how to sell kanban to your boss

How to Sell Kanban to Your Boss.

Hi, I’m Brendan!

I have the best job in the world!

Making a business case for Kanban can be tough.

Finance is not math, it is a language.

In my first job as a CTO, I didn’t know the language.

This isn’t uncommon and it causes a lot of problems in

business.

To understand how your boss thinks, you must first understand how

the CEO thinks!

Stating the Problem.

Clarity

We’re not on the same page!

Value

We’re not working on the right things!

Unhide

The team is a black box!

Focus

Simple things take too long to get done!

Ready

We don’t get what we ask for!

Trust

We don’t keep our commitments!

Done

They say they’re finished when they aren’t!

Iteration

We don’t finish what we start!

Your boss is “managing up” to someone who sees

the problems but can’t offer any

solutions.

The corporate world doesn’t value vulnerability — so your boss may receive

obtuse mandates like, “Just fix it!”

This kind of environment can make it difficult to sell Kanban practices

like “limiting work” and “pull.”

We’ve created a video you can share with your boss

that translates Kanban to business value!

Making the Ask‣ Call a sit-down meeting with your boss.

‣ Tell him or her that you understand they are under a lot of

pressure to improve team performance.

‣ Share that you’d like to make a bigger contribution to the

team by helping in this area.

‣ Ask if you can setup a time to watch a short video together

on increasing revenue by making minor process changes

to get their sign-off.

https://vimeo.com/leankit

Bigger Profits with Kanban.

Your team wants permission to “do Kanban.”

I’m here to help you make a business case!

Hi, I’m Brendan!I’m a CTO turned trainer.

I received same question in 2012.

My job has gotten a lot easier with Kanban.

Kanban is a capstone that fits atop your current

way of working.

It unhides work, reduces waste, and helps

your team improve their flow.

Evolution over transformation.

Kanban is a low risk, inexpensive experiment.

Kanban aligns your team with organizational financial

outcomes.Without them knowing it.

3 Habits

focus

—Greg McKeown

“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It stayed singular for the next five

hundred years.”

Limit Work in ProgressAchieve more by juggling less.

Real Life Example

A team is working on two projects at a time.

They deliver both projects every two months, 10 projects annually.

Revenue

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

What would happen to gross revenue if the team worked

on only one project at a time?

Revenue

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Every project would generate revenue one month earlier

and one month longer.

An 11th project would be delivered!

Gross revenue increase of +12%.

waste reduction

You cannot reduce waste if you are not actively

measuring it!

Work can be assigned to everyone and owned

by no one.

“Most cars are only in use by their owners for 5% to 10%

of the day.”

— Elon Musk

Just like cars, work is idle most of the time.

A single communication hack at the team level changed

everything!

“I’m finished and I’m waiting for this work to be taken

from me.”

Project timelines shrunk from 4 weeks to 3.

Waste reduction delivered a 12th project.

Gross revenue increase of +16%.

Flow

Swarming optimizes flow.

Team established policies to speed-up delivery.

Card is owned by an absent team member.

Card is blocked, stale, or at risk.

WIP Limit is not respected.

Queue is bottlenecked.

The Impact of Kanban‣ Realize cashflow earlier.

‣ Increase gross revenue by 16%.

‣ Created capability to deliver two new revenue channels.

‣ Improved quality and customer satisfaction.

‣ Established predictable expectations with business.

Kanban is a low-risk experiment with a

massive reward!

Orderly innovation isn’t.

Brendan Wovchko training@huge.io

http://huge.io/ @hugeio