Lean & mean innovation machine • 6
In the world of software/product development, waste refers to any team activity that does not add value from the customer’s perspective. By continuously identifying and eliminating waste, agile teams can dramatically boost productivity and improve quality of work. What are the implications for x-functional teams working in the fuzzy front-end of service innovation?
In this blogpost, I will reintroduce the nine types of waste, present five strategic ways to eliminate waste, and discuss the pros and cons of looking at team performance through the lens of lean thinking and agile practices.
Recap: Wastes 1–9 in upstream innovation projects
W1. The cost of incongruity. The team is creating project deliverables, assets, and solutions that do not seem to fit organizational quests, cultures, and/or capabilities.
W2. The cost of irrelevance. The team is creating deliverables, assets, and solutions that service actors do not seem to need, want, or use.
W3. The cost of complexity. The team is creating project deliverables, assets, and solutions that service actors find too complex to understand, implement, adopt, adapt, and/or reuse.
W4. The cost of rework. The team is altering delivered work that should have been done correctly but was not.
W5. The cost of idle/waiting time. The team (or team member) is waiting for input and/or spending time on low-priority/non-value-added steps, activities, or tasks.
W6. The cost of distractions. The team (or team member) is getting sidetracked by internal or external time-wasters.
W7. The cost of extraneous cognitive load. The team (or team member) is suffering from unneeded expenditure of mental energy.
W8. The cost of psychological distress. The team (or team member) is burdened with unhelpful stress, which may lead to physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.
W9. The cost of non-utilized talent and knowledge loss. The team is suffering from underutilization and/or loss of knowledge, skills, and experience.
Figure 1. Nine types of waste in upstream innovation projects mapped to the dimensions Product, Process, and People. By continuously identifying and eliminating waste, agile teams can boost productivity (Process + People) and improve quality of work (Product + People).
Five strategic ways to reduce/minimize/eliminate wastes 1-9
► Take a step back and look at the bigger picture
Craft a human-centered, purpose-driven North Star; build a compelling case for change; and instill a sense of urgency (across the organization)
Uncover long-term opportunities for industry and market disruption (rather than ‘just’ chasing short-term value creation)
Identify portfolio gaps based on long-term consumer trends, emerging technology, and industry disruptions
Flatten hierarchies and smash silos through decentralized decision-making, self-managing units and groups, radical transparency, and knowledge sharing
Retrain leaders to become coaches and servant leaders (facilitative leadership)
Recruit people with a customer-centric, collaborative, creative, and entrepreneurial mindset
Promote agile and customer-centric ways of working, and recognize and reward the right behaviors
Drive continuous learning and improvement, encourage talent mobility and skill-building, and bolster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts
Hold leaders accountable for healthy workplaces, lifestyles, and behaviors
Redesign/optimize team workflows for moments that matter in the project lifecycle (such as onboarding, data collection, and participatory decision-making) built on best practices and best-in-class collaboration tools
Build capabilities in machine learning, adaptive AI, and intelligent automation to add firepower and alternative perspectives in moments that matter (such as collective sensemaking and systematic ideation).
Shape compelling projects that provide purpose, meaning, focus, and direction for teams
Introduce systems, workflows, and rituals for capturing, storing, sharing, and transferring knowledge.
► Set teams & members up for success
Redesign recruiting & onboarding processes for better team composition and dynamics
Provide training to improve collaboration and boost team performance (critical thinking, lateral thinking, divergent & convergent thinking, hybrid work, etc.)
Clarify project purpose, project plan, and team roles & responsibilities (upfront or over time depending on the ambiguity and ‘fuzziness’ of the project)
Clarify project methodology upfront (and be mindful of mixing and matching methodologies & tools)
Discuss and agree upon the right mix of collaboration modes and tools for hybrid work environments
Manage expectations with project stakeholders and push back early on unreasonable deadlines
Build in slack in project plans
Build in recovery & rest time in and between projects
► Boost team adaptability, nimbleness, velocity, resilience, etc.
Make teams truly autonomous and self-organizing (encourage and empower leaders to let go)
Cultivate a strong, cohesive team culture with shared beliefs, attitudes, rituals, and habits
Embrace the upfront ambiguity and ‘fuzziness’ of upstream projects (don’t emerge/converge too quickly)
Challenge project assumptions, reframe problems, and revise hypotheses through research, experimentation, and prototyping
Insert ample opportunities for experimentation, prototyping, and stakeholder feedback into the end-to-end process
Identify strategic opportunities to stop, reflect, learn, and adapt throughout the process
Encourage in-project upskilling and x-skilling
Encourage teams to make project deliverables, assets, features, and solutions that intentionally can be reused for other projects/programs
► Streamline team workflows & dynamics
Introduce team rituals for feedback, reflection, learning, and adaptation (to continuously remove impediments and optimise the flow of value)
Instil a culture of continuous, multi-directional feedback within the team and between team and stakeholders
Make teams truly autonomous and self-organizing (leaders need to let go)
Encourage and embrace multiple perspectives, workstyles, and personalities
Agree upon team process and rituals for participatory/collaborative decision-making
Incorporate proactive solutions for conflict management
Build team empathy and pay attention to team health & wellness
Introduce the role of an independent process coach (like a Scrum Master)
Redesign workflows and introduce workflow automation of mundane tasks if possible
Use machine learning and adaptive AI to provide extra firepower and alternative perspectives when required
Shield team members from time-wasters (e.g., unnecessary administrative duties)
Simplify support processes and systems (e.g., time & expense management)
► Set stakeholders & end-users up for success
Manage expectations upfront with project stakeholders with regard to project purpose, plan, and timeline (in particular for upstream projects)
Co-create solutions with project stakeholders and end-users for better engagement, relevancy, and buy-in
Simplify and hide complexity in project deliverables, assets, and solutions whenever possible
Co-create business cases, roadmaps, and other assets to streamline implementation efforts
Make it easier for stakeholders and users to understand, embrace, and adopt delivered work through familiarity, compatibility, onboarding, training, incentivization, etc.
Educate/train end-users how to best use delivered work in their day-to-day work or lives
Pros and cons
What are the pros and cons of looking at team performance in upstream innovation projects through the lens of lean thinking and agile practices?
Advantages
Relentless focus on the customer/end-user
Relentless focus on team collaboration, productivity, and performance
Relentless focus on continuous feedback, learning, and improvement
Feels relevant for most (if not all) innovation & delivery methodologies
Disadvantages
Teams or individuals may be resistant to change
Teams may not be empowered to make decisions, overcome impediments, and optimise the flow of value
Teams may not embrace the notion of continuous feedback, learning, and improvement
Teams may struggle to resolve/handle ongoing tensions between productivity and quality of work in specific moments that matter in the project lifecycle (such as data collection & sensemaking or ideation & concepting)
Teams may encounter organizational impediments that prove hard to remove/reduce, such as inappropriate/unhelpful planning cycles, reporting structures, and performance management systems
Investment required for redesigned workflows, team upskilling, new collaboration tools, etc.
No direct reference to how to best manage the golden triangle of project management, or how an agile mindset flips the golden triangle on its head – see Team Asana (2022) for a brief introduction
References
Bau, R. (2020). Nine types of waste in software development [unpublished]. Assignment in PROJ_PMI 403-0. School of Professional Studies, Northwestern University.
Design Partners. (2022). Exploring the problem space: Unleashing the human potential in teams [unpublished]. Project work for DELL about the future of collaboration.
Sedano, T., Ralph, P., & Péraire, C. (2017). Software development waste [Conference paper]. ICSE 2017, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Team Asana. (2022). What is the project management triangle and how can it help your team? Asana.
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