Do you want to grow your business faster and beat your competitors?
Look, there are tried and true ways to grow a business, and forward-thinking companies are already on them. Agile is your ticket. Agile practices are gaining traction every year for a reason – they work.
Want to know the problem?
Legacy business models rely on dated practices that make companies plod along. Too often, organizations can’t react quickly enough when markets shift. The consequences are lost profits, customers, and opportunities.
Is there a solution?
There is! Agile practices address each of these points and give companies the ability to compete in a fast-moving world. Let’s go over why that is.
Note: This post was written by Elliot Christman and curated by Johnny Grow.
What are Agile Practices?
In its simplest form, agile is a framework for faster and more adaptable business processes. With agile, you focus on iterative development, where work is broken into small manageable pieces and repeated as needed.
Instead of months of upfront planning and an all-in commitment, you get feedback at every step. This allows you to adapt and change direction as you learn what works (and what doesn’t).
The benefits of an agile workflow are significant and in demand for every business. Johnny Grow’s consulting services delivered as promised when it comes to helping companies learn and develop their agile strategies. If you’re trying to decide between agile and traditional processes, just consider the results.
Why Agile Is One of the Best Ways to Grow Your Business
So now you’re probably wondering, where’s the evidence?
Guess what? There is more data than you might expect, and it’s all in support of adopting agile practices.
You see, 60% of businesses report an increase in revenue after adopting agile practices. Sixty percent! Not 5%. Not 20%.
Businesses large and small are seeing better results in everything from time to market, productivity, and collaboration. It makes sense when you think about it.
Agile reduces costly delays by catching errors early.
Agile creates a feedback loop that makes businesses more flexible.
Agile encourages collaboration that breaks down silos.
Agile forces companies to focus on customer value above all.
This leads to better business results. And there are the numbers to back it up.
4x Agile Strategies that Actually Work to Drive Results
The best part of agile is that it’s easy to implement. While no one strategy will revolutionize your company, there are several common ones that work. Select one (or two) and get started. The results will show themselves in no time.
Keep Iterations Short
Agile is all about sprints. Break large projects down into 2-week cycles. Deliver a working piece of the project at the end of each sprint.
This allows your team to test and adapt as you go. Instead of six months to completion, you get results in two weeks.
This fast feedback cycle lets you course-correct if things go wrong. Mistakes are easy to correct in a sprint cycle.
The result? Less risk and faster time-to-market.
Build Cross-Functional Teams
Traditionally, you would assign projects to siloed teams within the same department. Now cross-functional teams are commonplace in agile. Take developers and combine them with a marketing team, for example.
Better to have these people working side-by-side than separate from each other. It’s no secret that bad communication is the root of 80% of all business problems.
Cross-functional teams encourage dialogue and share knowledge.
Cross-functional teams also help businesses adapt when markets change. Adaptation takes more than one type of brainpower.
Agile uses diverse teams to get different perspectives on challenges.
The more perspectives, the better your solutions.
Embrace Continuous Feedback
Nothing helps you iterate and improve more than feedback. This can come from a variety of sources.
Daily standups with your teams.
Quantitative data.
It doesn’t matter where you get the feedback as long as you get it.
The idea is simple; your teams should be collecting feedback at all times.
Feedback is the fuel for agile. Companies that embrace continuous feedback learn faster.
And as they say, those that learn the fastest win.
Focus on Delivering Customer Value
This one may seem a little obvious. Focus on your customer.
Ask yourself, how can we provide more value to our customers?
This question can be the North Star for any organization. Decisions get filtered through a customer value lens.
If something doesn’t help the customer, is it worth doing?
This is the single greatest use of agile by the most successful companies.
Remember, you must adapt and pivot to provide more customer value as markets change.
If your competition is still tied to legacy waterfall business models, you will win.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Agile Practices
Agile practices are more of an art than a science. It’s rare that an organization will get it 100% correct.
But over time, with practice, you can get close. Below are some common mistakes made by most companies who adopt agile practices.
First, don’t go too fast. Agile is not an all-or-nothing framework. Pick a single team or department to start.
Second, allow time for retrospectives. In agile, teams need time to review and reflect on what is and isn’t working. Without retrospectives, agile becomes a random mess of change. Structure those change sessions to be productive.
Third, don’t ignore culture. Culture eats strategy for lunch. As such, companies need buy-in from all levels for agile practices to be successful. Top-down support matters. Don’t be afraid to lean on the culture aspect of agility.
Finally, don’t skimp on training. Agile isn’t easy. If you rush it, teams will become confused and frustrated. Make sure all team members are trained on the concepts and principles of agile.
How to Start Implementing Agile Practices Without Getting Overwhelmed
You’ve read this far, which means you are motivated to learn more. I admire that.
If you’re new to agile, it can be a lot to take in. As such, start with the basics. Then build from there.
Begin with a single team or department. Don’t try to roll out company-wide agile changes on day one. Pick one group and help them go agile.
Once you’ve mastered one team, repeat the process with a second team.
Before long, the company becomes agile.
Sounds too easy? It’s not. But it’s the process every business needs to go through to succeed with agile. Don’t be scared to start with baby steps. Each step leads to mastery.
Final Thoughts: Making Your Business Agile
Agile is the best way to improve business growth and operations. With the right framework, agile allows companies to move faster, adapt quicker, and deliver more value to customers.
There is an increasing amount of evidence that agile is working. Companies report improved collaboration and better alignment with business goals when agile practices are adopted.
Here are some of the main takeaways:
- Agile focuses on iterative development
- Agile practices improve business speed, adaptability, and collaboration
- Start with one team and grow from there
- Keep a customer value filter on every decision
- Stay consistent and always improve
The winners of the future will be companies that use agile practices today. The questions no longer are if you should go agile. It is only a matter of how soon can you begin the journey?
