Agile success with a penguin called Wilbur

When I started working at Centrica six months ago, if you told me I would be doing something Agile with the eponymous British Gas Penguin, Wilbur, I would have laughed.

 Wilbur is not only our Penguin, it’s also the name we have given to the call centre automation and internal chat technology we built, initially for the UK, but now we wanted to use it in our North America call centres also and we wanted to deliver it Agile and test some new ways of working. We started with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to enable real time customer information and the ability to quickly complete customer requests and create a seamless customer experience. The team did an amazing job, people from all disciplines working seamlessly together, delivery was done super-fast (pilot completed in 8 weeks), but this is just the start as we are now adding new capabilities every two weeks in increments to create further value until we run out of good ideas in this area and redeploy the team to the next thing.

 I know from experience, delivering real change is challenging and can be slow, but most successful change starts with small steps. Is it working? Here is what some of our call centre team say:

 “I like Wilbur. It is really friendly and helpful to find the info. I am really glad to have access before everyone and check on the improvements you are doing for us, thank you for that” Kevin

 “It is fast, friendly, and I like that Wilbur leaves notes. It will save time on my calls. I also like that the information he provides is true and accurate. I like the straight and to the point stories we have in pilot” Carlos

 “I feel like I can trust what Wilbur provides. I took calls about Disconnects and Account Balances and I looked at ECM and Peace and it all matched. Wilbur is easy to use and I look forward to being able to use it more” Elias

Sounds simple in writing – However many large companies talk about making themselves more agile for years then take more years to actually do it, here at Centrica we’ve gone from conception of a new agile way of working to first pilot go live of an actual solution in six months and are now busy preparing to fully launch this new way of working from January 2020.

 This is what the team has learnt so far:

•  Being clear and holding firm to the customer outcomes we want to achieve, putting our customer at the heart of everything
• People working together in empowered and trusted teams, no siloes, no boundaries, minimal handoffs, minimal friction, maximum collaboration
• Success being quickly seen as delivered outcomes and value for our customers
• Being prepared to fail, but fail small and fast, learn from it and avoid repeating the same mistakes
• Respond quickly to new information, stop or change direction, continually review if we are doing the right thing and regularly adjust

 These are exciting times at Centrica, we are doing everything we can for our customers and in doing so we are creating a dynamic and empowered work environment for our people. We are really at the start of this journey and I’m very proud to be part of it.