Practical Applications of Agile in a Non-Software World: Part 3 of 4

This is article three in a four-part series about applying Agile principles in a non-software environment (a new twist on an old concept). For a fun introduction, check out my first article speculating on how we might apply Agile to an alpaca-cheese pizza business, and my second article about meeting culture transformation at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

On a hot Saturday afternoon in late August I walked up to the warehouse with my daughter after hearing a local non-profit was collecting donations for Afghan refugees.?

Earlier that day I’d applied for other volunteer opportunities at local organizations but found nothing immediately actionable—they were only putting names on a list. I stood in my kitchen feeling restless as I watched the planes fly into Dulles airport, wondering how many of them were filled with refugees. To pass the time while I waited for responses, my daughter and I sketched—she drew pictures of children to welcome the Afghan youth to America and I sketched a hand reaching out to hold another.?

I grew increasingly compelled to help as I thought of the thousands of people steadily streaming into the Dulles Expo center three miles away with only a backpack to their names, uprooting their families and all the comforts of home to start a new life in a foreign land. I imagined myself in their shoes, leaving everything I know to flee to safety somewhere I didn’t speak the language, wasn’t familiar with their cultural customs, and had to rebuild my life. But to give my kids a chance at a better life? Yeah, I’d do it too, I empathized.

Serendipitously, a friend in the neighborhood posted about a local non-profit only a couple miles away needing donations and volunteers that afternoon, and within an hour my daughter and I were standing on site.?

At the warehouse, Baseem—the co-owner’s son—greeted us with a smile and led us to the sorting area for children’s clothing and baby items. I was immediately impressed by the number of people bustling around and filling boxes to be placed on a pallet for shipment to a military base that evening.?

My daughter and I sorted donations for about an hour, and on our way out I asked if there was anything else I could do. Baseem mentioned needing help with their website and social media, and my eyes lit up like a kid at a candy store.?

"That's what I do for a living!" I exclaimed, thinking what a privilege it would be to support them with my digital skills. I knew there was a community of people in the area, eager to mobilize, who just needed the information and tools to find a way to help.?

That night I returned with my computer and sat around a table with some of the volunteers I'd seen earlier that day, learning I had an unexpected connection to them through a mutual friend. We immediately started brainstorming all the marketing and PR activities we would need to prioritize for the weekend, and my Product Manager brain kicked into high gear.

My immediate inclination was to create a Trello board to capture and organize all our tasks as people rattled off a melange of to-dos. Initially I organized our lists by platform: set up social media pages, redesign the website, set up a sign up genius account, etc. Each of those verticals had several task cards representing the micro actions to support the delivery of that asset—for example, making the website font consistent (shoutout to Kylee for that suggestion!). We were able to quickly organize and prioritize our work visually. It was equivalent to throwing a bunch of sticky notes on the wall, but digitized.?

Saturday night we successfully created the Facebook and Instagram pages, and discussed a preliminary promotional and content strategy to boost followers.?

"We'll have a couple hundred followers within a few days," Baseem hypothesized. At the time it seemed like a stretch goal, but the power and interest of the surrounding communities took us by storm. After posting about it on our personal and community Facebook pages, our page propelled from 0 followers on 8/28, to 296 followers on 8/31, to 543 followers on 9/14. Within three weeks, AYRF’s Facebook posts had reached over 17,000 viewers and we had over 600 followers on Instagram.?

But we didn't stop there. Sunday we redesigned the entire website in a matter of hours, condensing the page structure to improve the menu, modernizing the layout and imagery, linking to recent news coverage on the organization, and editing the About Us story to help it resonate with viewers who want to learn more about AYRF’s roots establishing a children’s school in Afghanistan that now hosts over 800 students.?

Sunday night after I published the website, I thought about the family I saw boarding a bus at the expo center the night before. I’d stood there for a moment, trying to imagine myself in their position as I watched a mother with an infant on her shoulder and two young daughters move down the aisle to their seats. It reignited my desire to help in any way I could, because they deserve a chance at a happy life… maybe even a future STEM career!

In the weeks since, we modernized the logo (thanks, Mike Askew!), developed banners and other promotional material, and made continual updates to the website, like adding our sponsors. I restructured our Trello board into a true Kanban format, with lists to prioritize our work: things to do today, this week, eventually (our backlog), things we’re waiting on, and completed items. Now several of us use this as a collaboration tool to maintain focus.

I’ve been honored to watch and help this incredibly dedicated team work late hours in an occasionally stressful environment, but they have approached their processes with an Agile mindset, constantly iterating and improving—and not just in the digital space. To get some insights on the non-profit’s evolution over the last month in the world of logistics, volunteer management, and more, I spoke with Baseem Zeweri, Public Relations Officer.

Continuing our weekly meetings and being open to constructive criticism and opportunities for improvement in our processes will be core to our success...

How did you adapt to the volunteer requests you were getting in droves?

One of the first things we did was set up a sign-up genius to allow volunteers to self-organize. We initially scheduled one-hour time blocks but quickly learned that was too short. We modified our volunteer opportunities, offering two-hour time blocks instead. The following week we changed again by going to one-and-a-half hour time slots with opportunities for people to sign up as sorters or lifters, since we have some heavy lifting needs that require certain physical capabilities.?

Who do you consider to be the consumer? What have you discovered about their needs and how are you adapting?

I consider the Afghan refugees to be more like our beneficiary. Their needs are changing as the seasons change, so we’re trying to get ahead of that with the upcoming winter by coordinating winter coat drives and other seasonal activities.?

What is one of the biggest learnings you’ve had since you started organizing donations and volunteers for the Afghan refugees??

In the beginning it was hard to determine what their needs were because we didn’t know what they needed and everything was very sudden, but as time went on we got a better idea of where we were lacking in donations, where we had too many, and how to shift the focus.

How do you prioritize what to work on each day??

Our general goal is to sort through all the donations and have as many palleted and inventoried before the end of the night so they can be ready to be shipped out when needed. For example, we get immediate requests from places like Quantico that request certain orders, so having things already prepared helps us be more efficient.?

What kind of changes did you make as you expanded your digital strategy?

We realized many people were looking for basic information, so we created a digital list of the most needed donations (updated daily). We also added FAQs with auto responses in Messenger for Facebook and Instagram so potential volunteers and donors can answer their own questions, which frees us up to focus on other priorities.?

We wanted to make everything as easily accessible as possible, and the main way we did that was through the Linktree, which allows anyone who wants to help to find one condensed place with all the relevant information. We’ve also taken constructive criticism from our team to make our content more appealing.?

How did you decide on the branding for your new logo?

That process was iterative and involved opinions from many different people. Ultimately, we prioritized the key components of the logo to keep: the wheat represents food and nourishment, the tulip is the national flower of Afghanistan, the infinity sign is a symbol of unification, and the children are the focus of our mission. Our colors are derived from the Afghanistan flag. After several concepts, we nailed down the design and got everyone to agree to the change; now it’s something we’re all proud of.?

What kinds of logistical adjustments have you made as donation needs have shifted?

Getting more volunteers to box all our donations as quickly as possible to have them ready as the requests for donations come in, which comes back to our digital marketing strategy.?

We also modified our sorting process in the warehouse and assigned leads for the different areas (e.g., clothing, baby supplies, and heavy lifting) so volunteers would have clearer responsibilities and a dedicated point person to answer questions.

What have you learned about the process for raising awareness about your organization??

It started out very word-of-mouth, and as the Expo Center across the street had media waiting outside to catch a story, they turned around and saw people walking in and out of our organization with donations. One news source came running over and that prompted interest from a few more. Once they published their stories on us, it was the catalyst to us receiving phone calls from tons of different news organizations.?

We quickly gained recognition in the community from our efforts and were privileged to have a spontaneous visit from the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, Denis McDonough, that was set up by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who volunteered with us. We established joint efforts in the local communities through churches, schools, and other community groups. We’re currently working on highlighting our volunteers and our donations to give people confidence they’re making a difference.

How are you continually inspecting and adapting your processes as a team?

We recently decided to hold weekly team meetings since previously conversations were happening ad-hoc, sometimes with only a portion of the team present. We also instituted an events calendar so we are all aware when we have dignitaries, press, or other special guests scheduled to be on site. Our goal is to keep everyone on the same page.

What kinds of strategic relationships are you building?

I firmly believe that the small, local relationships are just as important as the big, nationwide ones. Our local community was there in the beginning and helped us make an impact on the lives of Afghans when they needed us most. It’s important to continue a healthy relationship with the local community as we pursue our strategy of providing nationwide support to Afghan refugees.?

Can you see yourself continuing to use inspiration from the Agile working methodology?

Continuing our weekly meetings and being open to constructive criticism and opportunities for improvement in our processes will be core to our success, especially as we begin to transition to focus on resettlement activities and other long-term strategies. Things change, people change, needs change. The children will get older and they’ll go from needing bikes to needing cars and we want to make sure we’re as prepared as possible for when that time comes.

If you’re interested in supporting the Afghanistan Youth Relief Foundation, check them out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, www.ayrf.org.?

#noregrets

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