The topic of this newsletter is courage, which is the eighth foundation of the Agile Factory.
Companies are driven by two “tensions” the one of efficiency or Exploitation and the one of exploration or Exploration. Firms, ambidextrous or bimodal, that can balance these two tensions are winners.
All actions aimed at ‘Exploration require people and companies to move out of their comfort zone.
Courage in innovative products
Indeed, my experience over many years of product development with my teams has taught me that whenever we develop an innovative product, we are called upon to put ourselves on the line.
This means exploring new fields, facing new challenges, questioning our beliefs and accepting new ideas.
To do all this requires courage.
I’ve learned that if you don’t take risks you make a trivial product because it is of the “me too” type.
Therefore, it is necessary to have the courage to take risks and face possible failures.
You can only limit the size of failures by proceeding in small steps gradually, following the Agile approach.
Courage is that secret strength that makes us face fears and dangers. Having courage does not mean not being afraid but managing it. Courage needs to be constantly nurtured by trusting ourselves and the team, whereas fear feeds on itself.
When you want to make an innovative product, it contains a unique value proposition that differentiates it from others in the market, and that represents a risk.
In the initial stages of defining requirements, I experienced that it is often too easy to say yes and develop a product that has too many features.
Instead, we need to have the courage to say no, to the demands that do not differentiate the product and unnecessarily weigh it down. This is a challenge for the Product Owner.
Within the Scrum framework or framework, we find the following 5 values:
Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage
Courage is important because people on a scrum team are self-managing, going far beyond self-organization, and in doing so they take responsibility for their choices.
Scrum Team members have the courage to do the thing they think is right and the courage to face difficult problems.
In my experience, the team is synergistic in its mutual support in the face of challenges. I have seen even the most fearful people take courage and get involved by presenting the results generated by their own ideas in front of important stakeholders.
It is really a virtuous spiral that encourages imitation even of people who are initially less likely to expose themselves.
A case study
I remember personally experiencing, with one of my best product owners, the risk of the introduction of a new product line into the company, intended for markets completely different from those known to the company.
These were very large 3D printers.
The PO, the team, and myself as the project sponsor, supported each other in pursuing this proposal and developing both the product and a new business model.
A cose avvenute posso dire è stata una scelta coraggiosa:
- Develop a new very large machine (8.7 x 3.2 x 2 meters possible print volume)
- Fine-tune FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) technology on large formats, with throughputs exceeding 100 kg/hour of material.
- Propose a machine that fully satisfies the circular economy. Once printed, the objects, at the end of their life, can be completely ground down to feed the printing press again.
- Propose a 3D printing services business model to promote a new construction mode for the market (similar to what Rank Xerox did with the first laser copiers). One of the target markets, the marine industry, was not prepared for this mode of boat mold making.
The path has not been linear but it has been successful.
Courage distinguishes all explorers because you cannot explore the unknown unless you are willing to take risks, and taking risks requires courage.
