Agility Defies the Lock Down

In the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, the seventeen signatories promised, amongst other principles, to “respond to change over following a plan”.

I doubt they anticipated the kind of change brought about by Covid-19. But when we were recently tasked with directing a series of workshops to iterate a new product with product managers, designers, engineers, architects and business stakeholders — thirty-seven in total — we had to respond with a 100% remote and digital way of working.

The abrupt shift in the way we were going to collaborate and ideate meant understanding how to manage and motivate a fully remote team, spread across six countries and three organisations, whilst simultaneously evaluating the technicalities.

Here we lay out our 10-step plan to Agile workshops in a Lock-Down.

Step 1: Select the appropriate digital platform that is fit for purpose

There is a plethora of collaboration and video conferencing solutions available. Which is great, save the issue of interoperability between them all. The confusion is compounded by research that highlights the average office worker has 5 or more apps open at any given time, so it’s important to choose wisely to avoid alienating participants.

Since we required video conferencing, real-time messaging and collaboration on digital dashboards, we had to find as few tools that could host as much of the work as possible. Any of the major video conferencing platforms in its enterprise version would allow for reliable and scaled communication (both video conferencing and real time messaging), but we also needed a separate visual collaboration and project management tool. In this dimension, two possible options emerged, Miro and Mural. Both tools are great, have different plans, including freemium and free trials and both would indistinctly fit the bill.

Step 2: First impressions count! Set expectations with a simple invite for the entirety of the project

With nearly forty participants, there were going to be many not familiar with some of the tools we chose. This meant clarifying the platforms, how they will be used and how everyone is expected to work.

Importantly, we needed to make it simple. The simplest technical misunderstanding could easily bring the project into difficulties. So we ensured a single video conference link for the duration of the workshops to prevent participants clicking on redundant URLs. We also built the online workspaces in the visual collaboration tool ready for people to register, and when following up with everyone, ensured they had created accounts and troubleshooted any problems before we went live.

Step 3: Build anticipation and excitement with a “Welcome Pack”

A holiday might seem a little way off right now, but let’s assume you are close to leaving for your Easter break. Your hotel or travel operator often sends you everything you can do and everywhere you can go to get you in the holiday vibe before you’ve even thought about packing! An agenda for workshops like this is really no different, and includes everything for participants to prepare:

a.    An inception agenda

b.    Pre-read materials

c.    Explanation of sessions and objectives

d.    Real time visual dashboard tool tutorial

e.    Real time visual dashboard access link

f.     Video-conference access link

g.    Recommendation guide and work agreements

Step 4. Host a short preparatory meeting with all attendees

A week before kicking off a thirty minute call will motivate everyone with the output of the inception. Aligning on a new product or service is a wonderful process, but doing it remotely is a great challenge, which can be overcome with everyone's drive! It is also a chance to test your tools in advance and "de-risk" access to visual collaboration tools, chat and video conferencing rooms. And also to collect feedback, doubts and concerns from participants before the real work begins.

Step 5. Create dashboards and artifacts in the visual collaboration tool, in a didactic and visual way

Whilst working in an agile manner allows for flexibility, it’s important to follow a process that helps your team collaborate. The more you can design, build and prepare for the duration of the workshop, the more the quality outputs will follow.

So we created all the necessary dashboards, organised by each day of the inception and inside each one, we created the necessary artifacts for the sessions (e.g. Product Vision Board or Product Is and Is Not), and we put a number and a title for each artifact in large letters for easy identification so that users can easily follow a sequence. We also leveraged from the platform's easy to use pre-designed templates to save time (e.g. User Story Map, Mind Maps, Customer Journeys, Release Maps, and Process Diagrams).

Useful slides and images were copy-pasted onto dashboards to help with dynamics (e.g. screens and designs crafted by the UX team or PowerPoint slides with instructions) and we eliminated any possible distractions from dashboards.

Step 6. Lights, CAMERAS, action; provide the necessary direction

In a fast paced Agile project you need to communicate often, which is why the next principle in the manifesto is face-to-face conversation as the best form of communication. By keeping cameras on you can take a litmus test on levels of agreement, supported by the chat function for participants to post technical questions that might need deeper consideration.

A good practice is to appoint a co-facilitator, who has the mission to periodically check and collect messages and raise questions from participants. In this case we used the chat of the video conferencing tool, with the advantage of having the possibility to exchange files through this channel, which was especially helpful for side sessions.

Step 7: Moving to and managing self-organising teams

It’s natural that you may decide to expedite discussions by parallel working in smaller groups, which meant creating separate dashboards for each group. But in order to maintain focus around the common goal, we ensured that each group designated a facilitator to keep check of progress and moderate the splinter groups.

Technically, we provided separate video conferencing links, and after the ‘breakout sessions’ all participants returned to the main video conference to share the outcome from their huddle.

Step 8: Maintaining Motivation

As a manager or director of the project, it is critical to maintain a level of enthusiasm, especially from non-active participants. Typically in face-to-face sessions everyone can judge the atmosphere and take their visual cue to contribute. But in a digital session the challenge is to enable a flow of opinions from participants without any one voice taking charge, so as to co-create and enrich the output.

Some practices in our project that proved to be effective included:

●     Allowing time for comments and feedback (e.g. feedback has a few seconds of "latency" until someone decides to speak and “un-mutes”)

●     Calling participants by name to give feedback (especially those who are not so vocal)

●     When receiving questions, repeat them to the audience to ensure understanding

●     Implementing a digital "raise your hand" mechanism so attendees are granted the appropriate space to speak (e.g. through the chat channel)

●     Allowing icebreakers to keep up enthusiasm, such as a screen grab of a participant’s desktop that allows colleagues a little insight into their personality or photos from the office window to help reflect on the challenges everyone is overcoming by working remotely

Step 9: After the session obtain feedback from participants and improve the dynamics for the next day

While this practice would also be executed in a physical inception, you must perform it with greater dedication in the digital format, with a special focus on the process and tools. Also take note of quieter individuals and request their input to encourage a higher degree of participation for the next day.

Step 10: Reflect and realise all that has been achieved

At the end of the inception, consolidate all the generated outputs and share with all participants. Both Miro and Mural can export dashboards into different formats (e.g. pdf, jpg or xlsx) which significantly simplifies the task, but also keep a real-time visual dashboard open so participants can review details of any session they were involved with.

Ultimately, the time commitment should never be underestimated. But by giving the team an umbrella perspective on all that has been discussed, it will leave them feeling a sense of pride and ownership over the inception and ideation of a new product.

Thank you to Carolina de la Rua, Sara Molano, Carlos Barrantes and Nicolas Rencoret for contributing to this article.

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