This is an introduction to Kanban. Creative agencies, like most organizations that do knowledge work, are defined by the projects they deliver that (hopefully) delivers value for the clients. Most agencies also struggle with multiple competing stakeholders, multiple client engagements, tight deadlines and long hours – it’s amazing any creative work happens at all. Most projects – brand campaigns, websites, landing pages, social, pr, direct, everything, can be viewed as a process - a series of steps or tasks that achieve some desired result – delivery of the project, a happy client, drinks in Tribeca. There are all kinds of processes - simple and complex, individual and team, quick and time-consuming. Sometimes large or over-arching processes consist of a series of smaller processes. Kanban is a tool for managing the flow of materials or information (or whatever) in a process. Not having the materials, whether it is a part, a document, or customer information, at the time you need it causes delay and waste. On the other hand, having too many parts (too much design, creative briefs, design assets, code) on hand or too much work in process (WIP) is also a form of waste. Kanban is a tool to learn and manage an optimal flow of work within the process. It can also (potentially) make working in agencies a more human, and humane, place to do one’s best work. Will Evans explores the convergence of practice and theory using Lean Systems, Design Thinking, and LeanUX with global corporations from NYC to Berlin to Singapore. As Chief Design Officer at PraxisFlow, he works with a select group of corporate clients undergoing Lean and Agile transformations across the entire organization. Will is also the Design Thinker-in-Residence at NYU Stern's Berkley Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Will was previously the Managing Director of TLCLabs, the world's leading Lean Design Innovation consultancy where he has brought Lean Startup, LeanUX, and Design Thinking to large media, finance, and healthcare companies. Before TLC, he led experience design and research for TheLadders in New York City. He has over 15 years industry experience in design innovation, user experience strategy and research. His roles include directing UX for social network analytics & terrorism modeling at AIR Worldwide, UX Architect for social media site Gather.com, and UX Architect for travel search engine Kayak.com. He worked at Lotus/IBM where he was the senior information architect, and for Curl - a DARPA-funded MIT project when he was at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. He lives in New York, NY, and drinks far too much coffee. He Co-Founded and Co-Chaired the LeanUX NYC conference, and is the User Experience track chair for the Agile 2013 and Agile 2014 conferences.

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Who are we?
WILL EVANS
Director of UX Design
The Library Corporation
@semanticwill
Who I Am

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Let’s start with an exercise!

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Which is timeboxed

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You have 5 minutes
• Write down everything that you are working
on (or need to be working on) on a post-it
• ALL CAPS
• One item per post-it

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Draw Personal Kanban
TO DO DOING DONE

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What is a Kanban?
“A Card (or traditionally, a Kanban),
is a symbolic token representing a unit
of effort, either to be completed or in
the process of being completed.”
- Jabe Bloom

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A Pull System
TODO DOING DONE
Boundary
Jabe Bloom, “The Moment of Pull”
Future PastPresent

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Why Lord? Why?

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How can Kanban help?
• Where are we now?
• Who is working on what?
• What should I be doing?
• What should I not be doing?
Is it hard for every person in your organization
to answer these questions:

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5 Basic Principles
• Visualize your workflow
• Limit your work-in-progress (WIP)
• Make policies explicit
• Measure your flow
• Model process improvement

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Visualize Workflow

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Management Interaction Gap

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Inference Ladder

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Why Limit Your WIP?
WIP (work-in-progress) is the proverbial “balls in
the air you are juggling.”
The more balls in the air, the harder it is to
concentrate; attention to detail suffers; quality goes
down; shit goes undone; you feel bad; work
becomes overwhelming and unpleasant.

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David Anderson, “WIP Limits are for Adults, Too!”

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Typical Multi-tasking

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Shorter Cycle Time

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More Value & Throughput

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Minimize TOTAL Cycle Time

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Minimize TOTAL Cycle Time

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10 Reasons to Limit Your WIP
Jim Benson “Why Limit Your WIP: A PK Flow Series”

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Simple Kanban
TO DO DOING (3) DONE
Options Constraint
Chris Matts & Olav Maassen, “Real Options Underlie Agile Practices”

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WIP Limits
TO DO DOING (3) DONE
Forces conversation

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Measure & Manage Flow
Lead Time Cycle Time

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Small Batches & Cycles Reduce Risk

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Backlog To Do Doing (3) Testing (3) Done
WIP Limit
Explicit Policy
Make Policies Explicit

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Model Process Improvement
Value Stream Mapping:
A graphical representation of the flow of work involved
in turning an idea into a product consumed by a
customer
Request Approve Requirements Signoff
Research Design Build Test Deploy
Delay
Customer
Delay

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Incremental Improvement
• Review bottlenecks
• Pair to increase flow
• Adjust WIP Limits
• Suggest improvements
• Measure Lead Time & Cycle Time
• Perform experiments
• Track results with metrics

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Real World Examples

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Challenges & Observations
Walk the Gemba > Walking up the inference ladder
Make the board work for you & your team
• Start with your existing process
• There is no “One True Board!”
Keeping the value stream filled
Pull is a mindset!
Beware of “Infinite WIP”
Recognize the true cost of context switching

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Further Reading
Start here Then Advanced

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THANKS!
WILL EVANS
@semanticwill