Here’s one way to organize a simple workshop with the goal of identifying what values we want to lead our work for some upcoming period, perhaps next six months.
I usually run this part as a follow-up to “Rescuing Celebrities”.
Preparations
- 4 stations/flip charts, one for each of the 4 categories: End User, Financial, Company Internal, Market. Stickies and sharpies.
Steps
Overview
- Introduce the four categories, collect 2-3 examples for each category
- Have participants come up with more values for each category
- Let participants select a few they things we should focus on in the next period
- Let participants prioritize among the selected values
- Ask participants to sign-off on this short list, in blood :-)
- ie: create space/autonomy for a team/Product Owner to act based on agreed value optimization
- Celebrate and decide when to revisit this agreement
Detailed Steps
Hi, so I thought we’d start by looking at some research on ‘value’. This is actually the second most cited research on this topic (value in software based products), according to Google Scholar. In the research they carried out, they discovered over 600 values! Roughly 80 of them were very frequently used, and they also saw that most of them could be grouped into one of four categories. I’d like us to take a look at these categories.
1. End-User Value
Let’s start with End-User Value. What is something an end user might value?
Collect 2-3 examples from the group, record them each on stickies and put them on the flip. Help them rmember that a ‘value’ is always on a scale - it’s never boolean (yes/no), so help them express value in that way. (See Value First.)
Examples:
- Looks Good
- Status
- Availability
- Easy to understand
- Quick, fast
2. Financial
- Nice, the next category is also quite simple: Financial.
Collect 2-3 examples.
Some examples:
- Average Revenue Per Unit
- Average Customer Acquisition Cost
- ROI
- Revenue Per Employee Per Month
- Operating Cost per Customer
3. Company Internal
- Perfect, and now the third one is Company Internal. So this is something we value, we being the company providing a product or service value to the market. What’s something we value, that isn’t strictly about end user perceived value, or financial?
- Couldn’t you argue that all ‘values’ come back to money?”
- Well, yes you could but we’re looking for things that typically aren’t measured or assessed based on flow of money.
Examples:
- Employee Satisfaction
- Empolyee Retention
- Technical Debt
- Modern Tech Stack and solutions
- Incidents per month
4. Market
- And finally, Market. What’s something that we can measure that tells us something about the market and our place in it?
Examples:
- Brand Awareness
- Good Will
- Easily Integrates with other makers/brands/eco system
- Size of adressable Market
- Market Share
5. Generate values
- Thanks. In pairs, walk around the room and visit each category - in whatever order you see fit. Try to add 4 values to each category. Let’s spend no more than 15 minutes on this, roughly 3-4 minutes per category.
Hopefully, you gather something like 60-80 values.
6. First round of selection
- Excellent. In pairs, take some time to walk around and select the 3-4 values you think we need to priorize and improve in the next 6 months. Put them on this whiteboard/space over here.
This should start creating a focus and you may end up with 20-40 values on ‘this whiteboard/space over here’. Now draw a line above all the selected values, creating a blank space to use for the next step. You may have to move stickies around, but restratin on you sorting or ordering them (see Ellen Langer regarding commitment to results).
7. Refining round, narrowing the selection
- Nice. Out of these 30 values we’ve selected, which do you think is most critical/best aligned with our strategy/…? In pairs, please pick only 1-2 values and move them above the line. However, you may NOT move one of the values you selected in the previous step. You must pick among the pool of values the other pairs put on ‘this whiteboard/this space’.
As needed. Have conversations about trade-offs, but don’t look for perfection.
8. Ask for commitment, create space for agency/autonomy
End by asking “so, if I now improve these values in the next 6 months, we should’ve done a good job?”
If needed, clarify expectations using Value First scales and measures.
Celebrate and decide when to revisit this agreement.