000 800 000 1 000 000 1 200 000 375 275 470 350 30 230 255 Newsprint* Web** La Presse+ Mobile App Competitive advantages *Newsprint base on weekly average — 2000 *Web ComScore

While in our industry...

16 Ad Revenue Readers and advertiser’s revenue La Presse's revenues are increasing +50%

17 Traditional organization Digital & innovative organization There is a durable and reproducible recipe There is no sustainable recipe except adaptability and agility New World Old World A radical transformation

@madmac 18 A 100% digital model that works + Innovation + Agility

5 LEARNINGS TO INSPIRE YOUR JOURNEY 19

1. Pace of change is accelerating 20

21 Speed and impacts of change « We tend to overestimate what we can do in the near future and grossly underestimate what can be done in the distant future. This is because the human imagination extrapolates in a straight line, while real world events develop exponentially. (like compound interest) » – Arthur C. Clarke

What actually happen 22 Results / performance Time Atomic Habits, James Clear What you think should happen A mirage Speed and impacts of change

23 The speed of change is accelerating Impact of changes Analog PC Computer 1884 1990 Internet 2000 2010 2020 Social AI https://www.digitaltransformationbook.com/the-speed-of-change-4-waves-of-digital-acceleration/ Mobile <- +100 yrs -> Cloud & big data

24 1930: we imagine the smartphone… https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/retro-future-predictions/

25 1950: we imagine a View master … Waze https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/retro-future-predictions/

26 1960: we imagine the newspaper of the future… https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/retro-future-predictions/

27 But change is exponential 66 years 1903 1969

28 Vitesse et impacts du changement 1972

@madmac 29 1963 1982 1978 2006 2007 2015 2010 1996 1984* 2023

@madmac 30 1963 2023 60 years

@madmac 31 Adoption rate

@madmac 0,5 G 1,5 G 4,5 G 5 G iPhone

@madmac 33 9% 53%

@madmac 34 Chart of the century: Days from 1m to 100m users

@madmac 35 The impact of AI will be unprecedented

@madmac 36 The impact of AI will be unprecedented

•Change is now truly a constant process, not an event! • We are very bad at predicting it To remember

Anyone can optimize the "today" - the real challenge is planning and organizing yourself to be relevant and competitive tomorrow. How do we prepare ourselves for it?

What actually happen 39 Results / performance Time Atomic Habits, James Clear What you think should happen A mirage Speed of change is exponential We must prepare our organizations, our teams and ourselves for here

2. Why is it so difficult to escape old ideas and old paradigms? 40

@madmac Who wants change? Who wants to change?

@madmac 42 What will be the place of humans tomorrow?

43 « The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence itself, but to act with yesterday's logic » – Peter Drucker Speed and impacts of change

44 Monkey Trap

@madmac 45 World of work: important transition Tools Toolset Skills Skillset Mind Mindset

@madmac 46 In a world where everything changes so quickly Individuals + Mind Mindset Adaptability + Ignited by the new problems Focused on customer value

@madmac 47 The career of your parents @madmac

@madmac 48 Your careers More changes Disruption @madmac

Career of the next generation

50 I know how it works! I’m an expert!

@madmac 51 Future of Jobs – Reskilling needs https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/

@madmac 52 The evolving skills landscape, 2023-2027

@madmac 53 The evolving skills landscape, 2023-2027

@madmac Unicorns No thank you ! When recruiting or building your dream team S K I L L S W I L L Soft Skills Hard Skills 54

@madmac With time Relevant (and our future leaders) With time Obsolete S K I L L S W I L L Soft Skills Hard Skills 55 When recruiting or building your dream team

Not a question of age! Attitude

@madmac 57 It's in your head! Tools Toolset Skills Skillset Mind Mindset 🍌

Keys to stay open to change •Acknowledge the facts. Everything changes. If it was not clear before COVID, it is certainly clear now. People who will be very successful will be fully stimulated by change. Are you going to stay the same? Or will you adapt, grow and succeed? •Stay curious. Try to ask questions instead of stopping. Do not immediately oppose the change. •Break the cycle of resistance to change. Try to name two positive things about the proposed change. Look for opportunities, advantages and positive aspects. •Understand your resistance. Do a little introspection. Where does your resistance come from? •Are you afraid? •Do you repeat old models that you have learned in your past? •Do you imitate your boss or a mentor? •Do you make presumptions based on something that has gone wrong in the past? •Do you trust and respect the people who make the change? •Do you simply resist change because it is easier to stay still? https://www.gilroyassociates.com/thought-leadership/your-change-personality-are-you-a-healthy-skeptic-or-a-destructive-cynic

@madmac 59 Questions In your personal or professional life: – Usually, when big change happens, how do you adapt to that change? – What is holding you back? – What is your banana?

3. How to be a leader of this tomorrow? 60

61 My career at La Presse in a nutshell 2000 2010 New presses & 100% digital workflow La Presse+ Launch Launch of our « Mobile First » App B2B Phase Migration of our tools into the cloud Idea of La Presse’s edition on a tablet 💡 La Presse NPO 📉 🦠 2020 📉 🥊 🧨 I'm hitting my wall: I am the biggest risk of the project I’ve created!

Am I a great innovation leader? My ability to direct and control My ideas are so good, I am a real genius!

@madmac 63

@madmac 2012 – My wake-up call

@madmac 65 I decide = I'm the bottleneck! Large volume of decisions to take Added value delivered Bottleneck

Stability Certainty Simplicity Clarity Comfort Building and improving the known Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity Discomfort Building and inventing the future Not the same world = not the same leaders The new world

Operations — building and optimizing the known Innovations — Invent and create the future 🧠 💪💪 💪💪💪💪 💪💪💪💪💪💪 💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪 🧠 🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 Leadership’s paradigm shift Not the same world = not the same leaders

@madmac 68 Leaders are not Bee queens 🐝 👑 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

@madmac 69 Leaders are not Bee queens 🧠 👑 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠

@madmac The new heroes

@madmac 71 Nurturing & creating the best environment to thrive

@madmac 72 In a universe of vast pace of change and innovation Is it my role (as a leader) to try to know and control everything? 🐝 👑 My personal disruption?

What actually happen 73 Results / performance Time Atomic Habits, James Clear What you think should happen A mirage I have to prepare my organization, my team and myself for here Pace and impacts of change

@madmac 74 From Joe The Learner To Know-It—All Joe My personal disruption? Competitor Beekeeper

@madmac 75 It's about my expertise It's about being good at experimenting and learning Create safe environments where everyone can create, learn and share new knowledge I am the expert and so I'm right Align, give context, identify the best ideas and put innovation into action My ideas are so much better My personal disruption? Joe The Learner Know-It—All Joe Competitor Beekeeper

New leader’s role To take the difficult or the impossible Dissect the challenge Make it solvable To take the vague or the ambiguous To bring clarity To create a shared and common understanding Stressful environment Stimulating environment To take the unknown Experiment Create and share new knowledge

4. Building high performance teams 77

« Weeks of coding can save you hours of understanding » What is the problem we're trying to solve? Where is the business value? Why we need to build something new? Are your creating on « one brain » mode? 🧠

🧠 💪💪 💪💪💪💪 💪💪💪💪💪💪 💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪 🧠 🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 Paradigm shift Not the same world = not the same leader

Not the same world = not the same organization 🧠 🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 80% Value creators Teams close to customers & operations Product and services builders 15% Middle management 5% Top management Decision-making Empower For speed we drive authority downwards

Key ingredients for success 1 Alignment Common and shared understanding of what we want to become, what w want to build and why it's important 3 Trust Con fi dence in decision-makers, towards our employees, towards the other teams and towards our colleagues All are well-intentioned and benevolent 2 Empathy Understanding where someone is coming from. What are their POV and why? Understanding why someone is approaching a problem or a challenge a certain way. ⚡ ⚡

A sense of community SOURCE: https://www.cascade.app/blog/cross-functional-teams-culture Purpose Why we exist Rules of Engagement How we interact with one another and think about problems Shared Values What we agree is important A SENSE OF COMMUNITY Innovative organizations must nurture a sense of community — which rests on 3 elements:

A sense of community Is this decision the best for our current and future customers? Is this decision take into account the impact on achieving our business targets and objectives? Is this decision based on data and customer proof evidence? Have we carried out tests, experiments, POCs to validate our hypothesis? Does this decision make it possible to harmonize and simplify our systems (and the CX) and mitigate the number of possible variations? Does this decision allows us to be flexible, sustainable, resilient? Future Proof? Do we use best practices of tomorrow? Are we taking this decision In a fast and agile way or have we spent too much time on it? 🎛 🧲 👀 🎯 🧪 🔮 🏗 🏎 Take the decision or escalate if blocked

@madmac 84 Alignment = Common and shared understanding

@madmac 85 What are we trying to build? To build the "good stuff", you must fi rst develop a common understanding And shared of this "good stuff". The "good stuff" → Why? → For who? → Problems to solve? → How will we know we are progressing? Alignment = Common and shared understanding

@madmac 86 Empathy Active listening Real discussions Shared common understanding 🧠 🧠 At kick-off, Take time to share the same definition vocabulary Build « Proof of concept » & Prototypes Show and learn ! Imagine the tutorial of the product or service you’re trying to build Dont be afraid to dive-in and learn the tech behind the product and service you are trying to build You need to meet! Agreement on which problems need to be solved and in which order Goals, important milestones Customer’s needs and chalenges Global or total customer experience — CX Features: MVP desirability, delightful, etc How will we operate this thing ? Who? Vision Why are we doing this? Deicisions guiding principles Focus on the What, not the How Resist talking about solutions Clarity

@madmac 87 « The craft of programming begins with empathy, not formatting or languages or tools or algorithms or data structures » - K E N T B E C K , A U T H O R 
 E X T R E M E P R O G R A M M I N G E X P L A I N E D * Empathy for our teammates, our code consumers, our business and our end users.

Empathy: the heart of successful team dynamics 🧠 Product owners 🧠 Product Designers 🧠 Quality Engineer 🧠 Architects 🧠 Users / Customers 🧠 Sales 🧠 Finance & Legal 🧠 HR 🧠 Marketing 🧠 Research 🧠 Infra & Security 🧠 Engineers 🧠 Product managers 🧠 Customer Support 🧠 Business inteligence 🧠 Shareholders 🧠 C-level 🧠 Partners. 3rd parties Roles or job functions

Empathy: the heart of successful team dynamics 🧠 Users / Customers 🧠 🧠 Partners. 3rd parties 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical A Vertical C Vertical E Vertical G 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical B Vertical D 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical F 🧠 Finance & Legal 🧠 HR 🧠 Partners. 3rd parties 🧠 C-level 🧠 Shareholders Verticals or Silos

Empathy: the heart of successful team dynamics 🧠 Users / Customers 🧠 🧠 Partners. 3rd parties 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical A Vertical C Vertical E Vertical G 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical B Vertical D 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 Vertical F 🧠 Finance & Legal 🧠 HR 🧠 Partners. 3rd parties 🧠 C-level 🧠 Shareholders 🤡 ♥ ♥ 🤡 Natural empathy Don’t understand ♥ 🤡

@madmac 91 What is empathy ? Empathy = Taking the time Empathy = Give people a voice Empathy = Broad knowledge Empathy = Connection

QA Infra Designers Engineer PO / BA High-performance team = connection Diversity of POV= breadth

Best orgs are made of teams with empathy Broad knowledge Depth & expertise Coding Sustainable code, Ef fi cient, Flexible, Maintainable, Resilient, Scalable, Secure, etc Testing Automation, Continuous Integration,, Exploratory Testing, etc Deploy SLO, Blue-green, Canary, Rolling, etc Analysis Discovery ROI, Biz Problems, ICE, MVP, MMF, Delighter, etc Products Target audience, Features / competition, etc Business Vision/goals UX/UI Users + interfaces How it works Onboarding, Context of use, etc Source: https://medium.com/agile-pies/t-shape-specialist-s-and-why-do-you-need-your-team-to-have-such-5a854433c849 Customers CX, Markets, Ideal Customer Pro fi le, Must important problems to solve, etc Roles, Job functions, Verticals, Silos

@madmac 94 Spend time with people 👂 📆 ♥ 🤡 Do you have 30 - 60 mins for me? I would like to understand your domain better Why are you passionate about what you do? What is your ultimate motivation or goal? What do I need to do to make your life easier? What is the number 1 reason you reject a request / design / solution? What is the number 1 issue you have to troubleshoot? Why are they saying no? Why am I getting this resistance? What I have to do to not increase their stack?

Increasing the empathy muscle, it’s an investment! Increasing quality of designs / solutions Increasing relationship Very broad perspective, future proof & resilient designs / solutions Diversity of thoughts and POV Influence, growth and opportunity Understanding the business ❤ 💪 ❤ 💪 ❤ 💪

@madmac 96 Challenge – Which area /domain of your organization do you understand the least, but could have the potential to improve the quality of your work / design / solution the most? – Who could you identify in your organization as a SME to help you upgrade yourself in this area?

5. Reframe learning - aka It's so good to be a beginner! 97

@madmac Plateau Comfort zone Con fi dence zone Beginner’s valley 98 Learning is escalating an S-Curve Mastery Time LEARNING A NEW SKILL Beginner Master

@madmac 99 0 Con fi dence SET OF COMPETENCES A Upgrade yourself… go ahead, jump ! Comfort zone SET OF COMPETENCES B 0 Con fi dence Scary zone

@madmac 100 The beginner’s valley 0 Con fi dence SET OF COMPETENCES A SET OF COMPETENCES B 0 Con fi dence Always look like a step backward ! Upgrade yourself… go ahead, jump ! Comfort zone Scary zone

@madmac 101 The beginner’s valley 0 Con fi dence SET OF COMPETENCES A SET OF COMPETENCES B 0 Con fi dence Upgrade yourself… go ahead, jump ! Comfort zone Scary zone Make this zone safe
 for the team !

102 Be ready for the falls! It's part of the process! As a leader, we must make sure to make this space
 hyper "safe" for our team

@madmac 103 The great danger If we are afraid of failing and not being up to the task, if we are afraid to be judged, the logical reaction is to try to be perfect. (Or try to be perfect) Paralysis Paralysis Paralysis Paralysis

What new skill will you learn this year? Vertical, Domain, Silos

« Weeks of coding can save you hours of understanding » I dont have time for this! ⌨

@madmac 106 Why empathy ? Empathy = Better code/design/solutions Empathy = Future proof Empathy = Leaders of tomorrow Empathy = Connections

@madmac 107 Challenge 1.Make a commitment of booking a least two (2) 30 minutes in person meeting, by the end of the month, with someone outside your – Domain, Silo or Vertical – to understand what makes them tick and get a broader understanding of the organization and what we’re trying to build and become. See the new frontier that it open 2.See the new frontier that it open help you on your journey? 3.Rinse and repeat 📆

CONCLUSION 108

A clear "destination" A clear « why », A shared and common understanding Shared values Rules of engagement Purpose Clear vision & goals A sense of community Empathy for our customers for our colleagues, for our leaders and for ourselves Empathy Keys for high-performance teams in this new world Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, learning, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. Growth mindset

@madmac 110 Jean-Marc De Jonghe [email protected] ca.linkedin.com/in/dejonghe speakerdeck.com/jdejongh Connect with me 🧠 mindsetinnovateur.com https://forms.o ffi ce.com/r/H3HH3us3un Please give me some feedback 👇

REFERENCES 111

@madmac 112 • Crossing the Chasm (1991, revised 1999 and 2014), Geoffrey A. Moore • Creativity Inc (2014, Random House Canada), Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace • Being Digital, Nicolas Negroponte (Knopf 1995) • TedTalk, Dan Pink sur la surprenante science de la motivation, Dan Pink https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation? language=fr#t-1010302 • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary – Special Edition – Stephen R. Covey (2020 Simon & Schuster) • Why we plan – Part I – Failure to Rescue, Buridan’s Blog http://buridansblog12.rssing.com/chan-20258046/all_p1.html • ICE Score all you need to know Itamar Gilad https:// itamargilad.com/ice-scores/ • The Phoenix and the Unicorn, Peter Hinssen (2020 nexxworks) • Complicated vs Complex and why it’s matters - Roland Wolfig https://beya.io/2016/03/complicated-vs-complex-and-why-it- matters/ • Complexity and Strategy https://hackernoon.com/complexity- and-strategy-325cd7f59a92#.5h6wyrxvk • Prototyping: Fake It till you make it (WWDC 2014, Apple Developper, Apple Inc.), Get a glimpse of Apple's prototyping process and the range of tools and techniques they use, some of which might surprise you. https://developer.apple.com/ videos/play/design/12/ • The Future of Jobs : Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum, April 2023) https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of- jobs-report-2023/ and https://www3.weforum.org/docs/ WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf • How to Evaluate Your Product with Smoke Testing By Shanelle Mullin, Published: Feb 28, 2022 | Last updated: Apr 30, 2023 https://cxl.com/blog/smoke-test/ • Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value, Teresa Dorres, Product Talk LLC (2021) • Why T-shaped people? Jason Yip, https://jchyip.medium.com/ why-t-shaped-people-e8706198e437 • Cross functional empathy: 90 day of devops, Video, Chris Kranz, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aJ4hA6TiZE • 30 behavioral interview questions to assess soft skills https:// business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/interviewing- talent/behavioral-interview-questions-important-soft-skills References