Ryan MacCarrigan’s keynote covers the growing role of Agile Development and Lean in the context of content development and delivery—where complex content is the “product” and the end goal is to shorten cycle times, eliminate waste, or improve measured business outcomes without sacrificing quality or accuracy. The audience will learn: How to structure strategic content development in a similar fashion to the Agile product development lifecycle How the “Build-Measure-Learn” framework of Lean Startup fame can be applied to rapid content testing and delivery How developing a Lean mindset can help content-driven organizations break down silos and “Fail Fast,” improving overall institutional knowledge. Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.

1. Applying Agile and Lean Thinking
To Content Development & Delivery
Information Development World
November 28, 2018
#idw2018

2. Ryan MacCarrigan — Lean Startup Coach, Consultant, Advisor
• Founding Principal at LeanStudio, a San Francisco based product design and innovation studio.
Have impacted thousands of entrepreneurs and teams across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
• Global President at Columbia Venture Community, largest entrepreneurship and venture-
focused alumni group at Columbia University (NYC).
• Former Partner & VP at Lean Startup Machine, first education startup to develop practical
teaching methods, tools, and software to educate entrepreneurs and corporate innovators about
how to apply Lean Startup methodologies.
• Marketing and Product leadership roles at multiple technology startups in NYC and San Francisco
over the past 10 years — CoreStream, Advisor, SourcePad, AppFirst.
• Founder, Lean Startup Circle: Corporate Innovation Meetup (San Francisco)
@ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
ABOUT ME

3. IMPACT
@ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018

4. @ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
3 PILLARS OF LEAN STARTUP
1. CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
2. BUSINESS
MODEL GENERATION
3. AGILE
DEVELOPMENT
My usual line of work… Challenging Assumptions…
BUILDLEARN
MEASURE

5. @ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
3 PILLARS OF LEAN STARTUP
1. CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
2. BUSINESS
MODEL GENERATION
3. AGILE
DEVELOPMENT
Agile Manifesto

6. #idw2018
A quick primer on Agile…

7. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
WATERFALL DESIGN
VISUALIZED

8. Analysis
Design
Build
Test
Deployment
Features A-Z
Start
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
WATERFALL DESIGN
VISUALIZED
Month 1
Features A-Z
Month 2
Features A-Z
Month 3
Features A-Z

9. Design
Month 1
Build
Month 2
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
Month 3
DeployAnalysis
Start
“We need you to build us
an elephant. K thx bye.”
WATERFALL DESIGN
VISUALIZED

10. Analysis
Design
Build
Test
Deployment
Feature A
Start
Feature B
Month 1
Feature C
Month 2
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
Feature D
Month 3
AGILE DEVELOPMENT
VISUALIZED

11. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
AGILE DEVELOPMENT
VISUALIZED
Mobility
Start
Nervous System
Month 1
Digestive System
Month 2
“Oops, nevermind!
We have to pivot to a bear.”
Month 3

12. @ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
3 PILLARS OF LEAN STARTUP
Agile Manifesto
2. BUSINESS
MODEL GENERATION
1. CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
3. AGILE
DEVELOPMENT

13. @ryanmaccarrigan
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
TOOLS & METHODS
2. BUSINESS
MODEL GENERATION
1. CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
3. AGILE
DEVELOPMENT
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
Scrum
XP
Kanban
Crystal
DSDM

14. WHERE TO START?
2011-PRESENT
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
etc…

15. Tsundoku

16. LEAN MARKETING
LEAN CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT
AGILE CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT
CONTENT UX MINIMUM VIABLE
CONTENT
LEAN USER
EXPERIENCE
AGILE MARKETING
ITERATIVE CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT
AGILE INFORMATION
DEVELOPMENT

17. STOP
#idw2018

18. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
LEAN & AGILE THINKING?
THINKING / MINDSET
CORE VALUES
PRINCIPLES
TOOLS & METHODS
At which level should one apply

19. STUART FIRESTEIN
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
There is no surer way to screw up an experiment
than to be certain of its outcome.
“
”

20. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
There is no surer way to screw up an experiment
than to be certain of its outcome.
content“
”

21. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
There is no surer way to screw up an experiment
than to be certain of its outcome.
content
value.

22. SAME SPIRIT, SIMILAR PHILOSOPHIES,
DIFFERENT MEASURES OF SUCCESS
• LEAN — Concerned with creating value for the
customer while minimizing risk and waste.
• ASKS:
What is the most effective way to build this?
i.e., Should we develop this content for our audience?
• AGILE — Concerned with adaptation,
incremental development, and speed of delivery.
• ASKS:
Can we build and deliver something quickly?
i.e., How fast can we deliver this content to our audience?
• DESIGN THINKING — Concerned with problem
exploration, product usability, and addressing unmet needs.
• ASKS:
How deeply can we empathize with the needs of customers?
i.e, Will this content delight or satisfy the needs of our audience?
@ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018

23. Should we develop this content for
our audience?
#idw2018
1. LEAN THINKING

24. How fast can we deliver this content to
our audience?
#idw2018
2. AGILE THINKING

25. Will this content delight or satisfy the needs
of our audience?
#idw2018
3. DESIGN THINKING

26. Itching for tools and methods?
#idw2018
Here are 3 that could change your way of thinking over time

27. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
BUILDLEARN
MEASURE
IDEAS
CONTENTDATA
• A popular framework retooled by replacing
‘CODE’ or ‘PRODUCT’ with ‘CONTENT’.
• Content is your product — treat it as such.
• Encourage your team to adopt this way of
thinking for several months before formally
implementing it as a process.
• Begin each content planning session by outlining
learning goals for each user / audience segment.
• Before developing new content, the team must
use empirical evidence to justify the question:
“Should we create this content for our audience?”
BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN
FEEDBACK LOOP FOR DEVELOPING CONTENT

28. #idw2018
1st Launch Revision

29. Task Backlog Implementation ValidationSpecify Work
(2) (5) (3)
AGILE KANBAN
FOR LIMITING WORK IN PROGRESS
#idw2018
@ryanmaccarrigan

30. Document Backlog ReviewWork in Progress
(3)
DOCUMENT TRACKING KANBAN
FOR LIMITING WORK IN PROGRESS
Done
#idw2018
@ryanmaccarrigan

31. #idw2018
Trello is based on Kanban

32. @ryanmaccarrigan
#idw2018
5 WHYS
DETERMINE THE ROOT CAUSE OF A PROBLEM
Problem statement: During the time of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) an issue is observed by the client…
1. Why has the issue been encountered by the client?
According to theTechnical Lead, the testing team has not reported any such issue to the development team
2. Why the testing team was not able to catch the issue?
The testing team performed only sanity testing and not complete regression testing
3. Why testing team performed only sanity testing?
Because they didn’t have enough time to perform a thorough functional testing of the complete application
4. Why there was not enough time for thorough functional testing?
Because the build came only one day before the UAT timelines and thorough functional testing take at least 3 days.
5. Why was the build give only a day before the UAT?
Because the development team took more than the estimated time resolving some bugs.
Source: http://thebusinessanalystjobdescription.com/5-whys-technique-basics-examples-and-tips/
First root cause: The team members are not able to give correct estimations around their functionalities and there is a need
for training on estimations techniques and their implementation.
Second root cause: There is an issue with the project management as ideally, a code freeze should happen at least 4 days
before the UAT but here the team was working on fixing bugs at the last day.

33. #idw2018
Thanks
ryan@leanstud.io
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