CAJ 007-Stephanie Davis
Meeting Facts:
Speaker: Stephanie Davis
Topic: Interview about Valpak
Date: 01/31/17
Description:
Valpak - A fresh breath of Agile maturity
I'm sure you've heard of Valpak. I mean, they reach 40,000,000 households each month!!! Wow, that is a LOT of exposure!
What you may not know is how incredibly Agile the culture model of Valpak is. They not only talk-the-talk, but they walk-the-walk and we are so fortunate to have the champion of this culture model change joining us to speak about the journey it took to get where they are today. You do not want to miss this discussion!
Bio:
Stephanie Davis is Senior Director of Enterprise Agility at Cox Target Media. Cox Target Media is a Cox Enterprises company and provider of the Valpak and Savings.com brands which respectively reach 40,000,000 households and 5,000,000 visitors each month. In this role, she is responsible for championing agility across the enterprise, leading the Agile PMO, and managing the portfolio. She leads the team of Agile Project Leaders in the roles of ScrumMaster, Kanban Lead, and/or Project Manager as well as the IT Business Analysts. Stephanie has been with Cox Target Media for 11 years as Director of Agile Leadership, Director of Project Management, and originally Project Manager.
Stephanie is a career project leader with over 20 years’ experience, including past positions with AT&T Business and IBM Global Services. Her academic credentials include a BS in Marketing from the University of South Florida and an MBA in International Business from the University of Bristol in England. She also maintains the Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certifications.
Stephanie serves and supports Agile around the world as an elected board member to the Agile Alliance, a non-profit organization with global membership, committed to advancing Agile development values, principles, and practices. In addition, she serves her local community as an organizer for Tampa Bay Agile and Agile Open Florida. Stephanie also serves on the board of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF).
Follow her on Twitter @iamagile
Slides:
Video Link: https://youtu.be/L1BEyUGfFWI
Quotes:
Don’t do a process that you can’t google
The common theme of failed transformation: no support
Change management is the hardest part of transformation
There is power in numbers. That is why community is important
Questions:
I think it would be cool to find out how they got executive sponsorship, how they communicated the "mandate" to "go agile", how it was received by employees and how they got a team together to put a transformation plan in place... and if they did a "big bang" stop of waterfall or a slow transition out of waterfall... :).
How did they decided to form teams, how they chose any tools to support their journey, etc. Those stories would be helpful to hear from a successful company!
How did they get their "business partners" on board with the "mandate"? I think that's where a lot of folks run into a bit of a wall. IT is gung-ho, business is like "why should I participate in YOUR PROCESS CHANGE?"
How did they convince execs to plot out their build-out in new office space to encourage agile?
Before the sale of Valpak to Platinum, were you able to influence the rest of the Cox organization in your agile approaches?
In companies like yours where agile maturity is very high, what is the role of agile coach?
When do you think it's ready to accept the company is not ready for agile and not try too hard to convince everyone to go agile?
Notes:
Favorite thing about working with teams – accomplishment junkie. What great teams can do... their potential.
She established a personal rule... don’t do a process that you can’t google
We are all in this journey together
No one comes to see the data in the tool (in the agile tours), so we also have a physical board
A poster has an agile manifesto on it… unimportant the practices you follow (Scrum, Kanban, ect.), but follow the culture and mindset of agility above all
If you are the developer and you can’t influence change you just need to find the right people to help you
We want you to be inspired by our journey, not follow it exactly.
A coach can help make agility stick
One of most powerful phrases is “it can’t hurt to try it for a sprint or two”