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2. both complex and extremelydifficult. There are many Decision-Choosing the right projects isvariables to consider and theprocess can be very timeconsuming. At the same timeMakingpokerit might be one of the mostimportant decisions acompany has to make. 3. 2%79%Answered that alignment Answered that the executives between IT & Business is are knowledgeable in Agile better from Agile [VersionOne annual survey 2012][VersionOne annual survey 2012]1 % 64%Answered that alignment65%Of the global workforce isAnswered that the unsupported, detached, orproduct managers are between IT & Business is the disengaged.knowledgeable in Agile highest or very important[Global workforce study 2012, Tower Watson] [VersionOne annual survey 2012][VersionOne annual survey 2012]Conclusion. This is not acceptable. Only a fraction of executives and businessmangers have learn anything about being adoptable. Alignment between businessand IT / development is of highest interest if your are planning stay in business.Including your employees, or as I like to call tem, your talents in the strategicdecision-making is not an option. It is a necessity. 4. Scoring models show many different, veryA fundamental truth is that people who have notpositive features when compared withhad a hand in crafting something will invariablymore traditional decision-makingresist its implementation.strategies. Not only do they produce greatstrategic alignment but they also suit the - Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Portfoliomodern pragmatic management style. SoManagement for new productslets use them more.At this time there isnt one decision model that alone solves everyFinancial models dont work early on as decision-making tools, butproblem. Nor will there ever be. But one thing that many modelsthey do offer a couple of things we need. They state thehave in common is that they are designed for management only,assumptions we make and the constraints on Cost of Development.sometimes exclusively for upper management. This approachThese are both important factors.does not really fit well with self-organizing teams, empoweredpeople, or bottom-up, emerging, agile organizations. If you believeStrategic approaches work well, since they choose strategicallythat these attributes are good for your organization, then you aligned projects, but they are usually organizationally top-downmight want to review your decision-making model. driven. This needs to be revised, strategy is far too important to be left to strategy folks. Bring in the teams.A decision model fit for choosing the direction of your company,which acknowledges the fact that we dont have time to wait for Bubble diagrams work well to understand the balance of yourmanagement to decide, should be based on a bottom-upportfolio, but fail to illustrate resource limitations and time-to-marketapproach. The model should allow the people that are supposedfactors which are also important in choosing projects.to deliver the solution to take part in choosing whether they shoulddo one thing over another. Scoring models on the other hand can be adapted to be multi- purpose, adding parts from other models where appropriate.Not only will you use the collective intelligence of the company,Scoring models are also super easy and time efficient inbut also you will get people doing what they want to do. A personcomparison to other methods, and can also be easily integrated intowho is told what to do, even with a good understanding of what isiterative thinking.required, may not be as energized as someone who gets tochoose. If you want committed, energized people, you might wantThere are some mechanisms which can create a reinforcingto consider involving them in the decision process.feedback loop when people work together in deciding a way forward. These include Fair Process, Immersion, the Wisdom of the Crowd and the Law of Diffusion of Innovation. Lets take a closer look before we get to the techniques of Decision-making Poker. 5. The power of Fair Process Voluntary cooperation is more than mechanicalexecution, where people do only what it takes toWhen Im not in the room where people get by.are making decisions, I know that they aremaking the wrong ones. At least that is- W. Chan Kim & Rene Mauborgne,what it feels like.Blue Ocean StrategyIf you want people to be committed, they have to be involved inthe process of choosing what they are supposed to do. If you wantthem to go beyond what is expected of them, the decision-making Fair Processprocess must be fair.Strategy formulationEngagementExplanationFair Process encourages people to trust the system(organization). processExpectation clarityPeople care as much about how just a process is, as they careabout its outcome. This means the fairness of the process ofchoosing projects is as important as the fairness of the Trust and commitmentprioritization resulting from these choices. AttitudesI feel my opinionFair Process encourages the alignment of people according tocountsstrategy, by creating buy-in opportunities up front. When peopleare involved in the creation of strategy they trust the organizationthey belong to.Voluntary CooperationThere are three E:s that define Fair Process. Behavior Ill go beyond the call ofduty Engagement; By involving individuals in the strategic decisions that affect them, people feel respected. Explanation; When everyone involved and affected understands Exceeds expectations why decisions are made the way they are, people trust their management.Strategy Execution Self-initiated Expectation; When people know what the key assumptions of the projects are, they a more likely to plan their own time better to meet dead-lines, budget constrains, etc. [Source: Blue Ocean Strategy] 6. Importance of Immersion in People tend to be so immersed in the activity oflocal interactions second order abstractions that they do not take a reflexive, reflective, attitude to what they are doing.We have become addicted tosimplifications and models, and thereforewe loose sight of what is happening until itis too late. To be able to make good - Ralph Stacey, Complexity andorganizational realitydecisions we need to immerse ourselves inlocal interaction.When we sitting in a conference room and discussing plans, Now we need both the first and second order abstractions to run abudgets, resource allocations and possible future scenarios, wecompany, but we shouldnt keep them separate or operate themare pre-occupied with a second order abstraction game. Confusedseparately. Second order abstractions have to be immersed.about what this means? Probably just as confused as you areabout what is happening in your organization, even if you dontImmersion is the activity of bringing together, filling in, expanding,know it. and elaborating on abstractions. This is what we do when we discussing plans, budgets, etc. We immerse ourselves in theA first order abstraction is the activity of creating a mental model second order abstractions. But to understand what is really going onof your real life experience, this is commonly done by narratives. we also need immersion in local interaction. We need to find outFor example when you have met with a customer and you areabout the first order abstractions, and sometimes we have totelling your colleague about the experience. experience the real world in order to understand these stories. In short, leave the conference room and talk to the people who haveA second order abstraction is a categorization, measurement, orreal customer experience, and go out and meet with somemodeling of a first order abstraction, with the aim of exercisingcustomers. It is the only way to fully understand what is going on.some form of control over it. For example, you summarize whatyou experienced with the customer and give it to you boss. She The result will be faster decision-making with a better gut feeling oftakes it with her to a board meeting where it is discussed. Thewhat is right.board then tries to take control of the outcome from a distance, bysay, planning for a new product. 7. The Wisdom of CrowdsDiversity and independence are importantWhen a large group of individuals because the best collective decisions are theproduct of disagreement and contest, notestimate, reason, or score differentconsensus or compromise.alternatives, the average result has beenfound to be as good as, or even better,than the estimates of only a few individual - James Surowiecki, The wisdom ofcrowdsexperts.By letter all members in an affected social system be part of To best work with large groups of individuals and utilize the Wisdomscoring projects for execution and priority, an even better resultof the Crowd, three practices are recommended by Jamescan occur than if the task was left to Product Managers only. Surowiecki, author of the book The Wisdom of crowds:Known advantages of the Wisdom of the Crowd are:1. Keep you ties loose. Meaning, have many weak relations to The judgment of the market situation can be much faster, morepeople rather than a few strong ones. accurate and less subject to political forces, than that of expert 2. Keep your self exposed to as many diverse sources as possible. committees.3. Make groups that range across hierarchies. Common understanding within a social system shows surprisingly accurate judgments when it comes to coordination. Groups of people can create networks of trust that do away with the necessity of a central authority controlling their behavior or directly enforcing compliance. 8. Diffusion of InnovationDiffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels, over time, among the members of a social system.Before a strategy can be successful it must bewidely adopted in order to self-sustain.Different people tend to adopt innovations, orin this case new strategies, at different rates. - Everett Rogers, Diffusion ofWhen executing a strategy we want people toInnovationsadopt it as fast as possible, correspondingly wewant the diffusion time of the strategy to asshort as possible.Innovation is an idea, practice or object, that is perceived as new byan individual or population. For example a newly prioritized backlog,or a new project execution order, can be viewed as an innovationwithin an organization. The process of getting a social system to adopt an innovation, is aThere are three types of innovation-decisions that can occur with the decision-making process.adoption of a new idea.It occurs through a series of communication channels, over aperiod of time, among the members of the same social Optional innovation-decision; Where the decision is made by an system [Wikipedia]. individual independent from others within the social system Collective innovation-decision; Where the decision is made By involving the members of a social system in the development of collectively by all individuals in the social system innovation, the time from when a decision is made until everyone Authoritarian innovation-decision; Where the decision is made foraccepts it, is shortened. Even the laggards may come to see that the entire social system by individuals in positions of influence or there is no option but to move forward with everyone else. powerBy letting all members be part of decision-making, decisions will beGuess which type will shorten the execution time of a new strategy? both collective and authority based. This can also speed things up. 9. Decision-Making Poker1. Story telling. The Product Manager, Product Owners, CTO, CEO and everyone involved in strategic work, present the preparedDecision-Making Poker consists of simple,material in a story telling fashion. 1 hour is the maximum timeproven, absorbing processes which make itrecommended for this, after that people start falling asleep. Make sure everyone has coffee.a powerful and fun exercise. It is designedto handle complexity, strategic alignment2. Divide all those invited, which should be practically everyone employed, even the cleaning lady (she might know more than youand to work as catalyst for energizing think), into groups of 5 +/-2.employees. 3. Choose a group member to collect the scoring data.Decision-Making Poker is a tool for portfolio management. Itcaptures the collective intelligence of multiple perspectives. The 4. Go through the rules and the Scoring model before you start soworkshop should be performed frequently, each quarter or that everyone understands the process.more. It does not require any significant market research, datacollection or time consuming meetings spent trying to reach a5. Someone from each group reads a One-Page Project Story to theirconsensus among those responsible. But it does require group.preparation. 6. Everyone in the group selects a score for the first factor and showsBefore the workshop the following material should be gathered: it to the group simultaneously. It is important to stress that people Company market trendneed to score what they think before they see anyone elses score. Business Model Competitor Stories7. The lowest and highest score each explain the reason why they Customer Storiesscored the way they did. This is one of the important parts. It is Project One-Page Storiescalled Sense-Making. Business Cases Project assumptions Continue 10. 8. Agree on a shared score for the factor with consensus within thegroup. Watch out for alpha personalities exerting to much influencehere as this can destroy collective wisdom. Repeat for the nextfactor9. When all factors have been scored, sum up the project score andthen continue with the next project.10.When all projects are scored, line them up in order of how theyscored and discuss the reasons for each projects priority within thegroup.11.Rescore if you think it is necessary, now that you can see therelative prioritization.12.The workshop is over.13.The Product Managers and Product Owner collects the scorecards and adds up all of the data then visually presents the scoredprioritized list of projects.The scored prioritized list may not be the actual order of execution butis defiantly a good input. Other circumstances might exist why acertain order of execution is needed BUT it is very important tocommunicate why the prioritized list is different from the execution list. 11. Project Scoring CardRating scaleKey Factors 135 710RatingStrategy alignment Very lowLow ModerateStrongVery strong Team energy factor If you pull out Do I have toI guess itId love to be There is onlya gun makes sense on this project one project for me. This One! Bang for the Buck < 0.50.5 -1.0 1.0 -1.51.5 - 2.0 > 2.0IndexAssumption rateVery lowModerateHigh Very highverication of Low verication verication of verication of verication of assumptions of assumptions assumptionsassumptions assumptions (very risky)(risky) (medium risk)(low risk) (very low risk) Estimated customer Very low LowModerate High Very highvalueIf we dont doTime-to-makret Not at all Not reallyCritical Very criticalit now we cancriticalskip itSum 0Suggested factors for a Project Scoring Card. StrategicThe Assumption rate factor reflects the scale of unverified assumptionsalignment to make sure the project is in accordance with the that may pose a risk to the project if not correct. Estimated Customerstrategic business model. Team energy factor is important to Value is a measure of what value everyone thinks the project will bringcapture because a high team energy project is likely to have to the customer. The last Time-to-market-critical factor, is a reflection ofhighly motivated individuals working on it, maximizing its chances how time critical the project is seen to be.of success. Bang for the Buck Index is an index which capturesboth resources, financial impact and time-to-market (very Agile).Note! These are only suggested factors. You should create scoring cardsThe Bang for the Buck Index numbers should reflect yourwhich are tailor made for your circumstance.projects financial data. 12. Example1. The CEO, the Chief Product Owner and the Product Owners tell everyone about the market situation, and how the company business model is adapting to it What are the competitors doing and whats new from our customers? What projects are in the backlog which align with our business model and tactics, that answer new customer needs or new moves by our competition 13. Example Each project is scored for each factor.2. The CEO, Chief Product Owner and Product Owners are walking around and answering questions, explaining things that are unclear. Make sure that there is plenty of coffee and other social event energizers to increase the fun factor. 14. Example3. When all projects are scored the score cards are collected 15. Example4.The Product Management team sorts and aggregatesthe scores and updates the priority order of the projects.The new order is communicated to allwho participated in the work shop 16. Ok, whats next?Now you might have tried Decision-Making Using Decision-Making Poker frequently will facilitate better marketPoker, hopefully with great results. Its nowresearch and allow you to follow trends much faster. The more frequently you perform it the better you can adapt it to be useful.time to integrate it into the iterative strategy Being more up to date can mean that you only have to revise parts ofprocess. your business plan at any one iteration, giving you better structure and consistency. In short it helps with all of the things that makes Agile work so well.Choosing the direction of your company, and what projects toimplement to achieve that direction, is not a one time or yearly So how frequent is frequent? That depends on your business. But asactivity. It needs to be integrated with the development process. If you a rule of thumb you can quarter your traditional cycles. In the sameonly understand why you do something once a year, the energy can way as with Scrum, or Kanban or whatever Agile process you use,run out well before the year ends. And sometimes the way you explore and re-design until it works.understand it is no longer relevant by that time. So Its important tocontinuously assess and update. To get quick wins, we need to seeHappy decision-making!that the next release adds to the current strategy.Strategy also needs to be adapted more frequently now days, due tomore dynamic markets and competition.The process of making a marketing/business plan is usually painful,time consuming and, in my experience, different from one time to thenext due to different people performing it. There is little consistency.Agile Product Management Framework (A-PMF ) 17. Decision-Making Poker Cards1 3 5 7 10Very low, countme out, not right now Low, notlooking forward to, could waitModerate, whynot, we shouldstart soon High, count mein, time criticalVery high, who do I have to kill to be on this one, rightnow?I have no idea,get the ProductOwner over here to explain 18. Project Scoring CardRating scale Key Factors1 3 5 710 RatingStrategy alignment Very low LowModerate Strong Very strongTeam energy factorIf you pull out Do I have to I guess I makes Id love to be There is only a gunsenseon this project one project forme. This One! Bang for the Buck< 0.50.5 - 1.0 1 - 1.51.5 2.0 >2.0Index Assumption rateVery lowModerate Very highverication of Low verication verication of High verication verication of assumptions of assumptions assumptionsof assumptionsassumptions (very risky)(risky) (medium risk)(low risk) (very low risk) Estimated customer Very low LowModerateHigh Very highvalue If we dont do itNot at all Not really Critical Very critical now we can skipTime-to-makret critical it Sum 0 19. Johan Oskarsson@johanoskarssonInspirational sourceswww.captaintrouble.comPortfolio Management for new Products Robert CooperManagement 3.0 Jurgen AppeloThe Product Managers desk reference Steven HainesBusiness Model Generation Alexander OsterwalderInnovation Killers Clayton ChristensenComplexity and organizational reality Ralph StaceyBlue Ocean Strategy Kim Mauborgne, Thanks to David Jackson for editing and theoretical dialogues.