Can a Digital or Traditional Agency be Agile? Ryan Lejbak, the CEO of Canadian-based digital agency zu didn't think so. However, the staff of 60 convinced him to try. There were lots of ups and downs along the way, but over the past 18 months zu has experienced higher revenues, margins and client satisfaction. And the employees love it. Ryan will take you through the process of moving from Waterfall to Agile and share lessons on what ideas worked and what didn't. See this behind-the-scenes look at the transformation of an agency and see what disrupted the agency model in Canada.

1. Can an agency
be agile?
ryan.lejbak@zu.com
@ryanlejbak

2. The Pitch

3. Interactive Agency
Technology Design
Software
Ad Agency
Development

4. Why Agile?

5. Client
Fixed
Yesterday
Predictability

6. Agency
Steady cash
Flexible timeline
Plan as we go

7. Client Agency
Fixed Steady cash
Yesterday QUALITY Flexible timeline
Predictability Plan as we go

8. Waterfall

9. Waterfall
Discovery Planning Design Development Changes
Launch
Re-plan
Re-design

10. Cost of changes vs time
100
Waterfall
83
67
Cost50
33
Agile
17
0
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Time

11. RFP Discovery Launch

12. Agile
Discovery & Analysis Feature Feature Feature Launch
Planning & Roadmap Measure & Improve

13. Happy Clients

14. Agile

15. Agile
Flickr: mquest

16. Agile
Stories

17. Agile
Sprint

18. Agile
Progress
Demo

19. Agile
Backlog

20. Cost of changes vs time
100
Waterfall
83
67
Cost50
33
Agile
17
0
Untitled 1 Untitled 2 Untitled 3 Untitled 4 Untitled 5 Untitled 6 Untitled 7
Time

21. Prepping
Hiring

22. Prepping
Cosultants

23. Challenges
Inefficient people

24. Challenges
Hiring

25. Challenges
Designers

26. Challenges
Strategy

27. Challenges
Buy-in

28. Challenges
Coaching

29. Challenges
DocShare
Clients’ trust
iPad Reader

30. Results

31. Results
20% less staff
revenue stayed the same
profit up
margins up

32. Results

33. Success
Management

34. Up in the air
Floors make a difference

35. Up in the air
Seating plan

36. Up in the air

37. Facilitate sharing and growth
Legend
Developer
Designer
Design Common

38. Up in the air
Technology vs whiteboards

39. Up in the air

42. Up in the air
Contractors
Hiring
AM vs PO

43. Up in the air
Culture

44. Can an agency be agile?
Yes

45. That’s all folks
www.zu.com ryan.lejbak@zu.com
www.zulive.com @ryanlejbak
contactus@zu.com
@zutweets