Agile Camp 2018 - Question Storming

Editor's Notes

1. Jason EXERCISE: So, for an example, say your team has received a CR form the FSA. What things do we normally do to begin? POPCORN IDEAS SAY: Yes, we do a lot of these things right away. We generally jump right into solutioning. <<Animate in all the things we commonly do>> (Burnups, create stories, create timeline, pray, release plan, gant chart it, make deadlines) SAY: We generally call this process “Brain Storming” Visualization ideas – Pop up a bunch of the predicted answers, making it look fairly messy and overwhelming. Then overlay with an image representing “Brain Storming”
2. Jason EXERCISE: So, for an example, say your team has received a CR form the FSA. What things do we normally do to begin? POPCORN IDEAS. SAY: Yes, we do a lot of these things right away. We generally jump right into solutioning. <<Animate in all the things we commonly do>> (Burnups, create stories, create timeline, pray, release plan, gant chart it, make deadlines) SAY: We generally call this process “Brain Storming” Visualization ideas – Pop up a bunch of the predicted answers, making it look fairly messy and overwhelming. Then overlay with an image representing “Brain Storming”
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4. Amy SAY: But… What happens when <<Animate>> our estimates are way off? We discover Surprises? We realize we weren’t on the same page as the customer? SAY: We don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, but by using question storming, which we are about to try, we can help minimize many of these common gaps before we start development. Visualization ideas– image of something bad happening, a crystal ball with a line through it, minimize the gap
5. Jason https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/09/13/are-these-the-real-reasons-why-tech-projects-fail/#72d002f47320 25% of Tech projects Fail outright 50% of Tech projects require massive rework once they are done 20-25% of Tech Projects don’t fulfill their ROI
6. Jason https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/09/13/are-these-the-real-reasons-why-tech-projects-fail/#72d002f47320 What business problem do I need to solve? What data or tools will I need to solve the problem? How will I measure success? How will I present the insights? How will I test and implement the solution?
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8. Jason and Amy Are there any videos out there that might be an example Jason and I could do an example – Eating out – where are we going? What did you notice?  We asked only questions, helps prioritize a list and narrow things down. Question examples: What are the hours restaurants are open? What places have we been kicked out of? What places are least likely to give us food poisoning? What places have friendly /good customer service? How much time do we have? Do we want to eat outside or inside?
9. Amy NOTE - Need some more on here. This is the point of the presentation where we want people to get re-engaged I hope.
10. Amy SAY – Let’s talk about the stages of Question Storming Our aim here is to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what the topic is so there is no confusion.
11. Jason 5 Minutes SAY – Next we combine all of the similar goals into one goal. Many people are familiar with SMART goals. These remind us that our goals need to be: S – specific M – measurable A – achievable, attainable, assignable R – realistic, relevant, results-oriented T – time-bound Say: But WAIT, there’s more!!!! Effective goals ADD PASSION, MOTIVATION, MEANING, and ENERGIZING. They are also POSITIVE (meaning they are framed as what we move towards and want, not what we don’t want)
12. Jason SAY - A long time ago, British Airways was having a problem—which was that they were losing a lot of luggage—and this kept happening. They’d fix the problem, then it would get unfixed again, they’d fix it, then it would get unfixed again. SAY - At some point, somebody finally said: this isn’t working so well. So they called in a consultant to work with them. It was Diana Whitney who is an expert on “Appreciative Inquiry” and has written a few books about it. This is a famous case, by the way. You could Google it. Diana helped them come up with a very different goal. The original goal, understandably, was “stop losing so much luggage.” After some work, the new goal was to “Create an exceptional arrival experience for our passengers.” ASK and write on board - So what’s different between creating an exceptional arrival experience and stopping losing so much luggage? ◦ New goal is bigger ◦ Positive ◦ Something to go towards instead of away from ◦ Second goal is more customer-focused ◦ Second goal is happier, more motivating, has more energy ◦ First goal focused on the problem, second one on the solution ◦ First on past, second on future ◦ First goal focused only on the silo of losing luggage – Second goal takes into account the whole system, how everything interacts with everything else ASK - Would you rather work for the company with the first or the second goal? Which would make you happy to go to work in the morning? ASK - And if you were going to address the whole system, would you also have to address and fix the luggage problem? ◦ Of course!
13. Amy SAY – Here we’d list out what we know or think we know about the situation. This exercise is valuable as things that we think are facts are likely assumptions!
14. Jason Say: The second phase of Question Storming – Generating Questions. Say: By being in the same room, generating questions together. In this way the creativity of the whole group is sparked by the variety of perspectives.
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16. Amy Say: In a more formal Question Storming, the final phase categorizes the questions and then key questions are chosen to focus on. When is the answer needed? Is this something for which you need an immediate answer, or if it’s simply something you want to think about so you can discuss it later?
17. Amy Here is the premise …. Spark ideas from other people’s questions. Emphasize that it must be outloud – and that one person captures. The goal is that everyone is only in the frame of mind of asking questions, not being distracted by a tool. Explain why! Example: Wedding
18. Jason Half way point – 45 minutes in. Reiterate why Question Storming is so important and the whole point is to minimize the amount of unknowns.
19. Jason Keep it simple – don’t overthink it Ideas -  - we need to survive a zombie apocalypse Not doing the Analyze into actions and results, just the question storming part. At your table, have one person capture the questions.  Spend <timebox> coming up with questions.
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22. Amy – 5 minutes Have this slide say GO Have Fun! Ask stupid or silly questions!
23. Amy Ask group: Can anybody share their favorite questions? Did you find some questions that you wouldn't have seen in just solutions? How was this different than just jumping to solutioning? Hopefully by doing this you saw that it generates more ideas than just jumping into solutioning?
24. Get to choose from multiple ideas Show some examples and then get more ideas from the room. how do we better succeed with date driven changes - We need a strong relationship between our teams, customers and stakeholders - team health ** Group the room into 4-ish groups.  Each group will have a facilitator, and a flip note chart thing on an easel and working pens. ** Figure out the timebox - Facilitators -  **Just question part, not the prioritizing and actions part.
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29. 10 Minutes
30. Amy Share how it went. Ask for each group to share How did that feel? Did you all feel that it gave you a voice? Who might be able to ask questions in this method, that wouldn’t normally be able to participate in a brainstorming sessions.
31. Jason When is the answer needed? Is this something for which you need an immediate answer, or if it’s simply something you want to think about so you can discuss it later?
32. Amy/Jason -Before Story Mapping -In a refinement -Restaffing/moving teams -Creating teams
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