In the agricultural age, it took 182 years to build Notre Dame cathedral. In the industrial age, it took Bell Labs 22 years to design the push-button telephone. In the design age, you can build big, huge systems as fast as you can connect different frameworks. You no longer have 22 years — much less 182 years. To succeed in the design age, product development has to evolve. Successful product teams have evolved into something akin to an emergency service: Triage to identify what needs fixing Treat acute, urgent problems as quickly and safely as possible Prescribe actions to prevent future problems Successful teams launch new products with big impacts quickly like a bomb going off: Boom. Successful teams are B.O.O.M. Units. In this presentation, we’ll examine the four attributes of these high-performing teams: Balanced teams: activate the talents of every team member Outcome-focused: teams focus relentlessly on the experience On-time delivery: each team member delivers their part just-in-time Maximized impact: team members choose the smallest change that creates the largest impact To illustrate these behaviors, we’ll look at four stories that show BOOM Units in action, and for each behavior, we’ll look at a tool you can start using when you go back to work on Monday morning. For developers, UXers, and project managers who want to deliver more innovation, you can transform your team for the inside out into high-performing BOOM Units.

1. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
Four tools to help evolve your team into a lean,
product development machine
B.O.O.M.Units

2. @austingovella
#boom
http://slideshare.net/austingovella/boomunits
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

3. In the Fall of 2013, we executed the perfect project. A
national furniture retailer asked my company to
redesign the home and product screens for their
ecommerce website. I worked with one of our best
project managers, one of our best visual designers, one
of our best technical architects, and sought frequent
feedback and critiques from leading minds inside our
organization. We identified goals, communicated them
relentlessly, framed every design decision as an
experiment around specific user-centered metrics, and
worked so collaboratively with the client, they pitched,
rationalized, and defended design decisions better than
we could. The team of brilliant engineers developed,
tested, and pushed the screens, so the client could
begin their ongoing testing and optimization.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

4. The perfect project failed.
Interactions couldn’t be measured, screens couldn’t be
optimized, conversions couldn’t be improved, furniture
wasn’t being sold, and it couldn’t be fixed so furniture
could be sold. In every way that mattered, the perfect
team with the perfect engagement with the perfect
process produced the perfect failure.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

5. The Agricultural Age
To sell 1 blanket:
1. Raise a bunch of sheep
2. Shear a bunch of sheep
3. Spin a bunch of wool
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015Wolf4max on FLickr

6. to sell 100 blankets
1. buy yarn from a bunch of farmers
2. pay a bunch of people
3. run wool through a bunch of looms
Library of Congress
The Industrial Age
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

7. This isn’t the information age or the experience
economy or the digital age. In the agricultural age,
agricultural processes drove the production of
products. In the industrial age, industrial processes
drive the production of products. In our age, production
is driven by how well you design your web of
frameworks. We live in the design age where you can
make anything anywhere faster than you can think.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

8. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
to sell 100,000 blankets
1. query a service that lists a bunch of blanket vendors
2. integrate a bunch of product information
3. publish a catalog of blankets

9. Architecture, design, and
development frameworks
accelerate pace of work
across a multiplicity of
platforms, channels, and
contexts. Teams deliver faster
than they can think.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

10. Diverse, uneven teams need
different architecture, design,
and development. There is no
one process.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

11. You have to work like an
emergency service:
1. Triage need
2. Provide first aid
3. Prescribe for the future
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

12. Balanced teams
On-time delivery
Outcome-focused
Maximum impact
B.O.O.M.Units
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

13. This is a way for modern teams
to approach problems,
not a solution to your problems.
Every project, team, product
will have different answers.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

14. Most people define learning as “problem solving,” so they focus
correcting errors outside of themselves and their teams.
You must also reflect on your process, identify how your process
contributes to the problem, and then change your process. You must
learn how the way you define and solve problems can be a source of
problems.
• A thermostat that turns on the heat whenever the temperature in a
room drops below 68 degrees is an example of single-loop
learning.
• A thermostat that could ask, “Why am I set at 68 degrees?” and
explore whether another temperature might be more economical
would be an example of double-loop learning.
Adapted from “Teaching smart people how to learn” by Chris Argyris, Harvard Business
Review, May-June, 1991.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

15. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
BALANCED TEAMS
everyone carries equal weight

16. At my current job, we have an on staff UI/UX person and
since we adopted Scrum across our entire team about two
months ago, she has been struggling...
I fear our UX person has basically just stopped participating
in team activities to everyone's detriment... I'd appreciate any
thoughts on how I might help her re-engage and figure out
how she might adjust her work to fit in better with an agile
process.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

17. Introduction
“When you’re in a Toyota plant (including San Antonio, where I live),
you see workers pulling the cords fairly frequently. And, when they
do, a team leader is there within seconds.”
Mark Graban, “Why Toyota is Eliminating the Andon Cord from its Factories"
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015Image source: allomaths.fr

18. With the Andon
cord, anyone can
stop the line and
not everyone needs
to know why.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

19. Balanced teams require that
everyone trusts everyone else’s
decisions. How do you ensure
you trust decisions made when
you’re not there? How do other
people trust you?
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

20. The Team Entangler
Tactic:
• Everyone attends all meetings
Benefit:
• Fuels shared learning
• Breeds shared vision
• Generates shared commitment
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
SPECIAL BOOM POWER

21. The Un-Entangler
Tactic:
• Everyone works independently
Benefit:
• Increases team’s work-in-process
• Allows flow and deep dives
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
SPECIAL BOOM POWER

22. Knowing what everyone is
responsible for helps you
work on your part alone and
pull in the right people when
you need to.
R - Responsible
A - Accountable
C - Consulted
I - Informed
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
UX
Business
analysis
Front-end
dev
Back-end
dev
Data C R A
Data format A R I A
Content R C I
Layout R A
Behavior R C A C
Visual
design
R A
HTML/CSS/
JS
C I R C
CMS
integration
I C R C
Application
integration
I C I R

23. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
OUTCOME-FOCUSED
vision,
not process

24. I had a reasonably well abstracted sense of the pillars of the
platform we needed to develop… [that] could create a shared
understanding and a shared vocabulary and (ultimately) a
whole lot less code. Unfortunately, when I began to work
with Vendor 1 they had no interest in hearing about my
pillars. They wanted to work from a simple vision and
hundreds of user stories that made no attempt to abstract
any concepts that could add to comprehension, achieve
efficiencies through reuse… They claimed that emergent
design and refactoring would do the trick. Well.... it is two
years later and we still don't have time to refactor and the
complexity of the poorly abstracted code means we
probably never will.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015https://www.scrum.org/Forums/aft/1222

25. 1 digital platform
3 internal departments
9 lines of business
43 websites
3 marketing agencies
my company
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

26. Outcome-focused teams
share a concrete, testable
vision of the future that allows
teams to work independently
and provides a common
language for collaboration.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

27. The Vision-Ator
Tactic:
• Collaboratively identify goals/vision
Benefit:
• Creates shared vision
• Creates shared language for
collaboration
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
SPECIAL BOOM POWER

28. Current state, goals, drivers, barriers, future state (vision), and measurement
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

29. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
ON-TIME DELIVERY
relays depend on hand-offs

30. As the technical architect, he’s on the hook for
delivering everything after this. If you keep changing the
design, then he won’t be able to deliver on time. We
have to extend the schedule and it will start costing us
$100,000 a week.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

31. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015Do people learn like buildings do

32. The Shelf-Inator
Tactic:
• When ready, place work on a “shelf”
Benefit:
• Manages slip between workstreams
• Enables “pull”
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
SPECIAL BOOM POWER

33. Early is a burden.
Don’t make your
team think about
things they don’t
need to.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

34. Waiting is inefficient.
Don’t make the team
wait on something
they need.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

35. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
MAXIMUM IMPACT
Just enough for you is just enough for the team

36. I won’t have it ready for review until tomorrow. I need to
go clean it up.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

37. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

38. Deliver exactly what you
need and no more.
Complete the smallest task
that gives you the biggest
value the fastest way.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

39. The User-Nator
Tactic:
• Right-fidelity user models
Benefit:
• Identifies key user attributes
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
SPECIAL BOOM POWER

40. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
User Sales Manager
Sammy Sales
Manager
Sam Crawford,
Sales Manager
TASKS
What will they do with
the system?
x x x x
CONTEXT
When, where, and how
often will they use the
system?
x x x
INFLUENCERS
What pain points,
outcomes, and barriers
affect usage?
x x
BONUS: UNKNOWNS
What do we not know
that we don’t know?
x

41. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
BUSINESS GOAL USER PROFILE DATA RESEARCH METHODS
Identify content and functionality
Task-based profiles
What do users do?
1.Stakeholder interviews
2.Competitive analysis
Improve efficiency
Reduce errors
Improve output quality
Context-based profiles
When/where/how do they interact?
1.Web analytics
2.Usability testing
Improve conversion
Improve adoption
Improve retention
Increase engagement and/or social activity
Influence-based
What barriers, drivers, and outcomes drive interaction?
1.Contextual inquiry
2.Customer interviews
3.Customer surveys
4.Customer focus groups
Maximize customer value (final optimization)
Defend existing markets from disruption
Innovate new markets
Disrupt existing markets
Unknown unknowns
Analysis identifies new and untapped methods of
segmentation.
1.Ethnographic research
2.Diary studies

42. Don’t do more until
you need it, and no
earlier.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

43. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
BECOMING A B.O.O.M.UNIT
I want
you.

44. Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy
tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
GK Chesterton
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

45. Introduction
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
Here, there be
DRAGONS!!!

46. Become A B.O.O.M.Unit
• BALANCE YOURSELF
Entangle yourself with your team
• FOCUS ON OUTCOMES
Focus on the experience instead of your tasks and deliverables
• DELIVER JUST-IN-TIME
Help you and your team stay productive
• MAXIMIZE IMPACT
Choose the smallest thing with the largest impact
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

47. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015By Jacob Botter on Flickr
Ask!!!

48. You don’t learn to
ride a bike by
reading a book. You
need practice and a
willingness to
explore.
Nothing Is Written, Johnnie Moore and Viv McWaters, 2015
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

49. Defensive Reasoning
(Is Bad)
Defensive reasoners ask:
• How can I remain in control?
• How can I maximize “winning” and minimize
“losing”?
• How can I reduce negative feelings?
Negative feelings include embarrassment, threat,
feeling vulnerable, or incompetent.
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

50. Introduction
B.O.O.M. Units Are Offensive,
Not Defensive
Offensive reasoners ask themselves:
• How can I share control?
• How can I focus on learning?
• How can I build trust on my team?
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

51. Defensive learners
fous on “me”
Offensive learners
focus on “we”
Keep control Share control with the team
Maximize “winning” Focus on learning
Reduce negative feelings Trust your team
Introduction
B.O.O.M. Units Are Offensive,
Not Defensive
From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015

52. From “B.O.O.M. Units: Four steps to evolve your team into a lean, product development machine” by Austin Govella, Sep 2015
THANK YOU