Applying Agile Beyond Software Development

A little while ago I checked in to a hotel room for a business trip. I completely forgot to ask whether they had a desk in the room, usually I expect one from this particular chain.

I need a desk because I like to work when I travel. However, on this particular visit there wasn't a desk in this room. So I went back downstairs to reception and asked them if they had any other rooms available that do have a desk. Nope.

This company had gone ahead and removed ALL desks from this particular location. They didn't remove maybe 50% of them and see the feedback from customers, nope, removed the lot of them in one go. When another guest who was also checking in overheard my conversation and realized there were no longer any desks in the rooms, he cancelled his booking there and then.

When I knew I wasn't going to get a desk I left and check-in to a rather nice alternative down the street.

It's a real shame, because this hotel chain could've avoided the whole situation if they had lived by a few simple agile principles.

The Danger of Ignoring Feedback

The easiest way for the hotel to learn through feedback from guests. I checked out immediately so that they got the message and would hopefully take it on board. I also hope they also took on-board the feedback that another guest cancelled his booking upon overhearing of no desks. 

Hopefully, they will re-install some desks in their rooms again and then make a measured move based on feedback.

Deliver Incrementally

The hotel should have removed the desks from the rooms incrementally. Not all in one-go.

Sure, it was probably cheaper to remove them together - but it will cost even more putting them back in again.

They should have removed maybe 50% of the desks and then awaited customer feedback to see what their guests preferred.

The thing is, guests in one location may be very different from guests in another location. So it's dangerous to assume the same guest desk preference across the globe. Treat each branch as a entity and approach the incremental approach on a case by case basis. That's being agile.

Agile Applies Beyond Software

The principles of agile software development apply well beyond software development. People are applying agile to their personal lives. Companies are being run with agile. Hardware is being developed with agile. Day-to-day problems are being approached with agile. 

Agile is a way of approaching problems.

To Your Success!

Nim Dhesi & the team at AgileVantage.io