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Daniel Terhorst-North
Enterprise Transformation and Technical Delivery SME
Talk Title
Transformation as a Product
Abstract
I have heard many things that an agile transformation is not. It is not a transactional project or programme, and it should not be set up like one. It is not a side-gig that people need to do above and beyond their usual day job. And some say it is a process that never ends. (Imagine hearing that as the CFO!)
This is my take: Transformation is a product.
This is not a metaphor: transformation succeeds and fails just like a product does—as tangible changes in customer behaviour—and we should treat it like one. We should design it like a product, measure it like a product, fund it like a product, pitch it like a product, govern it like a product. We should take the time to identify the customer; involve them; understand their needs and the jobs they want to be done; and measure transformation success like a modern product manager.
In this session, Daniel confesses that Transformation-as-a-Product has been hiding in plain sight for at least a decade, and describes how approaching transformation in this way unlocks a whole world of modern product management tools, techniques, and learning.
Maybe successful transformation is possible after all.
Bio
Daniel has been coaching, coding and consulting for over 25 years, with a focus on applying systems thinking and simple technology to solve complex business problems.
He uses techniques from Lean operations, Theory of Constraints and Agile software development to help organisations anticipate and respond to the challenges of changing
business needs.
Daniel is the originator of Behaviour-Driven Development, an agile approach to software development that encourages teams to deliver the software that matters by emphasising the interactions between stakeholders.
He also proposed Deliberate Discovery, which challenges assumptions around software planning and estimation. He argues that there are no best practices and that everything we do is subject to opportunity cost.
