What is it? Why are you here? Why does your organisation exist? Is it just to please the shareholders? You will have heard the brilliant statement by Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” In his book, This Is Marketing, Seth Godin says. The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people truly want is the hole it makes.

What is it? An agile practice where two team members work together on one workstation (one keyboard and mouse) to implement a feature. Why use it? Enable knowledge sharing between team members. Increased quality of work as it is reviewed and improved simultaneously. Building of trust between team members. It is not for: Teaching domain Mentorship Showing code Getting confirmation Finding bugs How to do it? The team member behind the keyboard and mouse is the driver.

What is it? PMI is a quick and easy way to get people thinking for a retrospective. It can also be used at the end of the day as a team checkin for fast paced intensive work sessions, and can be used to facilitate the whole group populating an engagement journal entry. How to use it? This can be a whole group discussion, or done in pairs or threes, or even a solo reflection, writing exercise.

What is it? In a Lean UX Workshop, participants practice interviewing and learning about a user. Then, they prototype and refine a product that solves a real problem faced by that person. Why use it? This practice helps build a culture of user-centered design and lean UX. It’s a hands-on activity that can provide a break from presentations or technical workshops. It’s also a great icebreaker! How to facilitate Before each step, spend a minute or two explaining what participants will do and answering questions.

Story RePointing Grid Image What is it? Story RePointing is used to reconcile the size of a story completed by your team after the sprint is over. Teams will make new story point estimates based on the actual work done to complete a story, then compare that to the original estimation and calculate an Accuracy Differential for each completed story. Individuals can talk about why they thought a story was larger/smaller than originally estimated.

What is it? A Lean Canvas is a one-page document that captures key information about your future product. The Lean Canvas is frequently used by Entrepreneurs and Lean Startups. Why use it? This document will help structure your idea in terms of: What problem your product or service will solve Who your potential customers are How your product will be distributed and How you will make money from it. Variations Lean Canvas The Lean Canvas was created by Ash Maurya and based on the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder.