This is the final installment of four articles tying the concepts, values, and principles of Agile and Scrum to the Customer Experience discipline.  I introduced the series here, and parts one, two, and three are here, here, and here.  In this article, I’ll dive into the concept of embracing change.  Specifically, the Manifesto highlights this aspect of Agile project management as preferring to respond to change rather than following a plan.

Now, the idea here isn’t to not have a plan or that planning is somehow bad or discouraged.  But keep in mind that the genesis of Agile as an approach to project management was a rejection of the rigid nature with which some PMs follow a plan, ignoring or wishing-away changes to the environment around them.  As I mentioned in an earlier article in this series, when Customer needs change (as they always do), it won’t do to simply follow the plan as originally written and expect good results. (more…)

This is the third in a series of four articles about applying the concepts of Agile and Scrum to Customer Experience.  I introduce the concept here, and parts one and two are here and here, respectively.  In this installment, we’ll consider the value that considers Customer collaboration to be more important than contract negotiation. (more…)

This is part two of a four-part series of articles wherein I tie out the principles and values of Agile Project Management with Customer Experience.  I introduced the concept here, and part one is here.  Let’s jump right in to the second value, as articulated in the Agile Manifesto and associate a few Agile principles along the way: (more…)

This is the first in a four-part series of articles about Agile/Scrum and how we as CX practitioners and leaders can integrate the approach and theories of Agile Project Management in our work.  I’m framing the series by way of highlighting Agile’s four values as enumerated in the Agile Manifesto and also integrating what are called the twelve principles advanced by the same group that invented it.  You can find the introduction article to this series here.

In this installment, I’ll be reviewing the first Agile value of prioritizing individuals and their interactions over adherence to processes and the use of tools. (more…)

One of the more curious—and least expected—experiences in my professional career is how I became a professor at the US Air Force Academy.  I wasn’t formally trained as an educator but learned at the knee of some wonderful academicians and thought-leaders in the field.  One thing that I took to right away was analogizing, or finding different ways to explain or apply a concept.  This is vital to education because a classroom full of cadets is a collection of different ways of looking at the world:  If you can’t make some effort to appreciate different ways people grasp concepts, you’re in for a rough day in front of the class.

That translates into the business world in some interesting ways, most fun of which is leveraging one’s skills in ways that are less traditional or somehow different than they were initially intended.  I’ve written a bit about the importance of leveraging Process Engineering generally, and Lean Six Sigma in particular to the field of Customer Experience.  It’s the “do something” with the VoC that differentiates a truly successful CX effort from simply a survey reporting function within your organization.

All of that throat-clearing as a setup to introduce that, before I started the CX chapter of my career, I was also a Certified Scrum Master, coaching and teaching Agile Project Management and Scrum.  Recently I was thinking deliberately about how the principles and practice of Agile and Scrum may apply to the CX field of work.  As you may expect, I found many lines along which one can find the value and applicability of Agile in CX, as well as CX in Agile (there’s a joke about peanut butter and chocolate in there somewhere). (more…)