Simple ideas and adversity: where can they take you?

Here are two excellent videos on discovery and innovation:

​Adversity can lead to innovation

Simple ideas lead to discoveries

Quality Minute: Kano Model

Kano Model Analysis is a quality technique to drive decisions on which products, features, or services to provide customers.  The technique was developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano in the 1980's.  A Kano model is two dimensional and measures three customer needs.

Dimensions:
  1. Achievement
  2. Satisfaction

Customer needs:
  1. Expected, Basic Needs and expectations
  2. Normal, Satisfying Needs and expectations
  3. Excitement Needs, Customer Delight

Diagram example:

A key to Kano Model analysis is the assumption that customer needs are not static.  A product or feature that is exciting today will become a normal need tomorrow.  Customer satisfaction must be continually monitored.  Kano Model analysis can help organizations keep changing customer needs prominent in the mind of the organization.  Customer need is a driver in the product prioritization decision and planning process helping the organization deliver competitive and compelling products to customers.

Resourcefulness, ingenuity, and innovation

Excellent examples of highly resourceful, ingenious solutions are everywhere.

I re-found this TED talk over the weekend.  Skip to 5:00 for one good​​ example:

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from​​

Also, don't ignore the "slow hunch".  Create the conditions where slow hunches get cultivated.  Skip to 9:00 to understand where good ideas can come from.  Spoiler alert - it's not a "Eureka" moment.

To Drive Quality, Get Aligned Behind Vision

Good Vision, Strategy, Goals, and Objectives help organizations get aligned, drive quality, and improve business performance.  A first step to getting that alignment begins with a clear understanding of what Vision, Strategy, Goals, and Objectives are and how they are related:

Vision: an aspirational description of what you want to achieve

Strategy: a plan of action to fulfill the vision

Goals: the things you will accomplish as you execute the strategy

Objectives: the things you will do to get to a goal​​​

Here are two simple guidelines to help people in  the practical application of Vision, Strategy, Goals, and Objectives.

1. Vision, Strategy, Goals, Objectives guideline - provides simple definitions
2. Goals and Objective guideline - focuses at the team and individual level

In some organizations, goals and objectives management is viewed as difficult but it doesn't have to be.  Apply these guidelines in your organization to simplify and get full value out of the objectives management process.  If you find these helpful, please let me know and share your experience.

Quality Minute: Fitness for Use

"Fitness for Use" is a definition of quality that describes a lot in just three words.  The definition is attributed to Joseph Juran.

Fitness for Use means:

• Suitable for intended purpose
• Performance is satisfactory

Fitness for Use implies:

• The product is reliable
• The product is maintainable
• The processes to design, produce, test, deliver, and support the product are sustainable

Fitness for Use does not mean:

• Defect free
• Suitable for any condition or scenario

Fitness for Use is not the same as Specification or Conformance quality.  Specification quality (meets specifications) can be met and the product still not Fit for Use.  Similarly, Conformance quality (passes all tests and inspections, meets regulatory requirements) can be met and the product still not Fit for Use.

Chart the Course to Quality with MAPS

My whiteboard is a big summary of discussions I have with colleagues.  Most of those discussions center on matters of quality and how we build on our progress.  One of the keys to our progress is in the center of the whiteboard.  It's been there a long time and it's the key to team member engagement.  It looks like this:

M - mastery
A - autonomy
P - purpose
S - support

The people and teams in an organization are the key to quality.  Developing mastery of skills in a profession, autonomy to make decisions and create, and having a purpose super-charge individuals.  This in turn leads to high quality and performance that benefit the business and its customers.

The "S" in MAPS was added recently.  In a conversation with Rajiv Amar, he identified one more part that was playing a role in our success; Support.  You can have mastery, autonomy, and purpose, but if you don't have the support of your organization - peers, colleagues, executives, board, cross-functional partners - your quality will still be at risk.  That support has to be there not just when the results are good; the support has to be there when things get tough.

MAPS is fuel for discovery, collaboration, execution, and a culture of quality.  Practice MAPS in your organization and watch your teams take the business to new levels of quality and performance.

Quality Minute: Poka-yoke

Poka-yoke (POH-kah YOH-kay) is a Japanese term for a mistake proofing device (poka=mistake, yoke=prevent).​  It was devised by Shigeo Shingo in 1961 and is an enduring and simple concept. ​​  A poka-yoke device can be for prevention or detection.  What are some ways that poka-yoke can be applied in what we do?  Share your ideas.

Characteristics of a good poka-yoke device:

• simple and cheap
• part of the process
• placed close to the work to provide quick feedback​​

This is the story of the first poka-yoke device:

• ​Problem: springs were missing from switches.
• Old procedure: a worker takes two springs out of a box and assembles a switch.
• New procedure: a small dish is placed in front of the parts box.  The worker takes​ two springs out of the box and puts them in the dish. The worker assembles the switch. If a spring remains in the dish, the worker knows the assembly is missing a spring.
• Outcome: the new procedure completely eliminated the problem of the missing springs.​

The 3 "A's" of Quality and Business Performance

A sound strategy, the ability to execute, and a skilled workforce are some of the things an organization needs to achieve high business performance and quality.  Once that is achieved is when the real challenge starts, though.  It’s not good enough to just attain high performance and quality, an organization must continuously improve in order to stay competitive.  A key to doing this is to focus on a few critical aspects of the business; employee engagement and capability growth.  Here's a method I use with my teams:

Work together to find how people can maximize their contributions.  Look for activities that intersect these three points:

• Aspiration - what motivates you, what you enjoy
• Aptitude - what you are good at
• Aim - what the business needs to get done, the goals of the business

This works because engagement and value are created at these intersections.  When you do work you enjoy, work you’re good at, and it is work the business needs to get done, the stage is set for business performance and quality to grow.

How do you find the intersections?  Sometimes, they’re easy to find; they’re obvious or you get lucky and stumble into one.  Other times, you're going to have to invest some energy and maybe even change how you operate.  Do these three things to find the intersections:

• Observe - be patient, observe objectively and constantly
• Develop Rapport – take a break from titles and org charts
• Listen – listen actively, set aside agendas and personal ambitions

Make this a practice.  Allow it to work for your teams and the results will follow.

Quality Minute: Waste

What is waste?  The Toyota Production System (TPS) offers a definition.

There are seven kinds of waste:

• overproduction
• unnecessary transportation
• inventory
• motion
• defects
• over-processing
• waiting​

In a software "manufacturing" environment, overproduction and inventory could be in the form of unnecessary features or unwanted features.  Unnecessary transportation could be inefficient task management.  Another example could be excessive communication such as reply-all email storms that occur when a process is missing.​

Quality Minute: Value

What is value?  The Toyota Production System (TPS) offers a definition.

• Value is defined by the customer.​
• Value is anything that a customer is willing to pay for.​
• Anything that doesn't add value is waste.

How is value​ related to quality?  The TPS definition of value supports the definition of quality "Fitness for Use".​  That is, when a product is demonstrated free of critical defects and has the functionality and performance that a customer is willing to pay for, the product is "Fit for Use" and ready to ship.​

Drive quality and reduce waste with Plain English

I encourage people on my teams to use Plain English in all forms of communications.  This is especially  helpful in email but also in test plans, test cases, and defect records.  I include that advice in defect management and test case management guidelines.  Plain English works because it makes communication clear, accurate, and easy to understand.  This in turn improves decision support, business velocity, and  reduces faults.  It also reduces waste in the form of reading/re-reading and clarifying.  Plain English is not always easy but it is always worth it.  Make it a habit to help improve quality in your organization.

From the PlainEnglish.org How-to guide:
• Keep your sentences short
• Prefer active verbs
• Use 'you' and 'we'
• Use words that are appropriate for the reader
• Don't be afraid to give instructions
• Avoid nominalisations (i.e., adding suffixes to nouns.  Example: gearhead, Parrothead, Deadhead).
• Use lists where appropriate

Advantages:
• it is faster to write;
• it is faster to read; and
• you get your message across more often, more easily and in a friendlier way.

The Art of Quality

Quality Minute: 5S

​5S is a method of creating a clean and orderly work environment that makes waste and faults visible.

5S originated as a Just In Time manufacturing technique.  It can also be applied to knowledge oriented work such as in the software industry.  Google "5S"​​ to learn more.

The 5S's translate as follows:

• Seiri;           Sort
• Seiton;        Straighten, Simplify
• Seiso;         Shine, Scrub
• Seiketsu;     Standardize, stabilize
• Shitsuke;     Sustain, self discipline

Quality Minute

Some years ago, we were discussing how to raise basic quality knowledge at our organization.  We wanted to make it super easy for people.  Our prototype was a collection of short email messages called the Quality Minute.  One Quality Minute was sent per week and could be read in about a minute.  The prototype was a hit.  Proof of its value came unexpectedly one day from Marketing.  In a new feature planning session, a Marketing Manager asked if the new feature would contribute to technical debt as described in a recent Quality Minute.

I lost those emails somewhere along the line.  They're easy to reproduce though and this blog is a good place to capture and share.