Doing a LeSS Flip in Two Months with Org Topologies by Roland Flemm

This video presents Roland's account of a Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) transformation at Stacker, a Dutch company operating in the electric vehicle charging market. Stacker's 50-person R&D department faced challenges with increasing time to market and a decline in innovation, despite workforce growth.

There is also a written case study by Roland on this.

Key Aspects of the Transformation:

• The Challenge: As Stacker transitioned from a startup to a scale-up, adding more personnel did not resolve issues such as delivery delays, lengthening time to market, and a decreasing rate of innovation [03:14].

• The Approach: The engineering and product heads, influenced by employees familiar with LeSS, opted to implement the LeSS framework to tackle these problems [04:45].

• Core Lessons Learned:

  • The significance of management's comprehension and backing of LeSS [06:55].

  • The value of shared ownership of problems and solutions, aided by Org Topologies [07:38].

  • The necessity of monitoring a "critical mass of believers" for a smooth transition [08:21].

  • The importance of volunteering, adhering to a strict target date, focused coaching, and the ability to improvise [10:11].

• Transformation Timeline: The entire process, from initial discussions to the "flip" (the go-live date), spanned approximately two months [13:43].

• Change Team & Focus: A dedicated change team of 15 individuals from diverse roles was assembled to prepare for the LeSS implementation [16:13]. The transformation concentrated on three main areas: the product backlog, ways of working, and technology [18:17].

• New Team Structure: The reorganized structure comprised three areas, each targeting a specific customer segment. Teams were assigned based on feature requirements [28:53].

• Training and Implementation: Comprehensive training sessions were held to educate teams on Scrum, LeSS, and associated concepts [44:54]. The "flip" day involved defining the "definition of done," clarifying product backlogs, enabling self-designing teams, and establishing team agreements [48:28].

• Post-Transformation: The initial sprint following the flip prioritized learning, understanding customer needs, and addressing existing technical debt [01:05:16]. A rotating support duty was established to manage bugs and foster continuous improvement [56:16]. Coaching efforts centered on multi-learning, reducing complexity, and ensuring universal contribution [01:02:08].

• Observed Outcomes: The transformation resulted in enhanced learning, a better grasp of customer needs, and the identification of technical debt [01:05:16].

• Role of Org Topologies: Roland emphasized the utility of Org Topologies in comprehending and tackling organizational design challenges [01:11:55].