Pin the Tail on the Metric: A Field-Tested Agile Game
Metrics don’t have to be a necessary evil. If done right, metrics can help guide us to make better forward-looking decisions, rather than being used for simply managing or monitoring. They can help us identify trade-offs between options for what to do next versus punitive or worse, purely managerial measures. Steve Martin won’t be giving the Top Ten List of field-tested metrics you should use. Instead, in this interactive mini-workshop, he leads you through the critical thinking necessary for you to determine what is right for you to measure. First, Steve explores why you want to measure something—whether it’s for a team, a portfolio, or even an agile transformation. Next, he provides multiple real-life metrics examples to help drive home concepts behind characteristics of good and bad metrics. Finally, Steve shows how to run his field-tested agile game—Pin the Tail on the Metric. Take back this activity to help you guide metrics conversations at your organization.
Steve Martin has focused the past decade exclusively as an agile enterprise transformation consultant. He enjoys partnering with all levels of an organization—from C-levels to managers to teams—coaching, mentoring, training, and helping them embrace an agile mindset while implementing a set of tailored practices. In his more than twenty-five years of experience, Steve has worked in finance, insurance, biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare, communications, hospitality/hotels, and publications industries. He brings a calmness and sense of humor to typically stressful situations requiring complex change. Steve has compiled his experiences as a consultant and manager in his first book, A Manager’s Guide to Surviving Agile (fall 2017).