LEAN + SCRUM + DESIGN THINKING: is this a “Frankestein”?

[fabio_almeida]

Well, maybe this is not usual but this was feasible, desirable and viable in our recent experience.

This year, a new initiative to foster collaboration among Support Consultants was launched at Product Support of SAP LABS Latin America. This project gives an opportunity for our Support Consultants to develop themselves, sharing best practices and creating action plans along 2015 to bring concrete results for our location in terms of better support experience to our customers.

Around 80 people are deep diving in each Support Consultant role, producing solid actions for customer incident deflection.

Our goals with this project are to:

• Disseminate/share proactive support best practices.
• Bring excellence in terms of documentation.
• Develop all Product Support roles in our location in an effective way.

Concept:

• Design Thinking techniques (warm ups, creative reframing + ideation + point-of-view + prototyping, feedback grid).
• LEAN principles (PDCA cycle, round table format, limited time: 8 weeks, small groups: max of 10 participants).
• SCRUM perspective (weekly objectives, sprint->status->sprint).
• 3 batches reaching 14 round tables/work groups, having one different Moderator per round table.

Achievements so far:

• Onsite service deliveries.
• New framework for proactive support.
• Troubleshooting guide pages.
• Blog postings in SCN.
• New SCN Wiki Channels.
• FAQ notes.
• Knowledge Base Articles.
• Meet the Expert Sessions.
• Quick-iq videos.
• Flavors of Screen Personas.
• New Supportability Tools.
• Incident Data Analysis study to evaluate why customer incidents are created.
• and more is coming soon…

Pros & Cons of mixing LEAN + SCRUM + Design Thinking:

• Pros:
  • Design Thinking makes the “P” phase (PLAN) of PDCA much more easier.
  • LEAN gives empowerment to Moderator to help participants, always putting the facts front and center. Work group relation is based on trust, where they can choose their own objectives and deliverables.
  • SCRUM makes the project more dynamic, establishing a good rhythm of work.

• Cons:
  • For those participants with strong background in one of three methodologies it is difficult to be open-minded. It can cause confusion to participants trying to expose techniques of their favorite method.

Kind Regards,

Fábio Almeida – Design Thinking Coach at SAP Labs Latin America