Crazy 8 ideas
Exploring Opportunities to Prepare for the Future
As a Global Software consultancy, ThoughtWorks UK collaborated with us to envision consulting services so that they can design a future that remains true to their core values.
Responsibilities:
Sprint Leader, Animation, Research
Partner:
ThoughtWorks UK
Challenge:
Reimagine how consulting services might be shaped to meet new challenges in the market and ways of working.
Outcome:
Roobiks, a module for their existing internal employee platform that would help align and influence growth strategy; pushing off a ground-up the initiative.
Consultancy??
We kicked off by mapping how consultancies operated and understanding “what makes them them”. We did this through various interviews with ThoughtWorks and other consultants. Some were in person; most were remote. Some were straight questions; others had exercises designed around our queries. Doing this gave us a better idea of what the future would entail for them and what they did on a day to day basis.
Figuring out how to think about our approach, we had a “Hospital Analogy” and a model based off Ansoff matrix.
What Makes a ThoughtWorker
A ThoughtWorker is someone that works at ThoughtWorks. They have a culture that is unique to them; every ThoughtWorker finds meaning through the values of the organisation.
Our challenge then was “How might we align individual and organisation growth?”. As they scaled in numbers, it was important that everyone had a voice and could influence the way the company grew. The alignment would be a feedback loop of expectation and purpose. When discussing the future, it was clearly about progress— GROWTH! We had to define the factors and tailored it for ThoughtWork.
When discussing the future, it was clearly about progress— GROWTH! We had to define the factors and tailored it for ThoughtWork.
How might we align individual and organisation growth?
Growth factors that we used as sprint themes.
1. Research and Innovation
2. People Management
3. Service Model
4. Performance Management.
On your marks, Get Set, Go!
Through this project, our team wanted to try something new— Sprints! We defined the factors of growth and narrowed it to four themes for our sprints.
In the end, we did three sprints, combining the last two themes into a mega sprint. I was the sprint leader for two sprints.
The goal was to design a mega vision that combined all our learnings from the sprints. Trying to keep our sprints separate was challenging as everything we did would feed into the next sprint.
Our sprint process was: Map > Plan > Make > Test
And the winner is...
Roobiks! We’ll figure it out.
We presented our growth vision for ThoughtWorks. It was a blend of digital and physical solutions that would enable them to safely grow by building on their existing capabilities, brand presence and what differentiates them. So that they could continue providing their clients with quality work, made by passionate people in a broader range of technology.
“…building on their existing capabilities, brand presence and what differentiates them”
What would Growth with a People over Profit approach look like?
A Great Culture
Through this project, I learnt more about consultancies and how they operate, how a great culture is essential to a happy workplace. And sometimes you don’t need to plan, but it is crucial to create the right environment to flourish.
My proudest moment was to see my team working together and debating, creating chaos to find harmony. We were driven by a common purpose to create a better future for someone else. And of course, the big smile and nod of approval from the Head of Growth, when we presented Roobiks to them.
