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Cengage Way OverviewJason ChinVP Software Development, Higher Ed

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Business ContextThe Business Challenge (2013)

~ A business model pivot ~

Our Technology Challenge~ A culture, process & resourcing pivot ~

• Lead transition from Sales request driven to Product roadmap led

• Lead transition from SoW’s to research & defining requirements

• Move Technology from shadows to the spotlight

• Hire people!! Lots and lots and lots of them!

Our Product Development Challenge~ “Releasing great digital solutions would be SO easy if it

weren’t for this damn content thing.”~The Obvious:

• Tecno-phobe Instructors, hyper-digital students

• Students don’t enjoy homework, so are happy to complain (digital solutions are the new “dog ate my homework” excuse)

The Not-So-Obvious:

• One selling season (Jan-April)

• Semesters drive major deployments schedule, 15+ months from build start to revenue usage

• Content is highly cultivated to be pedagogically certified and it’s the digital manifestation of this content that is “the product”

• Our content is fully optimized for print publishing processes

• First day of school is still Sept X

The Coming Year (2014)

The past year (2013)

The Birth of The Cengage Way (2014)~ Common goals, common practices, common terminology ~

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The Cengage Way – Spiritual Message

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The Cengage Way – Spiritual Message

Align on what “You’re doing it wrong!” means• Bigger than our prior experiences• Broader than our prior experience• We are transforming – aggressively• “Past performance is not an indicator of future results”

Play the same game!

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The Cengage Way – Mechanics & Actions

• One game, one set of rules- Scrum-based practices, applied within Cengage business

dynamics

• Somebody acting as Process Facilitator- Making sure Cengage Way is happening

• Somebody acting as Product Delivery Owner• User story maps as input to build phase• Visibility and expectation setting

- First and second approximations- Update on progress every iteration- Retrospectives and raising impediments

• Excellent user stories• Rigid cadence (constant iteration length)• Shippable every iteration

Actions taken

Initially:1. Moved to smaller, consistent teams

to get to ‘norming’2. Pulled Product Management into

the process3. Formalized kickoff meetings,

defining plans, measuring against plan

4. Build Review meetings to align on design and dependencies

5. Emphasis on sprint cadence meetings, execution (velocities), and behaviors

2016:• Stronger emphasis on #3• Managing up & out