Agile Networking

Agile is a set of frameworks and methods that enables you to accomplish your goals under high levels of uncertainty. Agile borrows concepts such as “focus on value”, “small batch sizes” and “elimination of waste” from Lean and stands on the Scrum values of courage, commitment, focus, openness and respect. Agile also uses powerful task structuring concepts of delivery cadence and feedback loops from Scrum and visual tracking and continuous improvement from Kanban.

Networking, which is one of the key characteristics of successful professionals, can be a very daunting and uncertain phenomenon for most. But, using Agile, networking can be turned into a highly effective activity no matter what your personality type or work background is.

Following is a step wise plan to networking the agile way:    

1. Networking epic

Starting an agile networking project, the first thing you need to do this to define your networking goal – the epic. Be very specific about the end objective and the time duration. Following are some example epic statements:

• I need to generate 300 new business leads in the next 3 months.
• I need to double my twitter followers in the coming 30 days.
• I need to get $ 100,000 in funding for my startup in the next 2 months.

2. Networking backlog

After defining your networking epic, next step is to prepare a backlog of networking stories. Brainstorm and write the stories in the following format.

I need to get acquainted to <person(s)/title> through < channel/reference > because <the benefit you seek>

Prioritize the backlog according to the relevance of the networking story to the epic i.e. the stories which can help you achieve your epic the fastest come on the top.

3. Networking sprint planning

Now it is time for delivery planning. Define the epic release duration and break it down into several two week sprints. For example, a three months epic would have six networking sprints.

For the first sprint, jolt down the answers to all the Who? What? Why? How? When? Where? questions for the prioritized stories, e.g.

• Who is that you want to get acquainted to? Who not?
• Why that person(s)? Why not?
• How you will access that person(s)? How not?
• What will you say (elevator pitch)? What not?
• What do you want that person(s) to do for you? What not?
• When will you access? When not?
• Where will you access? Where not? Etc.

The networking sprint velocity will vary from person to person but start with three stories for a two week sprint.  

Also come up with an acceptance criterion for each story i.e. the acceptable outcome to you which will render the story closed. For example, an acceptable outcome could vary from a Linkedin add to a scheduled lunch meeting.     

4. Networking standup

Check your progress daily by allocating five minutes to answer these three questions:

• What did I accomplish yesterday?
• What I plan to accomplish today?
• What is getting in my way? 

5. Networking review

At the end of the sprint share your progress with your reviewer(s). The reviewer can be your boss, your mentor, your colleague or even your spouse. Openly share the status of your networking stories and the progress you have made.

6. Networking retrospective

Conduct a retrospective after every two sprints. In the retrospective give a hard look on your progress throughout the month.

• What went according to plan? Why or why not?
• What didn’t go well? Why?
• What was the velocity for the two sprints? Was it too low or too high? Why so?
• What are the key learnings?
• What are the areas of improvement?

7. Networking backlog grooming

Take the learnings from the retrospective session to groom the networking backlog. Focus on how you would now maintain the new connections. Add connection preservation stories to the backlog using the following format:

I will maintain a connection with <person(s)/title> through <channel/reference > because <the continuing benefit you seek>