This document outlines LeanKit's product development operating model, which aims to transition the organization from chaos to confidence. Key elements of the model include using Kanban and cadences to visualize and limit work-in-progress, organizing teams into squads and guilds for autonomous delivery, and holding regular meetings like tribal councils and architecture committees. The model emphasizes continuous delivery of value through deploying increments every 5 days, measuring outcomes, and improving collaboratively.

1. @leankitjon
From Chaos to Confidence:
LeanKit’s PD Model
Jon Terry

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14. @leankitjon
Values First & Non-negotiable

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Lean: A virtuous cycle of continuous improvement

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Kanban: See better to evolve together
1. Visualize the current workflow
2. Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP)
3. Manage for smooth flow
4. Make process policies explicit
5. Implement rapid feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively using Kanban
to implement Lean

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Jidoka: Auto(nom)ating for Scale

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Andon: Slow down to speed up
• Trying to solve a critical issue alongside normal
work, or worse ignoring it, helps nobody
• Everyone has the right and responsibility to call out
what they believe to be critical issues
• False alarms are OK
• A stop-the-line involves a least a whole squad as
well as any squad with experts needed for the issue
• Communicate resolution as soon as practical
• Don’t resume normal work until the team has done
a root cause analysis

22. @leankitjon
Org Structures for Autonomy

23. Guilds and Squads
“Direct reporting” org chart
Hiring
Training
Standards
Mentoring
Squad
“Dotted line” delivery groups
Goal is 7 +/- 2 members
Has skills for 80% of work
Member can belong to only 1 squad
Located together (physically or
virtually)
Work assigned to the squad not
squad members
Guild

24. Guilds and Squads
Web 1 Web 2 Mobile
Arch, Tools
& Auto
Analytics
Platform
Ops
Business
Enablement
Product Management & UX
Product Development
Operations & Quality

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(Craft) Guilds - Hiring, Training & Standards

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Squads - Decoupled Planning & Delivery

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Squads - Decoupled Planning & Delivery

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Squad Rooms - In Between Open and Individual

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Tribal Council
WhatWho When
Discuss
Road Map
Departmental
Policies
Tribal Leaders
PD Execs
Council Members
Product Managers
UX Leads
Technical Managers
in their role as
Delivery Leads
Mon - Wed
Stand-up to surface
delivery issues
Thu
Full meeting to
resolve issues

30. @leankitjon
WhatWho When
Discuss
Technical
standards
AT-AT Roadmap
Develop A3’s for
additional
sustainability
investments
Chairmen
CTO & CIO
Members
Technical Managers
in their role as
Architects
Tue
Working session
Thu
Report back to
Tribal Council
Architecture Committee

31. @leankitjon
Product Roadmap

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Roadmap Forecasting Goal
Squad Last This Sweep Next 2 Out Later
1
Rollout &
Measurement
Executing
Pull Plan
A3 &
Mockups
A3 Theme
2
Rollout &
Measurement
Theme
N Rollout &
Measurement
A3 &
Mockups
A3
ThemeA3 &
Mockups
A3
Executing
Pull Plan
Executing
Pull Plan

33. Value created Value captured
Key metrics
Definition
Value of
modeling
Usage metrics (e.g., time to perform
tasks / jobs)
Economic value of Leankit for all
customers and partners
Easy to test for, fewer assumptions,
shorter lead time
Key assumptions comparable across
projects (opportunity cost of users’
time, capture rate)
Operational metrics: # of seats, ARPU,
costs, etc
Leankit profit
Translates better to actual money in the
bank (as long as assumptions are
correct)
Exec team prioritizes through Cost of Delay

34. @leankitjon
A3s: A conversation not a contract
A3
• The main communication artifact from
the product team
• Customer and user-driven
• A living document
• Handwritten in pencil
• Designed to… make conversations
happen

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A3: A business problem not technical spec
What is this? Why should I care?
How?Who will notice?
Why? What else?

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Cadences

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Aligning Cadence to Calendar
1 2 3 4 65
Jan 4
All
Hands
Annual
Kickoff
Board
Jan 27
Feb 15 May 9 June 20
All
Hands
Mid-Year
Party
Board
Sep 29
Aug 1Mar 28
All
Leaders
Board
Apr 22
7
Sep 12
All
Leaders
Board
Oct 21
8
Oct 24
Long sweep to
allow for
holidays

38. Work Distribution Goals
● Problems and operational requests are
inevitable. We must allow for unplannable work
● People close to the work understand risks &
quick wins better than management. We must
allow time for them to do the right thing.
● We need to ensure as steady a flow as possible
of planned roadmap work
● We use cadence to give ourselves the best
chance of hitting these goals

39. Work Distribution by Cadence
Week 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 5Week 4
Pull
Planning
Hackathon
or
Squad
Driven
Work
A3 A3 A3A3

40. Pull Planning Week
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
All day
Team Time
Travel
&
Emerging
Leaders
Training
12:30 - 2:30
Squad Kickoff
9:00 - 11:00
Company
All-Hands
3:00 - 5:00
Squad Kickoff
12:30 - 1:30
Tribal Council
Sweep Kickoff
9:00 - 11:00
Squad Kickoff
12:30 - 2:30
Squad Kickoff
3:00 - 5:00
Squad Kickoff
12:30 - 2:30
Squad Kickoff
9:00 - 11:00
Squad Kickoff
2:00 - 5:00
Team Time
3:00 - 5:00
Team Time
& Travel
Company Fun Company Fun Company Fun
10:00 - 11:00
Dem Div
9:00 - 10:00
Preso Prep

41. @leankitjon
❏ Squad
❏ Is everybody dedicated to this squad #1?
❏ Does any member of this squad have work on
other boards or in other squads?
❏ Product Roadmap
❏ Does everybody understand the A3 goal of this
sweep?
❏ Is the A3 broken into DIV’s?
❏ Do we feel comfortable that we can meet the
roadmap?
❏ Any blockers or risks?
❏ Squad Driven Work
❏ Any reason not to keep the normal schedule?
❏ Will we be ready to transition to A3 work at the
beginning of week 2?
❏ Any blockers or risks?
Squad Kickoff Template
❏ Tribal Council / Architecture Committee
❏ Any new technology or changes to cross
cutting technology?
❏ Demo DIV
❏ What are we going to show at each meeting?
❏ What are we going to measure?
❏ Deployments to Production
❏ Demo DIV
❏ Anything Else?
❏ Continuous Improvement
❏ Any opportunities this sweep?
❏ Any bucks for Speed?
❏ Meeting Cadences
❏ Retros?
❏ Standups?
❏ When is this team coming to town this quarter?

42. @leankitjon
● Valuable small product ideas that are not
on roadmap
● Requires squad consensus
● Does not require A3 or roadmap approval
● Can be:
○ Sustainability
○ UX improvements
○ Research for A3 submissions
● Executed by squads, but multi-squad
collaboration projects are allowed
Squad Driven Work

43. Week 1 - Squad Driven Work*
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Test / Deploy Deploy / Wrap-
up
*Unless A3 is date driven. Defer to week 5.
9:00 - 10:00
PD Execs
10:00 - 11:00
Tribal Council
1:00 - 2:00
Arch. Comm.
3:00 - 5:00
Guild Training

44. Week 2 - Roadmap A3 Work
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
9:00 - 10:00
PD Execs
10:00 - 11:00
Tribal Council
1:00 - 2:00
Arch. Comm.
10:00 - 11:00
Dem Div
9:00 - 10:00
Preso Prep
10:00 - 11:00
Company Trg

45. Week 3 - Roadmap A3 Work
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
9:00 - 10:00
PD Execs
10:00 - 11:00
Tribal Council
1:00 - 2:00
Arch. Comm.
10:00 - 11:00
Company All
Hands
3:00 - 5:00
Guild Training

46. Week 4 - Roadmap A3 Work
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
9:00 - 10:00
PD Execs
10:00 - 11:00
Tribal Council
1:00 - 2:00
Arch. Comm.
10:00 - 11:00
Dem Div
9:00 - 10:00
Preso Prep
10:00 - 11:00
Company Trg

47. Week 5 - Roadmap A3 Work
Monday Tuesday Wednesday FridayThursday
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
Dev / Test /
Deploy
10:00 - 11:00
Tribal Council
1:00 - 2:00
Arch. Comm.
10:00 - 11:00
Dep All Hands
9:00 - 10:00
PD Execs

48. @leankitjon
Demoing DIVs
Purposeful Metrics

49. From business problem to working
softwareTheme: Aligned with company strategy. Not always executed contiguously
≥ quarter
A3: Value reaches users
inside a sweep. ≤ 4 weeks
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
A3: Value reaches users
inside a sweep. ≤ 4 weeks
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
A3: Value reaches users
inside a sweep. ≤ 4 weeks
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
A3: Value reaches users
inside a sweep. ≤ 4 weeks
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task
DIV: Deployed. Iterative.
Value. ≤ 5 days
Task Task

50. @leankitjon
How we’ll get value to users:
• Release plans (i.e., how
we get it to prod)
• Rollout plans (i.e., how
we enable it, editions,
communication, etc)
• Measurement plans
What you’ll be demoing:
• Reiterate the Theme
• Explain what the A3
means for users
• Explain the DIV in terms
of A3 progress
What?
Name of A3 & DIV
Why you’re demoing it:
• Explain who will use it (i.
e., target user)
• Explain why it’s
important (i.e., cost of
delay or primary use
case)
So what? What now?
This is in prod, either enabled
for all or ready to be enabled
This is in dogfood, we are
planning to push to prod soon
This is still in dev, not QA
certified yet, still changing
Value in hand
of customer
(pick one)

51. Deployments this Sweep - Ex

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Hackathons

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Hackathons
● 1st week of every 4th sweep
● Participants can be remote
● Self-organizing teams (recommended 7 max)
● No need for cost of delay analysis
● Appropriate things to hack on:
○ Experiments
○ Low hanging fruit
○ Research
● NOT for starting big projects
● When the week ends so does hackathon

54. @leankitjon
Week 1 Hackathon Variant
Monday
3/28
Tuesday
3/29
Wednesday
3/30
Friday
4/01
Thursday
3/31
Hacking
10:00 - 11:00
Hackathon
Kickoff
Hacking Hacking
10:00 - 11:00
Hackathon
Judging
Wrap-Up
Hack Projects
Transition to A3
Work

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Most Likely to Succeed
A feature, improvement,
or technical debt
reduction that has a very
real chance of becoming
a part of the LeanKit
product.

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Most Likely to Win a Nobel Prize
Groundbreaking research,
learning, or experiment
that pertains to how we
build LeanKit.

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Best Personality
A surprise hit that we
couldn’t predict before
Hackathon.

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Results

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Results
● Eight months of hitting roadmap with speed still increasing
● Higher product quality, less rework
● Significantly better morale in product development and
relationship with revenue teams
● Sweep cycle becoming automatic, allowing time for kaizen
● More executive time for strategy instead of peacemaking

62. @leankitjon
From Chaos to Confidence
PD’s Operating Model