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The Experimentation Mindset

The Experimentation MindsetDoc Norton

Global Director of Engineering Culture doc@groupon.com

@DocOnDev

Fixed Mindset

Redwood Bonsai - This is a life constrained

Growth (Agile) Mindset

Redwood Tree - This is a life freed

Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition

Novice

Novice • Little or no knowledge • Little or no experience • Need rules • Impatient for results • focus on how over why • Generally one teacher Need a mentor and close monitoring

Advanced Beginner

Advanced Beginner • Some experience • Can find information • Break free of some rules • Can’t filter irrelevant information • Can’t determine importance

Need experience in limited and controlled real-world situations

Competent

Competent • Have a mental model • Associations formed • Can handle the unknown • Methodical • Thinking still steeped in “right” and “wrong”

Need a variety of real-world situations to form connections between already held ideas and models

Proficient

Proficient • Interested in big picture • Impatient with over-simplified information • Grasp and apply maxims - YAGNI, Do the Simplest Thing That Can Possibly Work • Internalization • Potential to become an investigator / experimenter

Need a lot of practice, hindered as little as possible by policies or guidelines

Expert

Expert • True Authority • Developed Intuition • Deep pool of knowledge • Can Interlink Skills • Tend to be inarticulate in how they arrive at conclusions • Passionate Advocate for True Learning (having experienced it)

Continue to practice. Learn by teaching.

Where are You?

Most think they’re expert

Most think they’re expert

Most never progress past proficient

Most stay stuck at proficient

From Implementation

These first few stages are all similar in that …

Implementation Mindset

Get it Right

A+To progress from beginner to competence and into proficiency, our focus is on getting it right. Earning good grades. NOT making mistakes. This is a focus on implementation.

From Implementation to Experimentation

But the next phase of growth requires a change…

Experimentation Mindset

Explore Different Ways

But to progress from Proficiency into Mastery, we must experiment and learn unencumbered by rules and constraints. We need to get it wrong and then make it better. We need to explore different ways.

Need a lot of practice, hindered as little as possible by policies or guidelines MUST EXPERIMENT to move PAST PROFICIENT

From Implementation to Experimentation

To progress from beginner to competence and into proficiency, our focus is on getting it right. Earning good grades. NOT making mistakes. This is a focus on implementation.

But to progress from Proficiency into Mastery, we must experiment and learn unencumbered by rules and constraints. We need to get it wrong and then make it better.

Need a lot of practice, hindered as little as possible by policies or guidelines MUST EXPERIMENT to move PAST PROFICIENT

Telephone Sales

Telephone Sales

Telephone Sales

Telephone Sales

Follow the Script

This is gonna go GREAT!

It didn’t go so GREAT

Ptolemy Janet Raphael Susan Kathy Tommy Doc Chris P.

Weekly Sales Rankings

3 weeks in a row below the line and you’re out. 5 weeks in an 7 week period and you’re out. The line was not a set sales target. This was strict rank and yank. 25% of people were ALWAYS below the line.

Watch the Master

my name is ____________________ …Ptolemy MichelakakisPat MichaelsGood Day!Hello (sir/madam),

Experiment

Jokester

Experiment

Demanding

Experiment

Calmly Confident

Experiment

Played Dumb

Experiment

Was just friendly

Top in Sales!

Doc Ptolemy Janet Kathy Tommy Raphael Susan Andy

Weekly Sales Rankings

I’d like to see you in my office.

Not the feedback I was expecting

“The script is proven. It is a best practice. We need to follow best practices to get the best results.”

My last day

On the day I decided was my last day, for my last phone call, I stood on my desk. Then Tommy stood, then Kathy, then Ptolemy, then others…. I closed that call. I sold a gentleman 3 years of Field and Stream Magazine. And I gladly left.

“Best” Practices

Best Practices are a misnomer. The very notion is steeped in a Fixed and Implementation Mindset. They create artificial boundaries for our learning.

Implementation Mindset

Get it Right

A+They wanted me to get it right. Follow the script. Practice the script. Get better at the script. The script was their Best Practice. I was violating best practices.

More organizations need an experimentation mindset

Single Loop Learning

Assumptions Actions Outcomes

Get it Right

This is what Chris Argyris calls Single Loop Learning. We hold fast to underlying assumptions, such as the notion of a best practice. Operating in this context, we prioritize how good we are at following the practice over how well we’ve achieved the actual goal. Incremental Improvement & Little innovation (if any at all)

A focus on getting it right creates an environment where failure is hidden. Want to look good. Deceit => Suspicion => Contempt => Dark Side

Double Loop Learning

Assumptions Actions Outcomes

Get it Right

Explore Different Ways

Double Loop Learning Challenge our base assumptions - remember your purpose • Don’t just get better at code reviews; consider how else you can

• Share knowledge, Enforce Standards, Maintain Quality • What if we didn’t have - Annual goals, quarterly financials, managers or hierarchy… • How do we KNOW the latest management/leadership/process trend will work here?

Experimentation Mindset

Explore Different Ways

The experimentation mindset moves us from not only getting better at how we do things, but finding better ways to do them.

“Best” Practices

Instead of “Best” Practices

“Leading” Practices

Think of them as “Leading” Practices

Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition

Montessori Schools and other “alternative” educational formats

Experimentation

Experiment Configuration

Finch - homage to Darwin

Experiment Monitoring

Panopticon

Build Status

Application Performance

Cumulative Flow

Team Velocity

Code Quality

Code Quality

Retrospectives

Interest Leagues

Interest Leagues

Communities of people with common interests, related to work, but not directly about delivery of a Groupon project.

Java League, Node League, Ruby League, On-Boarding League, Speaker League

These groups create our standards. Standards come from the people who do the work. They come from a team self-selected and self-organized people from all over the globe.

Internal Hack Fest

GeekOn

Two (or more) times per year - Engineering and Product take a week to hack. Cannot be part of your regular work Have to be able to squint at it and see Groupon

Projects are voted on and Executive team funds them for additional 20% time

Culture Clubs

Culture Clubs

Volunteers in each office. Plan office events - parties, charity drives, in-chair massage

Culture clubs meet to share ideas and tips. Coordinate events across offices for some occasions.

GEMs Program

GEMs program

Groupon Enrichment and Mentoring

360 Feedback

360 Feedback

Several Teams were doing this already. Launched multi-team pilot to see if we could spread this throughout the organization.

The Check-In

The Check-In Form => Histograms => Overall

01 - I know what's expected of me at work. 02 - I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right. 03 - At Groupon, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. 04 - In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. 05 - My manager, or someone at Groupon, seems to care about me as a person. 06 - There is someone at Groupon who encourages my development. 07 - At Groupon, my opinions seem to count. 08 - The mission/purpose of Groupon makes me feel my job is important. 09 - My co-workers are committed to doing quality work. 10 - I have a best friend at work. 11 - In the last six months, someone at Groupon has talked to me about my progress. 12 - This last year, I've had opportunities at Groupon to learn and grow.

4 things

Know your purpose

What problem are you trying to solve? What value are you trying to create? Without this, you are not experimenting, you are meandering aimlessly.

Are you building educational software or are you making education available for all, regardless of their financial standing?

Are you selling coupons on the internet or are you empowering local business?

Tesla Motors recently open-sourced their patents.

Their purpose is to reduce carbon emissions and revolutionize the automotive industry. Knowing this, it was the obvious choice. They are blazing the trail, but cannot do it alone.

Make Failure Acceptable

– Henry Ford

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

When failure is acceptable, success is more likely

THINK BIG… start small…

Don’t scale too soon. Test in multiple ways. Iterate. Learn.

Assumptions Actions Outcomes

Explore Different Ways

Get it Right

Keep Experimenting.

The Experimentation MindsetDoc Norton

Global Director of Engineering Culture doc@groupon.com

@DocOnDev

Thank You!

Images• Mad Scientist - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dzingeek/4587871752/sizes/o/

• Redwood Bonsai - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Redwood_bonsai.JPG

• Redwood Canopy - https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3548/3498180845_a2d653a323_b.jpg

• Child to Adult - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rBplVVYK1CQ/Uu-EDJPXSzI/AAAAAAAAAHs/ErtWY1kctiY/s1600/HiRes.jpg

• Phones -

• http://www.enumclawsda.org/uploads/1/3/3/9/13391741/1971539_orig.gif?119

• http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qASUt2T7C7o/ULvJ8HVU3LI/AAAAAAAAACw/LufW5HYhCyM/s1600/Tel%C3%A8fon+fixe+antic.png

• https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7443/8758001086_2692f91620_h.jpg

• http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/147894/file-270530761-jpg/images/phone-large.jpg

• Phone Script - http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.docstoccdn.com%2Fthumb%2Forig%2F6629075.png&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.docstoc.com%2Fdocs%2F6629075%2FSample-Sales-Script&h=1650&w=1275&tbnid=nhUALN2u__S9YM%3A&zoom=1&docid=-yQKAu8BxDXbEM&ei=PhVFVIvsOcfRiQK9kYGABQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CB8QMygDMAM&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1681&page=1&start=0&ndsp=25

Reference Material• Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED384695.pdf#page=130, file:///Users/mnorton/Documents/Dropbox/Presentations/Groupon/Experimentation%20Mindset/ADA084551.pdf

• HBR: Collective Genius - http://hbr.org/2014/06/collective-genius/ar/1

• How Organizations Learn - http://www.areteadventures.com/articles/the_challenge_of_entering_the_green_room.pdf

• Argyris: Teaching Smart People how to Learn - http://hbr.org/1991/05/teaching-smart-people-how-to-learn/ar/1, http://pds8.egloos.com/pds/200805/20/87/chris_argyris_learning.pdf

• Argyris: Double Loop Learning in Organizations - http://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations/ar/3

• Argyris: Single-Loop and Double-Loop Learning in Research on Decision Making - https://093fb1c5e28761e25b79cfc10de03f5a188778a0.googledrive.com/host/0B_RO2ClD0V7AZHpWRS1mNUc2d1k/argyris.pdf

• Lean Change - http://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=225

• Scaling Up Excellence -

• Start With Why -