I’ve always considered a little cheeky that some people would just write directly to CEOs, famous people, renowned authors. Till the time I did it myself.
I wrote to Paulo Caroli, author of great books about the Lean StartUp movement. Caroli is one of the pioneers in Agile, applying this mindset since almost 20 years. Actually I did not expect much of an answer from him and if so, I guessed I’d be lucky to get an automatic reply. At least I’d know that was the right address.
Next day Caroli replied to my question. My e-mail title was:
“Long distance Lean Inception, does it work?”
Previous to writing that e-mail I spotted Caroli’s articles about Lean Inception twice. One of the times it was in the blog of Martin Fowler, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto.
Why was I searching for “Lean Inception”?
Even before I started working at PCs4KIDS I was truly convinced by this organisation’s mission. I wanted to be part of it. Bring the best quality free educational content for children. Kids that have limited access to good education.
Once I joined the team, I was so excited that I could not stop questioning it all. Writing to everyone. Posing more questions. Till the point that I realised that talking only via Slack would be neither too effective nor efficient. Not to say that it is hard to create inspiring outputs when all we have are asynchronous chats.
The idea of applying best practices of Lean StartUp in a NGO to boost collaboration sounded exciting! I knew that other PCs4KIDS members were really knowledgeable professionals in their respective fields. My intention was to use that huge potential to make something new, something sexy.
Lean Inception is the method I introduced to the group. At first I was not sure how to position it, thus I prepared a guide. Concepts, phases, what belonged to each phase, responsible people, rough timelines, goals and reasoning behind each task.
One aspect we can never forget: having fun is part of who we are. Face-to-face meetings enable people to create a relaxed environment. But what can you do when you are remote? Well, give colleagues virtual post-its and you’ll see it!
I’ve searched for the simplest tools to start with: Scrumblr and Real Time Board. I prepared the frame of the first boards to collaborate on Product Vision and “Product is, is not, does, does not” activities. The post-its would not stop coming!
Our Lean Inception is still happening. As I write, we are diving deep in our Personas and Empathy Map.
Caroli replied my question about remote Lean Inceptions. They are, as he had foreseen, harder than face-to-face ones. He told me that interaction and brainstorming would be limited and I agree.
Our mission is actually not to make what’s possible. We understood that we have an ambitious goal, limited time and a distributed team. Caroli encouraged us to go ahead and try. That’s what we are doing.
We are striving for adventure and that’s what this journey is all about!
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Posted: November 19, 2017 by Katiane Di Schiavi
Lean StartUp for NGOs? The start of an adventure.
I’ve always considered a little cheeky that some people would just write directly to CEOs, famous people, renowned authors. Till the time I did it myself.
I wrote to Paulo Caroli, author of great books about the Lean StartUp movement. Caroli is one of the pioneers in Agile, applying this mindset since almost 20 years. Actually I did not expect much of an answer from him and if so, I guessed I’d be lucky to get an automatic reply. At least I’d know that was the right address.
Next day Caroli replied to my question. My e-mail title was:
Previous to writing that e-mail I spotted Caroli’s articles about Lean Inception twice. One of the times it was in the blog of Martin Fowler, one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto.
Why was I searching for “Lean Inception”?
Even before I started working at PCs4KIDS I was truly convinced by this organisation’s mission. I wanted to be part of it. Bring the best quality free educational content for children. Kids that have limited access to good education.
Once I joined the team, I was so excited that I could not stop questioning it all. Writing to everyone. Posing more questions. Till the point that I realised that talking only via Slack would be neither too effective nor efficient. Not to say that it is hard to create inspiring outputs when all we have are asynchronous chats.
The idea of applying best practices of Lean StartUp in a NGO to boost collaboration sounded exciting! I knew that other PCs4KIDS members were really knowledgeable professionals in their respective fields. My intention was to use that huge potential to make something new, something sexy.
Lean Inception is the method I introduced to the group. At first I was not sure how to position it, thus I prepared a guide. Concepts, phases, what belonged to each phase, responsible people, rough timelines, goals and reasoning behind each task.
One aspect we can never forget: having fun is part of who we are. Face-to-face meetings enable people to create a relaxed environment. But what can you do when you are remote? Well, give colleagues virtual post-its and you’ll see it!
I’ve searched for the simplest tools to start with: Scrumblr and Real Time Board. I prepared the frame of the first boards to collaborate on Product Vision and “Product is, is not, does, does not” activities. The post-its would not stop coming!
Our Lean Inception is still happening. As I write, we are diving deep in our Personas and Empathy Map.
Caroli replied my question about remote Lean Inceptions. They are, as he had foreseen, harder than face-to-face ones. He told me that interaction and brainstorming would be limited and I agree.
Our mission is actually not to make what’s possible. We understood that we have an ambitious goal, limited time and a distributed team. Caroli encouraged us to go ahead and try. That’s what we are doing.
We are striving for adventure and that’s what this journey is all about!
Category: My journey@PCs4Kids
Katiane Di Schiavi
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