Video and slides synchronized, mp3 and slide download available at URL http://bit.ly/2m3Yly0. John Cutler talks about Bets, Boards, and Missions, and how to apply them in an organization, and why it is important to uplevel teams and become outcome-focused. Filmed at qconnewyork.com. John Cutler currently works as a product evangelist at Amplitude. As a former UX researcher at AppFolio, a product manager at Zendesk, Pendo.io, AdKeeper and RichFX, a startup founder, and a product team coach he has a perspective that spans individual roles, domains, and products.

1. Using Bets, Boards and Missions to
Inspire Org-Wide Agility
QCon New York 2019
Joh Cutler

2. InfoQ.com: News & Community Site
• 750,000 unique visitors/month
• Published in 4 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian
Portuguese)
• Post content from our QCon conferences
• News 15-20 / week
• Articles 3-4 / week
• Presentations (videos) 12-15 / week
• Interviews 2-3 / week
• Books 1 / month
Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
bets-boards-missions-agile/

3. Presented at QCon New York
www.qconnewyork.com
Purpose of QCon
- to empower software development by facilitating the spread of
knowledge and innovation
Strategy
- practitioner-driven conference designed for YOU: influencers of
change and innovation in your teams
- speakers and topics driving the evolution and innovation
- connecting and catalyzing the influencers and innovators
Highlights
- attended by more than 12,000 delegates since 2007
- held in 9 cities worldwide

4. John Cutler
@johncutlefish
medium.com/@johnpcutler

5. Who is this for?

6. Anatomy of a failed change agent…

7. “Oh, this sounds interesting…”
“What is John saying? What does he want?”
“We need more of that! But how?”
“John is causing mass agitation!”
“Ugh. Politics as usual…”
“Danger! DANGER!”
“I guess this will never change…”
“It is! Happy to have you aboard JC!”
“We should try this…”

8. Professional Canary in a Coal Mine

9. Confusion (externally, and personally) between…
My personal needs (including a new to “fix”)
Advocating for participatory continuous
improvement (the process, not specific outcomes)
Specific interventions (e.g. let’s do this)

10. Change agent V2(or 10)…

12. It is hard. For everyone.
Some are healthier than others.

13. OKRs?
Canvas X?
Canvas Y?
Discovery Sprints?
Research Sprints?
Google Sprint?
Jobs-to-be-done?
One-pagers?
Tribes and squads?
HEART?
AARRR?

16. Respond
Sense
Respond
Sense

17. A whole universe of safe to fail hacks
Focus on the OS for “trying things”
Coherence and sense-making
Offer ideas occasionally

18. The big ideas…

19. Product development is a beautiful, fractal, networked mess
Efforts to simplify or standardize often backfire
Treating it like a factory often backfires
Reflect on what is actually happening
Create a flow of meaningful stories
Embrace the mess

20. Mirrors are powerful.

21. A quick Feature Factory detour…

23. Angst is easy (and easy to trigger)
People crave certainty (and uncertainty = opportunity)
People have a deep, deep need for a sense of impact
People have a deep, deep need for coherence
More about a constant flow of impactful stories

24. Rapid feedback loops. More repeatable wins (and bigger wins). More with less complexity.
5 4 2 6 7 3
3 2 1
3 6 7 8 2 6 10 9
6
27
49
Well oiled feature factory. Reasonably usable features. Reasonably happy customers. Occasional wins.
Difficult to get anything “out the door”. Extremely long feedback loops.
Impact
Total
Time

25. Framing things as bets…
1

26. “So that is your bet? Let’s talk about it…”

27. Bets can be…
Big
Small
Risky
Safe
Prescriptive
Descriptive
Big batch
Increment friendly
Upfront gamble
Change bet over time
Networked/connected
Isolated

28. http://tiny.cc/you-betcha

29. Write some BetLibs

30. The work takes on different shapes…
2

31. A. Build exactly this [to a predetermined specification]
B. Build something that does [specific behavior, input-output,
interaction]
C. Build something that lets a segment of customers complete [some
task, activity, goal]
D. Solve this [more open-ended customer problem]
E. Explore the challenges of, and improve the experience for,
[segment of users/customers]
F. Increase/decrease [metric] known to influence a specific business
outcome
G. Explore various potential leverage points and run experiments to
influence [specific business outcome]
H. Directly generate [short-term business outcome]
I. Generate [long-term business outcome]

33. A B C D E F G H I
Dev
UX
PM
A. Build exactly this [to a
predetermined specification]
B. Build something that does
[specific behavior, input-output,
interaction]
C. Build something that lets a
segment of customers
complete [some task, activity,
goal]
D. Solve this [more open-ended
customer problem]
E. Explore the challenges of, and
improve the experience for,
[segment of users/customers]
F. Increase/decrease [metric]
known to influence a specific
business outcome
G. Explore various potential
leverage points and run
experiments to influence
[specific business outcome]
H. Directly generate [short-term
business outcome]
I. Generate [long-term business
outcome]

34. A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
Team
PM
GM
Team
PM
VPoP
GM
Org 1 Org 2

35. Categorize a sample of work.
Make it visual.

36. The messy middle…
3

37. 1-3h 1-3d 1-3w 1-3m 1-3q 1-3y 1-3decades
Sense
Respond

38. 1-3h 1-3d 1-3w 1-3m 1-3q 1-3y 1-3decades
Sense
Respond Messy Middle

39. Map work along a time horizon.
Nest related work

40. Hack the language…
4

41. Problems/Solutions
Projects
Experiments
“Done”
“Done”
Dependency Wrangling
Debt
Opportunities/Interventions
Missions
Bets
Decision Point
Review & Measurement
Playing Tetris
Drag

42. Build
Measure
Learn
Modulate
generates new
opportunities
discover & target
opportunities
Where should we intervene
to learn/create value?
intervene
Let’s try this...
make (some) sense of the
system
how is value created,
stored, transferred?
diverge converge diverge converge
Observe Orient Decide Act
diverge converge
Betting on what we
understand...
Betting on where we
focus...
Betting on how we
respond...
generates new
opportunities
etc learn more
about system
alters system
1 2 3 Build
Measure
Learn
Modulate

43. Catalog language in use.
Try subtle changes.

44. Designing the work taxonomy…
5

45. What must you eventually know
about this work to make good
decisions at the right cadence?

46. How does work appear in these queues?
How often? With advance notice? Who puts work in these queues?
Dependencies on other groups
Deadline? (real or not)
Cost of being late (or not delivering feature)
Size of effort
Expect impact of item
Ability to measure impact (and time)
Data on existing usage
Who is advocate? Who are stakeholders?
What is solution certainty? (range)
What is problem uncertainty?
Impacting current customers?
Type of design work
Core improvements
New feature development
Bandaids/fixes
Skills/functions required
Customer visibility
Collaboration model (e.g. contractor teams)
Urgency (P0, P1, P2)
Assumptions / beliefs
Learning goal? Permanence?
Risks willing to incur
Needed / caused by / blocked by tech debt
Background / prior story / veracity of data
Headwinds / blockers
Connected to core strategy?
Reactive vs proactive
Tech used
Org visibility
PIA factor / fun factor
Do not disturb - focus required
Solve tech debt / add new tech debt
When do you need to know the info?
Who needs to be around?
Tags V1 Vs.

47. “Got it! So we will have a PRD
template that EVERYONE needs to
fill in, and review it at each and
every handoff?”
Instead consider…

48. Try a “flexible design a one-pager”
exercise (or one-pager checklist)

49. Letter to the future…
6

50. A continuous artifact…
Kickoff
Revisit
Regularly
Review
Analysis and
Framing

51. A safe decision review.

52. Big maps of systems…
7

54. Just try it…

55. Flattening the model…
8A

56. 3-9mo1-3y
Mid/Long
Term Value
North Star
Input
Input
Input
Health
Indicators
Level 1 BetsLevel 0 Bets
Value Creation Model
Beliefs, Assumptions, Strategy

57. Weekly Learning Users (WLUs)
# of Weekly Users who are active
and share a learning that is
consumed by at least 2 other people
in the previous 7 days.
Activated Accounts
Organizations that have reached at least 5
WLUs.
Broadcasted Learning (BL)
A chart, dashboard, or Notebook consumed by
2 or more people within a 7 day period.
Consumption of Learnings (CoL)
Total reach of BL in an organization within a 7
day period.

58. North Star workshop

59. Layering in interventions and OKRs…
8B

60. 3-9mo1-3y
Mid/Long
Term Value
North Star
Input
Input
Input
Health
Indicators
Level 1 BetsLevel 0 Bets
Value Creation Model
Beliefs, Assumptions, Strategy
Target Input(s)
Level 2 Bets
1-3mo

61. 3-9mo1-3y
Mid/Long
Term Value
North Star
Input
Input
Input
Health
Indicators
Level 1 BetsLevel 0 Bets
Value Creation Model
Beliefs, Assumptions, Strategy
Target Input(s)
Level 2 Bets
1-3mo
OKRs
Forecasted impact on input

62. Map work to Inputs.

63. A big, visual, hybrid board…
8C

64. Level 2 Bet
Target Input(s)
Level 3 Bet
Focus On
Next
To Try Trying Review
ReviewFocusing
To Try Trying Review
To Try Trying Review
Team A
Team B
Team C
1-3mo 1-3w
OKRs
Impact
on
Input
3-9mo1-3y
Mid/Long Term
Value North Star
Input
Input
Input
Health
Indicators
Level 1 BetsLevel 0 Bets
Value Creation Model
Beliefs, Assumptions, Strategy
3mo
Observe continuously, revisit periodically

66. North Star
1-3 year bets Inputs
Focusing Trying Review

67. Get out that tape.
Get those magnets.

68. Questions

69. Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
bets-boards-missions-agile/