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    "result": {"data":{"posts":{"edges":[{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/benefits-and-practical-aspects-of-working-without-project-managers/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Benefits and practical aspects of working without project managers","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## What do project managers do?\n\nThe **project manager role covers the ‘classic’ management responsibilities**, including:\n\n* project planning and goals,\n* the project timeline,\n* allocating tasks and objectives,\n* managing resources,\n* and the motivation and performance management of team members.\n\nIt all sounds very non-controversial. After all, that’s what you want a manager to do, isn’t it? And these responsibilities all need fulfilling. However, **we believe that we can cover all these functions through other means, and without anyone assigned to the role of a manager.** And this is what sounds a bit controversial, isn’t it? Why do we consider the manager-centric approach to be inefficient? For us, it’s a manifestation of obsolete, ‘waterfall’ methodology and a mindset that tends to rest on the following assumptions:\n\n* With enough work up front, the project plan is a constant.\n* The more detailed the project plan, the better.\n* Clients (or those for whom the product is being created) only need to be involved at the beginning and end of the project.\n* Sticking to a schedule is a measure of success. \n* People need to be managed.\n\nAt Boldare, based on our 19 years of practical experience in software development, we know that this is just not the best practice for the creation of complex digital products.\n\n**None of the above is to say a project manager cannot be useful in a mature and healthy organization** – they might serve multiple, useful and efficient roles, including being a single point of contact for team communications, and they are also there to take responsibility for any problems during the project. But we simply believe that there is a powerful alternative.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\" />\n\n## The agile alternative to product manager\n\nHere at Boldare, we use a combo of the [lean startup](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-lean-startup-methodology/) **build-measure-learn** approach and the **sprint-based scrum methodology** that divides project work into short (usually around two weeks) periods of activity, each resulting in a tangible and workable product iteration.\n\nIn the absence of a project manager, the key roles in an agile project are:\n\n* [Development team](https://www.boldare.com/services/development-teams/) – containing all the necessary specialist skills and experience: frontend and backend developers, [quality assurance specialists](https://www.boldare.com/blog/6-benefits-from-having-qa-ba-in-your-team/), business analysts, graphic and UX designers, etc.\n* [Scrum master](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-scrum-master-role-and-difference-between-manager/) – a person expert in the scrum process who acts as a facilitator to the team, supporting them to use that process most effectively.\n* [Product owner](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-product-owner-roles-and-responsibilities/) – a representative or stakeholder of the client or department for whom the digital product or software is being created.\n\nAgile working is based on flexibility, strong client involvement, and an iterative structure. Which all sounds excellent but what are the differences exactly, compared to using a project manager?\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Budgeting in agile software development - how it’s done?\" />\n\n## How to work without product managers? \n\n### Product and project vision\n\nHaving a vision is important, no matter your methodology. It’s a clear and overarching guide to what you’re aiming for. **Traditionally, the project manager would be heavily involved in creating the vision and then ensuring it is imparted to the project team.** Usually, throughout the course of the project, the vision is fixed and unchangeable.\n\n**In scrum, the vision is set with the involvement of the whole team, including the product owner.** At Boldare, we do this as part of a [product discovery workshop](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-do-you-make-first-product-discovery-workshops/) (or one of the [other workshops](https://www.boldare.com/blog/event-storming-product-vision-discover-our-workshops/) we offer, depending on the business needs of our partners) to kick off the development process, before the first sprint. It’s an event that involves both sides - our development team, a scrum master as a facilitator, and also the client’s stakeholders. What are the benefits of such a workshop?\n\n* It helps both the team and stakeholders to understand the real reason for bringing such a product to the market.\n* It allows us to understand the product’s level of maturity (are we going to use the MVP approach, or are we talking about scaling existing products?) allowing us to define the specific software development needs.\n* We can revise and challenge the ideas of our business partners concerning the solution they have chosen - business and technology-wise.\n* It helps us to select suitable technology.\n* We can map the risks and agree on a definition of success that is satisfactory for both sides.\n\n**Workshops not only increase engagement and commitment from the team but also put the overall responsibility for the vision where it belongs, with the product owner.**\n\nIt also makes that vision easier to change, if necessary. If circumstances and priorities shift in a way that impacts what the team is building, as the client’s representative, the product owner will be the first to know and it’s appropriate they take responsibility for this input into the process.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Event storming or product vision? Discover workshops that will help to build your next app\" />\n\n### Planning and time management\n\n**Usually, the project manager uses a detailed project plan, broken down into individual tasks and activities and showing the dependencies between them.** In other words, a roadmap for the project.\n\nHowever, this approach often places that roadmap in the category of holy writ; to be followed slavishly. In reality, knowing where you want to be is one thing, but how you get there is subject to change during the project and an agile team is ready to change direction when necessary.\n\nWith the work planned one sprint at a time (via the process of [sprint planning](https://www.boldare.com/blog/guide-to-efficient-sprint-planning/)) the team takes joint responsibility for the project’s direction and creates a much more adaptable work environment. They plan tasks only for a short period of time (a sprint is usually a week or two long) and usually provide only one functionality, defined in the [sprint goal](https://www.boldare.com/blog/sprint-goal-examples-and-good-practices/). Thanks to this, **the team focuses on a single deliverable goal.**\n\nWhen the sprint finishes they can reflect on their work during a [sprint review](https://www.boldare.com/blog/efficient-sprint-review-meetings/) and look back at what happened during the same period in a sprint [retrospective meeting](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/). **This helps to summarize what happened during the sprint but also allows the project to pivot if the initial approach was unsuccessful**. The conclusions reached following the sprint are implemented into the planning of the next in the form of executable actions.\n\n> This way, the build-measure-learn loop is used in practice and scrum teams rarely repeat mistakes.\n\nTechnology (for example, **Trello**, **Jira**, or **Asana**) can be used to help manage this and ensure the high degree of information transparency necessary for such an approach. In this way, there’s no need for a project manager to keep track of the project schedule.\n\n### Work allocation – who does what?\n\n**A project manager looks at the tasks and timings on the project plan and allocates them to team members, according to their roles and specialties.** This usually reflects a rigid team structure with clearly defined responsibilities and accountabilities. **The result can be a narrow individual focus on allocated tasks, and actually reduce teamworking.**\n\nAn **agile, manager-free development team supported by a scrum master is likely to be smaller** (usually up to 8 or 9 people at maximum; to manage more complex and multiple scrum teams we use the [Nexus Scrum framework](https://www.boldare.com/blog/nexus-scrum-framework-to-scale-development-teams/)) and offer more flexible skill sets, with people’s specific roles and responsibilities potentially evolving from one sprint to the next, depending on what the product and development process require. Also, scrum comes in handy here: daily scrums are short, daily meetings for the team to discuss the events of the previous day, plan the current one, or ask for help or explanations. Each team member has an opportunity to speak their mind, seek help, or warn about an issue.\n\nThis way, the responsibility for success (and failure!) is shared throughout the team instead of resting solely in the project manager. Every team member learns the lessons coming from the process better, through their own example.\n\n### Communication & information\n\n**A project manager tends to act as a kind of custodian of project (and product) information.** If a stakeholder wants a progress update, they don’t go to the project team, they go to the project manager. Likewise, if the team needs to know about a change in priorities (for example) it is the project manager who is responsible for communicating that change, and for updating and then communicating the project plan.\n\n**In agile, the key is transparency.** Everyone involved in the project has access to all the project documents and information. With the system of sprints and accompanying review and planning meetings, the client can see project results as they emerge and develop. **Everyone is on the same page; there are no gatekeepers.**\n\nNaturally, even with agile working, poor communication is possible. But technology helps: using a messaging system (such as **Slack**) ensures nothing is hidden; and using a suitable video meeting app and online collaboration app (we recommend our own app, [Boldare Boards](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) that we have developed, of course) means that everyone involved can attend the regular sprint meetings, whether they are in the office or not.\n\nAlso, at Boldare we use a [radical transparency approach](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/) which practically **eliminates gatekeepers in the form of managers** because the information and knowledge are shared publicly and accessible by everyone. We encourage our employees to use public channels, instead of private messages. This way we all get access to all the information quicker and learn faster. **This approach favors knowledge sharing and problem-solving**, because if someone asks a question publicly then everyone can answer, not only the person who was asked in the first place.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How radical transparency can improve your business?\" />\n\n### Performance management\n\n**In a traditional team setup, the manager is responsible for team and individual performance**; including setting goals, monitoring performance against targets, delivering feedback, and rewarding achievement.\n\n**In an agile development team, individuals are more self-organizing, responsible for their own performance, and are expected to ask for (and offer) support when necessary.** Performance management is more of a collective task. This is exemplified in the retrospective meeting that takes place after every sprint. The retrospective’s purpose is to examine the process; i.e. not so much *What did we achieve?* but *How did we achieve it?* **Retrospective meetings can be also used to summarize longer periods of time and important milestones.** For example, internally we use it to summarize each quarter or each product launch.\n\nIn a waterfall project, there’s an assumption that the project process is perfect, untouchable and the goal is always the same. Working in agile, that process is regularly reviewed and improved, to the benefit of the project’s outcomes.\n\n### Dealing with problems\n\nWhether it’s an unexpected lack of resources, a new project dependency, or an interpersonal conflict between team members, it’s a project manager’s job to find a solution to project problems.\n\n**An agile team is much more connected and engaged – both individually and collectively – with the project and its process.** This means when (not “if”) problems arise, the self-organizing team can tackle the issue together, facilitated when necessary by the scrum master.\n\nAdditionally, in [turquoise (or ‘flat’ as they’re also called) organizations like Boldare](https://www.boldare.com/blog/our-holacracy-experience/), we don’t put the whole responsibility for solving problems or conflicts on one person. Responsibility is shared between all team members, especially those in the roles of Lead Link and Rep Link. Also, if there’s a problem and we don’t have a role that can take care of it, we simply create such a role. For example, before the COVID-19 situation, the company had no need for a role that would be responsible for communication about company policies or business decision-making during a pandemic. When the situation evolved, we created such Active Strategy roles for our [New Normal strategy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/new-normal-in-boldare-strategy-and-tactics/).\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Our Holacracy Experience - what it is and why it works\" />\n\n## Working without a project manager: the culture factor\n\nFor flexible, self-organizing, collective, and agile working, culture may be the most important success factor.\n\nA company that is used to waterfall projects with a strong project manager role is used to working in a more rigid, stratified, command-and-control environment. **From our experience and perspective, this approach is high-risk because it rests too much on a single person**. You can imagine what might happen to your software development project when the project manager (custodian of all knowledge and decision-making power) is suddenly on sick leave or simply leaves the company.\n\n**To move from that to an agile, product- and client-centered way of working is a major culture shift.**\n\nUltimately, for truly agile, project manager-free working, the attitudes of each team member, the scrum master, and the product owner are critical. If anybody is just expecting someone to give them a job and then get on with it in isolation, they’re not working agile.\n\n## Less managers, more agile!\n\n**Put simply, in Boldare’s long and practical experience of working in scrum, the project manager role is not necessary to build high-quality, cutting-edge digital products.** In fact, it can even be a barrier to success. When the traditional project manager role is distributed between the development team, its facilitator (scrum master), and key client stakeholder (product owner) a far more effective way of running projects opens up.\n\nAs the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we work and discouraged physical collaboration, self-organizing teams have become more suitable for the current remote/distributed working model. **With everyone engaged and jointly responsible for the project, an agile team can work efficiently without the need for geographical proximity or a single guiding individual.**"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/working_without_project_managers_in_software_development_industry.png","lead":"Projects and project managers in the [software development](https://www.boldare.com/services/software-development-outsourcing/) industry are an inseparable combination, right? Well, no, not at all. That’s the received wisdom, and it often goes unquestioned. Like many companies specializing in digital product development, we considered it as something obvious. In the past, we used project managers for every project. The turning point was when we started using [Scrum as an agile](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) project management framework. With a development team, scrum master, and product owner, **we found no need for a separate project manager role**. As a result, we work more efficiently and more closely with our partners and get better results. **So, what is it like working without project managers responsible for the project’s success?**","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2023-04-30T12:15:40.031Z","slug":"benefits-of-working-without-project-managers","type":"blog","slugType":"","category":"Culture","additionalCategories":["Agile"],"url":null},"author":"Tadeusz Rolski","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Why do we work without project managers, and how can you benefit from this approach?","tileDescription":"Projects and projects managers are an inseparable combination, right? Well, no, not at all. That’s the received wisdom, and it often goes unquestioned. Like many companies specializing in digital product development, we considered it as something obvious. In the past we used project managers for every project. The turning point was when we started using scrum as an agile project management framework. With a development team, scrum master and product owner, we found no need for a separate project manager role. As a result, we work more efficiently, more closely with our partners, and – we believe – get better results.","coverImage":"/img/working_without_project_managers_in_software_development_industry.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"f869db65-46f5-51d7-980d-950923e2d206"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/press-release-anna-zarudzka-gives-an-interview-on-holacracy/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Press Release: Anna Zarudzka gives an interview on holacracy","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## What is holacracy like according to our co-CEO\n\nAccording to Anna, holacracy is organized in a similar fashion to a city - when you cross a road there’s no policeman standing behind you telling you when to go. You just look at the traffic lights and cross when they turn green. The same goes for Boldare - people get to self-organize from day one, and for example, it’s up to new joiners to schedule their own meetings and training sessions. \n\nBut, being Agile and self-organized also affects the way Boldare works with its clients. We are trying to do more than just deliver great products to our clients - we’ve made it our mission to help them **transform their management methods through [software development](https://www.boldare.com/categories/software-development) and digital products.** How do we go about it, exactly?\n\nFor example, after two or three months of working with a client, we can start working with their Agile teams on improving their self-organization. But it’s a process that takes time. Anna recollects a client that we’ve been working with for the past five years. It was only after two years that we began to work with them on their mindset, culture, and the way they build their teams.\n\n## What can new joiners expect from Boldare?\n\nAs the interview continues, Mariusz goes on to ask some questions from the perspective of someone looking to join Boldare. For example, what does joining the marketing team look like? Also, how would a person know what their responsibilities are?\n\nAnna explains, that once the person is hired, they immediately get assigned to a **marketing circle - an entity within our organization, a team so to speak, and are assigned a role; eg. a content writer.** Over time, that person gets more comfortable in what they do, and they can choose to add or create another role if there’s a need to do so. However, it is not mandatory, and it’s absolutely fine to stay in a single role for years.\n\n## How to implement holacracy at your own firm?\n\nAt this point, Mariusz was wondering if a manager of a corporation wanted to introduce [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/our-holacracy-experience/) to their firm, would they be able to do it, but only in part? Anna’s answer is short: **implementing holacracy all at once would be a great solution for managers. But for employees? Not so much.** \n\nHere, Anna talks about her own experiences - when preparing for [implementing holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/1500-days-of-holacracy/), she and her business partner were traveling around Europe, meeting with other businesses going through a similar process. Over many conversations with these people, one thing became apparent: **the most effective transformations were the ones that were organic.**\n\nAt the same time, Anna is convinced that regardless of the scale - whether it's a small business or a corporation - it’s worth going through that process, even partially. She believes that businesses need to be a lot like a mythical Icarus - to **boldly try new things,** even if there’s a risk of getting burned.\n\n## How to make a major decision in a holacratic company\n\nAnna points out that in terms of the decision-making process, the only thing that needs to be happening in a self-organized business are [changes](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-vuca-world-definition/) to the structure. To that end, there’s a specific format that needs to be followed, called the governance process. The key to this is objection - **anyone involved in a governance process can raise an objection to an idea that is being discussed.** This ensures that the debate and discussion are more wide-ranging, and that every person has the opportunity to be heard. Most of the strategic decisions at Boldare are made this way. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Holacracy in a nutshell: everything you should know if you run a company\" />\n\n## Being self-organized: pros vs. cons\n\nAnna admits that there are costs to holacracy and self-organizing, both in terms of money and time. For example, it would be cheaper to simply pay for a traditional manager to rate someone's performance or to make a hiring decision.\n\nBut being self-organized has plenty of benefits. A great example for Anna is how the **entire organization is able to transform and survive different kinds of changes.** Anna recollects a situation where there was a difficult decision to be made at Boldare. Back then, the entire organization (180 people at the time) was able to sit down and have a serious discussion where anyone could raise an objection. At the time, Anna was thinking to herself: *This is surreal. I feel like I’m in some kind of movie.* Then, one of the employees decided to raise an objection to the matter that was being discussed, and his reasoning was heard out. In a moment like this, Anna felt the impact of self-organization at Boldare.\n\nAnna sees the benefits in holacracy, even in the little things - like when she sees that in her team there are people who are growing and slowly becoming truly [modern leaders](https://www.boldare.com/blog/boldareship-academy-how-we-built-our-own-league-of-leaders/). It’s also a great moment for Anna when she can leave a team because she knows that they can handle things on their own.\n\n## Anna Zarudzka on holacracy - afterword\n\nMariusz wrapped up the conversation with: \n\n> *they say that a good conversation is like a good black coffee - it will keep you awake at night. I already feel that my blood pressure went way up.* \n\nIt was his way of saying that talking to Anna was intellectually stimulating. The entire conversation is available in Polish, as a part of a **podcast “Menadżer plus”**. You can listen to the full episode [here](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7vMc24EqOvuZVJime5U7Df?si=2419d7e272ae44e5)."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Zaru_3.jpg","lead":"Recently, our Co-CEO Anna Zarudzka met with Mariusz Chrapko - a man of many talents. Mariusz is a business consultant by day and a podcaster by night. Anna had the opportunity to talk with Mariusz about [Agile](https://www.boldare.com/blog/10-advantages-of-agile-methodology/), holacracy, self-organization, and everything that comes with it. Read on to find out if Anna would rather be a mythical Daedalus or Icarus, and why holacracy is a lot like crossing a street.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2022-02-22T21:35:56.447Z","slug":"anna-zarudzka-interview-on-holacracy","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["People"],"url":null},"author":"Krzysztof Radzik","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Press Release: Anna Zarudzka gives an interview on Holacracy","tileDescription":"Recently, our Co-CEO Anna Zarudzka met with Mariusz Chrapko - a man of many talents. Mariusz is a business consultant by day and a podcaster by night. Anna had the opportunity to talk with Mariusz about Agile, holacracy, self-organization, and everything that comes with it. Read on to find out if Anna would rather be a mythical Daedalus or Icarus, and why holacracy is a lot like crossing a street.","coverImage":"/img/Zaru_3.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"951f4649-5e6a-544a-8e9c-95fbb92344c3"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/moving-forward-and-getting-stronger-our-partners-share-their-predictions-and-key-lessons-from-2021/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"2022: our Partners share predictions for travel, real estate, automotive and education sectors","order":null,"content":[{"body":"We chose companies that are leading their industries and are open to various kinds of innovation. Organizations that are eager to improve, not only their digital products but also their processes. Our partners share their opinions on which technology trends will play major roles in the **tourism, real estate, gas and energy, and e-commerce sectors.** \n\n## Chris Carmichael, Head of Corporate Innovation, TUI Musement\n\n![Head of Corporate Innovation at TUI Musement](/img/chris.png \"Chris Carmichael\")\n\n### Which technology trend will play a major role in the tourism sector in 2022?\n\nI think 2022 will be a year of recovery as we see what everyone has been working on over the last two summers. There are no major changes to the hardware or software that customers use, but the new approach to remote working could see more of a market for long-term holiday stays as people combine work and holidays in the same destination.\n\n### What’s your personal key technological or product development takeaway from 2021?\n\nFor me, 2021 has been a year of new technology beginning to deliver. We are finally starting to see technologies we have talked about for a while meeting their promises, so **the speed of event-based architectures combined with machine learning systems and other technologies has allowed us to create products and services that are far better** for our customers and allow us to modernize and improve our processes.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Digital innovation as a driver of growth - a talk with Chris Carmichael of TUI\"/>\n\n## Cathy Cao, Director of Digital, Olive Tree Holdings\n\n![Cathy Cao](/img/cathy.png \"Director of Digital, Olive Tree Holdings\")\n\n### Which technology trend will play a major role in the real estate sector in 2022?\n\nIn the commercial real estate (CRE) world, we see technology impacting these key areas: automation of repeatable but increasingly complex processes, easier access to data plus machine learning capabilities on big datasets, and smarter spaces with IoT. \n\n### What’s your personal key technological or product development takeaway from 2021?\n\nDue to COVID, the limitation of in-person interactions and travel spurred the CRE world to go digital sooner than expected for the industry. CRE financing was one sector in which I was surprised to see so much innovation within the last year -- from lead sourcing to transaction management. TrueRate Services is excited to see many peers enter the space pushing CRE financing to digitalize at a faster rate than many other real estate sectors who were early adopters of technology. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Biggest challenges for the real estate sector and how we solve them\"/>\n\n## Tobias Troeger, Head of Application Management, Prisma\n\n![Head of Application Management, Prisma](/img/tobias.png \"Tobias Troeger\")\n\n### Which technology trend will play a major role in the gas and energy sector in 2022?\n\nI believe that Software as a Service and commercial off-the-shelf products will play a major role in the gas sector. Many legacy applications are at the end of their lifetimes whereas investment budgets for bespoke systems are decreasing due to pressure on margins from increasing gas prices.\n\n### What’s your personal key technological or product development takeaway from 2021?\n\nMy key takeaway from 2021 is migration strategies from monolithic to event-sourced and independent systems. Very often the microservices and event-sourced pattern is hyped without anybody being clear how to actually migrate from a legacy system. PRISMA has found a technical approach to actually move to new architecture patterns which is a great step.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Scaling & modernizing monolithic apps\"/>\n\n## Kunal Chopra, CEO, Kaspien\n\n![CEO, Kaspien](/img/Kunal_Chopra_CEO_Kaspien.png \"Kunal Chopra\")\n\n### Which technology trend will play a major role in the retail sector in 2022?\n\nConsolidation of systems will play a major role in e-commerce in 2022. 2020 forced many companies to expand their online presence. In 2021, we’ve seen brick-and-mortars open back up, and consumers have changed their spending habits once more, landing in between 2019 and 2020 buying behaviors. As a result, the demand for omnichannel brand management tools has increased. Similarly, we’ve seen over $10 billion invested into Amazon FBA aggregators in the last two years. Every brand these aggregators acquire has its own supply chain. To effectively manage and scale these brands, aggregators will need tools capable of consolidating data and management from multiple brands.\n\n### What’s your personal key technological or product development takeaway from 2021?\n\nWe’ve seen consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands become a lot smarter about Amazon since the start of COVID. When foot traffic to physical stores dropped off, many of these companies had to learn how to sell online or risk going out of business. They got more in-the-weeds than they had previously, and it’s fantastic to see more buy-in and focus on e-commerce. For technology providers, however, this means that their tools must be able to serve more advanced user needs. At Kaspien, we experienced this with our ad management software. The average user today understands ad architecture and ad strategy better than they did pre-COVID, which pushes us to continue innovating. That’s an exciting place to be.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"CTO as a Service solves the problems of a US digital product company\"/>\n\nWhile takeaways and predictions differ between each industry, there are a few similarities. In most cases, our customers pointed out the increasing importance of digital products and changes in the business landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, most of the predictions focused on the growing significance of new technologies: microservices, machine learning, IoT, and digital transformation in general.\n\nIf you want to discuss partnership possibilities  - **send us a message at** [hello@boldare.com](mailto:hello@boldare.com), or fill in our **contact form**."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/ourpartners_copy.png","lead":"**2021 was another year of uncertainty - a textbook example of the VUCA world.** While the global pandemic keeps many businesses in check, there’s a group of entrepreneurs who treat the current situation as an opportunity to adapt, grow and as a result, boost their businesses. **Here at Boldare, we are proud to work with such bold organizations**. We asked some of their decision makers to tell us about their predictions for 2022, and the lessons they learned from 2021. Read on to learn what industry leaders have to say!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-12-23T10:39:42.863Z","slug":"predictions-for-2022","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["Future","People"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Our partner share their product development predictions for 2022","tileDescription":"2021 was full of lessons. Will 2022 be any different? We asked our partners about the future of software development. Their insight is based on decades of experiance in their respective industries. What did they have to say? Read on to find out.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"307028f9-7585-5d7d-817b-8493efb9b72c"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/how-to-improve-productivity-in-agile-scrum-teams/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"How to improve productivity in agile scrum teams","order":null,"content":[{"body":"[Agile software development](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-agile-development/) relies heavily on teams and team productivity for success. **Let’s look at some Agile productivity metrics and the factors that influence Agile team performance.**\n\n## How to measure team productivity in Agile? Agile metrics\n\nMetrics can be tricky. Nobody wants their performance to be driven or judged by statistics alone. Yet without some form of objectivity, any measurement of performance risks being purely anecdotal or opinion-based. The challenge is to give the team some objective indicator of how they’re doing, without encroaching on their agile self-organization and freedom to make decisions. **The following selection of Agile productivity metrics gives an insight into Agile Scrum team productivity.**\n\n### Sprint burndown charts\n\nScrum teams work in sprints - short periods of time with specific goals that result in a fresh product iteration. At the beginning of each sprint, the team agrees the work from the project backlog it will complete. **A sprint burndown chart is a visual way of tracking the amount of work done over time**, as the sprint progresses.\n\n### Product or Release burndown chart\n\nWhere a sprint burndown shows progress during a single work period, **a release burndown chart tracks team activity on a longer scale, incorporating multiple sprints**. Agile teams are quick to pivot, changing project priorities in response to changing circumstances. Sprint burndown charts usually show a consistent downward trajectory as work is completed. A product burndown chart reflects changes in priority (usually associated with additional or different tasks being added) to give an accurate ‘bigger picture’ perspective.\n\n### Velocity or Speed\n\n**Velocity is simply how quickly the team completes work during a sprin**t, often measured in work hours. This metric feeds back into the planning and forecasting process. Velocity indicates how quickly the team is likely to get through the remainder of the [project backlog](https://www.boldare.com/blog/product-backlog-vs-sprint-backlog/). Velocity can be used to track a new team’s development (they speed up as their collaboration improves), show whether ongoing performance is consistent, and act as feedback on changes to processes or ways of working (faster indicates the change was an improvement).\n\n### Cumulative flow diagram\n\nMoving on from daily or sprint updates, **the cumulative flow diagram represents the project as a whole**, showing the [user stories](https://www.boldare.com/blog/build-digital-products-with-user-story-mapping/) that have been created, are currently being created, and are waiting for work to begin. A big advantage of a cumulative flow diagram is that it monitors the work in progress (WIP). If the WIP begins to grow, that’s a warning sign – perhaps that tasks are taking too long, that the product backlog is getting out of control, or that there may be a bottleneck in the team’s workflow.\n\n## Benefits of Agile productivity metrics\n\n**The advantage of using Agile productivity metrics is that they act as early warnings when the project is at risk of derailing.** Examples of warning signs are:\n\n* The team regularly finishes sprints early (not committing to doing enough in their sprint planning).\n* The team is missing [sprint goals](https://www.boldare.com/blog/sprint-goal-examples-and-good-practices/) (committing to too much).\n* The work is ‘burning down’ but is frequently ‘topped up’ as priorities change and features or tasks are added (this is potentially time to revisit the original project goals and assumptions).\n* Velocity is irregular, possibly a warning of inefficient work estimation by the team.\n* Growing levels of work in progress may indicate the team is not closing issues that are no longer relevant.\n\n**These are not the only metrics for Scrum team productivity.** Others may be less agile-related but still relevant to the design and development of digital products, such as the number of bugs or defects discovered (both during development and after release), the level of [technical debt](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-much-technical-debt-is-acceptable/) incurred, and the number of user requests for support or help.\n\n![How to improve Agile team performance](/img/how-to-increase-productivity-in-agile-team.jpg \"How to improve Agile team performance\")\n\n## How to improve Agile team performance? 8 factors influencing productivity\n\nMetrics and measurements are important but **what can you do if those metrics begin to show low or falling team productivity?** What are your potential productivity boosters that will impact the team’s work?\n\n### 1. Consider Agile team size\n\nScrum development teams are self-organizing, working together with stakeholders to identify and deliver project priorities. Scrum comes with a range of tools and techniques to facilitate this kind of productive independence (for more on the benefits of self-organization, check out our article on why we [don’t have project manager roles](https://www.boldare.com/blog/benefits-of-working-without-project-managers/) at Boldare!)\n\nAgile team size is an issue. Too big and the decision-making process slows down, communication is strained, and time can be lost in lengthy discussions. **The ideal is a team of three to nine people.**\n\nIf the project is large enough to need more people, e.g. you’re building a range of products and require a bigger team, consider using [Nexus Scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/nexus-scrum-framework-to-scale-development-teams/) which can be used to coordinate multiple Scrum teams.\n\n### 2. Don’t take shortcuts with the product backlog\n\nClarity on what needs to be done and the order of priority for development comes from the product backlog and user stories the team puts together. Insufficient detail in user stories or the backlog leads to uncertainty and a lack of joint focus in the team. Spending a little extra time working through the [product vision up front](https://www.boldare.com/blog/product-vision-workshops-toolkit/) and creating user stories with enough information is better.\n\n### 3. Keep everyone goal-oriented\n\nAcceptance criteria for product iterations and definitions of done are critical for productive agile working. When the whole team is involved in discussing and agreeing on these key outcomes, it is focused on delivering the right work.\n\nAcceptance criteria influence both the design and development work and the project’s testing strategy, ensuring that the right factors are checked before work is signed off.\n\n### 4. Meetings, meetings, meetings…\n\nRegular meetings are a key feature of agile working and the scrum framework.\n\n* [Sprint planning](https://www.boldare.com/blog/guide-to-efficient-sprint-planning/) meetings should be ambitious but realistic, focusing the work of the sprint on the project’s leading priorities.\n* [Sprint reviews](https://www.boldare.com/blog/efficient-sprint-review-meetings/) and [sprint retrospective](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/) meetings keep the work on track and enable the team to look at the project from the outside, ensuring the process works for the team and the project’s benefit.\n\n### 5. Transparency\n\nPeople work better when they’re not in silos. A person who knows what they’re doing and also what their teammates are doing, and how that relates to and impacts their work can see the bigger picture. That perspective leads to better decisions, better quality products, and more efficient teamwork.\n\nThat transparency includes openness about the metrics and measures in use (put those burndown charts where everyone can see them!), but also a common understanding around priorities, roles, and skills. At Boldare, we have worked with a [policy of radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/) for some time now.\n\n### 6. Continuous improvement attitude\n\nIn teamwork, mindset is everything and **a mindset of continuous improvement is hardwired into Agile working**; as seen in the final statement of the Agile Manifesto: *“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”*\n\nThis links back to the sprint retrospective meetings to constantly scrutinize and improve the way the team works. It goes further. When a philosophy of continuous improvement (including the belief that improvement is always possible) is embedded in the team, it is constantly searching for more effective (and productive!) ways of working.\n\n### 7. Remove barriers and obstacles\n\nExternal factors, unexpected interruptions, and unforeseen problems are normal occurrences in any project. Part of the [role of Scrum master](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-scrum-master-role-and-difference-between-manager/) on the development team is to support, guide, and facilitate the development process, including using their Scrum and Agile expertise to anticipate and head off likely issues. **The more issues can be spotted before they arrive, the less time the team wastes on non-productive work.**\n\nThis can be especially true when working on scaling an existing product – while the team is working on the new or improved features, the product is still in use and users are flagging up fresh issues.\n\n### 8. Equip the team with the latest tools\n\nHow does the team communicate? How does it manage and keep track of tasks and priorities? Are your developers up to speed with the latest development tools for integration, tracking changes, etc.? What about the latest frameworks and development practices? Visioning, product backlogs, and sprint planning help the team know what to do, but do they have the best tools to achieve that goal?\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Standard remote tools in a non-standard way: tips from #BoldareTeam\" />\n\n## Anti-patterns in Scrum Agile development teams\n\nHaving outlined the key productivity factors, it’s worth flipping the perspective and listing some [Scrum anti-patterns](https://www.boldare.com/blog/scrum-anti-patterns), or ‘no-no’ behaviors; often these are attempts at shortcuts that end up costing you more time or resources.\n\n* Setting unrealistic target dates or deadlines as ‘motivation’;\n* Agreeing on sprint goals that are too ‘easy’;\n* Being overprotective of people's specialisms or areas of expertise;\n* Putting off tackling problems or defects to meet a deadline;\n* Seeing changing circumstances or requirements as a problem;\n* Not keeping the product owner or other stakeholders in the loop;\n* Being distracted by interruptions or non-goal-related issues.\n\n## How to improve Scrum team productivity? Summary\n\n**The Agile philosophy and frameworks such as Scrum have productivity built-in.** Like any other ‘system’, you can go through the motions, have all the right meetings, and so on, and still work inefficiently and miss deadlines.\n\nTo maintain high levels of productivity in your agile teams, first you need to agree exactly how you will measure that productivity – **define it in concrete terms using specific Agile productivity metrics**.\n\nNext, while the Agile Manifesto paints a clear picture of the ideal agile development team and project, you need to consider the factors that determine whether that team and project operate productively or not: including the attitude of the team, the systems that fit the project, and how transparently they are used.\n\n\n\n## FAQ:\n\n### Q: How do you specifically adjust team sizes or structures in agile environments when a project scales up unexpectedly?\n\nA: In agile environments, scaling up a project unexpectedly often leads to the formation of additional scrum teams rather than expanding existing teams. This approach maintains manageable team sizes, ensuring that each group remains agile and focused. Teams are organized around specific features or functionalities, using frameworks like Nexus Scrum for effective coordination and integration across the project.\n\n### Q: Can you provide specific examples or case studies where these agile productivity metrics have been successfully applied?\n\nA: Companies such as Spotify and Google are known for their effective use of agile methodologies, including productivity metrics like velocity and sprint burndown charts. These organizations have adapted agile to fit their unique cultures and operational demands, leading to enhanced productivity and innovation. Their experiences are often highlighted in technology conferences and industry publications, serving as valuable case studies for the benefits of agile metrics.\n\n### Q: What are some common pitfalls or challenges when implementing continuous improvement practices in scrum teams, and how can they be overcome?\n\nA: Common challenges in implementing continuous improvement in scrum teams include resistance to change, unclear improvement objectives, and inadequate feedback mechanisms. To overcome these hurdles, it's crucial to establish clear, measurable goals for improvement efforts, promote a culture of openness where feedback is actively sought and valued, and ensure regular and actionable retrospective meetings. Educating teams on the importance of continuous improvement through ongoing training can also embed this mindset deeper into their daily routines, making continuous enhancement a standard part of their workflow."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/productivity_in_agile_teams.png","lead":"Agile working is about flexibility, responsiveness, and balancing user and business needs. Consequently, [Agile frameworks](https://www.boldare.com/blog/10-advantages-of-agile-methodology/) – such as Scrum – have achieved widespread mainstream acceptance and use in the software development industry. According to the [Agile Manifesto](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-manifesto-principles/), *“The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams,” and, “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”* **But how do we define Agile productivity, measure it, and improve productivity in Agile teams?** Find out in the article!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-11-25T19:19:59.032Z","slug":"how-to-improve-productivity-in-agile-team","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["Agile"],"url":null},"author":"Romuald Członkowski","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"How to improve productivity in agile scrum teams","tileDescription":"How do we define agile productivity, how do we measure it, and how do we improve productivity in agile scrum teams? Find out in the article! ","coverImage":"/img/productivity_in_agile_teams.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"2a24878c-c398-52c5-9316-bce29bc6b9e0"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/breaking-the-rules-piotr-majchrzak-featured-in-owners-magazine/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Breaking the rules: Piotr Majchrzak featured in Owners Magazine","order":null,"content":[{"body":"Owners Magazine interviewer **Chris Blondell’s** main focus is on startups and entrepreneurs. Speaking with Piotr was a golden opportunity to explore his philosophy on leadership and employee autonomy. \n\nThis brief interview helps illustrate the beginnings of the Boldare Co-CEO’s interest in holacracy and its ideas around freedom and autonomous working. It also fuels discussion on how flat-structured systems like [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/1500-days-of-holacracy/) can counterbalance trends such as the **Great Resignation**. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Is Anna Zarudzka, Boldare’s Co-CEO, a business hippie?\"/>\n\nI strongly encourage you to read Piotr’s interview [here](https://ownersmag.com/boldare-shakes-the-workplace-up/) to discover how an environment without managers empowers people to work at their best."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/breaking_the_rules_-_owner_s_mag.png","lead":"**Boldare’s Co-CEO** tells the story of his entrepreneurial beginnings and shares his vision on running a company in this interview for **Owners Magazine**. If you want to know why it’s worth breaking the rules, and how working at Boldare is like living in a city, then read on!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-11-16T17:34:58.836Z","slug":"piotr-majchrzak-featured-in-owners-magazine","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["People"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Breaking the rules: Piotr Majchrzak featured in Owners Magazine","tileDescription":"Boldare’s Co-CEO tells the story of his entrepreneurial beginnings and shares his vision on running a company in this interview for Owners Magazine. If you want to know why it’s worth breaking the rules, and how working at Boldare is like living in a city, then read on!","coverImage":"/img/breaking_the_rules_-_owner_s_mag.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"d122e839-bcc7-5767-8c32-6b840f63c956"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/holacracy-in-a-nutshell-everything-you-should-know-if-you-run-a-company/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Holacracy in a nutshell: everything you should know if you run a company","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Holacracy definition\n\n[Holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/our-holacracy-experience/) is a way of organizing a company that sidesteps traditional, up-and-down hierarchy. In the words of Matthias Lang, of holacracy-certified **dwarfs and Giants**, “*Holacracy is a practice which allows everyone to work together in an organization, to steer, to make decisions in a different way. It's not following the conventional hierarchy, the conventional power structures.*” \n\nEvery member of a holacracy is both follower and leader. The system is rooted in an agile mindset, being flexible and responsive to changing circumstances: **holacracy is Agile applied to organizational setup.**\n\nInstead of teams and subteams, we have interlocking circles. Instead of fixed job descriptions, we have flexible roles. Instead of managers, [we have... no managers.](https://www.boldare.com/blog/benefits-of-working-without-project-managers/)\n\n### The circle structure \n\n**The basic unit of a holacratic structure is the circle**, a group of people with a shared goal, responsibility or area of interest within the organization. Independent and self-governing, each circle has a collective responsibility for its own decisions and actions. What would normally be a manager’s job is everybody’s job in a holacracy.\n\n**Each circle has a purpose**, one that contributes to the wider goals of the organization, and contains a number of roles that operate to fulfil the circle’s purpose.\n\n**Each circle covers a different area of company activity** – one for sales, one for PR, etc. – and can be created (and deleted) according to need. There’s no limit on the number of circles, and some circles may be contained within larger circles. It all depends on what works. At Boldare, we have a dynamic number of circles (usually in the dozens) that changes quite regularly.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"1500 days of holacracy - an interview with Piotr Majchrzak\"/>\n\nIf this sounds lawless and chaotic, don’t worry, it isn’t. There are a couple of fundamentals. First, there is the Anchor Circle, the broadest circle that is dedicated to the overall goal or purpose of the organization. The ‘master’ circle, if you like, everything is within the remit of the Anchor Circle. Next, within the Anchor Circle, other overarching divisions can be made. \n\nThe **General Company Circle** (GCC) contains the company’s value-generating functions, those activities that contribute directly to the business goals. \n\nCircles are independent and self-governing units with clear responsibilities. Every circle has a ‘**Lead Link**’, a person whose role includes the circle’s overall strategy (ensuring a common alignment of purpose within the circle) and resource allocation.\n\nCircles can be temporary or time-limited, depending on the purpose. For example, **at Boldare, we create a new circle for the development of each digital product**.\n\nWhat does every circle contain? Every circle contains roles!\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Phase by phase - benefits of using Full Cycle Product Development\"/>\n\n## Holacratic roles\n\nUnlike the job titles found in traditional structures, **each holacracy circle contains a number of roles instead.** Each role has a clear purpose and a set of specific accountabilities. The key roles in each circle include:\n\n* **Lead Link** – as already mentioned, the role responsible for the circle’s overall strategy and resources.\n* **Rep Link** – a circle member who is also a member of the higher circle which it belongs to (e.g. a Rep Link of any subcircle of the GCC will be a member of the GCC as a “representative” of their own circle) The Rep Link is elected by the other circle members.\n* **Secretary** – Responsible for keeping circle records, managing meetings, and interpreting ‘governance’, the process of defining or amending the circle’s roles or policies. This role is also elected by the rest of the circle.\n* **Facilitator** – Another elected role, to facilitate key circle meetings such as governance and tactical meetings (more on those later).\n\nA few final points on roles:\n\n* **Roles are separate to employees.** If a role comes to an end, nobody is fired! The employee will take on a new role or continue working in his or her other roles.\n* One role may be fulfilled by several people.\n* Roles (like circles) are created and deleted according to the needs of the organization.\n\n### No more managers\n\nHolacracy has no managers in the traditional sense. Many of the responsibilities that are usually designated ‘management’ are carried out by the four elected roles: Rep Link, Secretary, Facilitator, and the Lead Link role. In this way, responsibility is distributed within the circle and not focused on a single leader. Decision making, as already mentioned, is also distributed. In our experience, this means:\n\n* Teams are truly self-organized, able to exercise their own authority and responsibility.\n* If and when the Lead Link is absent (on vacation, off sick) the work of the circle continues smoothly.\n* The system of circles and elected roles is a readily understood template for all circles; i.e. responsibilities are clear and ways of working are shared. We all understand the basics of how we all work.\n\n### Who makes decisions in holacracy?\n\nThe holacratic ideal is the self-organizing circle and there are no traditional management positions. The circles decide independently how they want to organize their work on a daily basis, and exactly how it should be distributed among the roles and individuals, according to their competences and experience.\n\nOn an individual level, the holder of a role has the **freedom and authority to proactively make decisions** on matters in their remit; without the requirement to consult others if the issue does not affect them. The guiding principle is whether the decision is ‘safe enough to try’ – in the absence of an evidenced risk to the company, its circles or roles, the individual role-holder has the authority to make the decision.\n\nAt Boldare, the self-organizing nature of the circles means that their members support each other directly, and communally. Thanks to this openness and a policy of [radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/), it’s easier for people to identify obstacles and risks and react earlier. \n\nAs part of our agile approach, **we use the scrum framework in our work**. The regular [scrum](https://www.boldare.com/categories/scrum/) daily and retrospective meetings also help by providing a system with review and continuous improvement built in – thus making the formal manager role even more redundant. \n\n### In holacracy, meetings are important\n\nDay-to-day **communication in a holacracy is largely unrestricted**, with circles free to adopt whatever methods work best. At Boldare we use Slack, which helps us to keep high levels of transparency. The fundamental exceptions to this are the two types of meeting that every circle has: tactical and governance.\n\n* **Tactical meetings** – These are focused on operational issues relating to assignments and projects, associated metrics, and any task-related problems that require tackling as a group. \n* **Governance meetings** – These are to address structural issues, such as adding, removing or changing roles or accountabilities, or even circles.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"10 Reasons why you should use an Agile methodology\"/>\n\n## Salaries reviews without managers\n\nAnything different to the norm is a challenge. **In holacracy, one of the biggest challenges for people is the issue of salary distribution** – without a management role, who decides on raises and so on? Each holacratic company has its own policies regarding salaries and there’s no “golden rule” for this matter.  Here’s how we do it at Boldare:\n\n* First, the individual employee assesses the value he or she attaches to his or her own competence, using a special **questionnaire with scaled evaluation criteria** for evaluation and determination.\n* This is then used to make the team's **initial salary proposal,** with a pre-determined salary range. \n* Then, to assess the skills accurately and assess professional competence, experts from the individual’s are consulted. \n* On the basis of the self-assessment and the assessment by others, the salary is then calculated by a circle responsible for salary calculation using thorough analysis by means of algorithms.\n\nThus, **the salary does not depend on the subjective opinion of a single person**, but is influenced by many different factors, making the process much more objective.\n\n### Assessment of expertise and skills\n\nThe assessment process (both by the individual and their associates) focuses on more than just results-oriented performance. As well as professional skills and expertise, soft skills are also considered, for example:\n\n* **Versatility** – the ability to work in a changing environment and to switch smoothly between different subjects\n* **Individual learning** – the ability to learn independently.\n\nWe have found that this method has a positive impact on everyone's job satisfaction and motivation. The core idea is simple: instead of striving for perfection in all conceivable criteria, each employee can focus on his or her strengths and develop what he or she does best. \n\n### The conclusion of the salary process \n\nAside from the calculation of salaries, the process includes opportunity for feedback. **Circle members get together and give each other feedback, including sharing their experiences of working together.** This often leads to new personal development goals, to be pursued individually, always taking into account the team's strategy.\n\nAccording to **our internal anonymous survey**, this method of salary determination and feedback has a positive influence.\n\n* 85% of the respondents stated that the evaluation of their work by the whole team had a positive effect on their motivation.\n* 61% noticed an actual change in the team's commitment to their work\n\nand\n\n* 56% said that their own actions could have a direct impact on the results within the team. \n\n## The business benefits of working with holacracy\n\nToday’s business environment requires a flexibility of approach. Rigid organizational structures with their restricted decision-making responsibilities are less and less fit for the modern [VUCA world](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-vuca-world-definition/)**. The agility of holacracy encourages:**\n\n* Openness and transparency of communication.\n* Greater empowerment of all individuals.\n* Designing and organizing each circle to fit the task (e.g. forming circles that specialize in a specific stage of the [full cycle development process](https://www.boldare.com/services/full-cycle-product-development/).)\n* Decisions made by those best-placed to make them, not by managers.\n* More and better ideas and innovation.\n* More leadership at all levels.\n* Engagement of the whole workforce in the organization’s business goals.\n* Easier collaboration with stakeholders.\n* Job and career advancement based on pure merit, as opposed to seniority or tenure, etc.\n* An organizational culture that is formed and influenced by everyone that is part of it.\n\n**Holacracy has been likened to an ‘operating system’ for organizations** – a base-level framework of protocols onto which you can install specific ‘apps’ or functions – as long as they fit with the OS, they can function compatible with each other and the organization.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"CTO as a Service solves the problems of a US digital product company\"/>\n\n## Summary \n\nWith holacracy, tradition is out the window. Instead, the holacratic organization can enjoy a flatter organizational structure, distributed decision-making, a genuine sharing of power and control, and an agility that is ready for change. These are benefits that Boldare and our clients continue to enjoy.\n\n**Are you curious how it feels to become a member of holacratic Boldare team? Visit our** [career page](https://www.boldare.com/career/?utm_source=Boldare.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=boldareblog) and check the current vacancies!"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/holacracy_in_practice__from_self-organized_teams_to_____their_salaries.png","lead":"**Almost four years ago, we started our transformation to holacracy.** That transformation – deliberately – is still going on today. It’s an ongoing process. In this article, we’ll cover the essentials of what holacracy is, and how we use it here at Boldare, a [product design and development company](https://www.boldare.com/services/). Read on to find out about roles, circles and who decides about salary increases if there are no managers around.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-11-16T06:17:22.629Z","slug":"holacracy-in-nutshell","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["Agile"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Holacracy in a nutshell: everything you should know if you run a company","tileDescription":"Almost four years ago, we started our transformation to holacracy. That transformation – deliberately – is still going on today. It’s an ongoing process. In this article, we’ll cover the essentials of what holacracy is, and how we use it here at Boldare. Read on to find out about roles, circles and who decides about salary increases if there are no managers around.","coverImage":"/img/holacracy_in_practice__from_self-organized_teams_to_____their_salaries.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"5d009147-3fbb-53b0-b840-8aba5787ac4e"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/anna-zarudzka-in-an-interview-on-the-future-of-work-for-authority-magazine/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Anna Zarudzka in an interview on the future of work for Authority Magazine","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## What’s the story?\n\nAuthority Magazine is a popular online publication (available via medium.com). It’s known for sharing stories and ideas through interviews with inspiring leaders and authorities in various areas: business, wellness, society, entertainment, technology, etc. Authority Magazine’s creators invited Anna Zarudzka as an expert in the field of business, to talk about the top five trends to watch in the future of work.\n\nShe started with a story of her past business choices, including the story of creating and establishing a self-organized tech company - Boldare. She briefly describes Boldare’s internal management system - [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/our-holacracy-experience/) - and the company’s attitude towards people (clients, partners, employees). \n\n## What comes next?\n\nAnna Zarudzka reveals what’s needed in order to successfully run an organization in new and challenging market circumstances: in a rapidly changing [VUCA world](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-vuca-world-definition/). She emphasizes that agile methods and lean startup principles are playing an important role in dealing with such reality. Moreover, she makes a good point: \n\n> Anything that cannot be digitized or automated will become extremely valuable: creativity, imagination, intuition, emotions, and ethics.\n\n## Read the interview\n\nRead the interview to discover more insights. Anna Zarudzka and Authority Magazine’s journalist, Phil La Duke, discuss:\n\n* the principles of building effective teams, \n* work-life integration vs work-life balance, \n* shifting to 100% remote working, \n* dealing with unemployment growth,\n* and much more.\n\nClick below for the article and enjoy the read.\n\n[Preparing For The Future Of Work: Anna Zarudzka of Boldare On The Top Five Trends To Watch In The Future Of Work](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/preparing-for-the-future-of-work-anna-zarudzka-of-boldare-on-the-top-five-trends-to-watch-in-the-7ef6fc10656)"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/interview_on_the_future_of_work_for_Authority_Magazine_1.jpg","lead":"Boldare’s Co-CEO and joint founder, Anna Zarudzka, gave an insightful interview to prestigious publication platform, Authority Magazine. The conversation was a part of an interview series titled: *“Preparing for the future of work”*. Anna Zarudzka shared her ideas and Boldare’s approach toward ongoing changes on the labor market. Do you want to know what’s coming and how to prepare for the market shift?","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-11-08T09:41:04.456Z","slug":"anna-zarudzka-in-authority-magazine","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["News"],"url":null},"author":"Zuzanna Talik","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Anna Zarudzka in an interview for Authority Magazine","tileDescription":"Boldare’s Co-CEO and joint founder, Anna Zarudzka, gave an insightful interview to prestigious publication platform, Authority Magazine. The conversation was a part of an interview series titled: “Preparing for the future of work”. Anna Zarudzka shared her ideas and Boldare’s approach toward ongoing changes on the labor market. Do you want to know what’s coming and how to prepare for the market shift?","coverImage":"/img/interview_on_the_future_of_work_for_Authority_Magazine_1.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"9c9f781f-b9d2-5c35-ad53-acfcece2b0bc"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/1500-days-of-holacracy-an-interview-with-piotr-majchrzak/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"1500 days of holacracy - an interview with P. Majchrzak","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Before holacracy\n\n**Zuzanna Talik: Where did the idea to implement holacracy come from? Who came up with the idea to introduce such a system? Under what circumstances did this happen?** \n\n**Piotr Majchrzak:** Since the inception of the company (in 2004) we were guided by principles which, looking at them now, were the foundations of what is needed to implement self-organization. With an agile, transparent, open culture we were pretty good with the teams at an operational level, especially the ones that [develop digital products](https://www.boldare.com/services/product-design-and-development/), but we lacked a cohesive way of working on a whole-company level. \n\nMost of the time, we learnt things by trial and error, so we have become kind of a new-way-of-working lab, but at a certain moment we felt like **we needed something that would function more consistently - a system**. This is when we found out about holacracy and decided to give it a try. I think it was me who brought it up, but there was a team that supported the decision. \n\nThe circumstances were not so different from now: our business is very highly competitive, things change rapidly, and we do not sit on a pile of cash. But we had money not only to hire the best European consultants, but also to set aside a reserve in case of trouble during such a demanding transformation. **It was kind of like jumping off a cliff with no parachute** though, I must admit. \n\n**Z.T.: Why was it decided to introduce holacracy in the company and not another management system?**\n\n**P.M.:** What was appealing about holacracy was its completeness. We also liked the idea that in order to give people freedom you have to bring **clarity, strict rules, and structure which everybody in the organization can adapt to**. A holacratic organization is like a city which has rules and regulations, but everybody can live, work, and invent without surveillance.\n\n**Z.T.: Which companies were an example for you and why?** \n\n**P.M.:** We researched many companies developing self-management paradigms, not just holacracy. But when it comes to holacracy as such, we followed **the example of Zappos (US), Springest (The Netherlands), and Liip (Switzerland)**. In broader terms, we were inspired by Patagonia, Valve, Spotify, and RedHat. There are also other companies, less globally known but doing great things, such as Buurtzorg (a self-managing Dutch health care organization) or Morning Star (the largest tomato processing and packing company in the US). Currently, we are talking a lot with **Polish organizations that have decided to adopt self-management, e.g. Sente, Tooploox, and Sylius**. \n\n**Z.T.: What didn't work in the previous, classic approach to company management?**\n\n**P.M.:** Our earlier approach to company management was far from ‘classic’. Thus, when we introduced holacracy it was not a mindset revolution, but more of development of what we’d already been building. What didn’t work previously? We felt we could achieve much more if only our team could get the proper tools to co-manage the company. **We lacked a suitable toolkit to allow each of us to solve larger problems**, and an environment where everyone would have an impact on carrying out the vision of their own role.\n\n## Holacracy influences people and human resources\n\n**Z.T.: How was the intention to implement holacracy communicated to workers? What were their reactions?** \n\n**P.M.:** Paradoxically, the decision to implement holacracy was taken by a small group of people and it was driven by the company founders. Obviously, it was preceded by a number of talks outside and within the company. All the employees were eventually informed about the decision. **We made sure to let people understand why we were doing it**, to let them know that they could share their doubts, and to inform them about the scenarios that we had at hand in case the change turned out to be fatal for the company.\n\n**Z.T.: How many people were involved in introducing holacracy? What resources were needed to implement holacracy? Are there any methods or tools that can facilitate the transition?** \n\n**P.M.:** We began by organizing training for more than 30 people (around one-third of the whole company at the time) and we decided to introduce the system in the departments which could benefit most from it, that is, non-product teams: from marketing and sales, to administration, finances, employee care, and delivery. We had clear change choreography and adequate people who were responsible for the process. All those people had **three to six months to learn a lot of new things**, so the workload exceeded their regular duties, increasing by 30 to 50% at that time.\n\n**Z.T.: Does it happen (or has it happened) that employees leave the company because they find that the holacratic model doesn’t work for them?**\n\n**P.M.:** Yes, we experienced a consequence of our transformation in increased employee turnover. I won’t give you any detailed data because turnover in our industry is generally high, but I think you need to expect **a 20–30% turnover rate within 6–12 months** of introducing such a change. It all depends on what you expect from the change and how quickly you want to transform the organization. I think that the optimum speed of implementing change (the speed that enables you to see benefits relatively quickly) inevitably bears the cost of saying goodbye to people who are not ready for the change.\n\n**Z.T.: Are there any employees who have left managerial positions in other companies, in favor of working in holacracy at Boldare?**\n\n**P.M.:** I think that holacracy itself is not the only factor that attracts people who used to manage other companies. It’s a very interesting tool for them: novel, risky, often exciting. **But what actually draws them to Boldare is our overall attitude to work, our innovativeness**, the way we cooperate with other companies, and the value we create for clients. \n\n## Holacracy and Agile - the connection\n\n**Z.T.: What’s the link between Agile and holacracy? Do these ideas “work” together? How?**\n\n**P.M.:** These ideas are complementary. I once heard that **holacracy is a kind of boosted Agile** and I must admit there is truth to this. Agile is not something that simply accompanies holacracy; in fact, holacracy is an extension of Agile. We continue to use Agile in digital product development in our company: scrum, to be precise. [Development teams](https://www.boldare.com/services/product-design-and-development/) use agile ideas in their day-to-day work. They focus on quick iterations, validation of their work, strong mutual cooperation, and bold pivoting.\n\n**Z.T.:** **Does the implementation of projects with the use of agile methodologies help in working in holacration?** \n\n**P.M.:** Yes, I think implementing an agile culture is the first step that is worth doing. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How Lean Startup is different from Agile and Design Thinking\"/>\n\n## Is holacracy for you?\n\n**Z.T.: In retrospect, which companies should think about introducing holacracy and which should not?** \n\n**P.M.:** I believe that holacracy is great for companies that deal with so-called knowledge work, companies that offer digital services and products. In simpler, less complicated, and less changeable work environments, holacracy may turn out to be a kind of overengineering for what is actually necessary.\n\n**Z.T.: Who can and who cannot work in a holacratic structure? Are there any features that are predisposed to working in this model?**\n\n**P.M.:** If you expect to do work allocated to you by someone else, if you want all decisions to be made by someone else – then holacracy is not for you. If you can’t stand open feedback from everyone and you’d rather receive it from your manager – then holacracy is not for you. But i**f you want to decide about the way your work looks**, if you can deal with the consequences of your decisions, and if you treat feedback as a gift that helps you grow – then holacracy is a great system for you.\n\n## Benefits of implementing a holacratic system\n\n**Z.T.: What are the most impactful aspects of introducing holacracy to the company?** \n\n\n\n> P.M.: Holacracy brings about other parallel changes. The level of innovativeness transforms to such an extent that sometimes, when you go back to work after a holiday, you might see a different company.\n\n\n\n**Z.T.:** **Is there any data confirming the effectiveness of introducing holacracy? Increase in revenue, level of customer satisfaction, higher job efficiency, etc.?** \n\n**P.M.:** All those metrics rose, apart from retention, but I cannot attribute them only to holacracy. They are a result of the overall company development, which, I hope, was supported by our organizational culture and the new mode of work: holacracy.\n\n**Z.T.: From the customer’s standpoint, what are the benefits of holacracy for Boldare?**\n\n**P.M.:** I’d say it’s the speed with which we adapt to the clients’ needs and consequently, the speed of decision-making. \n\n## Holacracy verification and outcomes\n\n**Z.T.: How is the fact that holacracy is working properly verified? Are there people in the team, circles that watch for the incorrect operation of this model?**\n\n**P.M.:** There are three factors. \n\n1. People can see that this mode of work allows them to work better.\n2. The value we bring to clients is at least the same as before, and there are prospects for its growth.\n3. We don’t lack resources to deliver change.\n\n**Z.T.: When can it be said that holacracy is embedded in the company, that the process is done?** \n\n**P.M.:** Perhaps this moment comes when the **whole organization works within holacratic mechanisms (meetings, roles, structures, principles)**, but for me this is a never-ending story of improvement. So, even today I can’t really say that the implementation of holacracy at Boldare is now complete.\n\n**Z.T.: How would you describe the company before moving into holacracy, and after?**\n\n**P.M.:** Before, we knew how to self-organize; now, **we can self-manage**. In other words, we used to work within a framework created by particular people, and now, we can all build the framework together.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Boldareship Academy: how we built our own league of leaders\"/>\n\n**Z.T.: Which areas improved, and which didn't?** \n\n**P.M.:** For us, the biggest problem is the HR department, in particular: employee care. We are great at recruiting and onboarding but we still find it difficult to establish the borders between independence and dependence: **how much self-awareness we require from people and how much we should support them**. I guess this is mostly because this area hasn’t been described by anyone yet, it’s totally unknown territory.\n\n**Z.T.: If you could describe holacracy in just one sentence, it would be…**\n\n**P.M.:** Holacracy is a system of working that lets us build an ‘antifragile’ organization and release human potential. However, you need to remember that **this is just a tool** – real work is work done with people, and by people.\n\n**Z.T.:** Thank you, Piotr, for your time."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/1500_days_of_holacracy.png","lead":"Four years ago we transitioned to holacracy - a flat-structured management system that enhances human potential and distributes decision-making between self-organized teams. It helped us to create a **smoothly-operating company that accelerates innovation and supports learning through experience**. In this article we talk to Piotr Majchrzak, Co-Founder at Boldare, who tells the story of implementing holacracy in our organization.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-10-28T07:04:47.560Z","slug":"1500-days-of-holacracy","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["Agile","People","Ideas","How to"],"url":null},"author":"Zuzanna Talik","authorAdditional":"Piotr Majchrzak","box":{"content":{"title":"1500 days of holacracy - an interview with Piotr Majchrzak","tileDescription":"Four years ago we transitioned to holacracy - a flat-structured management system that enhances human potential and distributes decision-making between self-organized teams. It helped us to create a smoothly-operating company that accelerates innovation and supports learning through experience. In this article we talk to Piotr Majchrzak, Co-Founder at Boldare, who tells the story of implementing holacracy in our organization. ","coverImage":"/img/1500_days_of_holacracy.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"b12e7fe3-7392-547d-b315-e954650037ab"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/is-anna-zarudzka-boldare-s-co-ceo-a-business-hippie/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Is Anna Zarudzka, Boldare’s Co-CEO, a business hippie?","order":null,"content":[{"body":"**Future Candy** is hosted by **Nick Sohnemann**, a founder and **CEO of Future Candy**, an  innovative agency from Hamburg. Nick’s guests are people who influence their business environment and support innovation within their companies. This episode was unique - the majority of guests are German-speakers but this time **Nick made an exception and interviewed Anna in English**. \n\nListen to this episode, especially if you want to know:\n\n* Why it isn’t the technology that drives a business transformation?\n* What will be the most important innovation factor in the years to come?\n* And why is **Boldare not a typical software development company?**\n\nThe podcast is available on Spotify, [via this link](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7iB1yifvHjcIJatuHLCL4t) and iTunes [via this link](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/das-neue-normal-mit-anna-zarudzka-co-founder-boldare/id1481276304?i=1000539289516)."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Anna_Zarudzka_Co-CEO_at_Boldare_at_Future_Candy.jpg","lead":"If you want to know answers to this and many other tricky questions, we encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the **Future Candy** podcast, one of the most influential German web broadcasts, dedicated to innovation.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-10-27T07:56:52.942Z","slug":"anna-zarudzka-at-future-candy","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":null,"additionalCategories":["Future"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Is Anna Zarudzka, Boldare’s Co-CEO, a business hippie?","tileDescription":"If you want to know answers to this and many other tricky questions, we encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the Future Candy podcast, one of the most influential German web broadcasts, dedicated to innovation.","coverImage":"/img/Anna_Zarudzka_Co-CEO_at_Boldare_at_Future_Candy.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"512e20de-3e53-5d63-a5c5-6e4afc65b21b"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/our-new-normal-toolkit/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Our New Normal toolkit ","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Online collaboration \n\n### Slack\n\n**[Slack](https://slack.com/intl/en-ie/) is an instant messaging platform**, perfect for everyday communication between individuals and across the whole organization; it can be used to support asynchronous cooperation and [radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/). It helps us to facilitate communication more efficiently, practically eliminating emails from our internal channels and has helped us to realize how much time can be saved by asking questions publicly instead of asking specific people using private messaging. \n\n**Pro tips:**\n\n* Set the **transparency rules for all your Slack channels** to be open, wherever possible. \n* Using features like remainders and bots (including using the facility for automation to write your own bots - we have built several internal ones, e.g. to report on the financial health of Boldare on a weekly basis), Slack can help your people save time, work on metrics, even establish team rituals.\n\n### Google Meet\n\nIn a market full of video-conferencing/meeting tools, we’ve found **Google Meet** to **be light, fast and efficient** – perfect for collaborating across distance. What’s more, all you need is a browser and you’re good to go. Also, recently the tool was upgraded with many great features (background change among others) decreasing the gap with other popular video platforms. **What’s more, compatibility with Google Calendar and other Google apps is a huge advantage**.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Trust and transparency is important – to ensure a ‘level communication playing field’ in your meetings and online events, agree that in general, cameras are turned on all the time.\n* **Google Meet** isn’t just for remote team meetings and other structured events. Use it for  quick calls to handle day-to-day practical issues, too. **We use all-time open calls for team members who want to work together or need to quickly chat about something important.** \n* Regular video calls can be part of creating a culture of closeness and psychological safety.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How to build psychological safety for more efficient and agile teamwork\"/>\n\n## Visual collaboration\n\n### Mural\n\n[Mural](https://www.mural.co/) describes itself as, “a digital workspace for visual collaboration.” For us, this means the capability for interactive facilitation of important meetings. It's also a great tool to facilitate meetings with a greater number of participants who can actively take part in teamwork in one, shared virtual space. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Mural’s pre-set templates, tables and frameworks (such as **lean canvas, force field analysis, wall of work**, etc.) support data-gathering and facilitation of group decision making. \n* **Mural is good for engaging your team and stakeholders with complex ideas and processes**. It allows us to conduct exercises that can help us to understand and organize large amounts of information. \n\n### Boldare Boards\n\nOriginally born from a desire to streamline scrum retrospective meetings, as the **Sprint Retrospective Tool**, [Boldare Boards](https://boards.boldare.com/) is a **free online collaboration app for remote teams** (you might guess from the name that it’s something we created ourselves!)\n\n**Pro tips:**\n\n* Boldare Boards can be used in any meeting or event in which you want people to share ideas and make decisions: sprint retrospectives, brainstorms, feedback sessions, and more.\n* It can be used without the need to create an account, but you can log in via your Google account to save and organize your boards for later use.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"10 pro tips on how to create an award-winning website in 3 weeks\"/>\n\n## Organizational roles & structure\n\n### Holaspirit\n\nIn terms of clarity or organizational structure and operation, [Holaspirit](https://www.holaspirit.com/) is a kind of “**holacracy in a can**” platform. It enables everyone in your team to visualize what each person within the organization does, links your projects to your company purpose, includes streamlined templates for ‘out-of-the-box’ performance and helps to conduct holacratic meetings (tacticals or governance) according to an agenda.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* It’s not necessary to be working within a holacracy framework to get the benefit - tactical meetings with their “**tension**” can be beneficial for all types of organizations. \n* A clear picture of your structure of roles and responsibilities, and how they interact, helps you keep pace with the **New Normal** business environment.  Especially if changes are a vital part of the organizational mindset, as they are in Boldare. \n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"Holaspirit: maintaining the web platform while accelerating work on the new version\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/work/case-study-holaspirit/\" type=\"case study\" image=\"holaspirit_-_product_designs.png\" />\n\n## Management and organizational governance\n\n### Holacracy\n\nHolacracy is a framework that you can use to embed business-focused autonomy and agility encoded into your organization’s DNA. The **New Normal** encourages self-organizing teams and organizations and Holacracy is a ready-to-use set of rules to support exactly that.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Holacracy helps drive your organization’s transition to being more distributed and self-organized. **Thanks to this framework, it’s easier to face and get through unexpected challenges, like a COVID-19 pandemic**. \n* Metrics and planning are fundamental elements, supporting teamwork and ownership of goals and encouraging employees to make smart, data-driven decisions and… learn from mistakes.\n* **With holacracy, leadership is dispersed, encouraging shared responsibility across the teams**.\n\n## Product management & collaboration\n\n### Asana\n\nRemote teams need shared spaces to work in and that’s what [Asana](https://asana.com/) offers: a space focused on work and task management that can facilitate transparency and alignment of purpose in cross-functional teams. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Use **Asana** to take a broader view of task management, including shared or team-wide responsibilities, highlighting dependencies.\n* Tasks can be structured around strategy instead of teams or departments, placing your strategy at the heart of your teamwork. \n* **Portfolios and their timelines are great features to track progress, even in complex projects.** \n\n## Strategy & execution\n\n### OKRs\n\n**Objectives and Key Results** is a collaborative goal-setting methodology, ensuring that everyone is working together, and in the right direction. Using OKRs, you can define and track objectives and dependencies. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Use **OKRs** to make more informed, data-driven decisions with appropriate input from the whole team. Objectives should be ambitious while being realistic at the same time, this is why they work better in organizations that are experiencing fast growth. \n* **OKRs** can be embedded into other tools (like mentioned Asana), helping align all your efforts to the overarching business goals. \n* **It’s easy to confuse OKRs with KPIs**, so if you want to monitor the status of vital targets (market share, ROI), use KPIs. If you want to set goals and indicate strategic directions (double the revenue, shorten time-to-market for your products), use OKRs. \n\n## Marketing & sales\n\n### Smarketing\n\n**Sales and marketing** as separate functions is a setup that belongs in the past. A **smarketing** approach seeks to integrate the two collaboratively, with a common vision and processes that go far beyond the occasional joint meeting.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* On a single prospect level, **Smarketing requires closed loop reporting** - this approach allows joint tracking of specific leads together. \n* Collaboration is facilitated by shared metrics, based on the same funnel, and accessible by all. \n* At **Boldare, our Marketing and Sales teams** share the same meetings and work on projects together on a daily basis. \n\n### Growth Hacking \n\n**Growth hacking** is a philosophy that focuses your people on finding smarter and more economic digital marketing alternatives. Methods include smart use of social media, data-driven decision making, marketing automation, and viral marketing. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Cross-disciplinary working (such as **software developers collaborating directly with the marketing department**) are a crucial part of the cross-disciplinary team. Engineer presence in a marketing team helps to build data-driven culture and brings usage of metrics to a completely new level. \n* **Growth hacking techniques are a complement to classical marketing efforts, not a replacement.** That said, whatever portfolio of techniques you adopt, they must be coordinated and aligned. \n\n## Performance\n\n### Burn down charts\n\nKeeping track of performance is critical, especially in **VUCA** business environment. A burn down chart is a graph showing work remaining versus the project’s timeline, providing highly accurate estimates of when all work will be completed. **Some tools, like Jira, use built-in features to create burn down charts.**\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* While they are applicable to any project, burn down charts are particularly useful when working with an agile software development methodology.\n* Burn down charts support the adoption of data-driven habits across the whole organization, by illustrating dependencies between current efforts and work that is left to be done. \n\n## Digital Product Development\n\n### Lean Startup\n\nThe [lean startup](http://theleanstartup.com/) approach is a **set of tools and methods geared to rapidly validating (or invalidating!) your proposed business idea or model**. While these principles can be usefully applied to almost any complex challenge scenario, they are most effective when used for digital product development.  \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* When finishing or starting a business increment, teams should home in on best practices by asking themselves, “**How can we learn more quickly what works, and discard what doesn't?**” \n* A community underpinned by lean startup principles is naturally focused on problem-solving – all members of the community are potentially available to answer questions. \n\n### Scrum\n\nThe [scrum](https://www.scrum.org/) framework supports collaborative creation of complex digital products. Scrum teams learn through experience, self-organize to solve problems, and are focused on evaluation and feedback for continuous improvement. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* **Make your teams interdisciplinary** (e.g. include a marketing specialist, a usability-focused designer or UX content writer) for really innovative and business-aligned solutions. \n* To maximize teams’ effectiveness and minimize communications issues, keep the teams no bigger than 9 members. \n* **Scrum can be scaled to handle highly complex team ecosystems, keeping them autonomous but also aligned.** One of the ways to scale scrum is **Nexus Scrum** - we practice it with some of our clients to handle multiple teams working on several products at the same time. I describe Nexus in another part of this article.\n\n### Prototyping\n\nWith the [New Normal](https://www.boldare.com/new-normal/) driving digital transformation and digitization of products, deadlines and pressure are tighter than ever. The key to avoiding wasted development effort is to test your business ideas and hypotheses rapidly and efficiently – hence [prototyping](https://www.boldare.com/blog/prototyping-can-bring-your-business-to-life/), that allows you to check if the idea is worth investing in, or not. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* **Prototyping** can be used at every phase of the digital product development process, using simple, no code to low code solutions and tools, like UXPin or Invision.  \n* A [prototyping](https://www.boldare.com/blog/prototyping-can-bring-your-business-to-life/) team has a very specific role and focus. **For maximum efficiency of operation, ensure the whole organization understands the prototyping function** and that its role is not to build successful products but to test and learn lessons early in the development process (or pivot it, if the initial hypothesis is invalidated).\n\n### Design System\n\nYour [design System](https://www.boldare.com/blog/design-system-in-software-development/) is effectively a branding manual or guide for your products’ visuals. It’s a single reference point for all your** [UX/UI design](https://www.boldare.com/ux-ui-design-consulting-services/)** elements, ensuring that all your products have a consistent identity (i.e. they all look like they’re yours).\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* **Use your design system as a bridge between product designers and developers**, encouraging collaboration and mutual understanding.\n* The components of your design system should allow you to build **prototypes** or **MVPs** to test new hypotheses, faster and more economically thanks to using pre-designed components. In turn, this allows you to respond rapidly to changing markets and priorities.\n\n### Microservices\n\n**The New Normal prizes flexibility and – in terms of digital products – scalability.** Microservices give you both. By developing and utilizing single features that can be combined to create the overall product, **microservices** encourage an evolutionary model of development in which the individual features prove their worth and grow (or inspire further features) or attract few users and fall by the wayside.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* To ensure the services are effective and functional, use domain-driven design to prevent misunderstandings between business units and **DevOps** teams during the development process.\n* To keep your eye on the bigger picture, ensure the team has a common understanding of the level and purpose of the features (e.g. by using a tool such as event storming workshops that help team members to align their knowledge properly).\n\n### Innovation Accounting\n\nStartups, by definition, have no history and therefore no prior performance to benchmark or use as the basis of metrics. Part of the **lean startup approach**, [innovation accounting ](https://www.boldare.com/blog/lean-startup-innovation-accounting/)is a metric-building framework to enable you to measure performance objectively on three levels – user engagement with the product, assumption-testing, and current product value – even when you’re working on something without precedent.\n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* For easier comparison and performance benchmarking down the line, you can use the same set of metrics for all your digital products. \n* The use of innovation accounting metrics gives the whole team a clear and common focus: the value they are providing.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\"/>\n\n## Digital Product Scaling\n\n### Nexus Scrum\n\nWhen you’re scaling your product for a new or larger market how do you ‘keep things scrum’ when you’re working with multiple, connected products? [Nexus](https://www.boldare.com/blog/nexus-scrum-framework-to-scale-development-teams/) is scrum for multiple products and development teams, adding an extra layer to the scrum methodology to ensure proper synchronization. \n\n**Pro tips:** \n\n* Once your people are familiar with scrum, they’ll find **Nexus** to be a natural extension, easily adapted to.\n* Although **Nexus** carries a stated limit of nine scrum teams, the framework also allows for multiple nexuses in a single business, one for each digital product. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Nexus Scrum - a framework to scale your scrum development team\"/>\n\n## You need your own new normal toolkit!\n\nYou, and many others, are facing the **New Normal**, and that means new or changed markets, shifting user needs, and an increased emphasis on digitizing products and how users access them. That can be a tall order but at Boldare, we know from experience that the above set of tools, apps, frameworks and platforms can help you meet the challenges to come. Now, you can use this list as a cheat sheet, to build your own toolkit."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Our_new_normal_toolkit.png","lead":"At Boldare, we help to create amazing [digital products](https://www.boldare.com/services/) that answer the business needs of our partners. We are also passionate about Boldare as an organization and how it works. This is why we practice agile, the lean startup approach and scrum; what’s more, we switched to holacracy, and work with a system of [radical transparency without managers](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/). **Today we want to share with you our toolkit - a list of tools and methodologies that we use (or used) during our journey to become a New Normal company**. Read on to see our recommendations based on 16 years of operation, experience and discovering best practices the old-fashioned way: by doing and learning.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2021-01-05T07:48:09.033Z","slug":"new-normal-toolkit","type":"blog","slugType":"","category":"Agile","additionalCategories":["Digital Product"],"url":null},"author":"Artur Belka","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Our New Normal toolkit","tileDescription":"Today we want to share with you our toolkit - a list of tools and methodologies that we use (or used) during our journey to become a New Normal company. Read on to see our recommendations based on 16 years of operation, experience and discovering best practices the old-fashioned way: by doing and learning.","coverImage":"/img/Our_new_normal_toolkit.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"d230a2d8-7d34-5ce5-ad67-9783eb47f3fe"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/boldare-honoured-with-a-nextgen-enterprise-award-1/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Boldare honoured with a NextGen Enterprise Award!","order":null,"content":[{"body":"This award is special for us at Boldare because we have used an organizational model based on new managerial practices, **agile methods**, and employee-centered values from the very beginning of the company. In 2017, we accelerated our transition to being a **NextGen** company by implementing [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/our-holacracy-experience/). We see this award as an acknowledgment of all the work we have done so far. \n\nBoldare co-founder [Anna Zarudzka](https://www.linkedin.com/in/annazarudzka/) received the award from Olivia Grégoire, the French Secretary of State for Social Economy.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How to build psychological safety for more efficient and agile teamwork\"/>\n\n**The NextGen Enterprise Awards** are part of the NextGen Enterprise Summit 2020 that takes place from 25th to 27th of November, simultaneously in Paris and online. One of the event’s highlights will be a series of special workshops, one of which - **Deconstructing Leadership**, on 27th of November at 2.05 pm (CET) - will be led by **Anna Zarudzka** and **Ewa Bocian**, partner at **dwarfs and Giants**.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"We won Gold in the Lovie Awards!\"/>\n\nThis was the very first edition of the **NextGen Awards**. The organizers received over 120 applications, leading to a shortlist of 50 and, ultimately, just 10 winners. Boldare is honored to be among companies like [Novotel Paris](https://all.accor.com/hotel/7327/index.fr.shtml), [Danfoss](https://www.danfoss.com/fr-fr/) and [Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS)](https://www.rts.ch/)."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/NextGen._Enterprise_summit_for_Boldare_2020.png","lead":"**We are extremely happy and proud to inform you that Boldare has won a NextGen Enterprise Award in the New Enterprise category!** The NextGen Enterprise Awards highlight a new type of company that is **agile**, non-hierarchical and value-driven. These awards are for companies changing their world through their innovative approaches to products and services.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-11-23T13:39:07.366Z","slug":"boldare-won-nextgen-enterprise-award","type":"blog","slugType":"","category":"News","additionalCategories":["Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Boldare honoured with a NextGen Enterprise Award!","tileDescription":"We are extremely happy and proud to inform you that Boldare has won a NextGen Enterprise Award in the New Enterprise category! The NextGen Enterprise Awards highlight a new type of company that is agile, non-hierarchical and value-driven. These awards are for companies changing their world through their innovative approaches to products and services.","coverImage":"/img/NextGen._Enterprise_summit_for_Boldare_2020.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"6ec4b20a-7eef-5dc1-86ba-528cc04b9a85"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/boldare-at-the-nextgen-enterprise-summit-2021/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Boldare at the NextGen enterprise summit 2020","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## The NextGen award\n\nThe NextGen awards ceremony will be held on 25th of November and the prizes will be presented by Olivia Grégoire, the French Secretary of State for Social Economy. This prestigious award is dedicated to companies that have mastered innovation and whose projects benefit from a lean and agile approach. \n\n> The NextGen Enterprise Awards reward operational and innovative ways to transform and build the company of tomorrow, the future of work and society.\n\nBoldare is one of the nominated companies. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be held virtually.  \n\n## Deconstructing Leadership with Anna Zarudzka\n\nThe Deconstructing Leadership workshop will be held by Anna Zarudzka, Boldare co-founder, and Ewa Bocian, partner at dwarfs and Giants. The workshop is dedicated to:\n\n* Leaders who are aware of the need to change the way they manage their teams, departments and companies, but are still looking for inspiration.\n* Those who are already on the path to change, but looking for new ways of working agile. \n\nThe main goal of the workshop is to offer insights into what benefits come with a process of leadership deconstruction in complex companies. Attendees will also learn how to start dispersing the leadership in their organizations using a step-by-step process.\n\nThe workshop starts at 2.05 pm (CET) on 27th of November and will be held online. You can still buy tickets for the event and workshops [here](https://www.thenextgenenterprise.com/). The workshop will be accessible online using the VirBela tool."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/nextgen_enterprise_paris.png","lead":"**Boldare will participate in the NextGen Enterprise Summit, to be held in Paris between 25th and 27th of November.** We will be there in a dual role: as a company nominated for a NextGen award in the New Enterprise category, and as host of the **Deconstructing leadership workshop**, held by Boldare co-founder, Anna Zarudzka.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-11-18T13:08:08.993Z","slug":"boldare-at-next-gen-enterprise-summit","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"News","additionalCategories":["Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Boldare at the NextGen enterprise summit 2021","tileDescription":"Boldare will participate in the NextGen Enterprise Summit, to be held in Paris between 25th and 27th of November. We will be there in a dual role: as a company nominated for a NextGen award in the New Enterprise category, and as host of the Deconstructing leadership workshop, held by Boldare co-founder, Anna Zarudzka.","coverImage":"/img/nextgen_enterprise_paris.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"7ae70581-943f-544d-ab44-4f91bdb5cd62"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/boldare-s-2020-our-summary/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Boldare’s 2020 - our summary","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Our clients\n\nOver the last year, we have taken on a wide range of digital product design and development projects for 23 different clients from all over the world – including **Chartipedia** (Hong Kong), **CRS** (United States), **PRISMA** (Austria), and **Takamol** **Holding** (Saudi Arabia) – from East to West and everything in-between!\n\nAs an external expert partner, our basic strategy is one of close collaboration with our clients, with dedicated dev teams and direct communication between Product Owners, stakeholders and our people.\n\n> I was impressed by the team’s willingness to do something extra to exceed our initial targets. **Co-Founder, [Chartipedia](https://clutch.co/profile/boldare#review-1358702), Jeff Ko**\n\nAnd here's other example of our customer's feedback:\n\n> I was really impressed with how much they cared about our product.\n> **Co-President, [CRS (Community Response Systems)](https://clutch.co/profile/boldare#review-1472333), Allan Wilson**\n\nOver the course of these 23 collaborations, we worked in a variety of industry sectors (including Information Technology & Services, Real Estate, Renewable Energy, and Management Consulting) and carried out work on every stage of the digital product development cycle: [prototypes](https://www.boldare.com/services/full-cycle-product-development/prototyping/), [MVPs](https://www.boldare.com/services/full-cycle-product-development/prototyping/), [product-market fit](https://www.boldare.com/services/product-market-fit-expanding-demand/) and [scaling](https://www.boldare.com/services/scaling-your-product-thriving-in-the-market/). The most common products we created were prototypes and MVPs; often within short timescales, [just as in the case of Chartipedia](https://www.boldare.com/work/case-study-chartipedia/).\n\n## Our people\n\nMaybe it’s an obvious thing to point out, but if we’re summing up 2020, it needs saying: **Boldare can’t do what it does without the people who work there**: the highly-skilled, agile, experts who collaborate, design and deliver our world-class, award-winning products.\n\nAnd during 2020, we received over **5700** resumes from people interested in becoming “a Bolder”; almost twice as many as the previous year. **We hired 58 new team members** and drawing on such a large talent pool, we can be sure we’re still getting the best developers in the business (and quality assurance specialists, business analysts, scrum masters, UX designers, etc.).\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Benefits and practical aspects of working without project managers\"/>\n\n## Reaching out, reaching wider…\n\nWe’re proud of what we achieve at Boldare. And while much of that pride rests in the products and quality that we deliver to our clients, we also know that our worth depends on more than just delivering on a contract. It’s also about what kind of role we take in the wider community. Here are eight examples of how we’ve tried to ‘give something back’ in 2020:\n\n1. [Maska Polka](https://maskapolka.pl/) – Remember the beginning of the pandemic, when countries were beginning to lock down, implementing safety measures such as social distancing and handwashing? Wearing a mask was (and is!) important but early on, masks were not so easy to find. In our after-hours time, Boldare developed a landing page to help connect people who needed masks with those individuals and manufacturers who were producing them.\n2. **CORNELIA** – We also collaborated on the creation of the CORNELIA platform, enabling doctors and medical professionals to manage an anonymous survey, gathering essential data on the neurological impacts of the COVID-19 virus.\n3. [Szlachetna Paczka](https://www.szlachetnapaczka.pl/) – For some, Christmas is a difficult time, and maybe 2020 is worse than most. Boldare contributes to Szlachetna Paczka (very roughly translated in English as, ‘noble package’), an annual scheme to provide families in need with the ‘Christmas gifts’ that they need; maybe cash, food, cleaning products, logistical services, etc. - everything that a family needs to get through this special time without worrying about the most basic stuff. \n4. \\#[nie zwalniajmy](https://niezwalniajmy.pl/) – For many people and businesses, one effect of the pandemic has been job losses. The website and hashtag #niezwalniajmy refers to a forum of companies and social organizations trying to address this issue, finding alternative options to layoffs and redundancies.\n5. [Awesome People List](https://bldr.typeform.com/to/jYae9F?fbclid=IwAR2ezma1dMeeXPzeRerZiyWmAFvrSDgXHhKdS5QGK0p30i79oC6bw-PyKXU) – Continuing the people and jobs theme, we were inspired by an initiative called the Awesome People List so we created our own version for Poland. It’s an online register of people who have been laid off during the pandemic (in any industry sector) together with a list of companies that are still hiring.\n6. At Boldare, we’ve been called a ‘young company’... Maybe, but we do have a number of people with young children, which gives rise to very specific issues in a pandemic. With this in mind, **we organized a series of online psychology-based workshops for our people with small children**, tackling the ‘family issues’ that can arise during a pandemic lockdown.\n7. **League of Charity** – Not everything this year was about the coronavirus.  Thinking of our ‘wider family’, we arranged a charity League of Legends online tournament to raise funds for a prosthesis for a cousin of one of our developers who lost his leg to cancer.\n8. \\#[WszystkieDzieci wSieci](https://zrzutka.pl/wszystkiedzieciwsieci) – As a digital product company, it’s not surprising we’re concerned with the future impact of digital exclusion. Boldare donated computers to the wszystkie dzieci w sieci initiative which aims to ensure all children have access to the internet and educational opportunities online. \n\n## Blog, blogger, bloggest…\n\nIf you know us at all, you know that Boldare likes to share, and our blog – [Digital Shift](https://www.boldare.com/blog/) – is important to us – it’s how we share our expertise, hints and tips with the wider world, not just our clients. So, **a few stats from the Boldare blog**:\n\n* 50 posts published\n* 75,000+ page views\n* Average time spent reading: 13+ minutes \n* Top 3 countries for visitors: Poland, USA, Germany\n\n**What did we publish?** All kinds of topics, from outsourcing to code audits, and minimum viable products to user story mapping. Our three most popular articles were:\n\n1. [Event Storming Guide](https://www.boldare.com/blog/event-storming-guide/) – an in-depth guide to how we kick off our new products.\n2. [How to become a JavaScript developer](https://www.boldare.com/blog/10-steps-becoming-javascript-developer/) – Our 10-step guide to being a frontend JS dev.\n3. [You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/you-need-risk-management-strategy/) – How next generation companies are pushing digital transformation, especially during such restless times. \n\n## Events 2020\n\nBusiness, networking, learning, growing, sharing… it all happens when people get together. But 2020 was very much a year for keeping your distance, so the big question is: how do you keep your community going?\n\nWith organized, international events and conferences taking place on a reduced scale, there were less opportunities available. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. For instance, [HackYeah](https://hackyeah.pl/), Europe’s largest hackathon was online this year, meaning Boldare could take part, as usual (our finalist entry was [Plantee](https://hackyeah.pl/2020/12/10/the-finalist-boldare/), a care-for-virtual-plant app that helps build environmentally-friendly habits and behaviours).\n\nBut external events aren’t the only way to connect… Taking our knowledge-sharing a step further than the Digital Shift blog, Boldare organized a varied programme of short, info-stuffed, free-to-attend webinars:\n\n* The 3-part [How to Manage Risk, Web Products & Software Teams in a recession](https://www.boldare.com/resources/crash-course/)\n* [What Next After a Code Audit?](https://www.boldare.com/webinar/code-audit/)\n* How to Accelerate the Digitization of Products and Services in Your Company? **A case study of sonnen & Boldare**\n\n## An award-winning year\n\nIf we summarized this list of highlights so far, we might say that at Boldare, we share our knowledge, we take care of business, and we like to help others. And that’s enough because that’s who we are.\n\nHowever, while that is “enough”, when some external recognition comes along, we get excited, of course. In this sense, 2020 was a very exciting year because Boldare work and projects were rewarded with a total of 10 global business and design-oriented awards…\n\nWe were extremely proud of the landing page we created to support the Chartipedia data visualization platform. The landing page was created to boost the Chartipedia community, effectively launching the platform to the wider world. It was recognized by:\n\n* [Awwwards](https://www.awwwards.com/sites/explore-chartipedia+)\n* [CSS Reel](http://cssreel.com/Website/explore-chartipedia)\n* [CSS Winner](https://www.csswinner.com/details/explore-chartipedia/14506)\n* [German Design Awards](https://www.german-design-award.com/die-gewinner/galerie/detail/33587-explore-chartipedia.html)\n* [Lovie Awards](https://www.boldare.com/blog/we-won-gold-in-the-lovie-awards/)\n\nA product we’re especially proud of was something we originally created just for ourselves, but then decided to put out into the world as a free resource for everyone: [Boldare Boards](https://boards.boldare.com/). This app started life as a tool for use in [sprint retrospective meetings](https://www.boldare.com/blog/sprint-retrospective-ideas-for-scrum-masters/), allowing everyone to easily contribute and vote on priorities. It quickly developed into a simple, intuitive, flexible app that can be used in any remote meeting – making it ideal for a [world that is trying to work at a distance](https://www.boldare.com/blog/4-ideas-for-remote-meetings-with-dispersed-teams-using-sprint-retrospective-tool/). Boldare Boards was honoured by:\n\n* [Awwwards](https://www.awwwards.com/sites/boldare-boards) (both an Honorable Mention and an award for Mobile Excellence)\n* [CSS Reel](http://cssreel.com/Website/boldare-boards)\n* [CSS Winner](https://www.csswinner.com/details/boldare-boards/14891)\n\nFinally, we were honored as a company in the very first [NextGen Enterprise Awards](https://www.boldare.com/blog/boldare-won-nextgen-enterprise-award/). Boldare was one of just a few winners identified as a new type of company: agile, non-hierarchical and value-driven.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"10 pro tips on how to create an award-winning website in 3 weeks\"/>\n\n## The New Normal\n\nIf there’s a single phrase that will come to represent 2020, its “**New Normal**”! For Boldare, our sift to the New Normal began early. Within a day of official pandemic measures being implemented, we had 150 people, normally spread across four different office locations, all working remotely (and therefore, more safely!) The enabling factors included our dispersed company structure, and the fact that all our people are used to collaborating at a distance, with clients and with each other – you might say **remote working was already in our company DNA**.\n\nOnce we were operating efficiently ourselves, we naturally thought about helping others do the same, and this became the driver for our [New Normal landing page](https://www.boldare.com/new-normal/). The page is a collection or resources for companies in the post-COVID-19 era, helping them to transition to working as an agile and distributed organization, covering topics such as remote working, cultural impacts, and risk management.\n\n## 2021 - we are ready!\n\nLooking back on a difficult year, we can feel pleased with what we’ve accomplished at Boldare. And to be honest, the above achievements were only possible because we were ready.\n\nNot for a virus pandemic, necessarily but we were ready to work (or already working) in a flexible, distributed way. In a nutshell:\n\n* **We have great people, ready-for-change, already used to working as self-organized teams**.\n* **Our clients all either work agilely or are keen to adopt agile working, and trust us to share and respect their business goals.**\n* **Our current practices at the start of the year needed little adaptation to quickly pivot to the new circumstances.**\n\nAs a result, we were able to adapt and react quickly. And the adaptations aren’t over. If there’s one thing we can be sure of after an eventful but ultimately successful 2020, it’s that **the VUCA challenges will continue in 2021**."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Boldare_s_2020.png","lead":"**The year 2020 will be remembered, no doubt about it!** But alongside the events that impacted us all, life, work and business continued. It was definitely a **VUCA** year – the essence of **volatility**, **uncertainty**, **complexity** and **ambiguity**. But in facing the challenges, some businesses found opportunities to do more than just survive, even found themselves prepared in some ways for the unexpected crisis. For sure, here at Boldare, our long-established agile methodology, and our prior adoption of principles such as [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/5-signs-you-are-ready-for-holacracy/) and [radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/) helped us pivot to new ways of working.\n\nWe all know the lowlights of 2020; here are the highlights of the year at Boldare…","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-11-18T13:08:08.993Z","slug":"boldare-s-2020-our-summary","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"News","additionalCategories":["Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Boldare’s 2020 - our summary","tileDescription":"The year 2020 will be remembered, no doubt about it. But alongside the events that impacted us all, life, work and business continued. It was definitely a VUCA year – the essence of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. But in facing the challenges, some businesses found opportunities to do more than just survive, even found themselves prepared in some ways for the unexpected crisis. For sure, here at Boldare, our long-established agile methodology, and our prior adoption of principles such as holacracy and radical transparency helped us pivot to new ways of working.\n","coverImage":"/img/Boldare_s_2020.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"9dac04a7-fb85-5fb0-9212-59f90f894a7f"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/nexus-scrum-a-framework-to-scale-your-scrum-development-team/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Nexus Scrum - a framework to scale your scrum development team","order":null,"content":[{"body":"Here at Boldare, we are dedicated Scrum fans, and most importantly - Scrum practitioners. We’ve been working agile for years and have 270+ products delivered (many of them award-winning) to show for it. Through 16 years of experience we have come across many products for which the development process had to be speeded up in order to scale the product faster and with a high level of integrity. Other types of projects we encountered were too complex for a single Scrum team, or formed part of a larger connected whole, such as a suite of linked products.\n\nThose kinds of products are hard to maintain and develop, even for skilled and experienced Scrum teams. So how to deal with them, if there’s such a need? **For certain specific products we’ve created with our clients, we use so-called Nexus Scrum**. **The Nexus framework applies Scrum principles on a larger scale,** with small but important adjustments to the usual Scrum roles and processes.\n\n**If you are:**\n\n* Using multiple Scrum teams,\n* Building a family of products,\n* Need to synchronize your efforts,\n* Or speed up development process, keeping its integrity at a high level,\n\n…then the Nexus framework might be a solution you are looking for.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Budgeting in agile software development - how it’s done?\"/>\n\n## What is Nexus Scrum?\n\nWhen running multiple connected development teams, you face difficulties. For a start, there’s the product backlog, the to-do list of work and tasks to be carried out to achieve the project’s objectives. Each product has an agreed backlog that has to be executed during upcoming sprints. But what about the overlaps between connected products under development? Multiple teams working from the same backlog sounds like a recipe for chaos. Likewise, different dev teams working in the same codebase. Problems of communication and integration arise.\n\nThis is why, according to [scrum.org](https://www.scrum.org/), the goal of Nexus is\n\n> “minimizing cross-team dependencies and integration issues.”\n\n**Nexus** **is a framework approach that can be used to align up to nine Scrum teams working on the same product or connected products.** There’s one product owner who oversees all the teams. **Additionally, there’s a Nexus Scrum integration team that consists of a product owner and roles that represent each involved team, regardless of their project.** According to [scrum.org](https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/9-keys-understand-nexus-integration-team), it can be,  \"whomever needs to be there to make sure that integration actually happens.”\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How radical transparency can improve your business?\"/>\n\n## Nexus agile framework terminology\n\nIf you’re already familiar with Scrum (and if you’re not, we recommend our article, [“Building successful apps using Scrum development”](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/)) you won’t find any surprises in Nexus; it uses the principles and terminology you’re used to. But some obvious differences are applicable: \n\n**Nexus Scrum backlog** **– In Nexus, a single product backlog is used for the whole operation, covering everything being done by all teams.** As in Scrum, there is a product owner responsible for the backlog. The keys to a Nexus backlog are the connections, the dependencies between each team’s work.\n\nIn the ‘regular’ Scrum process, the team agrees during the sprint planning meeting which items will be tackled in the coming sprint, thus creating a sprint backlog. In Nexus, items from the product backlog are usually only chosen for a sprint when the dependencies with other items are minimal or non-existent; thus cutting down the chances of teams overlapping or doing work that will be wasted later in the project. **The Nexus sprint backlog is a detailed plan for every Scrum team for delivering an integrated increment during the sprint.** the progress during an integrated increment is monitored and updated during daily Scrums. \n\n![nexus integration team](/img/nexus_scrum_integration_team.jpg \"Nexus daily scrum for a development team\")\n\n**Nexus daily Scrum** – **The usual daily Scrum is a short meeting of the development team with the goal of reviewing and checking that day’s planned activity** (any changes being recorded in the sprint backlog) and the progress towards the sprint goal. The key focus is integration:\n\n* Was the work of each Scrum team successfully integrated?\n* Have any new dependencies been identified?\n* What information or insights must be shared with all teams?\n\nLike Nexus sprint planning, the Nexus daily Scrum acts as a higher-level ‘oversight’.  The meeting can be used to discuss issues regarding integration and dependencies between the teams. \n\n**Definition of Done (DoD) – Just like a Scrum increment, an integrated increment has an agreed definition of done:** a statement of what the teams must achieve in order to call the increment a success. As scrum.org puts it:\n\n> “the Increment is ‘done’ only when integrated, usable and potentially releasable by the Product Owner.”\n\nThere is only one definition of done and it defines when a task or user story is complete - coded, tested, integrated and ready to be released. Additionally, individual Scrum teams can use acceptance criteria that describe unique conditions for each user’s story that the team has to deliver to satisfy users or stakeholders.  \n\n**Nexus sprint planning – In the Nexus framework, the sprint planning process basically adds an additional, preliminary planning meeting** at which the Nexus integration team discusses and agrees which backlog items will be tackled in the next sprint and by which teams; agreeing an overall sprint goal linked to the definition of done. As dependencies between the work of different Scrum teams are identified, they should be communicated to all (transparency!) and minimized. Each individual Scrum team then plans its sprint, based on their slice of the Nexus sprint backlog.\n\n**Nexus sprint review – At the end of each sprint, the Nexus sprint review replaces the individual Scrum team sprint reviews.** The meeting is a chance to share feedback on the integrated increment, the combined product iteration that the individual Scrum teams have contributed to, and make any necessary updates to the backlog.\n\n**Nexus sprint retrospective** – **After each sprint (and before the planning of the next sprint) the Scrum teams review the Scrum process itself in a sprint retrospective meeting.** The Nexus integration team does likewise for the Nexus work as a whole, identifying shared challenges that impact more than a single team, and agree on any necessary action or changes necessary.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\"/>\n\n## The Nexus integration team\n\nWhat’s clear from the above information is the need for a specific role to ensure the coordination of the wider Nexus project. **That role is fulfilled by the Nexus integration team that provides high-level oversight, guidance and coordination to the connected projects and Scrum teams;** agreeing the backlog and DoD, coaching, highlighting dependencies and cross-team issues, and even sometimes carrying out work from the backlog.\n\nThe integration team includes a product owner and Scrum master, mirroring the composition of the individual teams.\n\nThe team is a central point for integration issues, and is accountable for resolving any technical and non-technical cross-team issues that might impact on delivery of the integrated increment; including coaching the Scrum teams on requirements, procedures or standards relating to the broader project goals.\n\nMembers’ integration responsibilities take precedence over their duties as members of an individual Scrum team.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Design system - boosting your software development\"/>\n\n## The pros & cons of Nexus\n\nSo far, so good. If you’re already familiar with Scrum and have a collection of connected products to build, the choice of Nexus seems a no-brainer. But is it right for you and your specific projects and goals?\n\n**Nexus PROS:**\n\n* As mentioned already, **Nexus is an extension very similar to Scrum**. It’s easy to understand and adapt to existing Scrum teams and practitioners.\n* Nexus adds a layer of oversight and guidance, but that layer functions practically identically to a regular scrum – arguably, Nexus is just an extra round of meetings each sprint that must take place before their regular counterparts (e.g. Nexus sprint planning is done before Scrum sprint planning).\n* As framework processes go, **not only is Nexus familiar, it’s also lightweight, and flexible**. A Nexus project can easily implement the spirit of Nexus oversight while adjusting the practical details to suit its specific needs.\n\n**Nexus CONS:**\n\n* Nexus may be ‘widescreen’ Scrum but it doesn’t necessarily encompass the whole organization, just those people and teams working on the extended Nexus project. Collaboration or coordination with the wider organization may run into difficulties if not everyone is working on Scrum or agile principles.\n* The Nexus approach – as laid out by scrum.org – is limited to a maximum of nine Scrum teams, or 100 practitioners per product. In one company there can be many Nexuses implemented - each for one digital product.  \n* You may have Scrum in your organization but if your Scrum teams are not ‘mature’ there is a greater risk of a lack of coordination (if people are still learning or less than comfortable with Scrum, Nexus can be a big leap).\n\n## Nexus Scrum - a scaling tool\n\n**Nexus is Scrum on a larger scale: more teams, more products or features, more complexity.** For an agile organization with a mature Scrum culture (even if that culture is restricted to its software development team) it’s an ideal and easy choice for more involved initiatives with multiple interconnected projects. In essence, Nexus adds an additional layer of coordination to the project structure and while that makes the timetable more complicated, it’s also more efficient and results in higher quality outcomes.\n\nFor ‘non-Scrum’, ‘non-agile’ organizations, they may need to look outside for the necessary expertise and experience; similar to outsourcing the development of a single product but looking for a provider with the scope, skills and experience to handle a more extensive role."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Nexus_scrum_-_what_is_it.jpg","lead":"[Digital product scaling](https://www.boldare.com/services/scaling-your-product-thriving-in-the-market/) – further developing it to cope with a larger market or environment – is one thing, but what do you do when you need to scale up the software development process itself. What happens when you’re juggling multiple connected projects? How do you ensure that the benefits of Scrum – fast, focused, flexible product development that balances user and business needs – still apply? **This article is an introduction to the Nexus Scrum framework**, which does exactly that.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-11-12T11:00:28.790Z","slug":"nexus-scrum-framework-to-scale-development-teams","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Agility","additionalCategories":["Digital transformation"],"url":null},"author":"Bartłomiej Kramarz","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Nexus Scrum - a framework to scale your scrum development team","tileDescription":"Scaling a digital product – further developing it to cope with a larger market or environment – is one thing, but what do you do when you need to scale up the development process itself. What happens when you’re juggling multiple connected projects? How do you ensure that the benefits of scrum – fast, focused, flexible product development that balances user and business needs – still apply? This article is an introduction to the Nexus framework, which does exactly that.","coverImage":"/img/Nexus_scrum_-_what_is_it.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"59d0c6c8-a0d0-56d9-b903-509e8b1ed24d"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/7-best-practices-working-with-remote-development-teams/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"7 Best Practices Working With Remote Development Teams","order":null,"content":[{"body":"At Boldare, we’ve worked as an agile organization, delivering product development through remote **[development teams](https://www.boldare.com/services/development-teams/)** (and almost always at a significant distance from the client company) for 16 years. When the pandemic hit, **we were already equipped with a set of tools and ways of working that were perfect for the situation**. In this article, we want to share seven best practice areas to help product owners, managers of development teams, and those working with external teams.\n\n## The challenge of remote working\n\nThe COVID pandemic has completely disrupted most companies’ business models, forcing them to adopt new communication and team working paradigms which are likely to remain relevant and necessary for the foreseeable future. And while a [Stanford study](https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/a-2-year-stanford-study-shows-astonishing-productivity-boost-of-working-from-home.html) from 2017 associated home working with increased productivity (up 13% compared to office working, at least  in the initial phase) it also comes with challenges:\n\n1. **Business during the pandemic** – keeping the business afloat, maintaining performance, preparing strategies for longer term impacts.\n2. **Business post-pandemic** – digitally transformed, increased online delivery of products and services, in a  world in which remote working is not only accepted but expected.\n3. **The challenges faced by remote workings** – firstly, the motivation, time management and work-life balance of remote workers; secondly, the need for organizations and managers to create a productive team environment.\n\nIt’s all about collaboration, communication and coordination and at Boldare, we’re here to tell you, the following best practices will help.\n\n## 1. If one person works remotely, the whole team is remote\n\nThis first best practice is short, simple and essential. Even if only one team member is working remotely, the whole team will benefit from adopting remote working practices; especially around communication. If not, the rest of the team (the team-minus-one) might work together smoothly but that one remote worker might as well not be on the team. They may contribute but it’s from the outside.\n\nFor Boldare, this principle applies equally to a remote product owner. In the past, even if we had a dev team all working in the same office, we viewed the product owner as an indispensable part of the team and would agree remote working protocols up front, at the [product discovery workshop](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-do-you-make-first-product-discovery-workshops/) (or any other workshop) at the beginning of the project. This would mean adjusting **scrum events** to the Product Owner’s preferred time zone, for example. \n\nOf course, right now, every team is remote.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How to build psychological safety for more efficient and agile teamwork\"/>\n\n## 2. Get the right tools for your daily communication\n\nIf you or your team are used to working in the same office space, you can be sure that there’s a lot of high quality, informal communication that is being taken for granted. As soon as everybody is scattered to the four winds, it becomes apparent just how essential those casual projects and social interactions are.\n\nFortunately, there is no shortage of platforms and apps to help you with close communication at a distance. Here are the main team interactions and the tools that we use at Boldare:\n\n* Team meetings: **Google Meet**.\n* Conversations and chat: **Slack**; we rarely email internally, but obviously use it for business purposes as well!\n* Document-sharing and collaboration: **Google Drive, Google Docs**, and **Dropbox**.\n* Knowledge-sharing: **Confluence**.\n* Organizational project management: **Asana**.\n* Organizing software development: **Jira**.\n* Group planning exercises, brainstorming, strategy sessions, etc.: **[Boldare Boards](https://boards.boldare.com/)**.\n* Collaborative diagram-building and sketching online, etc.: **Miro**\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool\"/>\n\n## 3.  Get the best from your teleconferencing and meetings\n\nYou’ve picked the right tools and technology for you and your team, but using them efficiently and in a way that truly boosts collaboration and teamwork can be a whole different challenge. And that’s especially true for your teleconferencing app. For a remote and dispersed team, this is their only method of communicating face to face and we all know how poor connections or substandard hardware can turn a team meeting into a disruptive and frustrating experience for everyone.\n\n* **Source professional standard equipment and hardware**: in an office environment this includes microphones that can pick up everybody in the room and a wide-angle camera; in a working from home scenario, this may mean a sufficiently powerful laptop, a headset and a fast internet connection.\n* **Environmental noise and distractions**: each team member may be working in a different environment (home office, kitchen table, garden shed...) but for video communication and meetings, everybody needs a space that is relatively free from outside noise, interruptions or other distractions, like noisy toddlers or attention-stealing pets. Regarding the background behind you - Google Meet offers a background blur feature that helps to keep some details of your home office discreetly hidden.\n\nWith the right technology and setup, you’re good to go. However, a virtual or dispersed meeting is not the same as a face to face meeting. In terms of meeting best practice and etiquette, the emphasis is a little different:\n\n* **Clarity on the purpose and outcomes of the meeting** – With the reduced quality of communication and interaction, it’s essential to keep everyone focused and a clear agenda and timings is important. This is extremely important, taking in account so-called “[Zoom fatigue](https://hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-combat-zoom-fatigue)”.\n* **Visuals** – With everyone in separate locations, distractions are more likely; images, tables, graphs and other visual information helps engage everyone and keep them focused on the topic. \n* **Icebreakers** – You may think everyone knows each other, but if the team is used to face to face meetings, the separation and unusual circumstances create a little ‘ice’ and one way to break it is to have a short, fun activity focused on the people present. We usually run a round of questions, called “check-ins”, during which everyone can say how they feel and what their expectations are regarding the meeting. \n* **Appoint a facilitator** – Or ‘chair’, or ‘scrum master’… whatever the title and the role, it helps to have someone responsible for keeping both team and meeting on track. \n* **Slow down** – Rapid conversations with multiple simultaneous speakers might work face to face but via teleconferencing it’s a recipe for chaos. As a ground rule, establish a few protocols around one person speaking at a time, how to flag up questions, and how to make a (valid) interruption.\n* **Everyone is looking at you** – And each other. With a typical teleconferencing app, you’re all on display to each other, pretty much all the time. If anybody isn’t looking at whoever’s speaking, they’re looking at the other faces on the screen. Remember, if you yawn or stare out of the window, everyone will notice…\n* **Don’t multitask** – Whatever the temptation to check your or messages email, don’t do it. It’s impolite, it’s inefficient, it’s distracting to others and it’s obvious (see the point above).\n\n## 4. Be radical in your transparency\n\nThe shift to a dispersed business model often puts **teamworking** under stress: communication is more difficult, people aren’t sure what their teammates are working on, they may feel cut off from the organization... previous levels of openness and info-sharing aren’t enough in the **volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous** circumstances we are in.\n\nTo overcome this at Boldare, we have long since adopted a policy and culture of **[radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/)**. For us, this means practically all information is available to everyone on the team: from the business’s financial and performance data to having fully open messaging allowing anyone to contribute. Likewise in our dev teams, each team member has access to all project information – our devs take an interest in design, our business analysts have input to prototyping, etc. **When the pandemic forced the move to 100% remote working, it was a key factor in our making that move without loss of efficiency or performance**.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How radical transparency can improve your business?\"/>\n\n## 5. A common language\n\nArguably, national boundaries haven’t been a barrier to digital product development for a while, with many businesses looking abroad for the best combination of skills, quality and price in an external dev team – for sure, here at Boldare, we are accustomed to working with clients all over the world, in a variety of time zones and cultures. With the surge in dispersed teams and remote working, multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-lingual teams are only going to become more widespread.\n\nWhich is why language is an important bedrock to remote development success. \n\nTo emphasize transparency, avoid misunderstandings, and ensure clarity of purpose and focus,  decide on a single shared language for all communications, meetings, project documentation and notes, used by all team members. This common language should run right through the whole project, the foundation of your interactions and knowledge-sharing; in fact, if you tell a joke, it should be in your chosen language. In this respect, consistency builds relationships and removes barriers.\n\n**At Boldare, we work with our clients in English** – every member of every dev team uses it, no matter what kind of communication. \n\n## 6. The human factor\n\nOne potential pitfall with dispersed and remote working is that it becomes easy to see colleagues and teammates as avatars on a screen – relations may be friendly, productive even, but distant. Never forget that you’re all human, and as humans, any one of us might be having a bad day, feeling under stress or be otherwise distracted by ‘human concerns’ outside of the project. Something to bear in mind.\n\nThis can make it more difficult to ensure the ‘[psychological safety](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-psychological-safety-for-efficient-and-agile-teamwork/)’ of your team. \n\n**Psychological safety is essential for a high-performing team.** With a sense of psychological safety, your team members aren’t second-guessing themselves, they don’t fear the reaction if they happen to make a mistake or a creative idea doesn’t pan out. **Because a team with a sense of psychological safety sees mistakes and failure as lessons to learn from, and not reasons for punishment or disgrace.**\n\nGenerating this sense of security is more difficult in a dispersed working environment – communication is inevitably less easy, with fewer casual interactions and if the above best practices aren’t implemented, the focus is likely to be on objectives, goals, instructions, course corrections and so on, with little time left to devote to people and relationships. And yet, the further apart team members are, the more valuable and significant those relationships are; especially in terms of impact on results.\n\n## 7. The binding power of rituals! \n\nAfter a time, whether you intend it or not, any group of connected people create their own rituals – a shared coffee break, a regular watercooler chat, in-jokes, shorthand comments that are immediately understood...\n\nRituals are powerful bonding agents, part of a shared work experience and a fundamental part of the team’s culture. So, it makes sense to take control of which rituals are established, and which aren’t, right? And that gives you the chance to be creative, setting unique rituals that help forge a unique team identity.\n\n![Tam building rituals are important](/img/instagram_silentroomteamwork.jpg \"Tam building rituals are important\")\n\nFor example, at Boldare, we set aside a little time at the end of the week to complain. Just some space to let off steam about the things that have bugged you that week. No need to be constructive (though that doesn’t mean we’re insulting!), just get it off your chest, be heard, and you’ll feel better. For something more fun, we also have a weekly ‘magic question’: each team member chooses a question from the list – **What superpower would you like to have?** **What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?** etc. – and shares their answer.\n\nFrom time to time, we conduct the “magic question” ritual without time pressure, asking the question via Slack and allowing the team to share their thoughts in their own time, instead of within the confines of a video call. Also, we don’t want to make our rituals into obligatory meetings - the goal is exactly the opposite. \n\nWith just these two short rituals, we have a safety valve to let off steam, and a way to always be getting to know each other better.\n\nIn a world of **remote working** and **dispersed development teams**, introducing a couple of small rituals to your team’s week can help bring them together.\n\n## Remote work is here to stay\n\nRemote working and dispersed teams are already an established feature of the new normal. And whether it’s your own internal dev team or they’ve been brought in from outside, your goal remains the same, pandemic or no pandemic: a high quality digital product focused on both user and business needs. For that, you need great teamwork and our long experience at Boldare tells us that in a post-COVID world, the above seven best practices will help you forge a team that delivers results.\n\nFor more new normal resources and information, check out our [New Normal landing page](https://www.boldare.com/new-normal/)"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/remote_work_in_oftware_development_industry.jpg","lead":"If there’s one thing everyone can agree will feature in the New Normal, it’s **remote working**. But [remote development teams](https://www.boldare.com/services/development-teams/), working from a variety of locations are hardly new in the world of software and digital product development. True, **COVID-19** has forced most businesses to adopt remote working practices but some organizations (us, for example!) have a wealth of experience working in this way already.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-10-29T09:09:17.120Z","slug":"best-practices-working-with-remote-development-teams","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Remote Work","additionalCategories":["Agile"],"url":null},"author":"Weronika Otrębska","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"7 Best Practices Working With Remote Development Teams","tileDescription":"If there’s one thing everyone can agree will feature in the New Normal, it’s remote working. But remote development teams, working from a variety of locations are hardly new in the world of software and digital product development. True, COVID-19 has forced most businesses to adopt remote working practices but some organizations (us, for example!) have a wealth of experience working in this way already.","coverImage":"/img/remote_work_in_oftware_development_industry.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"7ee7f545-4f08-54ee-824a-51a39e1ca9bd"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-your-business/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"How can radical transparency improve your business?","order":null,"content":[{"body":"A key decision facing the leaders of any company is how much information to share internally. What are you going to tell your workforce about company strategy, performance, financial results, etc. On a spectrum between the absolute minimum and everything, the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle.\n\nBut there is a growing school of business thought that says real business efficiency, from top to bottom, relies on sharing everything: a policy of radical transparency. **At Boldare, we’ve practiced radical transparency for many years now.**\n\nNot only can we say it works, but when the pandemic arrived, our radical transparency was a key factor in our seamless shift to 100% remote working, without a drop in efficiency or [team performance](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-to-improve-team-efficiency/).\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"How to build psychological safety for more efficient and agile teamwork\" />\n\n## What is radical transparency in business?\n\n**The radical transparency definition is a cocktail of honesty and openness.** It’s telling your employees the good news and the bad news. It’s not trying to hide anything. It’s refraining from putting a political spin on company news. It’s trusting your employees to handle information. It’s telling it how it is.\n\n**On a personal level, transparency can be translated as, sharing what you’re thinking.**\n\n**On a company level, radical transparency is sharing what’s really going on.**\n\nThat requires courage, good communication skills, and a willingness to then engage in the conversations, discussions and debates that will inevitably result.\n\nWhy do it? Because it builds trust, loyalty, engagement, and a wider cultural thread of open and honest communication that runs through the whole business - thinking, decision-making, and action.\n\n**Where does radical transparency in business as a strategy come from? It was first popularized by Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates (the world’s biggest hedge fund, worth $160 billion).**\n\n> “I want independent thinkers who are going to disagree…, meaningful work and meaningful relationships. And I believe that the way to get those is through radical truth and radical transparency.”\n>\n> Ray Dalio\n\nIn its purest form, a radically transparent company has no secrets. All information is available to all employees, at all levels, regardless of individual role, responsibility, or remuneration. **Radical transparency means the largest number of ideas, opinions, and perspectives within a company are available as a matter of course, allowing the best to be used to create success.**\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Holacracy in a nutshell: everything you should know if you run a company\" />\n\n## The benefits of radical transparency\n\n*Radical transparency* is, well, ‘radical’ and before you introduce such a ground-shaking change in the way your company operates, you want to be sure of the pay-off, right? The biggest benefit is arguably a quantum leap in mutual trust and loyalty between the organization and the workforce.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n* **Everybody knows what everyone else is doing** – This includes a basic awareness of what the different responsibilities and duties are throughout the company. There are no more ambiguous job titles, if you want to know what someone is contributing, you can find out.\n* **Whatever state the business is in, everybody knows** – If the company is facing difficulties, the workforce knows, along with what is being done to surmount those difficulties, including how they can help.\n* **The company’s direction is no secret** – Goals, objectives, and strategies, all are an open book, focusing the whole workforce on achieving them.\n* **Likewise, finances are open, often including individual salaries** – Employees are aware of the company’s financial standing, the risks it’s facing, and the goals it’s striving toward. To be honest, this can be scary. But, a) it’s a strong incentive to ensure your remuneration package is fair; and b) there’s a pressure on everyone to ‘show your worth’\n\nScary stuff. Especially the financials!\n\nModern businesses are so used to keeping much of this information secret that just the thought of being more open is frightening. Every employee has access to data normally restricted to senior executives and shareholders. Of course, looked at from another perspective, every employee is a stakeholder in the company, and excluding them from the ‘inner circle’ of those in the know also excludes them from giving their best efforts. Inclusion, on the other hand, means there is no inner circle, just one big circle, all focused on the same goal: the company’s performance.\n\nMore specifically:\n\n* **Employees will have full access to company information and learn faster** (and know how to apply their learning in ways that will directly benefit the business). Radical transparency brings everyone into the decision-making process – input from all. The result is better, more nuanced decisions. And a steadily building foundation of trust between employer and employee.\n* **For the company’s clients and customers, radical transparency is also apparent as a value**. Project estimates are detailed and clearly described: the client knows exactly what they’re paying for and can trust that there are no surprises or shady ‘additional expenses’ further down the line. Similarly, the client (in the form of the project’s Product Owner) has open access to all project information, and to every member of the team – no project managers or gatekeepers here.\n\n**What’s more, radical transparency in the workplace encourages knowledge transfer which is a significant bonus for a client looking to develop its own workforce’s expertise.**\n\nGreat as all that is (and it is!) radical transparency is a powerful tool and sometimes requires careful use. There are risks for a company that implements radical transparency without ensuring the workforce understands the drivers and benefits behind it.\n\n* **Too much debate** – More input and perspectives can benefit your decision-making. The flipside is that every decision becomes a lengthy debate instead.\n* **People feel exposed** – Often, people are brave when no one’s looking, happier to try out innovative ideas if the chance of failure isn’t so public. And this is where some level of psychological safety is required.\n* **For some companies, some information shouldn’t be shared** – For example, if you know that your salary structure is inequitable, maybe you should fix that first (it won’t stop people knowing that it was a problem but at least when you make your finances transparent, that problem is in the past). Likewise, there may be sensitive information that the company cannot legally release. Radical transparency is best carried out within the law!\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Transparency at work - our best practices for remote working\" />\n\n## How to implement radical transparency in your organization\n\nOne word: carefully. While it can bring many benefits into your company, it has to be introduced to the life of your co-workers and employees carefully and cautiously:\n\n1. **It’s not a question of speed.** If your company seems ready for radical transparency, you can introduce it rapidly. The first question is, are you ready to be radical? Ask yourself, what are the levels of trust like at the moment? Do you have a culture of open and honest communication, or are your employees and teams sniping behind each other’s backs? Do you share information or do you gossip? These are issues to address before attempting a policy of radical transparency.\n2. **Do as you would be done by.** Or to put it another way, be a role model and show employees how radical transparency can work. What does this look like? Maybe a manager asking their teams for feedback on how they’re managed. Maybe the C-Level admitting some of the problems faced by the company, laying out a broad strategy, and then inviting everyone to offer input and ideas. Maybe an employee who has done exceptional work is openly given credit for the results.\n3. **Decide your limits to start with.** Yes, in its pure form, radical transparency might be all information available to everyone, but as you’ve read above, there may be practical limits such as legal compliance, or realizing that the company is ready for full-on transparency yet. If this is the position you’re in, rather than focus on the things you can’t share, how about the things you can?\n4. **Ensure that employees can understand** (and use) the information you’re sharing. Not everyone is used to thinking about their work in terms of global objectives and top-level performance indicators. Don’t just give people information, tell them what it means – otherwise, how are they going to appreciate its value?\n5. **Don’t rush, take it steady.** Depending on how open the company is to start with, phase in the transparency bit by bit; maybe start with sharing your high-level company metrics, give all employees access to management dashboards, include regular briefings on company matters in team meetings. Make the minutes/action points of all meetings available to all. If you’re a larger organization, introduce a structured feedback system that brings staff feedback to the C-suite. The bigger the culture change radical transparency is, the gentler the introduction.\n\n## How do we practice radical transparency?\n\n**At Boldare, we use radical transparency on many levels and with the help of popular tools, like Slack.**\n\n* **We keep our communication almost entirely on open Slack channels***.* This means that everyone within the organization can open any channel and see the whole communication regarding the project’s details or team’s life.\n* **We don’t use private messaging** - obviously it’s not forbidden, but we encourage everyone to communicate on open channels. This way everyone can get involved in the discussion, solve problems, and get answers to questions faster.\n* **Everyone can join any channel on Slack** to seek information or share his or her knowledge (which is highly appreciated!).\n* **We use the same approach communicating with our partners** - every stakeholder has access to the Slack channel dedicated to their digital product and can engage with the team anytime.\n* **Every week on Mondays, our Slack bot shares Boldare’s current financial information and forecasts**, updates regarding our hiring efforts, and reports from the sales team about our sales funnel status.\n* **Each month our financial circle (team) publishes a detailed report regarding last month.**\n* **We keep all the work, processes, and information regarding each team on an open Confluence platform.**\n\nOk, but what about the limitations? Do we have some? Yes, of course!\n\n* Our partners' data are opened only by dedicated people that are involved in those particular processes. This is regulated by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).\n* Information regarding exact salaries of colleagues is confidential, although their broad range of remuneration, based on position and level of seniority, is available publicly.\n* We also respect the personal right to keep some information confidential - nothing will be shared publicly without permission.\n\n## Radical transparency works!\n\nHere at Boldare, as a leading supplier of [digital product design and development](https://www.boldare.com/services/product-design-and-development/) services, **radical transparency has long been a key element of the way we run our projects.** For example, when a client has a question, they go straight to the person with an answer, no need for project managers or gatekeepers and – this is the transparent bit – they know who that person is. It’s a way of working that fits well with agile approaches, such as scrum, enabling greater individual responsibility, a committed workforce, and excellent client relations.\n\nTo return to the current pandemic-ridden, [VUCA business environment](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-to-choose-product-development-partner-in-vuca-era/), we can say without doubt that our radical transparency in business has prepared all our people for seamless remote working, maintaining our track record of delivery whether we’re all in the same room or not."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Benefits_of_radical_transparency.jpg","lead":"Working remotely has undoubtedly saved many businesses over the last months. For some companies, it was their core survival tactic when the coronavirus pandemic hit. But working remotely can also have some drawbacks, especially for those involved in digital product development, and can lead to decreased efficiency. What’s the solution? **For us, it's the radical transparency we have practiced for a long time.** Read on to see how your organization can benefit from it as well.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-09-22T13:47:05.919Z","slug":"how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Digital transformation","additionalCategories":["Culture"],"url":null},"author":"Adam Ziemba","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"How radical transparency can improve your business? ","tileDescription":"Working remotely has undoubtedly saved many businesses over the last six months or so. For some companies, it was their core survival tactic when the coronavirus pandemic hit. But working remotely can also have some drawbacks, especially for those involved in digital product development. Switching to a dispersed model can often put teamworking under stress: communication suffers, people aren’t sure what their colleagues are working on and previous levels of information-sharing aren’t enough in a remote, VUCA business environment. The result is declining efficiency. What’s the solution? For us it’s the radical transparency we have practiced for a long time. Read on to see how your organization can benefit from it as well.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"5cc34d7b-a4d1-50a0-a2d5-5cfacf4627c6"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/how-to-build-psychological-safety-for-more-efficient-and-agile-teamwork/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"How to build psychological safety for more efficient and agile teamwork","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## The team. What does it mean?\n\nTo ensure that we are on the same page, let’s write down the characteristics of a “team” according to the [agile-powered mindset](https://agilemanifesto.org/) we work in. A team is:\n\n* **Small** - up to 9 people, to maximize the power of different points of view but minimize time needed for synchronization and information exchange.\n* **Cross-functional** - they have all the necessary skills to achieve the goal.\n* **Self-organizing** - meaning that the team is managed internally, not by a team leader or a project manager outside of the team. Yes! Believe it or not, but here at Boldare, we work without project managers and it’s the “secret sauce” to our efficiency.\n* **Goal-focused** - one specific thing to achieve, helps them to keep focused and organize the work around it.\n\nLeaving aside the basics of recruitment and providing teams with the necessary tools to do the job, let’s focus on the key matter here - **why is psychological safety so important**?\n\n## Psychology safety - the foundation of efficient teams\n\nThis is, without a doubt, one of the principles of building effective teams, especially now, when employees are no longer able to discuss their actions or ask advice of their teammates or supervisors in person.\n\n**Psychological safety should be felt by all dispersed team members in order to keep the group effective.** Why?\n\nAccording to [Google’s re:Work research](https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/):\n\n> “In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members.”\n\nThey don’t have to worry that they will be perceived as incompetent or ignorant if the team is going to accept their mistakes, and any eventual mistake won’t be held against them. **Psychological safety lies in using failures as lessons to learn and improve from.**\n\nWhy should you care about creating and maintaining psychological safety in your workplace and teams?\n\n**In a team with high levels of psychological safety, members are more eager to make meaningful and effective decisions.** And this is extremely important during uncertain and risky times, like the current pandemic. If the team feels safe, they’re not afraid to make bold decisions, and in case of mistakes, they’re not blocked from moving forward and improving their decision-making.\n\n**But how to build psychological safety?** Here are some of the techniques we use at Boldare to make sure everyone feels safe.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\" />\n\n## Technique #1: Introduce facilitation to build a sense of meaning\n\nIf the whole or majority of the company is working remotely, they’re located in their houses far away from many things that define the company as organization. The office, daily routines and their colleagues are only virtually present, thus it’s easy to question the sense of meaning. If they start asking themselves “**What am I even doing here**?” it might already be too late to act. What’s the solution?\n\nGood facilitation and the right person in the role of facilitator.\n\nA facilitator is a person who conducts a meeting, takes care of its agenda and executes it and, most importantly, provides direction for the meeting. Briefly, the facilitator is responsible for making the whole work of the team, especially meetings, meaningful.\n\n**A facilitator is responsible for building the way the team works**:\n\n* how the team solves problems,\n* how the team keeps its norms and rules,\n* how the team works on the goals they’re committed to.\n\nUsually, in development teams, the facilitator role is held by the scrum master, who takes care of frameworks, roles and rules.\n\nFinally, part of the role of a good facilitator is to reduce the complexity of problems faced by the team. If the team sees the goals clearly, understands the necessary roles and aims, its level of psychological safety is high. As a result, the team sees a way forward clearly.\n\n**What do you gain?** All team members know that their work has meaning and that they’re still an important part of a vibrant, perfectly working organisation.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Technique #2: Provide a space for everyone to understand each other\n\n**Working together but from different places can be tricky.**\n\nEspecially if the team has to discuss complex issues and make decisions together - and that’s what happens in self-organized teams that are not micromanaged by an omnipotent supervisor. Everyone has to understand each other perfectly, because it supports good decision-making and a sense of belonging. How can we help everyone speak their mind and be understood?\n\nAt Boldare, we use ‘question rounds’ as part of meeting agendas:\n\n* Check-in round\n* Reaction round\n* Check-out round\n\nThe **Check-in round** that occurs at the beginning of a meeting, and is simply a case of asking all the meeting members to state their expectations regarding that meeting. It’s a chance to say how they feel today and which topics they would like to talk about. This way, everyone has a chance to speak their mind and be listened to by others. It also gives a snapshot of the attitude of all meeting members to the agenda topics.\n\nThe **Reaction round** consists of asking all team members to share their opinion on a discussed problem, topic or expressed opinion. It gives a voice to all participants, even those who are usually not so eager to share their thoughts publicly. If someone doesn’t want to share their thoughts, it’s absolutely OK - the reaction round is a tool to let the team members share their opinion and thoughts, not to force anyone to contribute.\n\nThe **Check-out** round is the counterpart to the check-in but conducted at the end of the meeting. It can be used to gather opinions about the meeting outcomes, discussed topics or decisions made by participants. It’s also a chance to summarize the meeting and highlight the outputs or actions to be taken.\n\nAgain, this technique provides people with a chance to be heard and involves every member of the meeting. Even for those who usually prefer to follow the meetings silently but have their own thoughts about presented topics. This is absolutely crucial for teams that are not gathered in one space, but dispersed in various locations.\n\n**What do you gain?** Every team member has their own time and space to share his or her thoughts and discuss key topics. They know that their voice and opinion matter and can influence the way the team works.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Budgeting in agile software development - how it’s done?\" />\n\n## Technique #3: Provide a safe space for learning\n\n**One thing that COVID-19 brought home is that the world changes quickly and we have to adapt faster than ever.** There’s less time for learning in a traditional way by taking courses or by reading books. If you want to learn and take advantage of a new situation, you need to do it on the fly. To make it efficient and meaningful, you need to provide people with the space to learn efficiently.\n\nAt Boldare, we use two techniques to **provide our employees with safe spaces to learn:** retrospectives and feedback workshops.\n\n**Retrospectives** are part of the scrum methodology and are used by the team to sum up their work (1 or 2-week long sprints usually) and learn what went well and what actions need to be taken to improve in the future. The retrospective length varies depending on the length of the sprint being discussed. One hour of retrospective should be just enough to discuss a sprint of one or two weeks. You can read about this topic in detail in our article: [What is a sprint retrospective](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/).\n\n**Feedback workshops** are half-day workshops in which the team shares feedback about each other’s work. It helps to open up communication between team members in an organized way. After using this technique, we noticed that teams were working with more clarity and less tension between team members.\n\n**Want to strengthen your team through a feedback workshop?** Get access to the feedback workshops agenda template and other [team building assets here](https://www.boldare.com/resources/crash-course/).\n\n**If you want to try a feedback workshop in your team**, you can download the workshop agenda template that we prepared for participants in our **Crash Course webinar series**. Simply sign up on the course page by clicking [](https://www.boldare.com/resources/crash-course/)[this link](https://www.boldare.com/resources/crash-course/) and get access to all of the webinar series assets.\n\nThese workshops help team members to appreciate and provide feedback to all other participants, helping embed the giving of feedback in our daily working lives; there’s no need to wait for the next workshop. The feedback given is usually very detailed and touches on many aspects of everyday work. **This builds psychological safety because people feel that there is a proper, dedicated space and time to give and receive feedback.** And not only to give feedback but also to receive a lot of appreciation, which in turn builds strong social bonds. After all, it’s also a space where you can personally say “thank you” to those with whom you work the most but never had a chance to do so before.\n\nFeedback workshops are usually held on-site but we have also facilitated them online.\n\n**What do you gain?** These techniques give you the chance to stop and look back on what has been done and improve further actions. It’s also a chance to appreciate the work of colleagues and get kudos from others.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Technique #4: Team building rituals\n\n**Like every tribe, a team must have its own rituals.**\n\nIn times when we need to keep social distancing and are forced to communicate via various devices, small rituals can help to keep everyone involved. But what are these rituals? Here are examples of some that we are using internally in Boldare across various teams:\n\n* Special “**complaining time**” at the end of the week - everyone can join an open call and tell everyone what is bothering them at work or in their personal life. The rule is that nobody has to be constructive - everyone can simply say what’s on their mind right now. However, to keep a healthy balance between positivity and negativity we do “appreciation time” meetings as well, where you can share positive things that have occurred during the week.\n* **Magical question ritual** - once a week (usually Monday, to warm up our brains after the weekend) we share a call where a facilitator asks previously prepared questions to all team members. For example, what superpowers would you like to have, or what is the bravest thing you've ever done? etc. Answers are usually really surprising!\n\n**What’s the purpose of such calls?** It’s one answer to our need to share time together and it’s a way to meet and chat, free from work-related topics. And it’s also a complement to new, online forms of spending time together, like online coffees, breakfasts, team lunches, etc.\n\nThe importance of team building increases proportionally with the amount of time the team works remotely. The team’s bonds and loyalty to the organization decline with every single new team member who knows only the “remote” side of the company. Ben Waber, the president and co-founder of **Humanyze**, a MIT-based company, predicts that in time, a company’s culture and creativity will decline in a remote setup. “*Within a year or two, overall cohesion of employees, how well they know one another, might suffer,”* [says Waber.](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/09/magazine/remote-work-covid.html)\n\n**What do you gain?** A team where members know each other, know that they can share their feelings freely, have dedicated time and space to chat with other colleagues and they feel that they belong to a group.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Build better digital products with user story mapping\" />\n\n## The time is now\n\n**Providing psychological safety to your teams can give you an advantage** over those of your competitors who are not yet implementing a New Normal strategy or remote-friendly adjustments into their corporate life. While the first effects on productivity of working remotely can be surprisingly positive, in the longer term, the pandemic will disrupt not only development teams, but whole organizations.\n\nThe earlier you adjust your organization to the new reality, the earlier you will see results - **the time is now!**"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/building_remote_teams_using_psychological_safety.jpg","lead":"**If you read this article, you know already that the world has changed.** Especially for industries based on providing high quality apps and web products. **Without personal communication, distributed teams’ agility and creativity are at risk.** If those initial home-office powered productivity peaks [decline over the longer term](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/09/magazine/remote-work-covid.html) how can we get back to pre-pandemic levels of team performance? For us the solution was improving psychological safety. **What is psychological safety and how to create it for your teams**? Read on to see four techniques we use to keep our distributed teams in good shape. Then try them out in your organization!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-08-06T07:51:24.152Z","slug":"building-psychological-safety-for-efficient-and-agile-teamwork","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Remote Work","additionalCategories":["People"],"url":null},"author":"Weronika Otrębska","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"4 techniques to build psychological safety in a remote and distributed teams","tileDescription":"If you read this article, you know already that the world has changed. Especially for industries based on providing high quality apps and web products. Without personal communication, distributed teams’ agility and creativity are at risk. If those initial home-office powered productivity peaks decline over the longer term how can we get back to pre-pandemic levels of team performance? For us the solution was improving psychological safety. What is psychological safety and how to create it for your teams? Read on to see four techniques we use to keep our distributed teams in good shape. Then try them out in your organization!","coverImage":"/img/building_remote_teams_using_psychological_safety.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"fc7c5111-ff33-50ab-818e-9c99bccefefe"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/1-creating-the-strategy-new-normal-in-practice/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #1 Creating the strategy","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/miniatura_wideo.png","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-07-11T06:24:47.129Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["People","Organization","Strategy"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onUKMQjQLuw"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"#1 Creating the strategy | New Normal in Practice","tileDescription":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"ae9d3aea-0b12-5fed-b427-416760597d42"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/the-new-normal-in-boldare-strategy-and-tactics/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"The New Normal in Boldare: strategy and tactics","order":null,"content":[{"body":"Boldare has been operating as an agile organization for the last 16 years. With distributed teams and leadership, supported and strengthened by the organizational framework of [Holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/5-signs-you-are-ready-for-holacracy/), Boldare was equipped with the tools and prepared for the **risks and challenges** of a pandemic and post-pandemic business environment. The organization was able to respond  to the lockdown and economic pause rapidly and preserved full employment (or even extended it) without pay cuts.\n\nNevertheless, the post-COVID-19 business landscape is not something which will go away soon. **The economical and social effects** of the pandemic will resonate in the global economy for the next 2-3 years, impacting businesses and the way work is defined. It is a “new normal” state that will continue into the near future at least. Organizations need to embrace this change or face the negative consequences of passivity.\n\n\n## How to embrace the New Normal\n\nTo address the various challenges presented by the pandemic and post-pandemic situation, Boldare has established a special role called **Active Strategist**. The role is fulfilled by numerous people with different skills and knowledge within the company and is designed to cover all crucial aspects of the organization and respond to the new normal situation, well, actively.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\nActive Strategists **respond in real time to risks** and issues caused by the current situation. They are also responsible for **strategy and tactics** for the whole organization, tailored to embrace the New Normal at all levels of the company.\n\nWith the role in motion from the very first day of lockdown, Boldare was able to develop a strategic and tactical approach to the new business reality and introduce it to the whole company during an online feedback meeting with all employees.\n\nSo, what are the strategy and tactics for the **New Normal by Boldare?**\n\n<RelatedUniversalBoxAlternative title=\"Organization - Agality - Remote Work - Culture\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/new-normal/\" button=\"Explore now\" image=\"New Normal in Practice.png\" />\n\n## Four pillars of New Normal strategy\n\nThe work of Active Strategist resulted in four strategic pillars which will power up all our organizational activities for the months to come. To stay agile and ready for a continually changing business environment, Active Strategists will **keep the strategy under review**.\n\nThe goal of this action is simple, strategy has to respond to the current economic situation, which cannot be fully forecasted and is constantly changing.\n\n### 1. Creativity\n\nOne of the disadvantages of constant remote work is a lack of the direct interpersonal connection which is often the best playground for creativity and new ideas. Therefore the efforts of the organization must be channeled to preserve and strengthen creativity by giving people the space for intelligent problem-solving and groundbreaking ideas.\n\nThe goal is to invest in roles (meaning of sets of responsibilities and skills, not positions) and skills that support and stimulate creativity.\n\n### 2. Keeping people and company safe\n\nThe safety of people requires far-reaching changes in how the work is executed. This is why one of our strategic decisions was to allow all of our employees to work remotely if they wish. The last few months have reassured us that our distributed teams are 100% effective despite working remotely, which makes this strategic decision much easier.\n\nHowever, remote work cannot be allowed to adversely affect the teams and organization. If the team is losing effectiveness because of the increase in complexity caused by remote working, then a return to the office might be considered in order to reduce complexity and help the team get back on track.\n\nTo ensure a safe environment in our offices, we pay extra attention to the rules of co-working and the best way to execute these rules. People want to feel safe in the office, but rules are not enough - an adequate level of knowledge is better than following rules blindly.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n### 3. Team-centricity\n\nDistributed teams face many risks and disadvantages from remote working. To reduce them, Boldare strategically decided to invest in team development rather than that of individuals (**team-centricity**) to strengthen collectivity and develop a sense of belonging among employees on the three key levels: *team - organization - purpose*.\n\n### 4. Performance validates transparency\n\nTransparency is something that is carved into Boldare’s DNA. Lack of emails, open Slack channels, feedback - this is our day-by-day normal. However, in the **New Normal**, that transparency requires enhancement in the form of progress and performance visibility with the use of widely presented metrics and red-flagging risks. Simple transparency is not enough - it requires performance as a validator.\n\nThese **four strategic pillars** are the foundation of Boldare’s approach to the New Normal in business and work. But we are **practicians not theorists**, therefore we developed a set of tactics to set our strategy in motion.\n\n<Iframe url=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLdvko3YEuQr9eotU_XUaC-L3g7yNaV0ts\" width=\"800\" height=\"\" />\n\n## Tactics for the New Normal strategy\n\nTo ensure that our tactics will effectively address the four strategy pillars, they were developed on the basis of three main areas of organizational activity:\n\n1. Structure and Rules\n2. Communication\n3. People and Roles\n\nThe graphic below presents a matrix structure of our tactical approach to the New Normal in Boldare:"},{"body":"## Summary\n\nNew Normal is not a new term. It appeared almost twelve years ago on the occasion of the economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008. However, the universality of the threat as well as the globality and long-term effects that result from the pandemic 2020 mean that **this term now gains a completely new meaning**.\n\nThe New Normal will have a profound impact on the social, cultural and economic life of the whole globe, as well as on ways of doing business and the organization of companies. To meet this new situation, companies around the world need to **re-evaluate their current organizational order and business models** in a smart and agile way.\n\nThe New Normal will not wait for anyone - it is already here.\n\nIf you want more **practical information and tips** on how to reconfigure your organizational structure, processes, culture and work to fit the New Normal reality, visit our “[New Normal in Practice](https://www.boldare.com/new-normal/)” page for more content.\n\n\\---------\n\n**\\* Rep Link** is an elected role used to represent the interests of a sub-circle (sub-team) to its super-circle (super-team).\n\n**\\*\\* Facilitator** is an elected role with the purpose of facilitating the circle’s governance and tactical meetings in accordance with the rules of the Holacracy Constitution\n\n******* ** Lead Link** holds the purpose of the overall team (circle). The person is responsible for priorities and strategies of the team (circle), assigning people to roles, allocating the team's resources to its various projects and/or roles, and defining metrics for the team.\n\nTo learn more about roles and circles visit [Holacracy.org](https://holacracy.org)."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"New Normal strategy.png","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. **Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself** need to adjust to the new reality. They need **strategy and tactics**. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-07-10T11:20:19.854Z","slug":"new-normal-in-boldare-strategy-and-tactics","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Future","additionalCategories":["Organization","Culture"],"url":null},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"The New Normal in Boldare: strategy and tactics","tileDescription":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"658a845a-c1bd-5d85-8cca-7936cccce593"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/2-integrating-the-idea-with-stakeholders-new-normal-in-practice/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #2 Integrating the idea with stakeholders","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-06-30T06:34:19.954Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["People","Organization","Strategy"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e8dXHGV-Rc"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"#2 Integrating the idea with stakeholders | New Normal in Practice","tileDescription":"The second step  it's time to clarify your vision and integrate different points of view into your New Normal strategy. Stay open-minded to great ideas that will improve your initial proposal.\n","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"36242bdf-efde-5f03-9533-045b83379894"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/build-better-digital-products-with-user-story-mapping/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Build better digital products with user story mapping","order":null,"content":[{"body":"There’s a reason that user story mapping is a key part of our standard product discovery workshops – we use it as a non-static way to explore and understand exactly what the product under development is intended to achieve; still leaving us the freedom to pivot when necessary.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Event storming or product vision? Discover workshops that will help to build your next app\" />\n\n## What is user story mapping?\n\nFirst, what are user stories? User stories are short descriptions of your digital product’s features from the perspective of the person who will be using that product. A user story has three key elements: the desired feature, the type of user, and the purpose or benefit to the feature; they often follow a version of the following template:\n\n_“As a (type of user), I want (feature), so that (benefit to user).”_\n\nIn other words, each user story gives us the what, who and why of each product feature. Before we get to the mapping part, let’s just clarify that each user story must:\n\n* **Clearly identify the “user”** – what are their role/lifestyle/responsibilities/etc relevant to the product.\n* **Provide sufficient detail** – enough to provide clarity but not so much that the user story starts laying down what the solution is or how the feature should be designed and delivered.\n* **Prompt a discussion** – user stories are the beginning of a focused discussion; in fact, one of the big benefits of user story mapping is the conversation it provokes, essential in the early stages of the project to better understand the product being developed.\n\n**And now, to the mapping part!**\n\nThe technique of user story mapping was introduced by Jeff Patton in 2005. A simple story map is a grid layout in two dimensions. From left to right, the high-level stories (sometimes called ‘epics’) are laid out, covering the major features and stages in the user’s journey when using the product. Moving vertically downwards, other, finer detail stories are added. In other words, the further down the layout you go, the smaller and more specific the story.\n\nAs a 2D visual representation of the whole project, a **user story map** acts as a visual summary of the experience users will have with your product, laid out in such a way as to make prioritizing easier (the layout makes it simple to see which stories are related to others, and which groups of stories should be worked on in the same sprints to create the next product iteration. It’s also easy to change as circumstances change – in that sense, a user story map is a living, evolving (and agile) document.\n\n![Example of user story mapping board](user_story_mapping_workshops_in_sprint_retrospective_tool.png \"User story mapping - an example of board\")\n\n## A story mapping process\n\nAn average user story mapping exercise might take place in a workshop environment and involves several people (ideally including the whole project team and the product owner from the client side) with a lot of sticky notes. Equally, story mapping can be done remotely, using video-conferencing and screen-sharing tools or apps such as[ Boldare’s Sprint Retrospective Tool.](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) Either way, the basic process is as follows:\n\n1. **Frame the problem** – Let’s be clear on the exact problem or issue the product is intended to solve for users. Similarly, what key business objectives is the product expected to support? What are the overall goals?\n2. **Understand the users** – Who is the target audience for the product? What are the main ‘user personas’ central to your design. You need clarity on exactly who the product is aimed at, and who it isn’t.\n3. **Map out the high-level user stories** – Brainstorm every activity likely to be carried out by the various users; each interaction with the product? What can those users expect from the product and what do you (or the product) need from them in order to deliver? These stories are the that first horizontal line, across the top of the grid.\n4. **Map the lower level user stories** – Under each story on that first, top line, add the smaller activities or interactions; by doing so, you’re effectively breaking down each high-level story.\n5. **Prioritize** – Now order (or re-order) the grid so that under each high-level activity, the lower level stories are ranked in descending importance. This layout gives you a clear view of the route each user’s journey takes from left to right on the map. By tracing the different user journeys ‘through’ the product, the features and attributes can be prioritized for development.\n6. **Identify the gaps** – This ‘big picture’ of the flow fo the various user journeys should make it easier to see where there are gaps, steps or stages that you didn’t spot or think of the first time round. This rounds out the overview of the product, from a user-centric perspective.\n7. **Plan the sprints** – You should now be able to agree on the clear priorities – which journeys and features are most important, which deliver the most value in the shortest time – allowing you to group them into logical sprints and product iterations for development.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Product Vision Workshops – seeing clearly from the beginning\" />\n\n## User story mapping outputs\n\nThe main and the most important gain here is the **product backlog** and a very clear picture of the scope of the work.\n\nAlso, the team and stakeholders have better visibility of what the core of the application, which aspects and features are central and which should be treated as nice-to-haves. This helps to keep the focus on the right things, and gives a better understanding of potential costs.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## The benefits of user story mapping\n\nWe’ve emphasized that user story mapping is a technique that enables you to drill down and create a detailed picture of the product from the user’s perspective. The question is, what project and business benefits do you get from creating such a picture?\n\n* **A user story map gives your developers a crystal-clear set of priorities**; in fact, it’s a way of managing the project backlog in terms of relative priorities.\n* The **process of story mapping is entirely focused on the user** and is highly suited to user-centered digital product development.\n* The map is flexible in that **product owners can add or remove stories, or change story details**, as circumstances change; including in response to feedback following user testing.\n* Project **decisions around priorities and features are easier** with a user story map as context.\n* The more focused approach to deciding on sprints and product iterations means that **your project delivers value earlier and more frequently**.\n* With **each sprint resulting in a product iteration**, it becomes much easier to plan product releases.\n* A u**ser story map illustrates very clearly the links and interactions**, the risks and dependencies between tasks and project activities.\n* Finally, as already mentioned, **the process of user story mapping encourages discussion** (in fact, it demands collaboration!), ensuring a deeper shared understanding of the project and product by the development team.\n\n## When to use user story mapping?\n\nArguably, you could usefully run a story mapping exercise at any point in your digital product development project – especially at any point of changing circumstances, or when you need to review and restructure the backlog.\n\nBut what should be clear from what’s been said so far, is that the ideal time for a (first) user story mapping exercise is early in the project. That’s why at Boldare, we regularly use this technique as part of our product discovery workshop at the beginning of each project. In this context, user story mapping enables us to take in-depth knowledge and understanding of the client’s business and user needs, and apply that knowledge and understanding to specific design and development activities.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"System Story – the little sentence that builds big things\" />\n\n## User story mapping – your secret project planning ingredient\n\nSimply put, **user story mapping is a method of exploring and identifying all the people who will use the product, how they’ll use it and why**. Especially when carried out at the beginning of the project, user story mapping is an effective part of the planning process – at a level above that of sprint lanning – which keeps users as the focus of your priorities and planning decisions.\n\nNot only does the user story mapping technique fit well with agile methodologies, it also helps keep your project productive, producing a useable iteration every sprint. Maybe we can leave the last words to the inventor of user story mapping:\n\n> User Story Mapping is a dead simple idea. Talk about the user’s journey through your product by building a simple model that tells your user’s story as you do. It turns out this simple idea makes working with user stories in agile development a lot easier.\n>\n> **Jeff Patton**"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/user-story-mapping_1.png","lead":"**Any design or development project needs a clear idea from the start of exactly what is being built, and why.** For any application this ‘clear idea’ could easily be a long list of requirements - a static, rigid list of specifications for the project. However, with the fluid nature of the digital world, most software projects benefit from some flexibility – they need to shift their focus in response to new information, user requirements or business needs. Hence our use of the **agile** scrum methodology. **User story mapping** is a technique to break down all the mentioned requirements into prioritized steps in the development process. It helps to map the connections and dependencies between all the software pieces.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-06-15T07:51:06.349Z","slug":"build-digital-products-with-user-story-mapping","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Digital Product","additionalCategories":["Agile","Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Artur Belka","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Build better digital products with user story mapping","tileDescription":"Any design or development project needs a clear idea from the start of exactly what is being built, and why. For any application this ‘clear idea’ could easily be a long list of requirements - static, rigid list of specifications for the project. However, with the fluid nature of the digital world, most software projects benefit from some flexibility – they need to shift their focus in response to new information, user requirements or business needs. Hence our use of the agile scrum methodology. User story mapping is a technique to break down all the mentioned requirements into prioritized steps in the development process. It helps to map the connections and dependencies between all the software pieces.","coverImage":"/img/user-story-mapping_1.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"b929ab47-55aa-5e78-ba9c-e216fb3e165d"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/our-holacracy-experience-what-it-is-and-why-it-works/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Our Holacracy Experience - what it is and why it works","order":null,"content":[{"body":"I’m always looking for new management solutions in my businesses, some better ways to always be a step ahead of the changing environment.\n\nIn 2017, after some months’ careful thought, consultation and discussion, **we embraced holacracy** as a way of flattening the structure and sharing out the power and responsibility.\n\nIn this article, as co-CEO and co-founder of Boldare (merger of XSolve and Chilid), I’ll share our **change journey to a more open, collaborative and creative organization.**\n\n![Holacracy](49638967357_22fc026663_k.jpg \"Magda and Patrycja - Talent Selection Team at Boldare\")\n\n## What is holacracy in business?\n\nFirst coined by Arthur Koestler in 1967, the term \"holacracy\" is seen as a combination of “holistic” and “democracy”. More recently, the concept has been fleshed out and popularized by Brian Robertson, based on his experiences as CEO of a software development company.\n\n### Holacracy’s key features are:\n\n* Flatter organizational structures\n* Diffused decision-making\n* Power-sharing\n* Agile responses to changes\n\nAnd yes, that last point refers to the agile framework for software development and project management which we’ve been using for years as our operations basics. In that sense, for us, holacracy was a (quantum) leap forward in the direction we were already traveling in.\n\nBefore I tell you more about holacracy in action, let’s consider the most important question: “why?”\n\n## 3 reasons WHY holacracy’s time is now:\n\n### 1. The world is changing.\n\nIn fact, it’s already changed. The AI revolution is coming and work will never be the same.\n\nOxford University researchers are already predicting that in the US, two-thirds of workers will be replaced by [AI within the next 20 years](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/two-thirds-of-office-workers-think-their-job-will-never-be-replaced-by-ai/). The list of jobs no longer available to humans will grow.\n\nWe won’t become obsolete but **we will see a shift towards work and tasks that require more human capacities** — creativity, innovation and emotional engagement — and that shift requires a more stimulating workplace. This is the point I made at the beginning about environment.\n\nWhen an environment changes radically, it’s pointless to continue operating in the same way. It’s like a fish still trying to breathe water after landing on the ground. Instead, what’s required is **rapid adaptation to the new surroundings.**\n\nIf your business is structured along traditional hierarchical lines, your competitive advantage will be steadily eroded as your **competition adopts cultures that are more supportive of creative behaviors** from its flesh-and-blood workforce. In other words, old-style hierarchical management no longer works (if it ever did!)\n\n![Holacracy companies](49638686036_f56ebe85cc_k.jpg \"Piotr Majchrzak, Boldare co-CEO\")\n\n### 2. The Millennials are here!\n\nAs a recent Forbes article put it, the Millennial generation is now in the [“economic driver’s seat”](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahlandrum/2018/01/26/millennials-want-holacracy-in-the-workplace/#1de6276a23ae). The values, needs and requirements of this latest age group to enter the workplace are now a dominant force. And generally, Millennials are not keen on traditional, formal power structures.\n\nTraditional hierarchies and rigid responsibilities are out, flexibility and full participation are in. Ignore this fundamental change at your peril.\n\n### 3. Information is everywhere.\n\nInformation wasn't so easy to share and cheap to store. Before the so-called Digital Age and the instant dissemination possible with the Internet and our modern communication tools, individuals were the repositories of knowledge and expertise.\n\nAccessing and sharing information was a really slow, often one-to-one process.\n\nThe classic hierarchical organizational structure comes from a time of limited information flow; a time when the vast majority of the workforce was unskilled, often illiterate. In such an environment, restricting decision-making to those ‘in the know’ was logical.\n\nBut today’s highly-skilled and educated workers work in an environment in which information is democratized, widely distributed and easily available. They have all they need to do their own decision-making.\n\n![Benefits of holacracy](28186099659_bf0f709dc4_k.jpg \"Boldare Team people at work\")\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Holacracy in a nutshell: everything you should know if you run a company\" />\n\n## How does holacracy work day to day?\n\n**First of all, a holacratic organization has a greatly different structure to a traditional set up. Company structures are much more complex than organizational charts would suggest.**\n\nAside from the official network of job titles and responsibilities, most companies have informal power structures based on internal politics, favoritism, and personal relationships.\n\nThese are usually the real barriers to performance and progress. The key features of holacracy are as follows:\n\n### Roles in holacracy companies\n\nHolacracy brings with itself a **set of clear rules relating to governance** that enable a workforce to sidestep this kind of complexity.\n\nInstead of job titles, there’s a **strong focus on the roles** that people take on within the company, specifically, the purpose and aim of each role, and its associated specific accountabilities.\n\n**Clarity is key.** Every task or project assigned to an employee must be within the accountabilities of their role. Should a role be large enough to require more than one person, then each must be clearly defined and distinct.\n\nWithin these defined boundaries each employee has the freedom and, most importantly, the power to **make independent decisions without consultation.**\n\nOf course, discussion is encouraged (demo-“cracy”, remember?) but each individual has real power. In other words, there’s **no longer need to constantly gain permission** and freed of such traditional dependencies, the employee begins to work more proactively.\n\n### Circles\n\nIn holacracy, employees form **teams known as “circles”, independent and self-governing units** with clear responsibilities set by themselves.\n\nTo ensure the right amount of direction, each circle has a **“Lead Link”** whose role includes the circle’s overall strategy (ensuring a common alignment of purpose within the circle) and resource allocation.\n\n![Holacracy is about empowering people ](team_work_during_product_discovery_workshops.jpg \"a scrum team at a product discovery workshop at Boldare\")\n\n### Meetings in a holacratic organization\n\nThere is no rigid timetable or structure for communication in a holacratic organization. However, one fundamental recommendation is that circles hold regular “**Tactical Meetings”, focused on operational issues** relating to assignments and projects, associated metrics, and any problems that require tackling.\n\nAnother must-have is the **“Governance Meeting”,** held when it’s necessary to deal with organizational structure issues such as adding, removing or changing roles or accountabilities.\n\nLikewise, circles may be created or dismantled according to project and/or company needs.\n\n![Holacracy business circle meeting](sprint_retrospective_at_boldare.jpg \"business circle meeting\")\n\n## The wider benefits of holacracy\n\nSo far, this might all sound a little too good to be true, right? You might be wondering what are the risks? For example, are people really engaged and motivated by all this individual responsibility?\n\nIn fact, they are. Not only is this our experience at Boldare, but some of the latest research has shown that while salary and remuneration is important to people, the **real day-to-day motivators of great performance are**: meaningful work, ownership of that work, rising to a challenge, and just the joy of being creative (for more on this, see the excellent TEDx Talk by behavioral economist, Dan Ariely).\n\n![Holacracy company](The_6_Biggest_challenges_of_software_outsourcing.jpg \"Boldare employees on a brainstorm\")\n\nAt Boldare, our experience so far (with no sign of that experience changing) is that holacracy has been nothing but beneficial for our company and the results we get; for example:\n\n### Employee engagement\n\nEngagement is a direct result of taking responsibility. The system of roles and accountabilities and empowered decision-making is incredibly effective.\n\nThe secret is the clear delineation of roles so that each person can fulfill their purpose undisturbed, as much as possible, by others. As long as their **decisions are in the interest of both company and circle**, and don’t impact on the work of others, they’re free to proceed.\n\nEven better, although each circle has a Lead Link, employees are not responsible to a traditional manager. Performance is monitored and reviewed by their peers in the circle.\n\n### Quicker competence\n\nWith the greater transparency of holacracy comes faster onboarding of new hires. From day one, **it’s clear how the company operates and is governed.** It’s much easier for newbies to settle in and start contributing.\n\nThat’s great performance-wise but it’s also good for morale all round.\n\n### Better decision-making\n\nPossibly the most important plus is the increased speed and agility of decision-making. By vesting **so much power in the roles**, individuals can act instantly.\n\nThere’s no bureaucracy, no need to wait on a decision further up the line. This power-sharing principle lies at the very heart of holacracy.\n\n![Power sharing holacracy](How_to_pitch_your_CEO.jpg \"roles catching up with their accountabilities during a governance meeting\")\n\n### Less overheads\n\nMaybe the most obvious benefit is financial savings from the reduced management overhead.\n\n**A traditional governance hierarchy is expensive to maintain** but with responsibility for strategy and decisions disseminate among individual roles, the management costs can plummet.\n\nThe reality is, in today’s business environment, with today’s workforce, and today’s access to information, **the holacratic approach encourages:**\n\n* Greater empowerment of individuals.\n* More thought leadership at all levels.\n* More and better ideas.\n* Engagement across the whole workforce.\n* Easier collaboration for stakeholders.\n* Advancement on pure merit, as opposed to seniority or tenure, etc.\n* An organizational culture that is influenced by the many rather than being set by the few.\n\n## Finally…\n\nI accept that it’s early days yet for Boldare and the only real test of whether **holacracy is the right management solution** for us will be time and results.\n\nWhat I can say with fear of contradiction is that coming from an agile background, holacracy fits our culture like a glove.\n\nAnd what’s more, it has so far given us enhanced employee engagement, and the built-in principles of **self-organization and self-management supporting our people to reach their full potential.**\n\nI really believe that giving up the power and control normally vested in the CEO role may have been one of the smartest (and most productive) decisions of my career.\n\nDo you like what we do in Boldare and how we're formed? Reach out to us. We’d love to help you with your career or your business."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Boldare_office_in_Gliwice_-_holocracy_in_practice.jpg","lead":"You know the old design dogma \"form follows function\"? When it comes to organizational design, life is a little more complex. Alongside ‘function’, the other big influencing factor is ‘environment’. After all, the basic function of any business — produce an excellent product, offer a first-rate service — may remain the same but the world in which we operate is constantly changing. It is basically an evolution: change or die.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-06-09T10:04:00.915Z","slug":"our-holacracy-experience","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Holacracy","additionalCategories":["People","Agile","Organization"],"url":null},"author":"Piotr Majchrzak","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Our Holacracy Experience - what it is and why it works","tileDescription":"You know the old design dogma, form follows function? When it comes to organizational design, life is a little more complex. Alongside ‘function’ the other big influencing factor is ‘environment’. After all, the basic function of a business — produce an excellent product, offer a first-rate service — may remain the same but the world in which we operate is constantly changing. It’s basic evolution: change or die.\n","coverImage":"Boldare_office_in_Gliwice_-_holocracy_in_practice.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"3fb64bf8-1cd7-5901-9c1f-a3f910eb6837"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/new-normal-in-practice-3-integrating-the-strategy-with-the-organization/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #3 Integrating the strategy with the organization","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/miniatura_wideo.png","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-05-30T06:40:29.599Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["People","Organization","Strategy"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0_BDb0IkU4"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #3 Integrating the strategy with the organization","tileDescription":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"b52564e0-fbbd-57a7-800f-7a648b3de550"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/how-to-build-an-efficient-software-development-team-during-a-crisis/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"How to build an efficient software development team during a crisis? ","order":null,"content":[{"body":"In the previous article in the series – [Risk management for software development](https://www.boldare.com/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-software-development/) – we focused on the six specific risks to your digital product development projects, especially those risks associated with remote working and dispersed teams. \n\nThis third and final article looks at distributed teams, an increasingly common way of developing software, especially in the current global business environment. Here, we draw on solutions and strategies around team building and performance based on Boldare’s 16 years of expertise in creating award-winning digital products remotely.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Risk management strategies for building software in a complex and chaotic environment\" />\n\n## The importance of people and the need for agile teams\n\n**If there’s one universal effect of COVID-19, it’s that it made the world spin faster.** The business environment changed, almost overnight, and that rate of change will continue as long as we’re in this crisis… and who knows for how long past it. Initiatives and strategies that we used to spend years on must now literally be done in weeks, or risk being obsolete.\n\n**Any company that fails to adapt to this “new normal” is facing an existential threat**. What does this mean? \n\nIt means learning and operating on the fly – we simply have insufficient data and time for formulating and rolling out detailed plans. Welcome to the ‘new normal’.\n\nRight now, we’re operating on the border **between complexity and chaos**. It’s difficult to predict and plan, everything seems to be dependent on everything else and looking ahead, the future parameters of business are uncertain. What’s the key to success in such an environment? \n\n![Risk management - between complexity and chaos](Risk_management_-_between_complexity_and_chaos.png \"Risk management - between complexity and chaos\")\n\nPut simply, it’s the same as it ever was: people. BUT… you need to equip your people (employees, external partners, stakeholders, customers…) with flexible frameworks and processes; give them broader accountability and freedom to act; distribute your decision-making; all so they can navigate a project through the complexity and chaos that surrounds us.\n\nIn software development, the proven methodologies in such circumstances (also in “normal” circumstances and Boldare is a vivid example of this statement) are [agile](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-vs-waterfall/). At Boldare, [we use scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) in our digital product development. What does it mean for us, practically speaking?\n\nShort sprints mean delivery of a new, testable product iteration every one or two-weeks. A team that plans, designs, develops and tests in rapid, focused  bursts is capable of quickly responding to fresh information and the latest changes, pivoting its efforts to maintain a constant focus on the goal: **a high-quality, relevant digital product that meets both your business and user needs**.\n\nThis means that we plan together, deliver regular working product iterations and we are always ready to change the plan when necessary. And this kind of approach is an important ingredient of thriving, especially during such hard times. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Building successful apps using scrum development\" />\n\n## What is an agile team?\n\nAgile approaches and methodologies are usually talked about in relation to companies or projects, but on a day-to-day basis, it’s the team that is the foundation of any agile organization. \n\nSo-called ‘traditional’ teams are structured, hierarchical, role-driven (and restricted) with a clear leader or manager responsible for decision-making and direction. Let’s be clear, that doesn’t work in a complex bordering on chaotic environment.\n\n![Traditional teams versus self-organizing teams](Traditional_development_teams_versu_agile_development_teams.png \"Traditional teams versus self-organizing teams\")\n\nSo, if you’re putting together an agile team, what should it look like?\n\n* **Small** – Ideally no more than nine people. You want to maximize the different points of view but minimize the time for synchronization. Simply speaking, more team members mean longer meetings.\n* **Cross-functional** – The concept of a different person for each role is in the past. Ensuring multiple areas of expertise means the team has everything, and everyone, necessary to achieve the goal. At Boldare, we always aim to include a product designer on each software development team, so we are sure that we have various points of view during the meetings.\n* **Self-organizing** – A truly agile team is internally managed, not solely responsible to (and therefore controlled by) a team leader or project manager; the team’s structure is as flat as possible rather than hierarchical. It doesn’t mean that there’s no responsibility - quite the opposite, every team member is responsible.\n* **Goal-focused** – The unifying factor is the focus on one specific thing to achieve, keeping the team organized and focused on goal-relevant work.\n\nNow, let’s look at the three key techniques we use to build our agile development teams at Boldare.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Surviving the storm - the risk management strategies for software development\" />\n\n## Creating agile teams - Day Zero technique\n\nClassic team building theory tends to quote Bruce Tuckman’s famous **forming-storming-norming-performing** model. In the past, getting a group of people to the performing stage and delivering value could take weeks. However, in a changing world, the team may need to change direction several times in that same time period. The Tuckman model still applies to agile team development, it just needs to happen faster. \n\n![Forming-storming-norming-performing model](forming-storming-norming-performing_model.png \"Forming-storming-norming-performing model by Bruce Tuckman\")\n\nAt Boldare, before we start working with any client on their product, we spend one or two highly intensive days to mold the team into shape. We call this exercise, Day Zero.\n\nThe main goal of **Day Zero** is to rapidly equip the development team and scrum master (who facilitates the scrum process) with everything they need to deliver value from the first project sprints onwards. The whole event is focused on using interactive exercises to create a common understanding of the most important project issues. The key areas are:\n\n* **Getting to know each other** – Not only what each team member is bringing to the table, but also sharing what they need to learn and connecting them to someone who can support that learning.\n* **Investigating the business problem** – Understanding the client, their business and their goals; not just the ‘what’ of the product that will be developed but also the ‘why’.\n* **Agreeing roles and processes** – Both within the team and also in terms of how the team will interact and fit with the bigger picture (e.g. within a range of digital products or a series of connected projects).\n\nThe constant theme throughout is creating a team with a tight focus on a specific product. As a summary of Day Zero, we create a ‘team canvas’, a visual representation and constant reminder of the team, its purpose, roles, values, rules, strengths and weaknesses. This is how the “team canvas” might look:\n\n![Creating remote software development teams](People_Canvas.png \"Team canvas - one of the exercises used to creating a team\")\n\n## Creating agile teams - the product discovery workshop technique\n\nThe next key stage is to bring the client into the team and the ideal point is when we are exploring in detail the product to be developed. We do that by getting the team and the client representative (the product owner) together for a product discovery workshop: a two-day event with the goal of developing a shared understanding of the digital product that will address the original business problem. The outcomes are:\n\n* The team takes its first shared steps towards creating something great.\n* The client gets to know the team and sees first-hand that they have the necessary skills and knowledge and can ask difficult questions and challenge the status quo.\n* The project is now working to a detailed and agreed plan how to achieve its goal.\n\nFor more details and pro tips, read our article about what happens in a [Boldare product discovery workshop](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-do-you-make-first-product-discovery-workshops/).\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Event storming or product vision? Discover workshops that will help to build your next app\" />\n\n## Creating agile teams – The sprint retrospective meeting technique\n\nHaving laid such strong foundations, it’s important to continue to develop the team while you develop the product, honing performance throughout the project. Our use of the scrum methodology gives us an ideal tool to do just that.\n\nIn **scrum**, at the end of every sprint, the team (including the scrum master and the product owner) take part in a [sprint retrospective](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/); a meeting with the goal of reviewing how the team is working together. To be clear, the retrospective meeting does not review the product increment that was produced during the sprint, it focuses on how that increment was produced. The [sprint retrospective meeting](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/) looks at productivity, processes, tools used, people and relationships – all through a positive lens of three, crucial questions:\n\n* How did we do?\n* What did we do?\n* How can we do it better?\n\nAnswers can be later transformed into actionable tasks that can help to improve the work of the team during the next sprint. It’s important to try to change declarations and ideas into such tasks - this way it’s possible to improve performance in real terms and not just talk, without commitment. \n\nFor more details and pro tips, read our guide, What is a sprint retrospective.\n\n> Scrum helps a lot to organize communication… the meetings keep things on the go.\n>\n> Issam Al Najm, CTO, Ionoview, MATIC\n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"How to scale a monolithic MVP application without losing business?\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/work/case-study-ionoview/\" type=\"case study\" image=\"img/ionoview-hd.jpg\" />\n\n## Agile teams – the cultural context\n\nStrategies and techniques are great (essential, in fact) but as Peter Drucker famously said, “**Culture eats strategy for breakfast,**” and it’s equally essential to build the kind of culture that keeps your team  - and project – agile.\n\nGoogle’s Project Aristotle research found that the most important factor influencing how a team works together is psychological safety; i.e. that it’s safe to take risks, ask questions, suggest new ideas, admit mistakes, etc. \n\n* A team that feels psychologically safe will learn from mistakes more quickly, make bolder, more confident decisions, and perform at a higher level. At Boldare, we find people feel psychologically safe when:\n* They have a sense of meaning.\n* Their talents are fully utilized.\n* Share a sense of belonging.\n* They trust their teammates.\n\nThere are many ways to create **psychological safety –** here are four we’ve found to be highly effective at Boldare.\n\n**Effective facilitation** – With a flatter, self-organizing team structure, direction and guidance (and a sense of meaning!) comes via facilitation rather than a traditional ‘boss’ figure; especially during team meetings and events. This facilitator is often the scrum master, helping to build, reinforce and encourage the team’s collaboration.\n\nThe team makes its own decisions, agreeing the priorities that will achieve the project goals, and how those priorities can best be delivered. The facilitator helps keep that decision-making process on track, assisting the team in ‘joining the dots’; guiding the team to avoid unproductive or off-topic discussion, for example. \n\nDuring the project, this role is influential in building the team’s ways of working, avoiding unnecessary complexity. To refer back to the classic Tuckman team **development process**, the facilitator helps the team agree and stick to their norms simultaneously with delivering product increments.\n\n> The key is mutual accountability – team members are all accountable to each other; not just a manager.\n>\n> Issam Al Najm, CTO Ionoview, MATIC\n\nMaking room for everyone to contribute – In an agile team, it’s not enough just to know your colleagues, the agility comes from understanding and respecting each other’s different points of view. One very effective meeting technique we use to encourage this is called Rounds. In a round, you simply go round the team, allowing each individual person to express their perspective on an issue. (Yes, this can be daunting or even stressful for some people but that’s where good facilitation comes in!)\n\n![Agile teams – the cultural context](Boldare_team.jpg \"Agile teams at Boldare\")\n\nFor example, you can do a **check-in round** at the start of a meeting to establish the differing moods of the group. A reaction round allows you to gather the full range of thoughts on a specific issue or question. A check-out round summarizes what people are taking away from the meeting. It can be as simple as asking a question and then ensuring everyone has a chance to answer. But don’t be fooled by its simplicity, this technique can be invaluable for building mutual understanding and appreciation within an agile team.\n\n**Providing space for learning** – The learning process is fundamental to building and utilizing everybody’s talents in a team. The abovementioned retrospective meetings are an important method of a team learning after every sprint. In addition, as part of our approach to encouraging rapid learning during a project, we use half-day team feedback workshops, structured according to the team’s needs and the requirements of the project. The benefits include greater clarity of communication and enhanced appreciation of each other’s talents. The learning process helps build the necessary psychological safety within the team and also builds personal and social bonds.\n\nInterestingly, when we started using this technique, we naturally conducted the workshops face to face, with the whole team physically together. In the current circumstances, that’s no longer an option but we are finding these events are just as powerful when done at a distance, using videoconferencing!\n\n> You have to have this culture where you are safe to learn in the team… you can ask whatever you want.\n>\n> Issam Al Najm, CTO, Ionoview, MATIC\n\n**Establishing rituals** – Every team has its rituals. That shared coffee break or watercooler chat can often be one of the strongest unconscious connections between team members. What can be even more powerful is to establish such rituals consciously, deliberately creating casual activities that bring teammates together. And the great thing about rituals is, you can be creative.\n\nFor example, at **Boldare, we set aside a little time at the end of the week to complain**. Just some space to let off steam (with respect, of course) about the things that have bugged you that week. No need to be constructive, just get it off your chest – you’ll feel better. Another fun one is the weekly ‘magic question’: choose a question from the list – What superpower would you like to have? What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done? etc. – and everyone answers it; a great way to connect and have fun with colleagues. Connection and fun that then acts as a turbocharge for the team’s performance.\n\nSee other articles from the \"**Risk management**\" series:\n\n* [Risk management strategies for building software in a complex and chaotic environment](https://www.boldare.com/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-software/)\n* [6 risk management strategies for software development](https://www.boldare.com/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-software-development/)\n* [You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/you-need-risk-management-strategy/)\n\n## Agile is the solution\n\nFor software and digital product development, **distributed teams are becoming the norm**. It’s a norm that is unlikely to change when the crisis abates, so supporting teams from a distance is now a key business competence – a survival trait, in fact. While the project’s focus is always on the product – the end goal – that product is delivered by the team. And that team needs to be agile.\n\n**Team agility is no accident**. It’s a quality and culture that can be deliberately created and carefully nurtured using specific techniques and tools, such as the ones highlighted above that we use at Boldare with all our clients’ projects. Your success in developing agile teams will be a determining factor in how your business emerges from the current crisis, the focus of our Crash Course series. \n\nThe **Crash Course webinars**, articles and other materials reflect our firm belief that a digital transformation strategy is the best way to come out of this crisis thriving, and not just surviving."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Agile_team_building.png","lead":"**As the pandemic crisis continues, the only certainty is … the lack of certainty.** Businesses seem to be adopting one of three basic strategies. **First**, do nothing, wait and hope (risky!). **Second**, cut everything you can and aim to rebuild later (more likely to survive but at what cost?) **And third, actively plan for the new world as it emerges (the most likely to see you thrive but let’s not underestimate the difficulty).** It’s with this last strategy in mind that Boldare put together our three-part Crash Course webinar series, “**How to manage risks, web products & software teams in a recession**” to help businesses get inspired and get the tools they need to shape their future.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-05-12T06:44:02.876Z","slug":"building-software-development-teams-during-crisis","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Strategy","additionalCategories":["Future"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"How to build an efficient software development team during a crisis?","tileDescription":"As the pandemic crisis continues, the only certainty is … the lack of certainty. Businesses seem to be adopting one of three basic strategies. First, do nothing, wait and hope (risky!). Second, cut everything you can and aim to rebuild later (more likely to survive but at what cost?) And third, actively plan for the new world as it emerges (the most likely to see you thrive but let’s not underestimate the difficulty). It’s with this last strategy in mind that Boldare put together our three-part Crash Course webinar series, “How to manage risks, web products & software teams in a recession” to help businesses get inspired and get the tools they need to shape their future.","coverImage":"Agile_team_building.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"9f58a957-1aa7-5998-a03e-983ac836bae9"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/surviving-the-storm-the-risk-management-strategies-for-software-development/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"6 risk management strategies for software development","order":null,"content":[{"body":"This second article is focused on the **six specific risks** to your digital product development projects, especially those risks associated with remote working and dispersed teams. Our solutions and strategies for overcoming these six risks are based on **Boldare’s 16 years of expertise** and practicing [scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/), [agile](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-vs-waterfall/) and [lean startup methodologies](https://www.boldare.com/blog/lean-process-for-better-product/).\n\n## Software Development Risk #1 – In-house development team suddenly unable to work\n\nIn the current situation, it’s entirely possible (maybe even predictable) that your in-house software development team will lose some capacity. Maybe (hopefully not!) **team members have fallen ill**. Maybe the **remote working technology we’re suddenly all so reliant on fails**. Maybe there’s an u**nexpected opportunity to scale up for a much bigger market and you just don’t have the in-house capacity**. The big question is, who will finish your digital product?\n\nThe classic solution for stakeholders is to consider outsourcing to an external company. Whatever the solution, when you draft in extra resources (from an outsourcing partner or internally) to the project, you can face a number of issues:\n\n* Keeping the focus on the business value – This is a key problem when the business value may be evolving due to project changes or pivots\n* Communication can be complex - Especially when your team is not used to remote working, or are now working with new and unfamiliar colleagues.\n* Knowledge sharing – Put simply, part-way through the project, you’re now in a position in which not everyone knows everything they need to.\n* Prioritizing problems – Where is the team’s focus in these changing circumstances? Is everybody working on the right things?\n\n**How to deal with these kinds of issues?**\n\nAt Boldare, we’ve found the key is to keep the project environment product-driven, with a three-way focus on the:\n\n* business goals,\n* the technicalities,\n* and the people involved.\n\nForming [scrum teams](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) that are based on the business (not technical!) domain keeps the focus on business value. Furthermore, to boost efficiency in a difficult environment, we recommend a **scaled-scrum solution**, such as Nexus, an off-the-shelf option that uses scrum basics to solve problems of communication and coordination.\n\nThe need for knowledge sharing can be addressed by using cross-team events (for example, for product reviews and planning sessions) so that information on key project issues is heard by everybody at the same time, creating common understanding.\n\nThe key is to take the work **step-by-step**, ensuring nobody falls behind, and creating partnerships based on trust and shared goals.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"8 Benefits Of Outsourcing your Software Development to Poland\" />\n\n## Software Development Risk #2 – Remote working\n\nRemote working is THE big issue right now, with many businesses tackling the issue for the first time on a large scale. There are two aspects to remote working risks.\n\n* The first is when your in-house development team must disperse and continue the project remotely, probably from home.\n* The second is when remote working is a given from the start, such as when you’re using external partners or subcontractors as part of the development team to build a digital product remotely.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n### 1. In-house team working remotely:\n\nThe switch to remote working brings issues of security, infrastructure, and even team culture as working habits previously taken for granted are forced to change.\n\nThe foundation solution here is choosing the right communications tools to enable the team to collaborate over distance. Here at Boldare, we use:\n\n* **Slack** and **Google Meet** for instant communication. Never e-mail!\n* **GSuite** for collaboration on documents.\n* [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) (great for scrum-related events but also for [much more](https://www.boldare.com/blog/4-ideas-for-remote-meetings-with-dispersed-teams-using-sprint-retrospective-tool/)!)\n* **Asana** for organizational project management.\n* **Jira** for organizing software development and project management.\n* Confluence for knowledge-sharing\n* **Miro** for building diagrams together, roadmaps and sketching online, etc.\n\nHowever, tools by themselves are never enough. You also need agreed best practices and etiquette on how those tools will be used; such as radical transparency (everything is accessible by everyone), comms lines are constantly open for rapid exchange, and – importantly – using those tools for informal communications habits (such as everyone saying, good morning, or a regular shared coffee break).\n\n> We had used Slack internally but not with remote teams… I love how everything is in a common channel and everyone can see what’s going on.\n>\n> Allan Wilson, Founder, CRS\n\n### 2. Building digital products remotely\n\nWhile the circumstances might be a little different, many of the risks are broadly the same:\n\n* **Lack of shared understanding** – With external partners, this can be a difficult problem to fix and that’s why we recommend laying the foundations by beginning the project with a product discovery workshop. The whole team (internal and external) attends virtually to clarify and agree the basic business idea and product vision.\n* **Poor communication** – For us, the key is radical transparency. You should have direct access to the developers and other members of the external project team (no gatekeepers!) with a regular, agreed comms structure, such as daily [scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) meetings via video-conferencing.\n* **Incompatible methodologies** – Waterfall versus agile, the big dilemma. Well, for us, 15 years of experience tells us agile is always preferable for software development but sometimes our clients need some support in using a new (agile!) methodology.\n* **Product quality** – When using an external partner for the first time, the quality of the end product is a natural concern. The answer is close and regular communication (always!), working in short sprints to produce rapid product increments for testing and review, and also looking for a partner that offers quality assurance expertise as part of the team.\n* **Unhealthy dependency** – The problem with buying in external expertise is that you can become reliant on it, rather than on yourself. Look for a partner that has strong values around knowledge transfer and support to avoid the problem of vendor lock-in.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Standard remote tools in a non-standard way: tips from #BoldareTeam\" />\n\n## Software Development Risk #3 – Management suddenly unable to work\n\nSimilar to Risk #1, what happens when the person or people managing the project are forced to drop out of the picture? This might be the in-house development team leader or the Product Owner representing the business needs to an external team. Either way, the project suddenly lacks an element of leadership.\n\n**What should you invest in to deal with this risk?** The right management style is one that effectively makes the role of manager obsolete:\n\nStarting the project with a product discovery workshop means everyone understands the product vision and goals, equipping them to make their own informed decisions in their role or area of expertise. In other words, the manager/Product Owner should never be the sole decision-maker.\n\n![Advantage of agile teams over traditional teams](Traditional_development_teams_versu_agile_development_teams.png \"Advantage of agile teams over traditional teams\")\n\nEstablishing a high-level roadmap and product release strategy for the project provides a clear direction for the project whether the ‘boss’ is there or not.\n\n**Direct access and radical transparency** means everyone involved is used to dealing directly with the relevant individual on any particular issue. People are used to getting answers and creating solutions themselves.\n\nEncouraging your development teams (internal or external) to be self-organizing avoids unhelpful hierarchies that can fall apart with the loss of a single person.\n\nIn a nutshell, empower your team and distribute authority!\n\n> We didn’t initially realise the importance of the product discovery workshop… Now I can’t see doing it any other way.\n>\n> \\-Allan Wilson, Founder, CRS\n\n## Software Development Risk #4 – Shrinking market\n\nDuring a crisis in which people are mostly off the streets, working from home as much as possible, the markets are likely to change in unprecedented ways. While it’s reasonable to predict a much stronger market for digital products and life online in general, the changes to the market for your specific, in-development product may not be so favorable…\n\nYes, new opportunities emerge but some products become obsolete overnight.\n\nFaced with this situation, the main questions are:\n\n* How to update or create products quickly and with minimum resources?\n* How to find and validate new business or product ideas?\n* How to find a creative business partner?\n* How to minimize the costs of investing in a digital product?\n\nThe answers lie in the approach you adopt to digital product development. You need a process that quickly and accurately gets to the heart of your business idea, is focused on user requirements and needs, and is flexible enough to respond quickly to changes in the market environment. We recommend the following approaches:\n\n* **Agile product development** – Development and delivery, and the response to any changes in requirements, are rapid. Teams are flexible and open to changes and opportunities, so they can pivot at any point in the project. The user (customer) is the highest priority. The process means the coding and development, design, and business roles all work closely and with a common focus.\n* **Lean startup** –  The build-measure-learn framework for developing digital products means progress is in the form of function-specific, rapid increments. Each product iteration is tested against market needs and the feedback informs the next stage of development, ensuring highly responsive project management. (For more on the benefits of the build-measure-learn cycle, [see the first article in our Crash Course series](https://www.boldare.com/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-software/).)\n* **Full cycle product development** – This approach combines agile principles and the lean startup approach to address the complexities of building products in different business and market environments. With its different stages of development – prototyping, minimum viable product, product-market fit, and scaling - the full cycle method helps ensure your project’s development is matched to the stage of development of the relevant market. (For more on the Boldare approach, see our [full cycle product development landing page.](https://www.boldare.com/services/full-cycle-product-development/))\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"One size rarely fits all. The signs that you should build a custom e-commerce platform\" />\n\n## Software Development Risk #5 – Budget interruptions\n\nProject budgets can be affected at any time in a complex and chaotic world, often without warning. It may be a necessary change in business priorities, a drop in company income, interruption to cash flow, or indeed anything that impacts the budget allocated to your digital product development. Unlike other risks, it’s difficult to reduce the likelihood of occurrence because a budget interruption by its nature tends to be unforeseen and is usually beyond the influence of a project team or Product Owner. However, you can take steps so that the impact on the project is minimized should this risk occur.\n\nAgile and lean processes are by nature resource-efficient, including best use of the available budget.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Software estimations - getting to know your product better\" />\n\nUsing an agile project framework, such as [scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/), means project and product reviews and planning for every project sprint (usually a one to two-week period).\n\nThe lean startup approach to user testing gives your project solid feedback and data at regular points throughout the project; this data is used to confirm that your product is still on track to meet current user and market needs and within budget. If it isn’t, the methodology makes it easy to pivot the project, changing the direction of development to continue to provide value in the new circumstances.\n\n## Software Development Risk #6 – Partner unable to deliver\n\n**What if you are already working with external partners?** They’re subject to any and all or the above risks too… As a provider of [development services](https://www.boldare.com/services/development-teams/) ourselves, at Boldare, we’re very aware of the potential risks you face by proxy via your external partner.\n\nWe recommend five rules:\n\n* **No vendor lock-in** – Check your contract. Make sure you own the code once the product is done. Use open source or communal components when possible.\n* **Agile development** – Yes, we keep emphasizing agile but that’s because it’s great for risk management! The product backlog used in scrum means that the most important, business-critical elements of your product are delivered first. So, if the project does come to a halt, it’s likely you not only have something, you have something useful.\n* **Continuous delivery** – Working in sprints means that every one to two weeks, you have a workable product iteration; even if functionality is limited, it’s deployable.\n* **Knowledge sharing** – A philosophy of knowledge sharing ensures that at any given stage of the project, you know everything there is to know: communication is direct, progress is transparent, and the capability of your own people has been improved.\n* **Asset sharing** – You not only own but have direct access to the code. From a disaster recovery point of view, if your external partner is out of the picture, you’re not left empty-handed.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Practical tips on changing the service provider and still delivering your digital product\" />\n\n## Surviving the storm\n\nDigital product development projects face significant risk at the best of times. In the current situation of global complexity (and, at times, chaos) that risk magnified.\n\nMuch of that risk relates to the use of, and relationship with external development partners, together with your own people’s increasing need to work remotely. In this scenario, it’s clear that:\n\n* A **lack of experience** with remote working can slow down or stall software development.\n* **Modern communications tools** (e.g. Slack, Google Meet, GSuite, Sprint Retrospective Tool, Jira, Confluence, etc.) are crucial for keeping distributed teams (internal and external) in touch.\n* However, **technology and tools aren’t enough** – agreed best practices and etiquette on how to use them are necessary to ensure you get the full benefit.\n\nThose are just three highlights of the second webinar in our Crash Course series. The **Crash Course webinars** and articles are our response to the current global pandemic and reflects our firm belief that a digital transformation strategy is the best way to come out of this crisis thriving, and not just surviving."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Risk_management_in_software_and_digital_product_development.png","lead":"In the previous article in the series – [Crisis strategies](https://www.boldare.com/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-software/) for building software, web products and online services\" – we identified eight organizational risk management strategies for complex and chaotic times, aimed at not only keeping your business afloat during a crisis but positioning yourself to emerge all the stronger. **These broad strategies included aspects of digital transformation and working in more agile and lean ways.**","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-05-06T08:34:10.062Z","slug":"risk-management-strategies-for-software-development","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Strategy","additionalCategories":["Agile","Digital transformation","Risk Management"],"url":null},"author":"Artur Belka","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"6 risk management strategies for software development","tileDescription":"In the previous article in the series – Crisis strategies for building software, web products and online services – we identified eight organizational risk management strategies for complex and chaotic times, aimed at not only keeping your business afloat during a crisis but positioning yourself to emerge all the stronger. These broad strategies included aspects of digital transformation and working in more agile and lean ways","coverImage":"Risk_management_in_software_and_digital_product_development_miniatura.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"42c82115-f344-5dfb-a0b7-b53b035779dc"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/new-normal-in-practice-4-creating-the-choreography/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #4 Creating the choreography","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/miniatura_wideo.png","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-05-02T06:51:24.085Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["Organization","People","Strategy"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIYfAyWtRBI"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"New Normal in Practice | #4 Creating the choreography","tileDescription":"Creating choreography will help you to map your tactics, timeframes, potential risks, and resources you need to implement the New Normal efficiently.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"6d907586-cf18-5b75-a35c-dc23b864c411"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/risk-management-strategies-for-building-software-web-products-and-online-services/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Risk management strategies for building software in a complex and chaotic environment","order":null,"content":[{"body":"This first article lays out the key risks facing businesses in these challenging times and the [digital transformation](https://www.boldare.com/blog/5-examples-of-digital-transformation/) strategies that you can apply to minimize and manage those risks, including a case study and inspiring practical example from one of our recent clients, [Chartipedia](https://www.chartipedia.com/feed), the recently-launched data visualization platform.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy\" />\n\n## From Complexity To Chaos\n\nBefore we deep dive into the more practical aspects of **risk management strategies for app development**, let's briefly check out their theoretical foundations.\n\n**Ralph D. Stacey’s** book “*Managing Chaos, Managing the Unknowable: Strategic Boundaries Between Order and Chaos”* offers us a useful lens through which to view the complexity of the current crisis. **Stacey suggests** that any situation can be analyzed in terms of how well we understand it and its predictability (how certain the situation is).\n\nA well-understood, certain scenario is simple to deal with. However, the less we understand and the less we can predict with certainty, the more complicated it is, becoming more and more complex until it reaches a point of unknown, unpredictable chaos.\n\n![Risk management strategies by Boldare](Risk_management_-_between_complexity_and_chaos.png \"Risk management strategies by Boldare\")\n\nRight now, businesses are operating (or trying to) on the border between ‘**Complex**’ and ‘**Chaotic**’. And that brings a variety of risks that must be faced. Drawing on research carried out by McKinsey over the last 10 years, the five biggest risks facing businesses involved in software development and digitization are:\n\n* New and unproven technologies\n* User and functional requirements\n* Application and system architecture\n* Performance\n* Organization\n\nOut of these risks, the people-related factors present the greatest degree of unpredictability and are therefore the most influential on, and influenced by, the complex and chaotic scenario we are currently facing.\n\nThat ‘*people factor*’ includes your products’ users and their needs and requirements, and also your own people working within the business: their capabilities and, by extension, the organization and processes within which they are operating.\n\nIn terms of risk mitigation and management strategies, your organization and processes are crucial, not least because it is these factors over which you have most influence and control.\n\nEnough of theory, let’s explore how you can handle these risks.\n\n## 8 Risk Management Strategies\n\nIn our experience at Boldare, working with digitally transformed and transforming clients all over the world, the following eight strategies are your key points of organizational control when faced with an unpredictable environment:\n\n1. **Budgetary dispersion** – As part of your project financial planning, map out the potential areas of financial uncertainty to predict, in detail, where the pain points and risks may occur.\n2. **Decentralized decision-making** – Operating in an agile manner is important when you don’t know where the next change or pivot might be coming from. A key strategy is to flatten the organizational hierarchy, encouraging decision-making at the lowest appropriate level of self-organizing teams, according to roles and responsibilities. Working in scrum (or nexus, a scaled scrum system) brings multiple benefits.\n3. **Reduction of validation time** – The earlier you know whether your product is meeting user requirements and needs or not, the more efficient your development process will be. For this, approaches such as prototyping and minimum viable products ([MVPs](https://www.boldare.com/blog/mvp-what-why-how/)) can streamline the process by testing individual key functionalities with user groups. This is what we have done working with Chartipedia, and you can read about the tests we conducted in the Chartipedia case study.\n4. **Evolutionary learning** – Prototypes and MVPs can be used as part of a lean build-measure-learn approach that embeds learning in the development process. Each stage is based on the learning from the stage before, enabling the project to pivot when necessary in response to external changes in order to still meet user needs.\n5. **Technology** – The use of technologies such as distributed architecture and microservices can remove or spread risks (such as hardware limitations, server location issues, or the potential for catastrophic failure of monolithic architecture).\n6. **User involvement** – Ongoing user research and user-oriented decision-making (e.g. by having a group of users available for repetitive and rapid testing) means you are continuously validating user needs throughout the process.\n7. **Focus on communication** – Aim for transparent, effective and efficient exchange of knowledge within the development team, with key stakeholders, and with involved users.\n8. **Culture** – Within the organization and especially the development team for your product(s), the above activities and principles should be part of their basic philosophy, their way of operating.\n\nAll of the above strategies and ways of working are common to agile organizations. An **agile business** - for example, one that adopts the scrum framework (or similar) - will be working in a way that minimizes and manages risk in a complex (and chaotic) world.\n\nThanks to an **agile approach and constant readiness to pivot,** such businesses are simply more likely to adapt faster to new, even harsh conditions.\n\nAt Boldare, for software development as part of our clients’ digital transformation journey, we use the lean startup approach.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\" />\n\n## The lean startup approach as a low-risk strategy\n\nIf there’s one thing we absolutely know here at Boldare, it’s that the lean startup approach is an excellent framework for building digital products. It’s not because we “think so”. We base this declaration on 16 years’ experience in [software development](https://www.boldare.com/services/software-development-outsourcing/) and the lessons we’ve learned working on the more than 250 products we’ve developed so far. As for lean startup’s relevance to risk management in times of crisis, the clue is in the name:\n\n* It’s “**lean**”, meaning there’s no wasted effort; it gets you to the goal (a product that meets your user and business requirements) as quickly and efficiently as possible in the circumstances.\n* The “**startup**” part means it’s designed for operating in conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability.\n\nAt the heart of the process is the build-measure-learn loop which ensures your development project is based on regular research (into user needs and circumstances) and review (of how you’re doing meeting those needs under the current circumstances). Basically, it works like this:\n\n![Build-Measure-Learn loop ](Build-measure-learn_loop_in_lean_startup.png \"Build-Measure-Learn loop according to lean startup\")\n\n**Build** – establish a hypothesis (for example, users have a problem/need that can be solved by X; build a product iteration (a prototype or MVP) that does X (or a key element of X); test that prototype or MVP with users.\n\n**Measure** – gather data about the product iteration’s performance against the hypothesis (did it do what users want and need it to?)\n\n**Learn** – evaluate the product iteration’s performance, increasing your understanding of users’ needs (was your hypothesis correct?)\n\n**THEN**, pivot if necessary by adjusting your hypothesis, and repeat, building a new (and improved) iteration of the product. Simple as that!\n\nDespite appearances, the build-measure-learn cycle is not circular. It’s a spiral in which you learn more about your users (and goals) with each revolution, climbing up towards the goal of a working digital product that solves their problem, meets their wants and needs, and is profitable for your business.\n\nWhat makes the lean startup approach a perfect strategy in times of complexity and chaos is:\n\n* It is based on real data.\n* It gives you quick and frequent feedback on progress (each cycle or ‘sprint’ is usually one to two weeks in length)...\n* … what makes it highly responsive to change.\n* It’s entirely possible to run multiple cycles concurrently; for example, testing two alternative prototypes simultaneously to test two different hypotheses.\n\nThe upward spiral is the fastest, most efficient route through uncertainty, identifying and managing changing circumstances and risks at each stage.\n\nFor more detail on the lean startup approach, the **build-measure-learn** cycle, and how it can keep your software development agile and focused, read our article, Lean process for a better product.\n\nIn the next part of this article, we will focus on the case story of the Chartipedia startup and their MVP app. It’s a great example of a lean startup approach to digital product development, with all of its advantages.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Lean process for a better product\" />\n\n## Case story: Chartipedia\n\n**Chartipedia** is a platform for data visualization designers (or, at the risk of oversimplifying, chart-makers!) to present their work. It began as a passion project on Instagram to solve a common problem in the modern world: information overload. However, although charts are a great response to the overload issue, the project faced two more specific problems:\n\n* Creators need a place to share their data visualizations.\n* Consumers who appreciate and use those visualizations need a place to find them.\n\nHence, **Chartipedia**: the data visualization platform and online community for both groups of identified users.\n\nCreating an MVP through the lean startup approach was the best way to develop and test the platform’s core features with its intended users (Chartipedia’s 53,000 Instagram followers). During a two-day kick-off workshop with the Boldare team and the Chartipedia product owners, product personas were used to identify and profile the main target users, a product canvas was used to define the purpose and aim of the platform, and user story mapping techniques were used to define the platform’s main features for design and testing.\n\nWith this solid foundation, the **Boldare team began work on the MVP:** the key features were wireframed and moodboards were used to create the product’s look. With constant and close communication (using tools such as **Slack** and **Google Meet**, and **Jira** for project management) product iterations were created and tested and progress was reviewed and refined regularly in a series of weekly sprints. Before hitting the market, the app was tested within a group of active Chartipedia Instagram community users. The results brought valuable feedback to the development team and application stakeholders.\n\nThe MVP was created and polished according to user feedback and ready to go public in just eight weeks. The Chartipedia platform debuted online in April 2020.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Chartipedia: from Instagram to data visualization platform\" />\n\n## The future depends on risk management\n\nIn a complex (and currently, often chaotic) world, the process of digital product development must be able to handle rapid and unpredictable changes; both in terms of user requirements and the wider world. After all, at the beginning of 2020, **who could have predicted so many people would be working from home by March?** The key to successful development is the capacity and capability to anticipate, identify and manage the risks.\n\nWhat’s clear is that in such a world:\n\n* People and processes are crucial factors for any organization.\n* The lean startup approach offers an agile process tailor-made to the current circumstances.\n* Development decisions must be based on real data and for digital products that means frequent, in-depth user feedback.\n\nThis series of webinars and articles is our response to the current global pandemic and reflects our firm belief that a digital transformation strategy is the best way to come out of this crisis thriving, and not just surviving."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Crisis_strategies_for_building_software_web_products_and_online_services_cover.png","lead":"**The crisis is here.** Nobody knows how long it will stay with us. The only thing we know for certain is that you can either face it on your own terms or passively wait until it’s gone. **The more agile and conscious of upcoming changes your company is, the more likely it is to emerge from the crisis stronger**. But how to embrace this opportunity? Read the first of three articles based on [Boldare’s three-part Crash Course webinar series](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdvko3YEuQr-WrSEQIpsjFbQAfT0nU3Ur), “Risk Management In Software And Digital Product Development” to learn how and get inspired.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-04-28T05:59:35.677Z","slug":"risk-management-strategies-for-software","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Strategy","additionalCategories":["Digital Product"],"url":null},"author":"Adam Ziemba","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"Risk management strategies for building software in a complex and chaotic environment","tileDescription":"The crisis is here. Nobody knows how long it will stay with us. The only thing we know for certain is that you can either face it on your own terms or passively wait until it’s gone. The more agile and conscious of upcoming changes your company is, the more likely it is to emerge from the crisis stronger. But how to embrace this opportunity? Read the first of three articles based on Boldare’s three-part Crash Course webinar series, “Risk Management In Software And Digital Product Development” to learn how and get inspired.","coverImage":"Crisis_strategies_for_building_software_web_products_and_online_services_miniatura.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"eb11db2a-e3c6-5082-835f-ddcfc345d17a"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/event-storming-or-product-vision-discover-workshops-that-will-help-to-build-your-next-app/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Event storming or product vision? Discover workshops that will help to build your next app","order":null,"content":[{"body":"It’s a fundamental principle of the [scrum](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) approach to **software development** that the final product should fit as exactly as possible the relevant user and business needs. That’s a fairly obvious statement and we doubt anybody would disagree with it but… **discovering those needs is easier said than done**.\n\nIn fact, ‘discovering’ is the right word because usually the full range of needs and factors that should influence the product design is not known. The client has part of the picture. So do the target users. Then there’s the market, the competition and so on.\n\nAn initial conversation with the client is just the first step and here at Boldare, building the fullest possible picture of the intended app’s environment is a critical thread in the development process.\n\n**How do we do it? Workshops!**\n\nWe use a variety of different focused workshops as part of our **scrum** processes, with full client involvement and [radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/), to identify, analyze and fully understand the factors that will impact the product.\n\nThis article gives an overview of the eight main workshop formats in **Boldare’s** toolkit (although of course, they’re not the only ones we use!). For more detail on any of them, follow the links below.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## 1. \"What is Scrum?\" workshops\n\n[Scrum is an agile](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/) **lightweight approach to software development and our main tool in what we do.  This first workshop is an ideal primer for clients and partners who are using scrum for the first time or have only limited experience of it.** In this workshop\\*\\*, we cover exactly how scrum...\n\n* …is tailor-made for rapid and efficient software development.\n* …involves all the key players, giving maximum visibility to the client.\n* …produces a series of product iterations in short, highly-focused periods of work called sprints (at Boldare, usually of one or two weeks’ duration), ensuring regular and rapid progress.\n* …is about openness of communication, regular inspection of results as they are produced, and a readiness to change in adaptation to circumstances.\n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"Improve your scrum retrospectives with this FREE tool\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/\" type=\"service\" image=\"4_ideas_on_how_to_manage_remote_teams_using_the_free_Sprint_Retrospective_Tool.png\" />\n\nWith scrum, **each sprint delivers a functioning piece of software**, focusing on a specific feature or other element of the larger **design**. The scrum process contains strong planning elements and anticipation of difficulties or changes before they happen. At any point, scrum enables the direction of the overall project to be easily changed (pivoted) in response to changes in the user or business needs, or other environmental factors.\n\nUsing scrum, the results are a quality product, user satisfaction, reduced time to market, faster monetization, and all via a process of enhanced teamwork and collaboration between the involved parties.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Building successful apps using scrum development\" />\n\n## 2. Product Vision\n\nIn essence, the product vision is the overall goal for the software under development. **The vision is a description of what the project is aiming to achieve**, its raison d’être, so to speak. As such, it is an invaluable reference point throughout the project, keeping the work, the sprints, the iterations, all on track towards this overarching objective. The [product vision workshop](https://www.boldare.com/blog/product-vision-workshops-toolkit/) is at the core of our investigation and information-gathering prior to commencing work on the development of a product with a focus on the problem or need that the product must address.\n\n![Product vision workshops](team_work_during_product_discovery_workshops.jpg \"Workshops at Boldare - Product Vision\")\n\nKey **product vision** tools used during the workshop include:\n\n* A **pre-workshop questionnaire** that explores details about the target persona, system roles, competitors, the product’s strengths and weaknesses, the values that it represents, and the image that stakeholders want to present.\n* **Business model canvas** - looking at the needs and goals of the client’s business to provide the bigger picture, going beyond the context of the product.\n* **Product canvas** - asking the key questions in relation to the product, including the target users, its purpose, its goals, and the metrics that will measure success.\n* **Product vision board** - summarizing all the key details for the project, including the vision itself, the target users, the need or problem that the product will solve, and link to the client’s business goals.\n\nThanks to such tools, the dev team can fully understand what they are developing, and why; giving them the foundation for the rest of the project.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Product Vision Workshops – seeing clearly from the beginning\" />\n\n## 3. Event Storming\n\nAn **[event storming workshop](https://www.boldare.com/blog/event-storming-guide/)** is an ideal way to dig deep into the context of the client’s business, resulting in a detailed picture of the backdrop against which we’re developing a product: the business goals and objectives, people, potential obstacles and bottlenecks, dependencies… basically all the interrelated behaviors and business elements that influence and impact on the product’s design.\n\nUsing the workshop methodology originally proposed by Alberto Brandolini, **the dev team, Product Owner and relevant stakeholders can produce a complex and nuanced big picture** for the project which serves as a touchstone and guide throughout the sprints and product iterations. As a result, the dev team moves forward with a highly detailed set of insights into the client’s business environment which are, in turn, reflected in the end product.\n\n![Event Storming](img/teamwork-meeting-in-Boldare.jpg \"Boldare workshops - Event Storming\")\n\nWhat’s more, **event storming’s highly interactive (and high energy) nature makes for a fun workshop environment which also serves as part of the team bonding and getting-to-know-each-other process.**\n\n**The result of an event storming workshop** is a map of the existing business processes. After the workshop, the development team understands the product, its business foundations and the stakeholders’ aims. Knowing what roles, software modules, and use cases are necessary to finish the product, it becomes easier to pursue the mutual goal that must be delivered.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"A step by step guide to Event Storming – our experience\" />\n\n## 4. System Story\n\nWhen faced with a mountain of information, sometimes the best thing to do is boil it down to a simple statement. The **[system story](https://www.boldare.com/blog/system-story-the-little-sentence-that-builds-big-things/)** is a single sentence that answers the bottom line questions for your product:\n\n* What are we building?\n* How will we achieve the goal?\n* Who is it for...?\n* … And why?\n\nSounds simple and it is. But easy, it is not.\n\n![System story made in Sprint Retrospective Tools](Sprint_retrospective_Tool_-_system_story.jpg \"System story made in Sprint Retrospective Tools\")\n\nGranted, the answers to these questions can also be found via some of the other workshops on this list. But not only is it often handy during a project to have the system story ‘one-liner’ version, the process of exploration and debate necessary to agree on a system story can be essential as the depth of discussion ensures common understanding on all levels between the dev team and the client.\n\nYou can conduct **System Story** workshops (and many others as well!) remotely using our free [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/).\n\n**The result of a system story workshop** is a clear idea of the bigger picture of what the product is supposed to be, who its target personas are, and the main functionalities and problems it solves for and with them.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"System Story – the little sentence that builds big things\" />\n\n## 5. User Story Mapping\n\nIn agile software development terms, a user story is a short description of a desired product feature, from the standpoint of a particular type or class of product user. In project terms, a user story can be defined as the smallest unit of development that provides value to a user; often following a template:\n\n### “As a (type of user), I want (feature), so that (benefit to user).”\n\n**User story mapping example:** As a photography enthusiast, I want to share my photos easily, upload them using a mobile app and let my online followers comment and rate them.\n\nThis template has three key elements: the desired feature, the specific type of user that needs it, and the motivation for that need.\n\nThe mapping part involves placing the various user stories in an order that reflects how the product will be used. By identifying the users first, and then the feature-related ‘journeys’ of those users as they interact with the product, the priorities for development become clear and in turn inform the content of each agile sprint. In other words, user story mapping can be of great importance as a focused project planning tool.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy\" />\n\n## 6. Impact Mapping\n\n[Impact mapping](https://www.boldare.com/blog/build-product-that-make-impact/) is a strategic road mapping technique that we use to get clarity on the route the project work needs to take. Consequently, it has an impact (!) on decisions about which aspects of the planned product, which iterations, are tackled in which sprints.\n\nBy focusing on four key aspects – **goals, actors, impacts and deliverables** – an impact mapping exercise can provide a common focus on project activities and assumptions while keeping the overall business objectives in mind.\n\n**The result** of impact mapping is software that best serves the business and user needs because everyone involved is working on agreed and aligned priorities. Thanks to an impact mapping workshop, the development team is better able to build a product that closely fits users needs and fulfills the business goals of the stakeholders. It’s a win-win situation.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Wondering about viability? Let impact mapping reassure you\" />\n\n## 7. Design thinking\n\nWith roots as far back as the 80s, design thinking is a process that enables a ‘designer-consultant’ perspective on a project. Projects that use the design thinking concept tend to achieve their goals more rapidly, reduce their costs, result in a higher quality end product, and give a better return on investment.\n\nWhile approaches differ, the key factor in design thinking is a clear focus on the client and understanding their context, issues and needs before applying creative problem-solving to identify solutions.\n\nDesign thinking is focused on issues such as understanding users, the problem the product is intended to address, idea generation, prototyping and testing. It’s also a ‘community-based’ route to take, stepping away from traditional role-based functional silos to gather the best and most varied thinking on the issue at hand.\n\n### Design thinking should be used to solve problems, and not begin with a specific solution in mind.\n\nThanks to this approach, you can get results that are free of initial assumptions. One **example of design thinking** in action was when one of our teams had to create a webpage dedicated to services for one of our clients. The team and stakeholders came to the workshops with ideas already in mind about how the website should look and function. However, thanks to the design thinking process, they focused on the crux of the whole problem and revisited whether the user needed this page at all.\n\nAs part of the exploration and understanding stage (in design thinking known as “**empathise stage**”) of the process, they reviewed various data, including the site traffic figures and number of current customer inquiries the website had. They were looking for answers to such questions as:\n\n* Why does the client come to us?\n* What words do they use?\n* What services are they looking for and what are they called?\n\nIt turned out that the site visitors used very simple vocabulary, while the stakeholders prefered to use sophisticated and complicated jargon that could be difficult to understand for potential customers. So, the problem was in users understanding the offer. As a result, the tone and voice of the communication changed, making it easier to understand.\n\nDesign thinking is also perfectly suited to use in an agile environment, such as **Scrum**.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"What is Design Thinking\" />\n\n## 8. Planning poker\n\nTeamwork and collaboration are key to agile software development and one way to build connections within the dev team and between the dev team and client stakeholders is to make the process fun. Hence planning poker, a gamified, **Scrum-friendly**, consensus-building approach to project estimates. (And if you’re wondering how good a fit planning poker is with scrum software development, the alternate name is **Scrum poker**!)\n\n**What’s being estimated?** The effort and time required to achieve individual development activities. Each user story is described and then participants each play a card that indicates their estimate of the time and effort needed (not necessarily a physical card, online versions are easily available).\n\nEach card holds a number, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40 (however, values can differ) that stands for the estimated hours, days or number of story points needed to complete the task.\n\nPlayers of the highest and lowest estimates both explain their assessments and a full group conversation follows. The card game format and materials give structure (and hopefully some sense of fun) and keep things moving, avoiding the ‘process trap’ of overlong debates and discussions.\n\nThe conversation is also a useful way to involve everyone in a non-confrontational way, therefore encouraging a wider range of views and insights to be shared, to the ultimate benefit of the planning process.\n\n**Planning poker results** are reliable estimations that can support the whole or parts or the development process. The main strength of this method is that it gives a chance to discuss particular features with the whole team, giving everyone a chance to see the bigger picture and making it possible to spot bottlenecks and potential blockages early in the process.\n\n## Can we conduct workshops online?\n\n### Long story short, yes!\n\nWe have long experience of handling such workshops online, mainly for our clients in the United States. We connect using **Google Hangouts Meet**, or **Zoom** to record the call. For joint work, we use tools like **Miro** or **Boldare’s** own [Sprint Retrospective Tool ](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/)- both enable us to work simultaneously with unlimited numbers of users and save the results for later use and reference.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Standard remote tools in a non-standard way: tips from #BoldareTeam\" />\n\n### The length, quality and results of our online workshops are the same as those of workshops conducted on-site.\n\nThe common threads running through all these workshops are involvement and transparency. All of these workshops can potentially involve all project personnel, from both the developer and business sides. This naturally encourages multiple perspectives which, in turn, offer the broadest possible insights and understanding of the product: what it aims to be, why, and how it will address both the business and user needs.\n\n> At Boldare, we use this list of workshops as a menu, choosing the ‘meal’ best-suited to the requirements of each individual, unique project."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/Event_storming_workshops_at_Boldare.jpg","lead":"The much-quoted phrase, “**If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail**“ (first coined by Abraham Maslow) carries an obvious truth for [software development](https://www.boldare.com/services/software-development-outsourcin/g/): if each project is different (in our experience, it is!) then you’re going to need as many tools as you can get. When it comes to planning, we find that workshops are a great way to bring dev teams and stakeholders together for really practical and constructive results. We’ve looked through our toolkit and picked out some of our favorite workshops. **And yes, we conduct most of our workshops entirely online as well!**","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-04-03T06:10:13.334Z","slug":"event-storming-product-vision-discover-our-workshops","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Agile","additionalCategories":["Agility","Digital Product"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Event storming and other crucial workshops to help you develop your app","tileDescription":"We use a variety of different focused workshops as part of our scrum processes, with full client involvement and radical transparency, to identify, analyze and fully understand the factors that will impact the product. This article gives an overview of the eight main workshop formats in Boldare’s toolkit (although of course, they’re not the only ones we use!). For more detail on any of them, follow the links below.\n","coverImage":"/img/Event_storming_workshops_at_Boldare.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"8273d7af-4892-5465-9b01-9514f0388a42"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/new-normal-in-practice-5-implementing-gathering-the-feedback-and-validating/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"New Normal in Practice #5 | Implementing, gathering the feedback and validating","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/miniatura_wideo.png","lead":"In the post-COVID-19 era, companies need to reconfigure their operations and meet radically changed demands for products and services. Leadership, organization, culture, and work itself need to adjust to the new reality. They need strategy and tactics. This is how we approached this most crucial challenge in Boldare.","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-04-02T07:12:49.269Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["Organization","People","Remote Work","Strategy"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eoKnIfXUrs"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"New Normal in Practice #5 | Implementing, gathering the feedback and validating","tileDescription":"Implement your strategy continuously, be ready for constant improvements and pivots. Let your employees feel co-responsible for making the strategy fit for purpose and efficient.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"ca8e6ef3-bc32-586b-9c67-6d9102ec52a3"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/you-need-a-next-gen-company-in-your-risk-management-strategy/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy","order":null,"content":[{"body":"We are facing one of the greatest crises of the last few decades. The COVID-19 outbreak is a global health threat that is already slowing down the world economy. [JPMorgan predicts](https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-depression-recession-economy-191ab45c-e44b-404b-9bb1-906629acea61.html) that global GDP may **decrease by 1.1%**, which will cost the world economy trillions of dollars. What is even worse, we are still at an early stage of the pandemic and no one can forecast its real impact.\n\nThis time of uncertainty forces businesses to redefine their risk management strategies. Companies are slowing down their digital transition and postponing investments in software development. That is the most “safe” strategy - to wait it out. However, the future may require bolder action from bolder companies. For such companies, the question is not _“how to avoid the risk”_ but _“how to reduce it and push further\"_.\n\n**To be ready for what comes next, you need to become a Next-Gen company or partner with one.**\n\n## What is a Next-Gen company?\n\nA Next-Gen company is the kind of organization that is leading a digital transformation, has a dispersed structure without loss of leadership and decision-making, has bullet-proof processes implemented, and has a high level of resistance to a crisis.\n\nIt is a company that not only can operate in a business environment of **volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity** but also embraces that environment and uses it to power its future performance.\n\nYou won’t become a Next-Gen company over night. It takes time and a profound transformation of your organization. However, you can start by choosing one of the actions mentioned in this article and implementing it in your company, and as part of your risk management strategy.\n\n**However, if you don’t have time for that, you can try another approach.**\n\nYou can reduce the risk of development if you partner with a specific type of company. You need a company that will be a real backup for your product development, from idea to release... that will be able to fill in the gaps not only in your dev team but also in business-related departments... that will have the skillset and deep understanding of your business needs to run the product alone, if necessary.\n\nIf you find that kind of company, you can incorporate it into your risk management strategy and embrace the chance to push forward when everyone is slowing down.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool\" />\n\n## Software development risks that can be mitigated by a Next-Gen company\n\nDeveloping a new digital product always comes with risks: lack of skilled developers, lack of market need, lack of time and budget, strong competition - the list is long. However, today certain types of risks are climbing their way to the top of the list. Among them are:\n\n* The risk of your in-house development team suddenly being unable to work  (who will finish the product?)\n* The risk of your management suddenly being unable to work (who will manage the development?)\n* The risk of remote working (what about communication and quality?)\n* The risk of a shrinking market (who will use the product?)\n* The risk of an interruption to the budget (who will pay for the development?)\n* The risk of a partner being unable to deliver (what if our partners face the problems listed above?)\n\nSome of these risks can be managed and reduced by a specific combination of strategies and tactics.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## How can Next-Gen companies reduce product development risks?\n\nThere is no simple answer to this question. I can’t give you a magical key to a bright future. There is no such thing. The solution doesn’t lie in paper plans quickly developed when the crisis is already knocking on the door. The answer lies in a holistic approach to your business and your organization. So, what action should you consider to ensure that your company is ready for a crisis?\n\n### Digital transformation for driving change in a disruptive world\n\nDigitization, mobilization, augmentation, automation, disintermediation - the Five Horsemen of digital transformation. Make them work for your business. According to Statista, by 2023, businesses worldwide will have spent up to $2.3 trillion on technologies and services that enable digital transformation. In essence, it is not a trend; it’s a must-have for companies to compete in the global market.\n\nNow, more than ever, **it is time to invest in a digital transformation** that can help in reducing your risks. How? For example, by transferring your offline business to digital, you can lower dependency on the physical world; an obvious example would be the development of virtual financial services that don’t require physical customer centers.\n\nDigital transformation is no longer a matter of plans - sometimes, it is the “to be or not to be” of your business.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Culture Shift – the practical key to digital transformation\" />\n\n### Dispersed leadership in a holistic organization\n\nHow you build your organization defines its resistance to crises. Instead of a hierarchical structure, which is sensitive to a sudden inability to fulfil critical roles, you can choose a different path.\n\nYou can build a company based on **radical transparency, communication, and trust**, which are the foundations for dispersed leadership. In this model, decisions are not the sole responsibility of one person or one position. Instead, many roles have decision-making accountability and they can be distributed across many locations, for safety. Collectivity doesn’t mean weak leadership, it means that the leadership is based on a much wider range of knowledge and experience.\n\nYou don’t have to figure out how to make it happen yourself. There are ready-to-use frameworks which help in such transformations, for example, [holacracy](https://www.boldare.com/blog/5-signs-you-are-ready-for-holacracy/). If you’d like to know a bit more about new types of organizations, I recommend this article: [“The Next:Land of Organizing.”](https://medium.com/@dwarfsandGiants/the-next-land-of-organizing-5b2e112726b6)\n\n### A risk management team is a must-have\n\nThe risk management team shouldn’t be appointed when the crisis has already arrived. It should be an integral part of your organization, predicting, detecting, and acting on the risks associated with product development.\n\nIf you want to ensure that this team will be able to react to changing project circumstances immediately, you need to consider its structure and goals. I recommend you assemble an interdisciplinary team, containing dev and non-dev roles. **A complex problem requires complex skill sets and unorthodox approaches.**\n\nHow would this team operate? For example:\n\nWhen you work with an external partner, this team can be an additional arrangement working alongside the dev team. The risk management team should assess risks related to product development at every stage, both on your side of the project and your partner’s. The team shouldn’t operate as a control unit but more as a help, enabling cooperation and providing support and assistance to dev team members.\n\n\n### Tailored processes - lean startup and scaled scrum\n\nWhen you have the right processes in place, the chances that something will go south decrease. Agile and scrum are obvious choices for software development projects. However, if you want to ensure that your product will be meaningful for users, you should consider the [lean startup](https://www.boldare.com/blog/lean-process-for-better-product/) approach. The process of constant learning by gathering data via MVPs and working on actionable metrics increases the chance that the product development process will achieve its goal.\n\nAnother approach to reducing the risks of software development is nexus. This scaled scrum process uses the scrum framework, usually with small teams and projects, to build complex digital products iteratively. You can learn about scaled scrum [here](https://www.scrum.org/index.php/resources/scaling-scrum?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn7yBhN-16AIV2qSaCh2ZEgr1EAAYASAAEgLk-PD_BwE).\n\n## Summary\n\nThe global outbreak of COVID-19 will change the way we live and how we do business. It already has. There is no going back, we have to rethink how the future world will operate on a business level.\n\nI’m convinced that the post-pandemic world will require a new type of company for a new kind of customer. It will require bold decisions and bold strategies. It will require organizations that are able to deal with a crisis in the new reality and on a daily basis. It will require Next-Gen companies."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"risk_management.png","lead":"_“Business as usual is dead. We will need to get much better at driving change - or we will be driven by it.”_ These words, from futurist Gerd Leonhard regarding digital transformation, are more accurate now than ever. The global health crisis and the impending recession might be the worst time for investing in change. Or, paradoxically, the best. Which scenario applies to you will depend on your risk management strategy.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-03-25T13:22:23.824Z","slug":"you-need-risk-management-strategy","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Strategy","additionalCategories":["Ideas","Risk Management"],"url":null},"author":"Anna Zarudzka","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"You need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy","tileDescription":" How to manage software development risks during global health and economy crisis? The question is not “how to avoid the risk” but “how to reduce it and push further\". For that you need a Next-Gen company in your risk management strategy","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"f4595984-c9b4-56d1-a170-30545f7278bf"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/standard-remote-tools-in-a-non-standard-way-tips-from-boldareteam/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Standard remote tools in a non-standard way: tips from #BoldareTeam","order":null,"content":[{"body":"The remote-ready companies (Boldare included) are perfectly aware of how big the burden of operating offline might be in our times. But when circumstances such as COVID-19 outbreak occur, even these firms need to adjust and learn their ways of staying healthy and productive when 100% online.\n\nIt’s in the way we communicate, the company-wide rituals, tools we use in line with our needs and working culture. So let’s start with the toolset. **What remote tools** **help our own team remain safe, trustful, transparent, updated and supportive?**\n\n## Coffee time links & meetings recording\n\nGoogle Hangouts, Zoom, Whereby, TeamSpeak - these are the tools we’re using for video calls. What’s so special about them? Simplicity, quick registration, good UX.\n\nWhat’s important, for the time of COVID-19 pandemy, Google (as many other software giants like Adobe or Microsoft) has made some pro features available for free.\n\nNow we can **one-click record our meetings on Hangouts** and gather in a group of more than 25 people (which is a standard limit in there). It’s super handy i.e. in leading our internal “State of Boldare” meetings, where the whole team of more than 140 people is able to join to discuss company-wide plans for the next quarters.\n\n![remote retrospective tools](image_22.png \"boldare team google hangouts\")\n\nWe’ve also set up a **generally accessible link for morning coffee time, chitchats, lunch breaks.** If you’re not used to working from home permanently, and you miss the office life, it’s a great simple way to stay social.\n\nOur recruitment processes are also moved to 100% online - how do we approach trial days or meeting your future team? Videocall of course. Ask us about the workflow, technical site of the projects, or about whatever you see behind our backs in the camera.\n\nMaybe you’ll instantly find a soulmate who loves the same kind of paintings or animals with fluffy tails walking proudly in front of your laptop :) We’re open for that!\n\n[10to8](https://10to8.com/) is another great tool that we use for scheduling internal meetings. It's worth a try!\n\n## Retrospectives & brainstorming: Sprint Retrospective Tool by Boldare\n\nIf you can’t use post-its, but you still need to **get through a retro or generate ideas or action points simultaneously with the team - remote retrospective tool by Boldare comes to rescue**. It’s a product we’ve crafted internally for our Scrum teams, but we’ve recently decided to go public.\n\nThe main advantage vs Funretro or Trello? It’s absolutely free of charge and no account is needed. So check out the [Sprint Retrospective Tool](/blog/4-ideas-for-remote-meetings-with-dispersed-teams-using-sprint-retrospective-tool/) for free.\n\n![free retrospective tools for remote teams](image_23.png \"sprint retrospective tool boldare remote work\")\n\n## Meetings agenda & project management\n\nJira is probably nothing we’ll surprise you with. This is how Boldare’s development teams track their tasks and let the client know about the progress, plan the scope of work and report.\n\nBut if you haven’t got a chance to try Asana - it’s a pretty good alternative.\n\nWe use it in non-dev teams as well as in GCC (General Company Circle linking all teams representatives) to **track current projects on our agenda and issues to be solved.** Each of them has its own space (board) and this is where the magic happens.\n\nWe accumulate topics from meeting to meeting, drag & drop them, fill with tasks, track progress on timeline - pretty easy.\n\n![remote tools](image-20200324-125538.png)\n\nBut most importantly - the idea behind an efficient remote teamwork is not to get lost in a pile of messages. Asana allows you to communicate “inside” your tasks, so: 1. keep their description clear for everybody and 2. always remember to @mention people you’d love to discuss the task with and give feedback. Such habit helps to keep the team updated despite being dispersed.\n\nAnd **there are actually no defined rules telling you how to use this remote management tool**. It’s like a framework - adjust it the way it suits you and your workflow. That’s how we did.\n\n## \"Hello, it's me\" &  #covid-19-go-away\n\nWe often remind ourselves that **over communication sometimes is better than no communication.** And sometimes is now - communication is everything in a remote model.\n\nSlack is stable, available as a web, desktop and mobile app and offers various add-ons that allow it to align with Jira, Google Docs, and Google Calendar if needed.\n\nAll of a sudden **typing “good morning”, greeting colleagues from other offices** (we are based in 4 different locations in Gliwice, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Cracow), and **saying “bye” at the end of the day** has become way more important when you can’t do it face to face. Find it difficult at the beginning? Go on, set up a reminder bot saying “Hey! It’s time to say hello to your team.”\n\nHave you got your **Slack status integrated with your Google calendar?** Don’t let the people guess where are you and when are you going to reply, if you’re at a call, you’re away or have a focus meeting.\n\n![remote team tools](image-20200324-131402.png)\n\n**Thanks to remote team tools, you know when each team member is accessible and when they’re off.** We share Slack channels with our clients too.\n\nLast but not least - dedicated channels. There’s no need to shoot the news all over 24/7. We created channels like **\\#covid-19-go-away** or **\\#bldr-umie-w-zdalkę** (channel for best remote practices exchange) instead of needlessly @here’ing everyone at the main company channel.\n\nAnd yes, keep the channels open! That’s how we understand transparent communication and easy access to information. We avoid DMs, rather encourage people to **ask questions and share their thoughts openly,** so that their doubts are addressed more quickly and anybody else with similar case can find the answer quickly.\n\n## Teams' health: custom dashboards\n\nOne of the latest improvements our Scrum Masters proposed to the teams are **custom remote tool dashboards showing the most important team stats and information** to remember during our work time. Example? Here you go:\n\n![remote management tools to use](image-20200324-125629.png)\n\nYou can track progress in projects, people's calendars, business metrics, team goals - whatever works for you.\n\nHow it’s made? Currently with Adobe XD, a bit of logic thinking and a will to keep the team healthy and on track with everything.\n\nIn the future we’d love to make it a **custom internal tool by #BoldareTeam developers.**\n\n## \\*Organizational “who”, “what”, “where”\n\n**Holaspirit is an unusual remote management tool itself since it pictures a  unique way of managing organizations.** I mean the turquoise ones (or in other words self-manageable or holacratic).\n\nSelf-management means being remote-ready, having responsibilities clearly divided between roles, a flat structure, tracking right metrics and a making decisions in a decentralized way.\n\nBoldare’s one of such companies and to be able to operate smoothly, a long time ago we decided to move to holaspirit and get our structure and processes straight.\n\n![remote management tools](image-20200324-125526.png)\n\n**How do we use it on a daily basis?** To lead team meetings, resolve issues that create tensions, following KPIs progress, setting clear purposes for the teams and assigning accountabilities to roles.\n\nIf you don’t know who’s doing what and where - check it in holaspirit. All the roles and teams are clearly described there. Simple as that. Everything’s public and easily accessible.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Summary\n\nSo that’s it! **May this short list of not-so-obvious ways of using the company's remote tools be an introduction to the wider picture** describing our processes and culture that help us to lead Boldare as it is.\n\nEven if these examples above seem not so revolutionary to you - they’re ours, and we try to make the most of it. Feel free to take some of these to your teams and discuss them. We’re here to share our know-how and help."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"image-20200324-122217.png","lead":"Remote work has become a hot topic in the last two years. Yes, we know that. But in this blog post you won’t get any advice on using pomodoro, not snacking all the time or prioritizing your work (cause it’s individual). Let’s rather discuss tools we all use to run the business, with the help of the people of Boldare using them in their own ways. If you find any of these tips useful, let us know!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-03-23T08:37:37.365Z","slug":"standard-remote-tools-non-standard-way-boldare","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"People","additionalCategories":["Agile","Holacracy","Remote Work"],"url":null},"author":"Maciej Motylski","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Standard remote tools in a non-standard way: tips from #BoldareTeam","tileDescription":"In this blog post you won’t get any advice on using Pomodoro, not snacking all the time or prioritizing your work (cause it’s individual). Let’s rather discuss tools we all use to run the business, with the help of the people of Boldare using them in their own ways. If you find any of these tips useful, let us know!","coverImage":"image-20200324-122217.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"52455882-f774-534c-8664-63c23ba19206"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/4-ideas-for-remote-meetings-with-dispersed-teams-using-the-sprint-retrospective-tool/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Some pro tips before you start a remote meeting\n\nKeeping online meetings in order can be challenging - at least at the beginning. Here are some ideas that will help you to avoid the most common issues:\n\n* Choose a video conference tool that will fit the team’s needs. We use Hangouts, but if you want to record the meeting for those who can’t attend, try using Zoom.\n* Prepare a simple agenda with a timeframe of 5, 10 or 15 minutes for each item.\n* Select a facilitator, or become one.\n* Give everyone a chance to contribute - make sure everyone can speak their mind and has the time to do so.\n* If the topics are complex (as in the case of the remote user story workshop described below), take a break every hour or so, so people can stretch their legs, have a coffee, etc.\n\n**If you’re ready, let’s go to the first case!**\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Building successful apps using scrum development\" />\n\n## Remote brainstorming\n\nThe requirements for a successful and really creative brainstorming session are simple. You just need to gather motivated and engaged people, explain the problem they need to solve and hand them a set of post-it notes so they could write down their great ideas. Unless... the meeting is held online and you need a shared virtual space to keep all those cool ideas together and sort them out afterwards. This looks like a job for the [**Sprint Retrospective Tool**](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/)**!**\n\n**How to make it happen?**\n\nFirst of all - create the first board and send its link to the other meeting attendees. Create as many columns as you need, keeping in mind that at least one has to be dedicated to gathering the brainstormed ideas from the attendees.\n\n![4 ideas to manage dispersed work with the Sprint Retrospective Tool](Sprint_Retrospective_Tool_-_brainstorming.png \"4 ideas to manage dispersed work with the Sprint Retrospective Tool\")\n\nThen, **let the people work for 5 or 10 minutes so they can add their ideas to the column.** Next, it’s time to ask questions of the ideas’ owners, and if you have the option - to conduct a discussion. After that, you can ask them to vote for the ideas they like the most, or skip this step and let them collaboratively rearrange their ideas in other columns. During one such session at Boldare, we arranged the ideas into three additional columns:\n\n* A column for the ideas that got the most votes (alternatively, the ideas chosen by discussion).\n* Another for the ideas that are not the best, considering the needs, but it’s worth writing them down and keeping them for next time.\n* And finally, a column for the actions to be taken, assigned to particular team members. Such tasks can be later added to **Jira** or **Asana**.\n\nThis technique allows us to not only gather the ideas, but also categorize them and transform them into actionable tasks and add them to a task management tool easily.\n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"Product Design and Development\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/services/product-design-and-development/\" type=\"service\" image=\"gatsby-cloudinary/software_principles.jpg\" />\n\n## Planning, kanban style\n\nThis one can help you to gather all the actions you need to take to finish a project, and arrange them in a kanban style board. It’s a great way to gather all the information you have and categorize it, even if it’s just a first planning session and the results will be far from perfect. Treat it like an initial step before actual planning, just to put things in order.\n\nTo do it, you need to create a new [**Sprint Retrospective Tool**](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) board and add as many columns as you wish. The first one can be a backlog, where all the tasks or ideas are stored.\n\nThe next columns can reflect subsequent stages represented as particular time periods, or even simpler, as step 1, step 2 and so on. Another idea is to categorize the columns by their priority, not time-sensitivity, as in the picture below.\n\n![4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool](Sprint_Retrospective_Tool_-_planning_kanban_style.png \"4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool\")\n\nThe next step is to add all the necessary tasks to the backlog and when you finish, together with the team, distribute them to one of the existing columns. Remember that all users with access to the boards can vote, so you can use this feature as well. Those with the largest amount of votes can be discussed or simply be allocated higher priority than the others.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"8 Benefits Of Outsourcing your Software Development to Poland\" />\n\n## System story - doing a jigsaw puzzle\n\nThis is one of our favorite methods to gather, select and organize the information we need to start working on any digital product. The system story helps to answer the following questions:\n\n* What exactly are we building?\n* How are we going to achieve our goal?\n* Who exactly is it addressed to?\n* What is it for?\n\nA system story workshop is super-easy to conduct if you use the [**Sprint Retrospective Tool**](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) - you just need to organize the following columns: **What, How, For Who, Why** and a last one to gather the full system story. Then, together with the team and product owner you have to answer the questions and write down the answers in the corresponding columns.\n\n![Sprint Retrospective Tool - system story](Sprint_retrospective_Tool_-_system_story.jpg \"Sprint Retrospective Tool - system story\")\n\nUse the last column to write down a synthesis of the relevant items from other columns. if you manage to create a single, logical description of the product you wish to build then you can consider the workshop a success!\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"System Story – the little sentence that builds big things\" />\n\n## Team feedback\n\nThe other way we use the Sprint Retrospective Tool is to collect feedback after important meetings and workshops. This is how we handled the feedback session after a design workshop with one of our clients.\n\n![Sprint Retrospective Tool - feedback session](Sprint_Retrospective_Tool_-_feedback.png \"Sprint Retrospective Tool - feedback session\")\n\nWe used the following columns:\n\n* One for the things we liked about the workshop.\n* A second for the things we learned during it.\n* A third to say what we expect from the next one.\n* And the last one to say what we’ve missed the most.\n\nIn this particular case, there’s no need to vote, as all the opinions are equally important. Feedback collected in such a manner gives you a detailed picture of what went well and where the pain points are that need to be resolved next time. If you wish, you can also add an extra column to record the actions to be taken - it’s up to you.\n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"Remote development teams as your backup\" url=\"https://www.boldare.com/services/development-teams/\" type=\"service\" image=\"gatsby-cloudinary/Meeting-in-Boldare-office-room.jpg\" />\n\n## Is that all?\n\nNo! We also use the tool to support risk analysis meetings (to write down our predictions) or to make better decisions (using the voting feature). Obviously, those are not the only use cases - everything depends on your needs and ... imagination!"}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"4_ideas_on_how_to_manage_remote_teams_using_the_free_Sprint_Retrospective_Tool.png","lead":"When we created the [**Sprint Retrospective Tool**](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/), we were thinking mainly about a tool that could help us conduct remote scrum retrospective meetings with dispersed teams. But **life is full of surprises**, and our tool has many more use cases than we thought at the beginning. Now we’d like to share some ideas with you, as the efficiency of remote working is suddenly more important than ever. Scroll down to see how you could use our free **Sprint Retrospective Tool** with your remote teams.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-03-23T08:34:28.566Z","slug":"4-ideas-for-remote-meetings-with-dispersed-teams-using-sprint-retrospective-tool","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Ideas","additionalCategories":["How to","Remote Work"],"url":null},"author":"Paweł Kański","authorAdditional":"","box":{"content":{"title":"4 ideas for remote meetings with dispersed teams using the Sprint Retrospective Tool","tileDescription":"When we created theSprint Retrospective Tool, we were thinking mainly about a tool that could help us conduct remote scrum retrospective meetings with dispersed teams. But life is full of surprises, and our tool has many more use cases than we thought at the beginning. Now we’d like to share some ideas with you, as the efficiency of remote working is suddenly more important than ever. Scroll down to see how you could use our free Sprint Retrospective Tool with your remote teams.","coverImage":"4_ideas_on_how_to_manage_remote_teams_using_the_free_Sprint_Retrospective_Tool.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"5fc2fded-5d31-5517-8095-f699e374fc3d"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/boldare-s-action-plan-regarding-the-covid-19-virus-outbreak/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Boldare’s action plan regarding the COVID-19 disease outbreak","order":null,"content":[{"body":"In order to prevent the COVID-19 disease from further spreading, we decided to take the following steps:\n\n* We postponed all of our business trips, but we are keeping all communication channels open and we will work as usual.\n* All trips between Boldare’s offices are canceled.   \n* All of our employees are asked to work from home.\n* We have decided to shift all of our recruitment processes online, regardless of the stage.\n* We also feel responsible for all of the attendees of events we hold at our office, so we decided to postpone all upcoming meetings. \n\nSuch circumstances will last until **31 of March**, when we will review the situation and make a decision regarding next steps. \n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Boldare’s new 5-star review on Clutch.co! \" />\n\n## How will it influence our business operations?\n\nWe are sure that the influence will be hardly perceptible. [Boldare, as a holacratic company](https://www.boldare.com/about/), is ready to work under various, even harsh circumstances. Every day, we practice dispersed decision making, support real autonomy of employees and we are always working under radical transparency. Thanks to an agile approach and our flexible structure, we are able to easily handle even the most uncertain and complex environment. \n\nFor us, Boldare is a melting pot of various, fascinating yet practical ideas. We practice an agile approach, work according to lean startup principles and organize the company using holacratic toolsets and values. This means that even in such turbulent circumstances, we are ready to provide to our current and potential customers the best customer experience. Our processes are built to support remote work and all of our employees are equipped with all the necessary tools. Today we may be working from home but we are fully operational and ready to deliver services just as good as on any other day. \n\nWe will keep you informed about our next steps through social media."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Boldare_s_action_plan_regarding_the_Covid-19_virus_outbreak.jpg","lead":"**We are all very concerned about the COVID-19 virus situation**. So far, Poland is among the countries where the situation is not so severe. However, we feel that it is our social responsibility to act now and do our best to stop the virus from spreading, at least in our closest environment. So, how are we going to do it?","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-03-12T14:53:58.108Z","slug":"action-plan-regarding-covid-19-virus-outbreak","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"News","additionalCategories":["Holacracy"],"url":null},"author":"Anna Zarudzka","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Boldare’s action plan regarding the COVID-19 disease outbreak ","tileDescription":"We are all very concerned about the COVID-19 disease situation. So far, Poland is among the countries where the situation is not so severe. However, we feel that it is our social responsibility to act now and do our best to stop the virus from spreading, at least in our closest environment. So, how are we going to do it? ","coverImage":"Boldare_s_action_plan_regarding_the_Covid-19_virus_outbreak.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"cf6fa1a4-8cbd-5052-bd4f-b621b3327e0c"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/guide-to-efficient-sprint-review-meetings-1/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Guide to Efficient Sprint Review Meetings","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## Scrum sprint - a quick recap\n\nIf you want to know more about Scrum itself, take a look at this article: [Building successful apps using Scrum development](https://www.boldare.com/blog/building-apps-using-scrum-development/). Meanwhile, here’s a quick recap of what a Scrum sprint is.\n\n**A sprint is a short period of a project in which a new working iteration or increment of the product (i.e. a new feature or functionality) is created.** In essence, a sprint is a kind of ‘mini-project’ within the greater whole, and much of the efficiency of the Scrum process comes from each sprint having its own planning and review stages.\n\n**The end of each sprint is followed by two meetings of the project team**, the retrospective and the review (more on the differences between the two can be found below). For advice and tips on running great sprint retrospectives, see our article: [What is a sprint retrospective](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-sprint-retrospective/) to learn all you need to know to get started with sprint reviews.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"The great dilemma. Agile or waterfall?\" />\n\n## What is a sprint review?\n\nReview literally means to take another look at something. In scrum-powered software development it means, to take a look at the product increment the scrum team has produced and compare it to what the team agreed to aim for in the planning session before the sprint started.\n\n**So, what is the scrum team doing exactly during the sprint review?**\n\n* Examine the product increment.\n* Compare it to the ‘[definition of done](https://www.boldare.com/blog/definition-of-ready-and-backlog-refinement-process/)’.\n* Give and discuss feedback.\n* Adjust or amend the product backlog, where necessary.\n\n### Sprint review vs retrospective – how do you know which one you’re in?\n\nEach sprint ends with two meetings of the scrum team to spend some time looking back (in order to inform and guide looking forward to the next sprint) but what’s the difference, exactly? The answer is that the two meetings focus on different facets of the finished sprint.\n\nSprint retrospectives are dedicated to examining the process (how did we get here, and can we do it better next time?) whereas the **sprint review looks at the product itself** (where are we, and is that where we wanted to be?)\n\n## Key questions for efficient sprint reviews\n\n### Who should attend a sprint review meeting?\n\n**This is an easy one: everyone who is directly involved**. In other words, the scrum team, consisting of the [product owner](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-product-owner-roles-and-responsibilities/) (especially for feedback and insight into how the increment does or does not address user and business needs), the [development team](https://www.boldare.com/blog/benefits-of-hiring-development-team/) (to present and discuss the increment they’ve been working on for weeks), and the scrum master, whose role is to ensure the sprint review meeting takes place and facilitate where necessary to keep the meeting focused on the product and not on the process or other aspects of the project.\n\nAlso, **the product owner may invite key stakeholders**, those able to offer specific and useful feedback on the product increment.\n\n### How long should your sprint review meeting be?\n\nHow long was the sprint review? Here at Boldare, we usually work in two-week sprints as we find that time-box to be a good combination of productivity and speed. However, **this is something each scrum team should define on their own. The general Scrum rule is that the review meeting should take around one hour for every week of the sprint.**\n\n### What outcome are you aiming for?\n\n**At the end of your sprint review meeting, you should have a revised and refined product backlog** with user stories and tasks that reflect the current state of the project. That updated backlog then forms the basis of the next sprint planning session, at which the scrum team decides on which tasks to tackle in the next sprint.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"What’s the difference between a product backlog and a sprint backlog?\" />\n\n### What is the role of the scrum master?\n\nThe [role of scrum master](https://www.boldare.com/blog/what-is-a-scrum-master-role-and-difference-between-manager/) can often be misunderstood, especially in relation to planning, review, and retrospective meetings. In many software development projects, it’s assumed that the scrum master is effectively the ‘team leader’, responsible for driving the project forward, organizing the meetings, and then actively chairing them, sticking to a rigid agenda. That can work. But the Scrum framework doesn’t require it.\n\n**According to the Scrum Guide, when it comes to sprint review meetings, “The scrum master ensures that the event takes place and that attendees understand its purpose. The scrum master teaches everyone involved to keep it within the time-box.”** Nothing about leadership there, however, a scrum master has to be self-confident and strict at times, when it comes to the execution of scrum rules. But this is definitely a topic for another time.\n\nEqually, although the Scrum Guide indicates that the product owner should take the lead on discussing the product backlog and the impact of the current increment and that the development team is there to present the increment and discuss the work of the sprint, there’s no mention of leadership there either.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Sprint Retrospective ideas for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches \" />\n\nThis should be no surprise because Scrum is not a particularly hierarchical approach. Yes, the individual roles are clear. However, **the scrum team is free to decide for itself on specific questions of leadership, such as who runs a sprint review meeting?**\n\nHere at Boldare, we prefer a less leader-focused approach, with an emphasis on personal responsibility for individual tasks and collective responsibility for how we work as a team. The scrum master is there to guide, assist, and be a source of expert (Scrum) knowledge. But wherever possible, the lead is taken by the dev team, helping create a culture of commitment and delivery for the project.\n\nWe work without a dedicated project manager, ensuring our customers have direct contact with the whole development team instead, without proxies. While it may sound subversive, we celebrate this [radical transparency](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-radical-transparency-can-improve-business/) and feel that our partners appreciate such an approach. To read their detailed opinions, visit our [Clutch profile](https://clutch.co/profile/boldare).\n\n### What are the common sprint review problems to consider?\n\nLet’s be clear, these ‘problems’ are not really review-related, more issues with the project as a whole. However, if your sprint review is doing what it should, then as you discuss the product increment and backlog, some wider issues may emerge:\n\n* Work is not completed during the sprint because the sprint goal was too ambitious or impractical.\n* Previous sprints and decisions have left the dev team with too much [technical debt](https://www.boldare.com/blog/technical-debt-building-future-proof-digital-products/).\n* Insufficient time is being allocated for debugging, thus introducing problems into the code.\n* Priorities are changing mid-sprint (probably via the product owner) leading to inefficient working and use of resources.\n\nNaturally, if any of these points come up, they must be addressed before the next sprint. Though some are planning issues to be discussed in the next sprint planning session.\n\n## Sprint review meeting agenda\n\nTo help you understand better how a review meeting can unfold, **here’s an exemplary sprint review meeting agenda some of our teams are using:**\n\n**Attendees of sprint review:**\n\n* Scrum master;\n* Product owner;\n* Development team.\n\n**Sprint review agenda:**\n\n1. **Check in** - A few words regarding our expectations of each other. This should help us conduct a better review because we will be aware of what everyone would like to hear and/or discuss. Also, it might help if emotions were high during the previous sprint.\n2. **Sprint Goal discussion** - Did we manage to achieve the sprint goal? And what are the consequences. This discussion is intended to provide a basis for further discussion during the review, retrospective and planning meetings.\n3. **Demo Session** - The sprint increment is presented and stakeholders can ask questions and provide feedback - which, in turn, will be taken under consideration when inspecting the product backlog (e.g. by addressing changes in priorities or scope).\n4. **Sprint scope summary:**\n\n* **Update regarding finished tasks** - If there is something worth mentioning which wasn’t covered during the demo session.\n* **Update regarding unfinished tasks** - Why we weren’t able to fulfill what we aimed to achieve, what kind of problems we are facing right now, how we are trying to deal with them, and decisions about next steps on these issues (abandon, reduce the scope, or continue work) and how they will impact on the next sprint.\n* **Comments** - Clarification or seeds for discussion during the retrospective meeting.\n\n5. **Product Metrics** - Update regarding product metrics, including whether have we received any feedback regarding the features we have delivered in previous sprints?\n6. **Process Metrics** - The scrum master presents those metrics related to process and provides the team with analysis for  discussion.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Building successful apps using scrum development\" />\n\n## Sprint review best practices\n\nEffective sprints are as much about attitude as they are about efficient scrum processes. **Consider the following sprint review best practices:**\n\n1. **Bring the team together (even if not physically…)** – Many, many scrum projects are carried out by distributed or remote teams. Implicit in everything we’ve said about sprint review meetings is the need for clear, honest and open communication across the whole scrum team – developers, quality assurance specialists, business analysts, the product owner, and scrum master. Maybe they’re in different cities, or countries… or time zones. Make the most of video-conferencing and other information-sharing technologies to bring everyone together in the same virtual space, if a physical space isn’t practical.\n2. **Focus your team culture on delivery** – What is your scrum team’s motivation? Are team members focused on the delivery of a great product that completely addresses user and business needs? How do you know?\n\n* Are the backlog and user stories well-defined and clear?\n* Do you have systems and standards that actively encourage quality work?\n* When you agree an increment is ‘done’, is it really or does it technically meet the team’s agreed definition of done and yet later in the project you’re finding bugs that must be dealt with, costing you time and resources?\n* Culture is foundational. In a sense, a delivery-oriented team culture is more important than any single Scrum element – the team’s culture and ways of working together underpin (or not) everything else.\n\n3. **Remember to celebrate** – Pretty much any project approach or methodology will tell you the importance of acknowledging and celebrating the team’s achievements – not least as a means of regularly topping up the team’s motivation reserves. In addition to the product-focused perspective, sprint review meetings are ideal opportunities to celebrate the latest iteration together and give credit where it’s due. **After all, the sprint review is a chance to show off the team’s hard work.**\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Sprint review checklist\n\nFor greater efficiency, it’s better when the team is fully prepared for the sprint review. **Here are some sprint review tips to consider before your next (or first) meeting:**\n\nThings to consider before the review meeting:\n\n* **‘Housekeeping’ issues** – consider your practical needs: a room, equipment (including technology that brings everyone together), refreshments, maybe even catering…\n* **Have an idea of the structure the meeting will take**; e.g. presentation of the product increment, response from the product owner (and stakeholders, if any); wider discussion by the whole team; agreement on action points… Do you need a formal agenda or not?\n* **Roles** – what specific functions is everyone expected to fulfil (including the scrum master – see above).\n* **What preparation does everyone need to do?** What information or understanding do they need to have in advance in order to contribute positively to the review process.\n\nActions to take during the sprint review:\n\n* The product owner identifies what from the backlog has been ‘done’ or not.\n* The dev team demonstrates the ‘done’ increment, answering any questions about what it is and how it works. The dev team also identifies any difficulties or pain points during the sprint.\n* The product owner discusses the current state of the product backlog, including future scope.\n* Everyone agrees what actions need to be taken as a result of the sprint review meeting. This action planning discussion will feed into the planning session for the next sprint.\n\n## Sprint review meeting in Agile - summary\n\n**The sprint review is the other side of the coin to the sprint planning meeting** – yin and yang, not only can you not have one without the other, each needs the other (at least, if you don’t have both then your Scrum process and software development project are probably doomed to something less than success!)\n\nA clear, structured, collective examination of what the sprint has produced, how that fits with the overall project goals, and what all that means for the next stage of the project helps keep your scrum team focused and motivated towards a shared objective, driving the project inevitably forward. With scrum tools even the most complex apps and digital products can be developed in an organized and coherent way."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"img/team-during-workshop-meeting.jpg","lead":"If you work with the scrum framework (and if you don’t yet, you should still read on!), you already know that the sprint review meeting is an essential step for software development. It’s a chance for the whole team to take a look at what they’ve produced – the latest product iteration – and ensure that the project is on track, as planned or… if it isn’t. It’s an opportunity to discuss and agree what needs to happen by way of course correction. **This article offers a guide to setting up and structuring your sprint review meetings for success.**","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2020-01-20T07:42:16.155Z","slug":"efficient-sprint-review-meetings","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Digital Product","additionalCategories":["Agile","Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Adam Ziemba","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Guide to Efficient Sprint Review Meetings","tileDescription":"If you work with the scrum framework (and if you don’t yet, you should still read on!), you already know that the sprint review meeting is an essential step for software development. It’s a chance for the whole team to take a look at what they’ve produced – the latest product iteration – and ensure that the project is on track, as planned or… if it isn’t. It’s an opportunity to discuss and agree what needs to happen by way of course correction. This article offers a guide to setting up and structuring your sprint review meetings for success.","coverImage":"img/team-during-workshop-meeting.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"4bf64cab-35ee-552d-96c4-0b911d6c5894"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/guide-to-efficient-sprint-planning/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Guide to efficient sprint planning","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## In Scrum development, sprint planning is key\n\nThe secret of Scrum’s success lies in its incremental nature, with the project broken down into a series of short ‘sprints’, each resulting in a fresh iteration of the product, or increment.\n\nLengths vary, but at Boldare we usually work with sprints that are no longer than two weeks. It’s not a secret golden ratio, but this amount of time makes planning quite efficient - **it’s just enough to keep the team focused, and it allows us to deliver a working piece of software at the end of the period**.\n\nScrum, just like most other frameworks or methodologies, is only as good as its planning process. A well-planned sprint allows the development team to work and focus together on the same goal and deliver an increment that drives the whole project forward.\n\n**This guide to sprint planning covers goals, key features, and outcomes, giving you all the basic elements of a perfect sprint planning session.**\n\n## What is sprint planning?\n\nA [Scrum sprint](https://www.boldare.com/blog/how-to-determine-sprint-length-in-scrum/) is effectively a mini-project within the overall product development process, designed to achieve identified tasks and produce specified product features. As such, an efficient sprint has agreed goals and objectives and is planned by the scrum team together, deciding on the items from the overall product backlog that they will tackle in the sprint ahead.\n\n**Sprint planning usually takes the form of a team meeting held prior to the sprint** and breaks down into two basic halves: deciding what to do, and then agreeing how to do it.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Building successful apps using scrum development\" />\n\n## Key questions for efficient sprint planning\n\n### Who should attend a sprint planning meeting?\n\nIn short, the whole scrum team, though the individual roles do vary.\n\nFaced with the product backlog of tasks, the development team decides what elements should be tackled in the upcoming sprint. This includes discussion of the relative priorities of backlog items and the product owner has a role in clarifying those priorities and other details from the client perspective.\n\nHowever, the decision (and therefore ownership) regarding what to include in the sprint, including setting the sprint goal and how to achieve it, lies with the team members. The scrum master’s role in all this is to facilitate the process, avoiding unnecessary side-tracks and guiding the team toward clarity going forward.\n\n### How long should your planning meeting be?\n\nAs a rough rule, **for a two-week sprint, expect the planning meeting to take approximately four hours**. Assuming that the project is under way, the team understands its various roles, and you have a clear product backlog to work from, that should break down into around two hours to go through the backlog and choose tasks and stories to work on, and then two hours to agree how these goals will be achieved.\n\n### Why are outcomes and sprint goals important?\n\nIf the **idea of sprint planning is to map out and organize the work for the sprint**, and agree a realistic scope, then then the scrum team must end up with:\n\n* An agreed list of backlog stories and tasks that they are committed to working on.\n* A clear ‘definition of done’ for each item.\n* An overall sprint goal to give the sprint some cohesiveness, pulling it all together (in other words, how will you define the sprint as a whole as ‘done’?)\n\n**Why is it so important to define ‘done’?** Projects can get confusing (or confused) as extra tasks or interesting alternatives occur during the sprint. The sprint planning meeting is an opportunity for some clear thinking by the scrum team and the definition of done is a way of preserving that clarity for when you need it later on. As extras crop up, you can decide whether they are appropriate for this sprint by asking, will working on this get us closer to ‘done’ or not?\n\n### How to choose the most suitable sprint goal?\n\nSetting an engaging and beneficial sprint goal can be problematic. Here are some pro tips that will help you to understand how to create a meaningful sprint goal:\n\n* Tasks to be delivered as a sprint goal are supposed to either contribute business value or help users solve a problem.\n* Sprint goals should be ambitious (to motivate the team), but achievable.\n* Make sure that the sprint goal is measurable and has a clear and understandable definition of done.\n* All team members should share the same vision of how to achieve the goal.\n* The sprint goal should involve as many team members as possible.\n\n### What happens if the sprint goal won’t be reached?\n\nThis is the kind of thing that should be picked up in your daily Scrum meetings – regular, transparent checks on team progress act as an early warning system if your sprint goal is in jeopardy. When that happens, there are two basic alternatives:\n\n1. **The sprint goal is no longer relevant** – New information or data has come to light, or perhaps the project has pivoted and is now focused in a different direction, and in these circumstances, the sprint should be cancelled (after all, it’s taking you down an irrelevant path) and, assuming the project is continuing, a new sprint planned.\n2. **The sprint goal remains relevant but cannot be done within the time available** – In this case, the work being done in the sprint is still necessary so continue the sprint. However, afterwards, the sprint review and sprint retrospective meetings should be used to establish why the sprint goal was unachievable and how the next sprint can avoid the same fate.\n\nIf you work with a remote team, you can use our tool, [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/), to conduct your retrospectives.\n\n### What is the role of scrum master?\n\n**The role of scrum master is to support the team**, help them with process-related issues and keep the planning meeting inside the time-box. It’s also very important, to know that the scrum master is not solely responsible for planning outcomes - they are the shared responsibility of the scrum team.\n\nThe scrum master role is crucial, especially if you’re working with an inexperienced development team that tends to mix different accountabilities. Likewise, if you plan to work with an external, outsourced software company, make sure that your dedicated dev team will have the support of an experienced scrum master.\n\n### What are the planning mistakes to avoid?\n\nKnowledge comes with experience, but that doesn’t mean that you learn only by making mistakes. Here are some common mistakes we’ve observed (and survived) so you don’t have to:\n\n* **Making the sprint too long** - The further you look into the future, the more blurry it appears. Keep the sprint adjusted to the size of the backlog, team availability, and scope of the works to keep it realistic.\n* **Taking on too much** - this is one of the most common issues. To make planning meaningful, each team member has to be realistic about their own commitments. Team members should only commit to tasks they’re able to deliver - sometimes that means saying “No” to some of the tasks in the backlog.\n* **Not being honest** - The whole team has to be honest about their capacity and capabilities. Make sure that team members don’t adopt a ‘wishful thinking’ attitude and encourage them to communicate if they need help or simply don’t know how to proceed with a task.\n* **Not working according to the Scrum**  - While many organizations may say that they use Scrum, in practice this is not always the case. Scrum is not just a general set of rules and different types of tools. The most important element for success is experience in using Scrum -  it’s an extremely practical method.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Planning before you plan – are you well-groomed?\n\n**For a sprint planning meeting, as with most project events, the old proverb preparation prevents poor performance applies.** Leaving aside the obvious ‘housekeeping’ issues of finding a suitable venue and date, arranging any necessary equipment (whiteboards, sharpies and sticky notes, or maybe an online planning tool coupled with video-conferencing software for a remote scrum team) and booking the catering, etc. possibly the key preparation activity is grooming the product backlog.\n\n**What does ‘grooming’ mean in this sense?** Also known as **backlog refinement**, the principle is that if the backlog is going to be the backbone of your sprint planning, you want it to be in good shape. Grooming is the process of checking through the backlog beforehand, ensuring that it’s up to date and that each item is prioritized (with input from the product owner), has any necessary user stories (and no unnecessary stories) and has an accurate (as it can be with current data) time estimate.\n\nIdeally, **grooming takes place before the sprint planning session** so that any information gaps or lack of detail or input can be rectified in advance. Thus leaving your scrum team able to focus on planning during the sprint planning meeting.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"What is a sprint retrospective? A brief guide for agile software development teams\" />\n\n## Sprint planning – a simple agenda\n\n**Nobody likes meetings that are too long.** To keep your sprint planning efficient, there are two essentials:\n\n* a groomed backlog with prepared and well-described tasks (regardless of the tool you use to manage those tasks);\n* a simple agenda to keep the meeting running smoothly.\n\nWe mentioned earlier that a sprint planning meeting consists of two halves:\n\n### Scope of the sprint\n\nHere, the development team work through an up to date backlog which has been prioritized according to all the available information, with the aim of selecting those user stories and items that will be addressed in the sprint. Scope activity should include:\n\n* Agreeing the sprint goal as a basic guide for the sprint’s focus.\n* Factoring in the team’s availability (including considering vacations, public holidays, or other events that limit the time available).\n* Deciding which backlog items will achieve the sprint goal AND can be done within the sprint period given the team’s available capacity.\n\n### Plan of the sprint\n\nWith clarity on the sprint’s destination, it’s time to discuss the route – **how, exactly, do you plan to arrive at that destination?**\n\nThis discussion by the team of the detail of how they will deliver the identified backlog items will include any dependencies between items, and also the probability and likely consequences of any project (or sprint) risks.\n\nObviously, this is just an example - **sprint planning** **varies** according to the **Scrum framework or tools that are used**, and also on the company culture and other factors.\n\n## Summary\n\n**Sprint planning is arguably one of the most essential activities in the Scrum framework.** To use another planning proverb: Fail to plan, plan to fail. Involving the whole scrum team, looking in detail at the next stage of the project, ensures a degree of commitment to the sprint’s agreed tasks (and, by extension, the whole project). By first focusing on the what, and then the how, a **Scrum sprint planning meeting should result in an agreed sprint goal**, a selection of user stories and tasks from the product backlog, and an accurate (as possible with current data) forecast of what the team will be doing during the sprint."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"scrum_sprint_planning.jpg","lead":"**What is the biggest advantage of Scrum approach in software development?** Probably its flexibility that is easily achievable thanks to so-called sprints - short periods of time, each of which aims to result in new product functionality and/or features. Built on this idea of the sprint, it follows that the sprint planning meeting is an invaluable opportunity for a scrum team to ensure that the project is progressing both realistically and as quickly as possible. How do you make sure your sprint planning is as efficient as possible? Read on to find out!","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2019-12-30T13:33:55.577Z","slug":"guide-to-efficient-sprint-planning","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Digital Product","additionalCategories":["Agile","Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Romuald Członkowski","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Building successful apps using Scrum development","tileDescription":"To stand out in the marketplace, quality apps that are user favorites can make all the difference. While there’s no recipe for final success, there are some tools that can help you with it. For us, the main tool is the Scrum framework and its role in software development. Scrum development offers an approach that brings all the key players and skills together to produce digital products in a series of rapid and highly efficient instalments.","coverImage":"scrum_sprint_planning.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"4eca3698-fd37-5988-beb6-4e8858ec4266"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/the-best-tools-for-online-sprint-retrospectives/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"The best tools for online Sprint Retrospectives ","order":null,"content":[{"body":"## What is the sprint retrospective?\n\nAccording to the Scrum Guide, written by Jeff Sutherland and Kim Schwaber, the sprint retrospective is organized after the [sprint review](https://www.boldare.com/blog/efficient-sprint-review-meetings/) to improve the work of the scrum team during the subsequent sprints. The event should take no more than three hours for a one-month sprint, but it is expected to take less time when running shorter sprints.\n\n**During the sprint retrospective session, you discuss the negative and positive aspects of the work which has been done during the sprint.** It is important to talk about improvements that should or could be implemented and create a plan to put those improvements into practice.\n\nThe effect of the meeting should be to improve the quality of developers’ work and that of the entire scrum team. You should adapt or refine your [definition of done](https://www.boldare.com/blog/definition-of-ready-and-backlog-refinement-process/), as well as create a plan which lets the team make their work more efficient, friendly, and satisfying. I would like to emphasize that it also applies equally to both the interpersonal relationships in the project and the tools used.\n\nThe responsibility of the Scrum Master or the [Agile Coach](https://www.boldare.com/blog/agile-coach-role-responsibilities/) is to ensure that the meeting is positive and productive, and that the developed solutions will improve work in the following sprints. **It’s a common mistake to abandon the sprint retrospective, mostly because of lack of time. Don’t go this way; instead find some tools which will help you to make it brilliant.**\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"What is a sprint retrospective? A brief guide for agile software development teams\" />\n\n## How to run a sprint retrospective meeting online?\n\nRunning a sprint retrospective online can be a challenge even for experienced Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, but that shouldn’t be a reason to avoid it. Even though using software solutions might be the only way to work with remote teams, do not hesitate to use the best of them if you are gathered together in one place. **Make your work more fun and efficient by using tools for sprint retrospective you’re going to love.**\n\nAs I mentioned above, there are many solutions you should consider if you want to run your sprint retrospective online. I’ve chosen the most interesting ones and I hope you’ll find them useful while working in an agile environment.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Sprint Retrospective ideas for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches\" />\n\n## The best online retrospective tools for Agile and Scrum\n\n### Trello\n\n**[Trello](https://trello.com/) is a simple, free, and extremely easy to use online tool for sprint retrospectives**. Invite your team to an online, real-time collaboration, create the columns where you gather your colleagues’ answers and start the discussion.\n\nTake your time and let your team share their thoughts and opinions – do not hesitate to use popular methods of running the sprint retrospective, such as “The 4Ls” or “Start, Stop, Continue, Less, More”. Having collected all the input, you can ask each other questions to make sure that you’ve got a common understanding of all the issues.\n\nYou can move the most important topics to the top of each column and create an additional column for recording actions. Trello lets you assign the actions to whoever is responsible. Finally, complete the descriptions, add attachments and due dates, create sub-tasks, and tag them with labels.\n\nGive Trello a try if you’re looking for a simple solution you don’t have to pay for.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n### Miro\n\nDo you like to work with yellow sticky notes? It’s a great way of sharing thoughts and making them visible for each participant of the sprint retrospective. However, it’s hard to imagine working this way with a remote team. Happily, there is an online tool called [Miro](https://miro.com/), which lets you use sticky notes in digital form.\n\n**Miro is an online whiteboard with many useful tools and features you can use when running a sprint retrospective.** Invite your team members to collaborate, create an empty space or choose one of the predefined templates.\n\nCreate columns corresponding to the selected method, like “Mad, Sad, Glad” and let your colleagues use the virtual cards to record their feedback and input. You can make your cards bigger, use different fonts and colors, and move the answers across the whole whiteboard.\n\nIf you’re looking for more creative and fun solutions, forget about columns and the more popular techniques of running a sprint retrospective. **Have you ever heard of a sailboat retrospective? If no, you can give it a try – Miro has a template for that.** Imagine a boat with an anchor (representing the team), dangerous rocks (symbol of risk), wind (symbol of help) and an island (representing your goals and visions). All team members can use this analogy to make contributions and then put those contributions into a coherent framework.\n\nMiro is a paid solution, but you can create a few whiteboards for free to test it out. **It’s a great Agile retrospective tool for online collaboration** – whatever you can do with sticky cards, you can do in Miro. Do not hesitate to try it out.\n\n### The Sprint Retrospective Tool by Boldare\n\nBoldare’s [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) was made to meet the expectations of our scrum masters. We had a goal to create something fast, light, and easy to use — and we did it. We are so happy with it that we use this solution on a daily basis – that’s why we decided to share it with you for free.\n\nWhen using The Sprint Retrospective Tool by Boldare, you can create and name your own columns, add cards, sort, and merge them. This tool allows you to vote on the most important answers, share your board, and collaborate remotely with the team in real time.\n\n**There are many ways to run a sprint retrospective, but Boldare’s online solution will suit most of them.** No matter whether you choose “The 4Ls” method or the “Mad, Sad, Glad” technique, we bet you’ll find our tool powerful and intuitive.\n\n<RelatedUniversalBox title=\"Check out the Sprint Retrospective Tool - it's free\" url=\"/sprint-retrospective-tool/\" type=\"service\" image=\"Desktop_Boldaretro.png\" />\n\n### Reetro\n\n[](https://reetro.io/)**[Reetro](https://reetro.io/) is a real-time collaboration and retrospective online tool you can fully customize to your needs.** Turn on the automation features to create tables and gather feedback effortlessly. You can also use the collected data to analyze your sprint retrospective and improve your work, thanks to artificial intelligence. \n\nWhen using Reetro, you can choose any format of the sprint retrospective you find best (start-stop-continue, Mad-Sad-Glad, Lean Coffee, 4Ls, and more). Integrate the tool with Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana and/or Slack, to make the team collaboration easier and more efficient.\n\n**Reetro lets you create an unlimited number of projects and boards for free.** It’s a great solution when working with many team members. You can all make notes during the meeting and attach audio or video responses to the cards in the columns. Reetro gives you the ability to give your colleagues anonymous feedback, but remember that transparency is critical to the process too – it’s one of the key values of Scrum.\n\n### TeamRetro\n\n[TeamRetro](https://www.teamretro.com/) is an intuitive and polished tool with a bunch of great additional features. You can use this solution as a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach to run a sprint retrospective easily.\n\nCreate columns to gather data and see what went well or not so well during the last few weeks – you can also write down things you would like to try during the next sprint or share your thoughts about issues that puzzle you and your team. You can customize the columns to adjust the tool to the sprint retrospective techniques you like best.\n\nTeamRetro lets you analyze the resulting feedback in many ways. Once you’ve shared all your thoughts, you can press the “I’m ready” button to signal your colleagues that the discussion can begin and it’s time to ask each other questions. You can reveal the cards immediately or do it step by step; show which team member added the card or hide this information. Color the collected notes by topic or owner – you can also do this manually.\n\nTeamRetro lets you group similar ideas with an auto-suggest feature, add notes to the cards, and create a list of tasks to be done after the sprint retrospective. **TeamRetro was designed to be an easy-to-use retrospective tool for Scrum**, and it works just fine on your computer, smartphone, or tablet with all popular internet browsers. Give it a try for 30 days to see whether it’s worth your money.\n\n## Tools for sprint retrospective — summary\n\n**There are many online retrospective tools you can use as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach to run a sprint retrospective**. Don’t be afraid to try a few of them if you want to maximize the value of this crucial event.\n\nI believe that our Sprint Retrospective Tool, which we developed in Boldare and now want to share with the community, will help you in your work and improve your next sprint retrospective. Additional information about this online solution can be found on the dedicated website."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"team-meeting-1440.jpg","lead":"The sprint retrospective is a great opportunity to improve the work of the scrum team through an inspection-based discussion. There are many online tools, which can be helpful for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches who carry out this kind of meeting. **I have prepared for you a list of the best Agile retrospective tools, which I hope you find beneficial.**","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2019-12-27T10:50:47.518Z","slug":"best-tools-for-online-sprint-retrospectives","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"How to","additionalCategories":["Agile","Remote Work"],"url":null},"author":"Jacek Zięba","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"The best tools for online Sprint Retrospectives ","tileDescription":"The sprint retrospective is a great opportunity to improve the work of the scrum team through an inspection-based discussion. There are many online tools, which can be helpful for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches who carry out this kind of meeting. I have prepared for you a list of the best solutions, which I hope you find beneficial.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"89d691f9-d353-588d-b4b0-4ef371fd91f3"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/sprint-retrospective-ideas-for-scrum-masters-and-agile-coaches/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Sprint Retrospective ideas for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches ","order":null,"content":[{"body":"According to research by Kim Cameron and his coworkers from the University of Michigan, people working in a team that cares about positive values and best practices are more efficient, optimistic, productive, stress-resistant and committed.\n\nAmong the factors that drive the quality of work, the study includes mutual assistance, sharing inspirations, kindness, respect, trust and friendliness, as well as joint responsibility, forgiving mistakes and not blaming.\n\nThe **sprint retrospective**, which is held at the end of the sprint, should help your team to optimize their work in the above mentioned areas. I have prepared for you an **overview of the best methods** that you – as the Scrum Master or Agile Coach - can use to carry out this meeting.\n\n## What is the Sprint Retrospective?\n\nThe sprint retrospective is a meeting organized after the sprint review. It aims to improve the work of the scrum team during the subsequent sprints. According to the Scrum Guide, written by Jeff Sutherland and Kim Schwaber, the event should take no more than  three hours for a one-month sprint. For shorter sprints, it is expected to take less time.\n\nDuring the sprint retrospective, you can discuss the positive aspects of the work which has been done during the sprint, talk about improvements that should or could be implemented and create a plan in this area.\n\nThe effect of the meeting should be to improve the quality of developers’ work and the entire scrum team, and adapt or refine the definition of done, as well as make work more efficient, friendly and satisfying. It is important to emphasize that it also applies equally to the project’s interpersonal relationships as well as the tools used.\n\nThe responsibility of the Scrum Master or the Agile Coach is to ensure that the meeting is positive and productive, and the developed solutions will improve work in the following sprints.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"What is a sprint retrospective? A brief guide for agile software development teams\" />\n\n## The Sprint Retrospective ideas\n\n### The 4 Ls\n\nThe name of the 4 Ls method is based on four verbs: **liked, learned, lacked, and longed for**. The authors of this technique encourage facilitators to hang four paper sheets on the wall during the sprint retrospective meeting and ask the team members to spend 3-4 minutes writing down what they liked during the sprint, what they learned, what they lacked for and what their job desires are (or what they miss), using sticky notes to add their feedback to the appropriate sheet of paper.\n\nFollowing this, the team should be divided into four groups (one for each \"L\") and read the notes that have been made. What follows is a discussion about the collected feedback and the possibilities of implementing improvements. The team members should try to understand each other - especially when it comes to the third and fourth Ls.\n\nThe authors initially recommended the use of paper sheets and sticky notes, but in the last update of their publication they encourage Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches to try software solutions, enabling the use of this important technique with remote or dispersed teams.\n\nYou can try the online tool that Boldare has created – [the Sprint Retrospective Tool.](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) Using the 4 Ls method, you can create four columns (one for each L) where all team members write down their ideas and thoughts simultaneously. This tool  is simple, free, and easy to use on desktops and mobile devices. It ensures real-time collaboration and allows you to name columns and cards as well as merge, vote and sort the cards.\n\n![Sprint Retrospective Tool by Boldare](Desktop_Boldaretro.png)\n\n### Esther Derby and Diana Larsen's method\n\nThe method described in the book _\"Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great\"_ is based on five steps.\n\n* **In the first of them** (set the stage) you, as the Scrum Master or the Agile Coach, should prepare for the meeting, explain its purpose, provide team members with the necessary tools and ensure a good atmosphere, for example by choosing a friendly meeting place or asking an introductory question that will involve all gathered.\n* **In the second step** (gather data) you should collect data by asking participants about what went well and what went wrong. It may be helpful to draw a timeline corresponding to the length of the sprint, on which the participants will mark and discuss events that slowed down their work or made it easier.\n* **The third step** (generate insights) should be used to analyze the relationship between the previously indicated events and collected data regarding, among others, team velocity or sprint backlog implementation. Attention should be paid to repeatability, if any, and the reasons for the difficulties encountered. If there are many problems, it may be necessary to focus only on the most significant of them.\n* **In the fourth step** (decide what to do) it is important to make a decision regarding which of the solutions should be implemented during the next sprint. You should set realistic and achievable goals.\n* **The final step** (close the retrospective) is closing the meeting, during which you should ask team members about their conclusions and satisfaction with the sprint retrospective. Participants can also be encouraged to thank each other for their time and collaboration.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n### “Start, Stop, Continue, Less, More” technique\n\nThis technique is very simple and allows the Scrum Master, or the Agile Coach, to conduct the sprint retrospective quickly. The described method is based on answering questions related to five areas:\n\n* **Start**: What should we start doing that we probably haven't done yet?\n* **Stop:** What should we stop doing that does not work well or impedes our work?\n* **Continue:** What works well and we want to continue this?\n* **Less:** What should we do less?\n* **More:** What should we do more?\n\nThe first step is preparation. The Scrum Master or the Agile Coach running the sprint retrospective prepares posters divided into five parts (Start, Stop, Continue, Less, More).\n\nIn the second step, you should explain the rules and explain how the technique works. Then you should give the team time to reflect and discuss (30-60 minutes, depending on the size of the team).\n\nIn the third step, which is called “ideology”, you can hand over sticky notes to each person and allow time for the team to record its conclusions  (about 10-15 minutes).\n\nNow it’s time for grouping. If many sticky notes contain similar or even identical ideas, team members group them into logical topics. Then the cards are placed on posters or the board. This should last a maximum of 15 minutes. If there are many cards in each group, there should be voting to allow you to prioritize the most important topics of discussion.\n\nFinally, there is the discussion (20-40 minutes is enough). The team should discuss the cards in order of priority or the facilitator can choose cards and set the order of discussion.\n\nYou can use our free online [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/) which fits this technique perfectly. Create and name the columns, use the voting option and merge similar answers.\n\n### “Mad, Sad, Glad” technique\n\nThis is an easy to use method for sprint retrospectives. It helps team members identify the things that make people happy, sad or drive them crazy. The technique consists of five steps: preparation, explain the rules, ideology, grouping and discussion.\n\nAt the very beginning, the Scrum Master or the Agile Coach prepares posters divided into three areas - **Mad, Sad, Glad**. Each participant receives sticky notes and records information that:\n\n* **drove them crazy**: problems, wastes, unwanted surprises, etc.\n* **made them feel sad**: problems between band members, things that didn't go well, etc.\n* **made them feel happy**: successes, achieved things, anything that makes them smile.\n\nThen the sticky notes are added to the appropriate areas on the posters and the discussion begins.\n\nAs in the above case, our [Sprint Retrospective Tool ](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/)will work great here. Create and name the columns, use the voting option and merge similar answers. The real-time collaboration will make your discussion easier, especially when working with a remote and dispersed team.\n\n## The Sprint Retrospective questions\n\nSometimes a well-asked question during a sprint retrospective can trigger a discussion that will be beneficial. The following set of questions will allow you to get information from the team and help you to improve the quality of your work in the next sprint.\n\n1. What helps your team to be successful?\n2. What do you expect from other team members?\n3. What impediments do you see?\n4. What did you learn that will increase the quality of your work in the future?\n5. What caused the problems that you’ve seen in the sprint?\n6. Why did this work well for you?\n7. What puzzles you and can’t be understood well?\n\n## Summary\n\nThese are just a few extremely powerful methods of conducting the sprint retrospective. I hope that you will find among them solutions that will help you - as the Scrum Master and the Agile Coach - increase the effectiveness of the team and achieve the intended results. Please remember that, depending on any problems you see in the team and the current stage of the project, different methods may work better or worse.\n\nWe believe that our [Sprint Retrospective Tool](https://www.boldare.com/sprint-retrospective-tool/), which we developed in Boldare and now want to share with the community, will help you in your work and improve your next sprint retrospective. Additional information about this online solution can be found on the dedicated website."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"sprint_retrospective_at_boldare.jpg","lead":"","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2019-12-17T13:00:57.735Z","slug":"sprint-retrospective-ideas-for-scrum-masters","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"How to","additionalCategories":["Agility"],"url":null},"author":"Jacek Zięba","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Sprint Retrospective ideas for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches ","tileDescription":"The sprint retrospective is a meeting organized after the sprint review. It aims to improve the work of the scrum team during the subsequent sprints. I have prepared for you an overview of the best methods that you – as the Scrum Master or Agile Coach - can use to carry out this meeting.","coverImage":""},"coverImage":null}},"id":"0fbb4d4d-0260-5621-a611-95990eb85acc"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/culture-shift-the-practical-key-to-digital-transformation/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Culture Shift – the practical key to digital transformation","order":null,"content":[{"body":"But wait. That sounds too simplistic. Too theoretical. Too obvious. Exactly. The moment you try to implement digital transformation in practice, you realize that this is not all about having a slick website or popular customer app (although it’s absolutely fine to have those!).\n\nDigital transformation affects the whole organization, potentially changing how it operates on every level in response to the world we live in.\n\n## What is Digital Transformation?\n\nThe phrase **digital transformation often goes hand in hand with words such as agile, efficient, creative, user-centric, customer-oriented**… and these are all good descriptors of a digital transformation process or project but what exactly is being transformed, and how?\n\nAt Boldare, we approach **digital transformation** from a primarily practical perspective. As such, we view it as a two-part concept:\n\n* **Digitization** – the move from analog to digital in your products and services (for example, the shift from a customer service phone number to an online AI-powered chatbot to answer queries).\n* **Digitalization** – using digital technologies to update and streamline your business model and processes.\n\nOne is external-facing, a transformation of how your customers or clients experience your products and services; the other is internal, focused on improving how you operate ‘behind the scenes’.\n\n**The key is to remember that in terms of digital transformation, both these practices are essential components.** The Boldare approach covers both bases.\n\n**Yes**, we work with clients to ‘digitize’ by creating high quality digital products, but we also bring our know-how to the table, benefiting the  client with our practical experience of how organizations can fit into, and thrive in, the new digital business reality.\n\nBefore you begin, the idea of these transformations may sound drastic and all-encompassing (even overwhelming) but in our experience, these transformative processes often grow from a single seed, such as the introduction or updating of a single customer app.\n\nYour **digital transformation** may be driven by one of various factors – customer or user expectations, changes in society, economic realities, a disruption to your sector or industry, or just the unstoppable ‘digital era’ in which we find ourselves – but the ultimate goal is always optimization, of the customer experience, of your business processes, of your digital fitness for purpose.\n\n## Digital transformation in a VUCA world – the outside influence\n\nWe all know it’s a complicated world and not getting any simpler but it’s more than that. Originally a military concept, **VUCA** is commonly used for the modern business world and stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous which is a comprehensive way of saying ‘extremely complicated’.\n\nAgainst this external backdrop, any business practice, process or project must tread carefully – **simplistic strategies don’t tend to work well in a complex environment**. Any approach must be nuanced and start with a deep understanding of where you are, where you wish to be, and what exactly must be overcome along the way.\n\n**In a digital transformation, it’s all too easy (and tempting) to focus on the technology aspects of the change**: What’s possible? What are we missing? What would work for our customers? and so on. However, technology is a surface issue (remember, digitization is only half the process here).\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"Practical tips on changing the service provider and still delivering your digital product\" />\n\nA genuine transformation must address the obstacles to change, such as internal inertia, legacy systems and processes. In other words, your existing business culture. In fact, the _**PwC report,**_[ _**Industry 4.0: Building the digital experience**_](https://www.pwc.nl/en/publicaties/industry-4-0-building-the-digital-enterprise.html), cites a “lack of digital culture” as the biggest challenge facing companies right now.\n\nWhat exactly does a “**lack of digital culture**” look like? The following points might indicate where you have work to do…\n\n* Innovation, risk-taking, new ideas and disruptive thinking are uncommon among employees.\n* Decision-making is a slow process, and few decisions are based on data and analytics.\n* Managers and teams tend to work in silos; cross-functional collaboration is rare.\n* The company is inward-looking, with few or no external partnerships.\n* When faced with a challenge, the digital option is rarely the default.\n* Customer needs are not at the heart of your business strategy.\n\nDoes that sound familiar to you?\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## Cultural change for digital transformation\n\nThe PwC research ties **digital transformation** closely to culture. Whatever we do towards digitization and digitalization has an impact on corporate culture, and whatever we do to change the culture will have an impact on digital transformation – there’s no separating the two and **at Boldare, we’ve found that culture is a highly practical lens through which to view (and guide) the transformation process.**\n\nThe idea of the organization as a complex social system (as opposed to being a kind of tribe or machine) began in the 1960s with sociologist, philosopher and systems theorist, Niklas Luhmann. With this perspective, organizational culture, as the summation of your internal processes, policies, attitudes, successes, failures, ways of working, company legends even, cannot be directly changed or influenced. True culture change comes from decisions and changes regarding the factors that contribute to your overall culture.\n\nThese include:\n\n* **Programmes** – your business vision, strategy, policies, pricing, etc.\n* **Communication channels** – your organizational structure, hierarchy, roles & accountabilities, regular meetings, comms tools, etc.\n* **Personnel** – not your employees but rather the qualifications that they possess, and the potential career paths open to them.\n\nAny decision or change to one of these three elements has an impact on your organizational culture (the system). But what does that look like in practice?\n\n## Digital transformation for real – our clients’ experiences\n\nCurrently, **Boldare is involved in a number of digital transformation projects** and details from one of these projects are useful to illustrate how the way in which we have built products together has driven the digital transformation process.\n\n**One of our clients undergoing digital transformation is definitely operating in a VUCA world**, facing rising costs, legislative pressures, and a changing global business environment. **Their digital transformation is well under way**, however, the whole process began with work on scaling a single digital product.\n\nThe very first project we delivered together was strongly focused on the client’s customers. We worked in close cooperation with the client partner’s teams. Both sides followed the **agile principles** and **scrum processes** of digital product development with clear roles and responsibilities, and maintained full comms transparency while producing a product increment every two weeks. As a result, we created an **MVP of an app** that was widely acclaimed by the client’s customers - a digital product that continues to be developed.\n\n<RelatedArticle title=\"MVP development - what, why & how\" />\n\nAs this first project continued, we started a second one, developing an a mobile app for one of the client’s core business services. Again, as we continued this digitization of the company’s services and customer experience, we followed principles of transparency and close collaboration. However, with two projects ongoing, a more strategic approach was necessary to synchronize iterations and project management.\n\nA third product followed and faced with managing multiple development projects, the client and Boldare developed a common roadmap and a single backlog of tasks for all three projects. Ultimately, as a consequence of this more strategic approach, **we assembled a joint R&D team to take the lead on further product development**, including recruitment of employees with skills new to the organization.\n\nIn summary, we had:\n\n* Three teams building three products, at different stages.\n* The same processes and full transparency for all three.\n* An interdisciplinary R&D team of people from both the client’s side and Boldare (50:50).\n* An aligned strategy and methodology throughout.\n* Steady, incremental growth\n\nThe process of transformation now includes both digitization and digitalization aspects and has so far been logical and organic, growing steadily and consolidating various inputs and changes to the three elements of the organization as a system: its programmes, its communications channels, and its personnel.\n\n**One of the biggest benefits of this kind close collaboration** was that the client could take full advantage of our resources, knowledge and experience of development processes,  bringing that expertise into their company and making it their own. **We are proud that we could offer this kind of knowledge transfer, and our partnership continues to be beneficial for both sides.**\n\n## Digital transformation – the big picture built on practical details\n\nFaced with an increasingly complex world, in which consumers and customers increasingly insist on digital interaction and convenience, all businesses are faced with the need for digital transformation sooner or later. However, this is not just a challenge for your IT department or outsourced technology supplier.\n\n**Digital transformation is a change that affects the whole organization – the whole ‘system’ – and because of that, simply adding new technology is not enough.**\n\nDigital transformation relies on a cultural transformation and that depends on key changes to the ‘programmes’ on which your organization runs, the way in which you communicate internally and externally, and on the skills and competences you are able to access.\n\nAbove all, digital transformation is a journey towards fully leveraging the possibilities and opportunities of new technologies and their impact faster, better and in more innovative way. But, as the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Start small and be aware of the broader impact of each digital project."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"Digital_transformation_and_cultural_shift.jpg","lead":"Digital transformation is a complex challenge facing almost every modern business. Whatever sector you are in, whether you manufacture products or provide services, whatever continent you operate on, the digital world demands a new approach. The shift to that new approach is digital transformation.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2019-06-30T11:29:36.735Z","slug":"culture-shift-practical-key-to-digital-transformation","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Strategy","additionalCategories":["Culture","Digital transformation"],"url":null},"author":"Adam Surdy","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Digital transformation through cultural shift","tileDescription":"Digital transformation is a complex challenge facing almost every modern business. Whatever sector you are in, whether you manufacture products or provide services, whatever continent you operate on, the digital world demands a new approach. The shift to that new approach is digital transformation.","coverImage":"Cultural_shift_in_digital_transformation.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"faf97935-d7e7-587e-9bd0-e0fb4df7fe7d"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/youtube-videos/new-normal-risk-management/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Crash Course: How to manage risks, web products & software teams in recession? Part 2/3 CRS","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"/img/woman-in-room-with-glass-walls.jpg","lead":"","templateKey":"youtube-video","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2018-08-09T09:39:32.000Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Video","additionalCategories":["Risk Management","Video"],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqcW05_sFw"},"author":"Kamil Mizera","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Crash Course: How to manage risks, web products & software teams in recession? Part 2/3 CRS","tileDescription":"This webinar series consists of three profound lessons within a #CrashCourse: How to manage risks, web products & software teams in recession.","coverImage":"/img/woman-in-room-with-glass-walls.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"9f154073-9f5a-529a-8edf-2fbc93307f61"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/blog/5-signs-you’re-ready-for-holacracy/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"5 Signs You’re Ready for Holacracy","order":null,"content":[{"body":"Of course, the **OS analogy** implies that whatever your business goals, and whatever you build, they must fit within the rules of holacracy — obey the system protocols. Which in everyday ‘people language’ means limitations. After all, there are things we can do with iOS that can’t be done with Windows, and vice versa. Maybe that means that holacracy is better for some types of organization than others. Is it right for you?\n\nHolacracy definitely carries some strict recommendations in its **Constitution**, laying down guiding principles (e.g. safe enough to try) and procedures (e.g. the structure of Tactical Meetings) but… my practical experience as CEO of Boldare, a newly-holacratic company, tells me that holacracy could work anywhere. The questions is, **are you ready?**\n\nHow do you know if you’re „ready”? I recently put the same question to a group of software development company CEOs. This article is the latest in a series chronicling Boldare’s journey into holacracy and outlines 5 key indicators that your company might well be ready for holacracy.\n\n## Company Culture\n\nThe big question first, underpinning everything else: what’s your company culture like? If you take a look at the matrix below, you’ll see that the broad categories of organizational culture can be expressed as, **Collaboration, Control, Cultivation**, and **Competence**.\n\nIf I was to come to your business and ask, How do you do things around here? what kind of answer would I get?\n\n![Schneider Culture Model ](/img/matrix.jpeg \"Schneider Culture Model \")\n\n[Schneider Culture Model ](http://agilitrix.com/2011/03/how-to-make-your-culture-work/)\n\nHolacracy requires a **flat organizational structure**, in which people work closely together and improvement is a constant goal. In other words, if you see yourself on the left hand side of the matrix (with a dollop of Competence, of course) then holacracy could be for you. And if you’re company that uses agile software development than it’s more than likely your software department is very much into a culture of self-organization already.\n\n<NewNormalBanner id=\"newnormal-banner-click\" />\n\n## High levels of trust\n\nOperating within a collaborative culture, holacracy is all about individual responsibility and in order for responsibility to be given, accepted, or used, trust is needed. Each member of a circle must know they can trust their colleagues to deliver, to contribute, to help. Most of all, they must trust themselves. Traditional, hierarchical organizational structures have encouraged us all to rely on managers to be responsible, to take and approve the decisions. However, a holacratic “candidate” company has a flatter structure, and what used to be called „managers” **are no longer there** to supervise everyone else. They are there to refine and improve the processes, help evolve the holacracy model to suit the business needs and as for organization and instruction, those come from within the teams.\n\nThe teams are trusted to **organize their own work**, make their own decisions, identify and tackle their own problems (known as „tensions” in holacracy). In fact, the team — through the various roles — take on the leadership skills previously associated with managers, like problem-solving, decision-making, planning, delegation, communication, and time management. What’s more, individuals within the teams trust each other.\n\n**How do you recognize** this widespread trust? For us, one indicator can be seen in the fact that we have no executives in fancy corner offices. Management roles sit in the main space with everyone else. No status-heavy views from the window. No secretaries or personal assistants. No traditional trappings of management at all. And the result? The unspoken but clear message is that we’re all of value to the company, status and hierarchy are flattened out, and it’s much easier to communicate without ‘status barriers’ getting in the way.\n\nIf your teams are making their own strategic decisions, and receiving coaching and mentoring instead of direction from your managers, then you’re already part way to working holacratically."},{"body":"\n## Absolute transparency\n\nTrust is more likely to thrive in a secret-free environment. If your organization operates on a need-to-know basis, holacracy still be some way off. Holacracy depends on everyone knowing what everyone else is doing (or at least, having access to the information). Yes, a holacratic company has very clearly-defined roles and accountabilities, but that doesn’t mean restrictions, just information: financial results, company structure, plans for the future, open hiring/firing processes, and so on. For example, at Boldare, we publish our financial results daily on the company Slack channel for everyone to see.Transparency gives everyone the context to make the right decisions. After all, if you limit information to selected people, only those people will be equipped to make decisions.\n\nSo, how open are you? How transparent are your dealings? We used to do the usual things: openly publish a quarterly summary of our past 3 months and a yearand the plans for the next… We also used to have quarterly planning sessions, pulling in our various ‘traditional’ departments: Customer Service, HR, Finance, Strategy, Sales… We used Atlasian’s Confluence to keep our knowledge and visibility about product planning nice and clear…\n\n![Boldare company slackbot holacracy report](/img/slackbot-holacracy-report.jpg)\n\nThanks to Slack bot at Boldare everybody are updated daily of a financial context, so they can make better decisions promptly\n\nIn other words, we had a pretty good degree of openness already. But that just inspired us to see what could be done if we were prepared to go further. Now those classic shared services are covered by accountabilities within each team, or circle. Each circle has its own Slack channel to communicate on processes, progress, news, changes, and so on. To sum up, we used to be translucent, now we’re truly transparent. And that’s paying off in terms of trust.\n\n## With great power comes great responsibility\n\nThe biggest challenge of switching from traditional to holacratic mode is the transfer of power. In a classic hierarchy, the further you are from the day-to-day action of the business, the more responsibility and decision-making power you have (and almost definitely, the less well-informed you are). If this sounds backwards, it’s because it is.\n\nIn a **holacracy,** everyone has clear accountabilities and, within the bounds of those accountabilities, they are the decision-maker. A superior circle is responsible for setting each circle’s purpose and strategy, so it’s clear what decisions will suit the company and which will not. If it seems to offer a good chance of improvement and it’s ‘safe enough to try’ then do it! This can and should be very liberating, making for better-informed, more rapid decisions. But not everyone will find it comfortable, at first.\n\nWe were fortunate in that we already had a fairly **simple structure of responsibilities** (just three key ‘divisions’: Business, People, and Engineering, where very often decisions were made on a consensus) so we weren’t dismantling anything too complex. What’s more, as an agile organization, we were used to a Product Owner mindset. Even before holacracy, Boldare's employees were effectively Product Owners in their own projects, keeping the ‘management interference’ to a minimum. If you’re the same, keeping the decision-making authority with the people best-placed to understand the situation (or maybe you just see the value in moving in that direction) then holacracy could be your best option."},{"body":"## A startup mindset\n\nIt’s no surprise that holacracy was developed by a software company with an agile approach to the world. And returning full circle to the first indicator: you’re probably half-holacratic already if you have a startup culture in your organization. Are you:\n\n* Constantly questioning the status quo?\n* Always searching for the next improvement?\n* Curious? — Let’s try it!\n* Open to change? — it’s always difficult but is it safe enough to try?\n* Open to failure?\n* Open to feedback?\n\nIn other words, open! This openness is all about a **willingness to try new things**, which in turn links back to the point about responsibility and decision-making. In a holacratic organization, everyone has the right to **address a tension**, make a proposal, if that tension is within their accountabilities and the proposal is safe enough to try, then the decision is theirs.\n\n![Are you ready for a holocracy?](Five_signs_that_you_are_ready_for_a_holocracy.jpg \"Are you ready for a holocracy?\")\n\nOf course, as in any other kind of business, failure happens. But for us, as an agile holacracy, **failure means learning not punishment**. In fact, we see failure as one of the best teachers, a key part of the learning and improvement process. If this sounds familiar, then you could be ready for holacracy.\n\nA collaborative culture, trust, transparency, responsibility and a startup sensibility… these key ingredients will make it easier to transition to holacratic working. In fact, if you already have these factors in place, holacracy would seem a perfect fit for you.\n\nBut of course, the transition to holacracy will still be difficult — all change is. There have been several high profile cases of companies ‘converting’ to holacracy and then later abandoning it. It’s not for everyone. We’ve been working holacratically for six months now and I can tell you, people will complain, they will face barriers. As well as learning new principles, they have to unlearn the old ways too. Unlearn their natural reliance on managers as sole decision-makers.\n\nMaybe the most important factor is enthusiasm, a willingness to make it work even when the going gets a little tough. After all, holacracy is just a tool (and operating system) and it’s not the tool that gets the job done, it’s the energy, attitude and mindset of the people using it."}],"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"img/5_Signs_You_re_Ready_for_Holacracy.jpg","lead":"Holacracy is often referred to as an ‘operating system’ for organizations. The premise is, I suppose, install the operating system and then build your structure and ways of working like apps based on that OS, and then everything will run smoothly.","templateKey":"article-page","specialArticle":false,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":{"date":"2018-06-05T09:39:32.000Z","slug":"5-signs-you-are-ready-for-holacracy","type":"blog","slugType":null,"category":"Ideas","additionalCategories":["Holacracy","Organization"],"url":null},"author":"Piotr Majchrzak","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"5 Signs You’re Ready for Holacracy","tileDescription":"How do you know if you’re „ready” for Holacracy? I recently put the same question to a group of software development company CEOs. This article is the latest in a series chronicling Boldare’s journey into holacracy and outlines 5 key indicators that your company might well be ready for holacracy.","coverImage":"5_Signs_You_re_Ready_for_Holacracy.jpg"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"ce64d144-f9f4-528b-be78-62cda2836cbb"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/medium-pages/our-holacracy-experience copy/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Surviving the Storm: 5 Coronavirus Risk Management Strategies","order":null,"content":null,"job":null,"photo":null,"slug":null,"cover":"medium-risk-mgmt.png","lead":"As if the world wasn’t VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) enough, the coronavirus pandemic has completely changed the business landscape; possibly forever. We don’t know exactly what the future holds but in early April, the United Nations described COVID-19 as, “…the most challenging crisis since World War II,” and JPMorgan has predicted a drop in global GDP of 1.1% which translates to a cost of trillions of dollars to the world economy. Whatever your industry or sector, your business is faced with unprecedented risks.","templateKey":"medium-page","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":"linkedin","settings":{"date":"2018-03-05T09:39:32.000Z","slug":null,"type":null,"slugType":null,"category":"Risk Management","additionalCategories":["Risk Management"],"url":"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/surviving-storm-5-coronavirus-risk-management-piotr-majchrzak/"},"author":"Piotr Majchrzak","authorAdditional":null,"box":{"content":{"title":"Surviving the Storm: 5 Coronavirus Risk Management Strategies","tileDescription":"As if the world wasn’t VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) enough, the coronavirus pandemic has completely changed the business landscape; possibly forever. We don’t know exactly what the future holds but in early April, the United Nations described COVID-19 as, “…the most challenging crisis since World War II,” and JPMorgan has predicted a drop in global GDP of 1.1% which translates to a cost of trillions of dollars to the world economy. Whatever your industry or sector, your business is faced with unprecedented risks.","coverImage":"medium-risk-mgmt.png"},"coverImage":null}},"id":"36f10b35-7dcd-5d35-9574-ef3dd171ff2a"}}]},"authors":{"edges":[{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/authors/adam-surdy/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Adam Surdy","order":null,"content":null,"job":"Business Development","photo":"/img/adam_surdy.png","slug":"adam-surdy","cover":null,"lead":null,"templateKey":"author-page","specialArticle":null,"isNewWork":null,"isNewNormal":null,"service":null,"settings":null,"author":null,"authorAdditional":null,"box":null},"id":"30b67b0e-b184-53d5-bdee-f6f29e9a4ef2"}},{"node":{"excerpt":"","fields":{"slug":"/authors/anastasiia-parkhomenko/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Anastasiia Parkhomenko","order":null,"content":null,"job":"PHP 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