agile# How to Use Innovation Through Collaboration to Balance Speed with Quality in Retail Hardware (1/93)
A retail hardware SME running Crystal with multiple teams of fifty plus people has a speed versus quality problem. The company designs and manufactures smart retail displays that show digital pricing and product information in stores. The company has been around for eight years. It has seventy six employees. The product development organization for the company's new cloud connected display has sixty three people. The organization runs Crystal. Seven teams. Each team has nine people (2/93)
The poorness of quality means that the displays crash in stores. The crashing of displays in stores means that stores cannot show pricing. The not being able to show pricing by stores means that customers cannot buy. The not being able to buy by customers means that stores lose sales. The losing of sales by stores means that stores return the displays. The returning of displays by stores means that the company loses revenue (4/93)
. The losing of revenue cost the company one hundred and twelve thousand dollars last quarter. The one hundred and twelve thousand dollars was thirty seven percent of the quarterly revenue from the cloud connected display. The development must be both fast and high quality. (5/93)
Masaru Ibuka built Sony on innovation through collaboration. The insight was simple. Ibuka realized that the biggest problem in developing great products was the tendency to let each team work in isolation. The letting of each team work in isolation meant that teams optimized for their own goals. The optimizing of teams for their own goals meant that the overall product suffered. The suffering of the overall product meant that the product failed (6/93)
Ibuka attacked the tendency to let each team work in isolation. He created innovation through collaboration. The collaboration was based on one principle. The principle was. Put the right people in the room. Then let them solve it. Putting the right people in the room meant gathering cross functional experts. The gathering of cross functional experts meant that every problem had the right mix of knowledge. The having of the right mix of knowledge meant that problems were solved fast (8/93)
. The solving fast of problems meant that products were developed quickly. The quick development of products built Sony. (9/93)
When Ibuka developed the first Sony Walkman, he did not let the audio team work alone. He put the audio team and the mechanical team and the industrial design team in one room. The putting of the audio team and the mechanical team and the industrial design team in one room meant that every problem had the right mix of knowledge. The having of the right mix of knowledge meant that problems were solved fast. The solving fast of problems meant that the Walkman was developed quickly (10/93)
Ibuka applied the same thinking to every product. When Ibuka developed the first Sony Trinitron television, he did not let the engineering team work alone. He put the engineering team and the manufacturing team and the design team in one room. The putting of the engineering team and the manufacturing team and the design team in one room meant that every problem had the right mix of knowledge. The having of the right mix of knowledge meant that problems were solved fast (12/93)
For a retail hardware SME, the speed versus quality problem is the same. Each team works in isolation. The working in isolation of each team means that teams optimize for speed. The optimizing for speed by teams means that quality is ignored. The ignoring of quality means that displays crash. The crashing of displays costs one hundred and twelve thousand dollars. Ibuka's innovation through collaboration says: put the right people in the room. Then let them solve it (14/93)
. The putting of the right people in the room and the letting of them solve it balances speed with quality. The balancing of speed with quality saves the company.
## The Core Principle (15/93)
Ibuka's innovation through collaboration was built on a simple insight: the best way to balance speed with quality in development is to stop letting each team work in isolation and optimize only for their own speed and start creating cross functional quality circles that bring together people from every team to review quality issues collaboratively and solve them together so that quality is not sacrificed for speed and speed is not sacrificed for quality and both are achieved through (16/93)
Ibuka did not develop breakthrough products at Sony by letting each team work in isolation and optimizing for their own goals and hoping that the overall product would be good (18/93)
. He developed them by putting the right people in the room and gathering cross functional experts and letting them solve it and the putting of the right people in the room meant that every problem had the right mix of knowledge and the letting of them solve it meant that problems were solved fast and the solving fast of problems built Sony. (19/93)
For a retail hardware SME, the speed versus quality problem is the same. Each team works in isolation. The working in isolation of each team costs one hundred and twelve thousand dollars. Ibuka's innovation through collaboration says: put the right people in the room. Then let them solve it. The putting of the right people in the room and the letting of them solve it balances speed with quality. The balancing of speed with quality saves the company. (20/93)
## Four Steps to Apply Innovation Through Collaboration to Balancing Speed with Quality
1. Put the Right People in the Room by Creating a Cross Functional Quality Circle That Includes One Representative from Each of the Seven Teams and Meets for One Hour Every Week to Review Quality Issues Collaboratively (21/93)
Ibuka put the right people in the room at Sony. The putting of the right people in the room meant that every problem had the right mix of knowledge. The having of the right mix of knowledge meant that problems were solved fast. The solving fast of problems built Sony (22/93)
. You should put the right people in the room by creating a cross functional quality circle that includes one representative from each of the seven teams and meets for one hour every week to review quality issues collaboratively with the same problem solving enabling right people putting. (23/93)
For a retail hardware SME, the cross functional quality circle might look like this. The Crystal coach creates a cross functional quality circle. The cross functional quality circle is a group. The group has seven people. Each person is from a different team. (24/93)
Person one. Team one. Team one is the firmware team. The firmware team writes the firmware. The firmware is the software that runs on the display. The representative from team one is Alice. Alice is a firmware engineer. The firmware engineer has five years of experience. (25/93)
Person two. Team two. Team two is the hardware team. The hardware team designs the hardware. The hardware is the physical display. The representative from team two is Bob. Bob is a hardware engineer. The hardware engineer has six years of experience. (26/93)
Person three. Team three. Team three is the cloud team. The cloud team builds the cloud backend. The cloud backend is the server that the display connects to. The representative from team three is Carol. Carol is a cloud engineer. The cloud engineer has four years of experience. (27/93)
Person four. Team four. Team four is the mobile team. The mobile team builds the mobile app. The mobile app is the app that store employees use to manage the display. The representative from team four is Dave. Dave is a mobile engineer. The mobile engineer has five years of experience. (28/93)
Person five. Team five. Team five is the testing team. The testing team tests the product. The testing of the product means that the testing team finds bugs. The representative from team five is Eve. Eve is a quality engineer. The quality engineer has seven years of experience. (29/93)
Person six. Team six. Team six is the design team. The design team designs the user interface. The user interface is what the store employee sees. The representative from team six is Frank. Frank is a designer. The designer has four years of experience. (30/93)
Person seven. Team seven. Team seven is the operations team. The operations team manages the deployment. The deployment is the process of getting the display to the store. The representative from team seven is Grace. Grace is an operations engineer. The operations engineer has five years of experience. (31/93)
The cross functional quality circle meets for one hour every week. The meeting for one hour every week means that the group meets regularly. The meeting regularly of the group means that quality issues are reviewed regularly. The reviewing regularly of quality issues means that quality issues are caught early. The catching early of quality issues means that quality issues are fixed early. The fixing early of quality issues means that quality is better. (32/93)
Last quarter, the cross functional quality circle was created. The creating of the cross functional quality circle was a one week effort. The one week effort created a group of seven people. The group of seven people met for one hour every week. The meeting for one hour every week meant that quality issues were reviewed every week. The reviewing of quality issues every week meant that twenty three quality issues were caught (33/93)
. The catching of twenty three quality issues meant that twenty three quality issues were fixed. The fixing of twenty three quality issues saved the company thirty one thousand dollars. The thirty one thousand dollars was the cost of the quality issues that would have been caused by not having a cross functional quality circle. (34/93)
For a Crystal team of fifty plus, the cross functional quality circle should have at least one representative per team. The cross functional quality circle should meet for one hour every week. For Crystal, the cross functional quality circle should be part of the team's quality management. The circle is a management group. (35/93)
2. Let Them Solve It by Giving the Cross Functional Quality Circle the Authority to Define Quality Standards and Enforce Them Across All Seven Teams So That Quality Is Not Just One Team's Responsibility but Everyone's Responsibility (36/93)
Ibuka let them solve it at Sony. The letting of them solve it meant that problems were solved fast. The solving fast of problems built Sony. You should let them solve it by giving the cross functional quality circle the authority to define quality standards and enforce them across all seven teams so that quality is not just one team's responsibility but everyone's responsibility with the same fast solving enabling letting. (37/93)
For a retail hardware SME, the authority might look like this. The Crystal coach gives the cross functional quality circle the authority. The giving of the authority to the cross functional quality circle means that the circle can define quality standards. The defining of quality standards by the circle means that the circle creates rules. The creating of rules by the circle means that the rules are agreed upon. The being agreed upon of the rules means that everyone follows them (38/93)
. The following of the rules by everyone means that quality is consistent.
The authority has three parts. Part one. Define quality standards. The defining of quality standards means that the circle creates a quality standard document. The quality standard document is a document. The document is three pages. The three pages have five sections. (39/93)
Section one. Code quality. The code quality is the quality of the code. The quality of the code means that the code has no bugs. The having of no bugs by the code means that the code is tested. The being tested of the code means that the code has unit tests. The having of unit tests by the code means that the code quality is high. (40/93)
Section two. Hardware quality. The hardware quality is the quality of the hardware. The quality of the hardware means that the hardware does not fail. The not failing of the hardware means that the hardware is tested. The being tested of the hardware means that the hardware has stress tests. The having of stress tests by the hardware means that the hardware quality is high. (41/93)